DrailSmall weddings don't have to cost shit. I got married in January this year and it cost nothing. Immediate family was present, it was done in my living room. Got a buddy who's a photographer for cheep, the brides mom paid for the dinner that night (which was for 9 us of I think?). Had a bonfire in the backyard after dinner with friends. All in all it was around $300 out of pocket to get married and everyone was happy.
Caucasian_AsianCongrats, we got married about 18 months ago. We paid for our wedding out of pocket, so we didn't want to go too overboard on expenses. We recruited our skilled friends wherever we could. We ended up getting the invitations, her hair/make up, cake, decorations, hall setup, pictures, DJ, and ceremony all done by friends who were glad to help. We probably saved $10k on this stuff alone. Oh, and my mom did all the alterations to my wife's dress.
Everything in our wedding and reception had a personal touch to it, which made it more special. We asked our guests what their favorite songs/artists were when they RSVP'd, and then the DJ made remixes and mashups of all of those songs to play during the reception.
We had a great time, our guests had a ton of fun, and there was no drama.
Oh, and we had a bobblehead made of us for the cake.
Those are awesome ideas, thanks! I think we both just want a venue for the wedding. We have already figured out the nicest one that is actually also the cheapest. We looked at a ton of venues and this one has a little pond and it's private too which is awesome. The best part is it's only $1k to rent the venue for the day. Where as most awesome places here charge around $4k+. I saw a bunch of places that would be awesome, but we both kinda had to dial it back a bit. More me than her lol
I totally get how some people can get a little crazy with wedding prices. We're looking for something on the cheaper side of things, but also want to have a place where we can get married and hold everything in one spot so it cuts down on travelling on the day of. (By me saying it's a small wedding I mean it's only going to be around like 120 people at most, and around 100 at least)
Going to ask friends who might be interested in taking photos and I have a few friends who are good at remixes maybe I'll see if they would be down to do some of that kinda stuff and I'll just throw them some cash instead of a DJ. We had friends who just played music from an iPod which seems decent enough to me too.