How We Spent Less Than $1000 on Our Wedding

Looking for tips to throw a cheap wedding? Check out how we spent less than $1000 on our wedding. You don't have to sacrifice to save money.

Originally published 9/22/19.

It’s no secret that the cost of weddings has skyrocketed since our parents got married. The wedding industry is worth over $70 billion today, and I find that incredible. To me, this is a gross excuse to overspend. Medical care, fine. A fucking expensive single day celebrating your love? That’s going a bit far. If you have to go into debt to tell the world you’ve found your life partner, you’re going to be starting off your lives together on really shitty foundation. I had a coworker who took out a personal loan because his wedding ran over budget. That means he and his new wife were saddled with between 10%-28% in interest because they either needed to invite their second cousin and her five kids or couldn’t opt for a cheaper version of something they wanted. Don’t be that guy. Nearly half of couples spend more than they budgeted. I have a motto, and it’s “I don’t fucking pay interest.” This should also be your motto.

Before we continue, I should remind you that this was my second wedding. Second weddings typically cost less than a first wedding because one of the people getting married has already shelled out stupid amounts of money and has declared, “fuck this noise,” and got wise the second time around. That’s not entirely my situation. For my first wedding, I only spent $6,254.59. My mom made my wedding dress, and we used an all-inclusive wedding venue in Vegas (no, it wasn’t a drive-through chapel, there are real places to get married in Vegas), and those aspects lowered my costs considerably. My budget then was $10,000. My budget for this wedding was $1000.

Except I wasn’t calling it a wedding. I called it a “marriage celebration.” It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, but I couldn’t find a catchier phrase. A wedding, according to the Oxford dictionary, is a marriage ceremony, especially considered as including the associated celebrations. We didn’t want anyone to attend our ceremony. Mainly because we didn’t want anyone to feel excluded, so we just excluded everyone. That’s fair, right?

We got married just the two of us at the courthouse in front of the judge. It was beyond romantic, and I cried when my husband read his vows. We only wanted a reception, though we held that a few days after we got married, so marriage celebration seemed like the best fit for our particular party.

Here is the suggested budget for the typical wedding. Consider the percent of your overall budget for each category. If you know you only have $XX to spend, start from there to determine how much you can spend on each category.

So, since I wanted to spend nearly nothing, I had some decisions to make. Basically, I knew I wouldn’t find anywhere in Chicago to host my marriage celebration for that little. The reception price includes more than just the room rental. It’s the tableware and decorations and food and cake and music, too. I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell of that happening, so I decided to throw the marriage celebration in our condo. Some of Mr. Green’s and my family hadn’t seen the condo yet, and we had enough room for our guests if we trimmed the guest list to only those closest friends and family members.

Here is how our budget finally broke down:

My coworkers gave me gift cards when Mr. Green and I got married, so we used them toward some of the last minute celebration costs. We would have spent $865.43 total without the gift cards.

I also knew I wasn’t going to get a photographer for $100. Mr. Green and I opted for “engagement photos” rather than real wedding photos. Since our family wouldn’t be present when we took our vows, we were able to save a couple hundred dollars on our pictures. They were actually fabulous. We loved our photographer’s skills in getting us to feel relaxed with the way she worked and in getting great poses. She was excellent with her camera and knew how to keep other people out of the shots. We took our photos in a park in downtown Chicago, so that’s no easy task.

The ceremony cost a lot more than expected. It was $70 for the marriage license and court costs, and we didn’t factor in that we’d have to pay for original marriage certificates two weeks from then. However, since we were saving money elsewhere, we decided to go out to a fancy restaurant for our first meal as a married couple right after the ceremony.

We ditched the favors. As minimalists, we didn’t think they’d be put to good use, and every time I considered whether or not we should get personalized candy as a favor for guests, Mr. Green would remind me, “That’s not very minimal. What would Marie Kondo say?”

Food ended up costing less than we’d planned because of gift cards, but even without those, we saved. We got a glass veggie platter from a thrift store and cut up bell pepper, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower and served that with ranch dipping sauce. I also got boneless wings and jalapeño poppers and mozzarella sticks because I wanted people to eat all their favorite foods since I wasn’t providing them with some fancy venue.

The booze was cheaper than expected, too. We made two signature drinks that required one or two different types of alcohol with less expensive mixers like cherry juice. We also bought beer and used wine we already had at home.

I already owned a disco ball and lights, so the decorations were just to make things seem a little fancier for our friends who have been to our house parties before. We draped tulle in the doorway and made a balloon garland. It wasn’t very zero waste, but we made up for it by reusing disposable plates I already had (which shocked my mom because they didn’t match our theme colors) and used compostable cups. I also borrowed extra folding chairs from a friend so we’d have enough seating for everyone. The chairs didn’t match, but no one really cared.

I also decided to skip the paper invitations. I made a nice picture in Photoshop for a Save the Date and a similar picture for the actual invitation and blind copied the guest list. Oh, and neither of us has a wedding ring or engagement ring. This is a personal preference. I hate the way rings feel on me. For my first marriage I ended up spending $200 on a ring that I probably got on ebay.

I also wore a nice purple satin dress I had made a few years prior. In the 18^th century, it was very typical for people to get married in their “Sunday best,” so we decided to do that, too. And our pictures are just as beautiful as anyone else’s.

We used a Wedding Wire to make a wedding website. Check out their averages for the cost of everything that goes into a wedding. Props to them for some of the statistics in this post. In our wedding website, we were able to get electronic RSVPs, and we were able to categorize the event as the Marriage Celebration. This was huge for me, and I didn’t see this option on The Knot. I wanted to make sure guests knew that they weren’t going to witness us get married. I wanted them to be prepared for what this party actually was.

Setting expectations at the right level is crucial if you’re not having a traditional wedding and ceremony. Through our website, we were also able to direct guests to our favorite charities should they want to give us a gift. As minimalists, Mr. Green and I feel really uncomfortable receiving gifts. We also were in our mid-30s with decent jobs and already owned our own home. We didn’t need or want any money or anything tangible. What money we did receive was donated, and what gifts we did receive were accepted graciously, though I admit we agonized over whether or not the giver would know if we kept their gift.

Weddings are fun, but don’t go into debt for them! Think of all the amazing things $30,000 can do. What will you do with the money you save by cutting some of these expenses at your wedding?