Budgets: save/splurge?

Budgets are the biggest part of wedding planning, and there are about 10,000,000 ways it can blow up in your face. Here's my personal list of things that I saved money on and things that I chose to splurge on. It'll be different for you, but hopefully this will get you thinking about where you can make tradeoffs with your own budget!

Where did I save the most money with my wedding?
1. Guests- I was really heavyhanded in controlling the guest list. Most people didn't get +1s, and only the closest family and friends were there. Think about it this way- would these people invite you to their wedding? Do they invite you to their birthday parties? Depending on how much your per person cost is, the difference between 10 additional guests can be like $1000!
2. Flexibility with date- My biggest surprise; I didn't think date would be our biggest bargaining tool. Wedding venues tend to book 12 months out, so they're able to look ahead and see when the dead times are. Not having a date booked at all is a loss for the venue, so if they can slot you in, they'll be happy to make compromises and throw in extras. We ended up getting a ton of extras, and a winter rate outside of the normal winter dates. We also got a Sunday rate too.
3. Not hiring a coordinator- I have no regrets about not hiring someone to help plan, but I actually think we should have hired someone for the day-of work (even if it's like $1000 at least). The peace of mind that comes with just letting someone else take care of all the dirty work is worth it. I was incredibly lucky that my amazing friends stepped in to help.
4. Venue decor- I deliberately picked a place that was gorgeous all on its own, with required minimal decor. I bought chiffon to decorate the arch/aisle, made my own centerpieces, made artifical flower bouquets, and just bought loose rose petals to scatter. It looked amazing. Did not care about special tablecloth or chair covers and the like. I also asked friends and family to help decorate.
5. Bridesmaids dresses- While I didn't pay for these, we knocked the cost down from $150+ per BM to about $20 per BM by making the dresses ourselves.
6. Invitations- we did electronic self-designed Save the Dates, and then bought raw paper and made all the invitations ourselves.
7. DJ/videographer- we deliberately didn't find the highest quality out there for these vendors. We looked at the price we wanted, and then found the best quality FOR THAT PRICE. You will always find more expensive people who are better, but that doesn't mean you need to hire them! This was our compromise for hiring the BEST photographer.

What was the most expensive? What broke the budget?

1. Dress- ended up being more expensive than I wanted. Like the venue, you just have a certain level of fanciness that you're going for. If you can compromise for something a little less nice, you're good, but otherwise, you're looking at $400 minimum up to thousands for your dress. The average price for the styles I liked were around $1000. There's the option to rent as well.
2. Photographer- We fell in love with Ryan Brenizer right off the bat, and we never looked back. He's worth much more than he charges!
3. Makeup- paid a lot more for makeup than I wanted, since I changed plans last minute. But it turned out really nice! It would be cheaper to have friends help, but it's nice to be pampered and have your girls all in a room doing makeup.
4. Venue- the venue is always the most expensive chunk of the wedding, and we definitely found less "fancy" venues for cheaper out there. Ultimately, Calamigos was not as expensive as it COULD have been, but we decided that this was the perfect intersection of how much we were willing to spend for the amazing quality.


The bottom line is- ALWAYS bargain and ALWAYS ask what people can do to make things cheaper. In general, people didn't change the raw price as much as just add in extras for the same price. Think about what REALLY matters to you the most (usually it's photography), and then force yourself to set a reasonable price for the rest. You'll always be tempted to spend more because there is an endless amount of vendors out there, but stick to your guns!