If you know our story, you know we started our journey to financial peace before we even got married. We had the tough conversation and found out that we would be entering married life with almost $100,000 in debt.
With that stunning realization we knew we didn’t want to add to that number, at any cost. I knew my fairy tale wedding dreams were just that, a fairy tale. Knowing that a Disney wedding with 150+ of our closest family and friends wasn’t going to happen, I went into project mode.
We knew we were going to pay cash for our wedding, and Stephen knew he was going to try to get me the wedding of my dreams as cost effectively as possible.
I knew there were 3 things I wouldn’t compromise on: 1. The DRESS 2. The Flowers 3. The Pictures. Everything else was negotiable.
To keep cost down we looked into eloping at the grand canyon, the beach, or Savanna, GA, but we were still going to have to spend money on getting there and lodging so it wasn’t much cheaper. Finally our pastor talked us out of it, since he knew our hearts were set on family celebrating with us.
Before we were even officially engaged I had 80% of the wedding planned and had my wedding dress.
3 Things I Couldn’t Compromise On
#1 The Dress
I spent so much time searching the traditional sites for budget friendly wedding dresses. Finally I decided that I was going to try something daring.. I was going to buy my dress on AMAZON! It was $100 and they said they “custom make it to your measurements” so I figured I wouldn’t have to pay for alterations. I read every single review, looked at every single photo, and finally decided to just do it. If the dress was horrible, I was out $100, but if it wasn’t I was going to save hundreds. Once Stephen heard the price I knew I scored some leverage for other items.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0797NHP2T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
#2 The Flowers
I knew my bouquet (for the photos of course) was important to me. After searching for fake flowers, paper flowers, florist, etc. I decided to just do it myself. I looked at floral companies that send you a DIY Kit, I even considered ordering bulk flowers from Sams Club!
In the end I found a local wholesale flower shop that is open to the public. I was able to price out my flowers ahead of time, walk around the cooler and pick my own texture pieces, and even make additional pieces that I could multipurpose. I bought 350 flowers for $300 and had some to spare. We made 1 large bouquet, 3 small bouquets, 6 boutonnieres, 6 corsages, and about 20 multipurpose mason jar pieces.
I invited my mom, mother in law, aunts, and new mimi over and we got to work! Thank God for YouTube tutorials!
Pro Tip – Don’t think a regular fridge will work for flower preservation, all the boutonnieres and corsages froze overnight! I had to remake them the next day.
#3 The Photographer
Remember that leverage I referenced because I saved so much money on my wedding dress? Our Photographer was our splurge. I found a local girl who took amazing photos and asked her to give us a special 2 hour price. She was awesome, efficient, and made the whole process so enjoyable. We did a “first looks” session, the ceremony, family photos, and we still had some time to kill at the end so we took more photos of Stephen and I at another location in the garden.
Outside of those 3 most important things, that is where the most compromises were made.
The List
We agreed to immediate family only. Our first wedding list was 40 people and family only. We decided that we would invite parents, siblings, nieces/nephews, and aunts/uncles. Outside of that, we had to say no.
I cried. I knew my best friend would be so hurt, and she was – we didn’t talk for months after I told her our wedding was “family only.” I knew my church friends who were so happy for Stephen and I would “understand” but still be hurt. I knew Stephen’s best friends who accepted our crazy let’s get hitched after 3 weeks of knowing each other would also “understand” but miss out on this special day.
Once some of the RSVP’s came back as “we will be celebrating you from afar” we were able to do a second wave of invitations and include only our oldest friends, 1 couple each.
The Location
We live in Orlando, FL so finding an inexpensive outdoor place wasn’t too hard, we found an alternative location in the Camellia Garden at Mead Botanical Gardens, in Winter Park, FL where they only charged $250 to reserve the space. Luckily with only 40 people, you only need to rent 40 chairs for a garden wedding!
The Reception
This was a hard one… so many restaurants wanted a “minimum” or per person charge that we knew this would break the bank. We considered catering it at our house, catering it in our Pastor’s backyard, skipping it altogether (Stephen’s choice), or trying to find the cheapest possible minimum for a private room for 2 hours with 8 kids under 10 and 30 adults. Finally we were at breakfast one day, at Hash House A Go Go, and saw their private rooms. It was $200 to reserve the room, everyone could order off the normal menu which was under $15 per plate, it would fit everyone, and we could set it up however we wanted.
The Dinner Decorations
I’m a pack rat. Luckily this came in handy because I could make use of it in my decor. Plus my mother in law loaned me some of the items from my sister in law’s weddings that they had leftover. In the end I bought a few mercury glass candle holders, lace runners for the tables, ribbon, a cake plate, and a few other little things.
The Wedding Decorations
Said Pack Rat came in handy here too. I bought a few lanterns from Kirklands with my Christmas money and stacked them on books to differ the heights, I bought fake flowers to decorate the arch I found on Facebook marketplace that Stephen stained the week before our wedding, I also used Mason jars on the chairs and reused them as centerpieces at dinner.
The Cake
I don’t like cake so this was an easy compromise for me. We bought 2 bundt cakes from Sams Club, a nice cake stand, stacked them on top of each other, put a “Love” stick in it, and some fake flowers and that was our cake. We also bought some cupcakes to put around the table as well. It cost about $40 cake stand included, thank you Ikea.
Do I regret not having a big wedding? NOPE. The people who meant the most to us were there or celebrated with us from afar. We have beautiful pictures, it was a family effort, I got to control as much of it as I could, I got to DIY my heart out, and we have a great story to tell. But best of all, we didn’t go into debt for it. We didn’t get bills when it was over wondering how we were going to cover it. It was done and paid for and it felt great.
The Breakdown
