Budget Frustrations

When I got engaged in February, I did what every wedding website suggests to start with -- looked at my budget. Unfortunately, at the time,  I was in my junior year of college. So was my fiancé. And both sets of parents are putting multiple children through college at this time. Knowing I would be working in a tight budget, I decided to start looking up different tips and tricks to keep costs down. One of the best resources seemed to be those websites where they say, "I got married for $3,000!" and showed you what they spent their money on. Have you ever actually looked at one of those pages? In my opinion, paying $3,000 to elope doesn't count as a budget wedding. It also doesn't help me if it cost you $3,000 to have a wedding with only 15 guests. The blogs and websites that frustrated me the most were the ones that seemed to be a budget wedding with 200 guests, but then when I looked at their budget breakdown, that didn't include the costs of invitations, decorations, transportation, photographer, etc. No, paying $5,000 for only the food, venue, and dress doesn't count as a budget wedding either.

Thankfully, because my fiancé and I are both in school, we have a long engagement -- about a year and a half. For a long time, I wished we could move the wedding up. But it's turned out to be such a blessing, because as I go about this slow process of planning a wedding, we've been able to actually find amazing deals and amazing people to help us out, so that our wedding can stay within a $5,000 budget.

On this blog, I'm going to share not just the tips and tricks that I am using to help save money on my wedding, because I know that not everyone has the same resources. I will also share other ideas that I have had or seen, and the process of my planning and crafting in the remaining 317 days until I get to marry the love of my life. I hope that this helps you to see that you don't really have to pay the wedding industry prices for a good, beautiful wedding, and that a normal wedding on a budget is completely possible.

Pros and Cons of Planning a Wedding During College

Con: You have no money. Neither do your parents.

Pro: You have a lot of friends who can take the place of professional wedding vendors in areas like photography, hair and make-up, music, etc. to save you a LOT of money, and probably produce the same good quality.

Con:  You have a lot of friends. You want to invite them all to the wedding! That means it's more expensive. 

Pro: You spend all your class time on Pinterest, so you know all the DIY projects you can do to save money.

Con: You’re taking 18 units and working 20 hours a week, so you have no time to do those DIY projects.

Pro: Some of your bridesmaids are at school with you, so they can help you do the DIY projects!

Con: Your bridesmaids are at school with you, so they also have no money, which means you have to get really creative when it comes to bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen suits. 

 

Pro: You’re in college, so you’ve already learned that if you aren’t flexible on what you want, you may as well give up.

Con: Sometimes it's just more appealing to give up.