MzMari3

Man, I am so glad that my wedding is over. Hold up, I need to say that again! MAN, I AM SO GLAD THAT MY WEDDING IS OVER!!! Whew!!! I might be the only female to say this but I am. Judge me, judge me not. While I enjoyed my day, as it was interesting, fun, and memorable, all the stress built up to get there was enough for a lifetime. Now, I must admit, I do miss having something to plan. I miss everyone getting excited to come to an event of mine. But I do not miss the stress of trying to stick to a budget and get the best bang for my buck. 

I think that my experience was different that many brides I know as my budget was tight. Tight for many reasons. One, I didn’t want me or my parents to have to owe anyone when it was done. Also, YOUR WEDDING IS ONLY 8 hours of a day. Maybe a few hours longer, but not long enough to accrue debt over it. I heard someone say for every thousand you spend on your wedding, you should have to be married for that long. So if your budget is 10k, then you have to be married for AT LEAST 10 years before you can file for divorce! Lol 

Well according to society, I had a SMALL budget. According to my parents, I had a HUGE budget lol. My budget was set at 10k that included EVERYTHING. Flowers, yup. Catering, yup. DJ, yup! After everyting, I came out at 9k. 

Here are some things I used to cut down the costs:

I got married during the week. I chose to get married on a Thursday because I saved so much money with catering and venues. Also, I just thought it was cool to have weekday wedding. Also, I knew that would limit my guest count as to many people who dont know me too well would be surprised to know I did not want a lot of people. I kept my guest count to 150. And that was a lot for me!! I would have been good with 10 lol. If you knew me, you’d laugh at that impossible task. (My parents have 8 (+) siblings a piece)

I basically worked off connections. My photographer (Moments with Bliss), friend of my parents. My wedding planners, friends. The DJ and security, family. The caterer, friend of my parents. Makeup, friend. Everything else, friends and family. #teamworkmakethedreamwork

So here was the thing about the caterer (SLHeventplanner). My venue (Dekalb History Center) had a designated caterer that they used, as most venues. My venue, another reason I chose it, allowed you to buy them out and use your own caterer. Thanks to my dad’s connections, we were able to save money by buying them out and using our own caterer.  The cake, I’ll let my mom tell you about that. But it was made by Publix. It was cute, it did the job and for someone who doesnt like cake, it was actually good.

My makeup was done by my one and only Joy!!! I love this girl so much! She had my face beat and she did my moms makeup too!! If you in Huntsville, look her up! My hair was done by none other than Courtney! She gave me what I wanted and did not give me what she think I should have, which was very important to me as I watned a natural style.

My musicians were the BOMB!!! Like I couldn’t have asked for better musicians if I tried. Peace and Chris do not understand how much they really made my day and when Peace was singing as I was walking down the aisle, I was like I hope someone recording this because I’m too nervous to really enjoy it. Oh and the cool part was that I told them they could wear whatever they wanted to wear and her dress matched perfectly with my girls!!! 

I ordered all my decorations, tableware, and glasses from either Amazon.com, Tableclothfactory.com, and Dollartree.com. I saved so much by purchasing my products rather than renting. If you want to buy anything off me, hit me up!! I got EVERYTHING!!!

I ordered my Save The Dates and Invitations on Vistaprint. I even made a mistake with the date on my Save The Dates and almost died. But Vistaprint was so nice that they immediately fixed my issue and rush delivered my Save The Dates at no additional fee. 

I designed and printed my own programs on Canva and only spent like $10 on about 300 programs. Let’s be honest, we all know everybody throws them away, so I wasn’t wasting much money on it. 

So that’s basically how I stayed in budget. Social media will make you want everything and miss out on what is most important for your day, like actually getting married and not being in debt over this. Trying to not compare my wedding to others I saw on social media was a task as well. In the words of Jonathan McReynolds, “Comparison Kills”.  It was a hard task. I will not lie. But I like challenges. So I made it my goal to stay under. Plus my motto on my wedding was that it was a celebration that only lasted a couple of hours. I’d rather spend money on doing renovations (if you follow my IG, you know what I am talking about) or traveling.  

-MzMari3