This blog is a continuation of my discussion from the last post about my personal engagement and the process of wedding planning from the couple’s perspective. If you haven’t read that post already, I touch on topics of the proposal experience and give my own as an example of a non-traditional proposal that is not initiated by the man. Then I go into the beginning steps of the wedding planning process. In this second half, I will discuss the journey of building a budget, some tips I’ve learned that I didn’t read online about finding the right caterer and vendors and the benefits of a wedding website.
The trick to building a budget isn’t to be a penny pinching couple whose whole focus is on how to have a cheap wedding. I recommend you start with your wedding inspirations, hopes and dreams. Take a look at what you really want your wedding experience to be and then look at your bank account. If you need to have a one or two year engagement to save up some money for your dream wedding or honeymoon that is perfectly okay. If you have a limited budget and want to get married sooner there are lots of tempting options, like backyards, public parks, beaches, etc. but understand what your wedding will really look like if you choose to go cheap on the venue. If you want it to feel like a Pinterest wedding and have lots of guests it will just end up being a horrible hassle, having to figure out parking and restrooms and rentals and you really will not end up saving yourself money either. If you go to a free location like backyards or parks, really limit your guest list to no more than 30 people and make sure they can carpool.
If you need to keep your budget low you have a few other options too, lower your guest count at a venue that offers a discount on small weddings. 75 and under is generally considered a small wedding at most venues but if you host under 50 guests many venues offer complimentary chair covers and sashes or linens. Another option is to have your wedding in the off season, ie. October-May. Keep in mind, off season weddings generally have to be indoors here in Oregon, but this can possibly save you up to one thousand dollars depending on the venue. You can also choose to host a buffet dinner or have an earlier wedding and provide less expensive breakfast food items or lunch items. Lastly, seriously consider whether you need to feature alcohol because hosting alcoholic beverages has a significant impact on the budget. Would everyone be fine with just a glass of champagne to toast with?
My secret trick I learned while looking for vendors and touring venues was that often venues will have lists of preferred local vendors. If you see the same vendor popping up on multiple venues’ preferred lists they are usually well liked for a reason and are probably a safe bet. In addition to that if they have already done an event at the venue you want to use, they will know how to set up and things are more likely to go smoothly. That said, it is also important to challenge the assumptions the preferred lists have and make sure you are consciously aware of the amount of diversity present on the list. If supporting bipoc owned companies is something you want to use your buying power for then you can go beyond the preferred vendor list if you don’t see any listed.
My last point is that building a wedding website is incredibly helpful. There are a couple of easily accessible free websites that let you build your own wedding website off of a template provided. These are great specifically for RSVPs. Adding your wedding website to your invitation makes it easy for guests to quickly let you know if they can or cannot attend. The sites also have great things like a gift registry, a place for cute photos of the couple and information about the wedding location. This can help people find hotels and activities in the area if they are flying in for the wedding. There are great, free wedding planning apps and websites out there BUT I will say those sites do not know your local area like a wedding planner does. They do not have the best prices for venues and they miss a lot of local vendors. So my advice is to use the website for your own organizational purposes but if you aren’t finding what you want or you don’t know how everything is supposed to fit together for the big day, hire a wedding planner. You will save yourself a lot of stress and it can be the difference between a magical day and a frantic day.
I hope this helps some of you newly engaged couples! Congratulations! Give us a call or send us an email if you have any questions!
Best wishes,
Riley McCann