I hope you're having a super happy day so far I am so excited that I've gotten
a chance to sit down with you and just try and talk wedding stuff yay I still
have a hard time believing that I'm engaged and I am about to marry the love
of my life in less than six months so exciting
we're not talking about like the actual day we're trying to keep that a secret
so one day you'll just pop on here on Instagram and then you'll see that we're
married so so super excited but I really wanted to sit down and make this video
because Brandon and I we are planning a wedding on a budget we don't have
unlimited resources to just plan our day and I never realized how expensive
weddings were I mean I know I heard talked before that they are expensive
everyone knows they're expensive but I didn't realize how super expensive they
actually were I just never even imagined and as I've started like reaching out to
vendors and touring venues it really became so prevalent that it's a lot of
money it's just so much money so I wanted to share the tips that I've come
across to planning a wedding on a budget so I just really want to help anyone
else out who is planning their big day as well it is such a beautiful time in
your life and it's gonna be the best day ever no matter what your budget is no
matter where you have it in a matter if it rains or if it shines it's gonna be
the best day ever but I did of course want to share these tips to help you out
in any way possible so the first tip that I have to plan a
wedding on a budget is to don't send that save-the-dates Brandon and when I
told him this he was like oh you wanna save on the save the dates get it like
save money on save the dates I thought it was funny he said it a lot better
than I just did but for us since our wedding is you know way less than a year
away we feel that seat the deeds aren't
necessarily crucial and all the people that we wanted our wedding pretty much
already know the date anyway it's just because we told them you know through
seeing them or just texting that I might text it a lot of my friends like oh my
gosh I'll endure for so and so date so I feel like that's that's Aust not more
personal at all but like I I feel like that's really sweet like people are
still gonna be excited about it and you still were Mike the calendar and I don't
necessarily mean that paper card and mail saying like Oh save the date I do
think they're beautiful but we just figured that since it is so close it's
not a super short engagement by any means but since the wedding is far less
than a year away then they're not really necessary and that probably saved us a
good $300 at least I think because when you think about it you have to print
them all apps and then you have to send them with stamps and have the envelopes
and all that all that so it also is very time-consuming as well so it's just
wasn't a huge priority for us so that is one great way to save some money or
right off the back
okay the next one I have never really thought about this until I started
reaching out to photographers but my crews are so expensive for weddings
which I totally understand I mean it's a whole lot for them to take wedding
wedding photos and then edit them it's definitely a huge job and a huge part of
wedding so there's also a whole lot of pressure involved with that too but Wow
Wow there's those things that all the photographer's I were looking at were
well over $2,000 so a pretty penny for sure so what I read about is asking
photographers if they offer ala carte a services which is so brilliant because
for us we don't really need engagement photos because one we already have a
billion photos together and two I do want to take engagement photos but we'll
probably do it with a different photographer than our actual wedding
photographer and I wanted to wait to do this until it cools down because we're
living in Florida in the heat of summer so I wanted to wait on that too and for
the engagement photos I want them to be like more lifestyle s not as Posey so I
wanted to make sure to work with the photographer I did that so for us like
we really didn't want a wedding photographer package so when I found out
that photographers do ala carte it was perfect
so basically many photographers won't list that they do all occur at me they
well maybe they won't on the website but when I started finding photographers I
liked and just emailed them saying hi do you do all a car are you available for
this day and all the photographer's that I asked they said they did so super
great so they'll usually just charge you by the hour and for us we're gonna have
our photography be there for four or five hours because we will have a video
water for there and basically what I want photos of is the Guinean ready part
the ceremony during the cocktail hour when we take all our post pictures and
stuff and then first dance and those are like the main
points of pictures I want and during cocktail hour I plan to get all my
family photos and stuff so that's definitely crucial but during the
reception of people dancing and stuff I don't really need like hundreds of
pictures of people dancing of course it's cute and stuff to look through it
but you're not gonna hang pictures of like your friends dancing at your
wedding all over your house you know it's just for the video I definitely
want video of that because that's gonna be so fun to watch like everyone dancing
and having a great time but we don't really need pictures like hung up over
there so and we can always take stills of the video if there's a really funny
expression or anything like that so I feel pretty good about that decision um
I just pray it doesn't rain something that we probably will stretch our budget
on is getting a tent cuz our wedding is mainly outside in Florida I know we're
crazy but we're probably gonna get a tent just for peace of mind and that is
a pretty penny so if you there's another like tangent tangent budget fading idea
is to make sure you have an intern menu so you don't have to buy a tent because
there can be like $2,000 fun stuff okay next thing
okay this one's kind of Safa it's also good so one thing is considered not
having a bridal party so I definitely have mixed feelings about this because
obviously my friends are very important to me and it's so special to have the
people you love surrounding you on your big day like the biggest day of your
life um but I was bringing I were just like getting ready and talking about
this more became kind of stressful and it is quite the ordeal to ask people to
be your bridesmaids and it's all super fun and stuff but I think what we've
decided we're still talking about it a little more but I believe what we're
gonna do is I'm still gonna have a bachelorette party and ask on the events
to go dress shopping which means next weekend and um and also get ready what
is me the day of the weigh-in and the bridal suite but I don't think I'm gonna
have a formal part bridal party because I just I don't know I don't want people
to have to buy all this dresses and all this stuff so I think we're gonna be
more casual with our bridal party we'll still have our people there like many
clothes stuff but we're gonna keep it a little tight and then honestly that's
one less thing to worry about I've just been trying to eliminate anything that
kind of stresses me out from the wedding planning and just focusing on things
that really bring us joy and really really will make our day stressful and
sometimes the less things that you have to do is better so you can just enjoy it
and not stress out about any component of your wedding day
the next tip is consider doing your own hair and makeup so for me I am
definitely not an expert of doing hair or makeup and I'm going to try to have
someone help me with my hair on my wedding day for sure because I feel
better about makeup than hair but I am gonna try to do my own makeup gonna
practice before of course but this can honestly see if it's so much money so
that's definitely something to consider and I mean it depends on your skill
level if you feel really confident doing your hair and makeup by all means I
would and for makeup especially I definitely towards tend to gravitate
towards a more natural makeup look so sometimes I feel like when I get my
makeup done it just does not look natural or even look like me because
there's just so much makeup on and of course it's beautiful they're doing
their art but I do want to look like myself and I do want to look natural on
my wedding day so I think I'm gonna do my own makeup but I think all higher
still wanted to do my own hair so I'm able to at least save money on the
makeup portion of it all okay the next tip kind of obvious I wrote in my notes
DIY duh so DIY do-it-yourself there will definitely be quite a bit of DIYs at my
wedding if you know me you know I love to craft so I'm having so much fun doing
that's already I could not wait to show you guys would you like to see kind of a
crafting wedding DIY tutorial because I definitely can film that for you if you
would like so I'm gonna try to do a lot of those components and honestly DIYs
can add up if you start going too crazy I'm trying to hold myself back from
needing a u-haul for my wedding day because that's how my ideas go they just
go so big so I'm gonna try to keep it a little more simple and not stress out
because we won't have too much time to decorate and get the venue ready before
like I have to get ready so um yeah I'm gonna try to keep it a little
more subtle and I am having someone help me with that component with the
decorations as well so I'm so thankful for that but DIY is it's definitely a
great way to go and even with the flowers that we're going to try to break
a lot of our own flowers from Trader Joe's or even some fake flowers from
Joanne's or Michaels because I get coupons from them if you guys aren't
getting coupons from them I highly should suggest signing up for their
email or text I get a lot of text from Joanne's
seriously every week I have a different coupon and sometimes there's 60% off one
night over 50% off one item so that's a really great coupon so that will help
you save a lot of dough okay another thing is have your guests RSVP online so
basically what we plan to do is we're gonna send out paper invites but we
won't have a little card in invites where they have to RSVP and then send it
back because one the little cards cost extra money and you have to get extra
envelopes or the little cards that they can send back and you have to give them
stamps so I just a hats up so quickly plus I don't think it's really
convenient for your guests to have to mail out something not that that's super
hard at all it's really not but I mean it does take more effort than artistry
being online and you never know if it could get lost in the mail so we're
definitely gonna try to go with that route and minted calm and the not calm
they offer free wedding websites so we're definitely gonna make fun of those
to just make everything simple and streamline everything so really excited
to build that out and then have my guests go in there and
our story read about the day and all that bad stuff last but certainly not
least the last tip is to ditch the alcohol so totally gonna vary on your
priorities and I don't know what your family like if your family is loves
alcohol and loves the fun drinks and stuff then Beslan you might want to have
that there but for us it's just not a huge priority I think we might get some
canned rose' or canned may be some bottles of beer and distractor pudding
coolers like around the UM the food and just out in a bow around their venue
it's a more casual than you so I think that could work really nicely so we
might do that just kind of cut on cost and you can get a bunch of that stuff at
Costco and folks that would save a whole lot of money but alcohol is one of the
most expensive things about weddings especially if you have an open bar so if
you're definitely on a budget I would try to recommend to kind of cut that out
you can but if if that's a big part and what gets you excited then definitely
you got it that's the whole thing that I'm realizing about this you got to do
what makes you happy and what you think your guests will like because yes our
wedding day is about us but I also want our guests to be so happy and I'm such a
great time because I feel like it's such a good opportunity to bring everyone
together and just show them how much you love and appreciate their support in
your life as well so yeah overall I'm just really really enjoying this season
of life clean engaged still can't believe it and planning a wedding I
really will miss planning a wedding it definitely has had it's stressful
moments but overall it's been such a joy and I'm just so thankful for all the
blessings in my life and I if you're planning a wedding maybe that's why
you're watching this video I hope you just soak up this sweet time of life and
you enjoy every step of it but thank you guys for watching that is all my tips
for you but I will see you very soon
we might not have any money but we've got I love to pay the bill