8 Tips to Plan a Fabulous Wedding with $10,000 Budget

Wedding Dress

Finding the one dress that is within your budget can be a daunting task and leave you frustrated after you search every local bridal shop in your neighborhood. But nowadays, one place you should never forget is to go online. You can often find plenty of budget-friendly dresses in various online stores. Just be sure to buy it early, so if you don't like the way it fits or if it needs some alteration, you will have plenty of time to get the perfect one.

Vendors

For caterers, florist and event rentals, you will want to have at least three options for each of your vendors. You want to let your first pick vendor know about your limited budget and see if you can negotiate with them to better fit your budget. This may not always be possible, which is why you will want to have other options to move onto.

Guests

The guest list can account for a majority of your $10000 wedding budget and it is not always easy to have to cut your list of 200 down to 120, but if you can do it wisely, this can save you almost $2000! It is understandable that not everyone will be able to be invited to the wedding, so you need to sit down with your fiance, and maybe even both parents to cut down your guest list.

Decorations

There are many ways you can save on elaborate decorations for your wedding. Search through thrift stores, garage sales and look for crafty do it yourself projects. It may take a little more effort or more dedication of your time, but this is one way you can save a significant amount.

Band

You will be surprised by how many college students you can find that would be more than willing to play at your wedding. Go to the local colleges and post an ad at the music department and be specific about the type of band you are looking for. You may get lucky and find the perfect band for the perfect price.

Reception

You can skip over the grandiose venue halls and choose a location for your receptions that is more meaningful to you and your fiance. Consider holding the reception in someone's awesome backyard. With the money that you have saved, you can spend a little extra on transforming the yard to a fairytale setting.

Help from Family Members

Do you have grandparents or even godparents that belong to a country club or beach club? You may be able to use this venue at a family discount that may be able to work with your $10000 wedding budget. If no one in your family belongs to their own country club, consider looking into historical sites or parks for cheaper options for a venue.

Help from Your Friends

You probably have more talented friends that can help you save cost in a number of areas than you realize. Do not be afraid to ask your friends for help with designing the invitations, doing hair and makeup, photography or with the music. Even if they can't help themselves, they may have a friend of their own who can.

Jane and Patrick Sheppard got married October 10, 2010, the total cost of their rustic style wedding was just over $5,000

“Our wedding colors were green and brown so we created our own centerpieces using glass vases we found for under a dollar at thrift stores. We asked our grandmother to bake some pies instead of going with a traditional wedding cake that fit our country theme. We had an idea of what we wanted our day to look like and then sought out ways to do a majority of the decorating and details ourselves.”

Brooke and Adam Carsner got married April 28, 2011, the cost of their Vegas destination wedding was just over $7,500

"We are blessed to have some talented friends that helped us save big on a number of the wedding details. Our friend Liz made the cake and another friend did the photography. We did take a huge gamble by hiring a DJ from craigslist: it was one risk that really paid off. One way we also were able to save the cost was by comparison shopping. We didn't just jump on everything we liked, we search for better, budget-friendly deals."

Faye and Morgan Hurley got married on September 10, 2010, their retro theme was well under a $10000 wedding budget

“We had just graduated college so we definitely couldn't afford an extravagant wedding. Luckily we both agreed we were not going to be going the traditional route. We got really lucky from some helpful suggestions from friends, like with our photographer. We contacted the local colleges to find alumni and student willing to shoot our wedding for a huge discount. Most of the decoration we did ourselves and we found a lot of inspiration from do it yourself projects and crafts.”