NUMBER OF GUESTS: Weddings on a budget are suited to small affairs, considering inviting 40 to 90 people at most for an intimate occasion that allows you to spend time with the people you cherish most in your life. The more people you invite, the more challenging it will be to spend time with everyone during the reception which lasts an average of four to five hours.
WEDDING PLANNER: $500.00 to $1,000.00. The risk of planning a DIY wedding to save money is you will end up working and realize you have taken on more than you can possibly handle. Take the money you're saving in other areas and spend it on a wedding planner. Inquire if the planner offers day of wedding services which saves a bride on a budget money. Make sure you stay the bride and not the wedding planner.
VENUE: $0 to $2,000. 1. Consider a backyard wedding. Western North Carolina is host to a wide array of picturesque locations, but the great thing about a homespun wedding is your history with the location. When you look back at your wedding photos, you'll see a place that's meant something to you for a long time where you've lived many parts of your life. It's 100% yours, without the worry of sticking to a timeline and winding the reception up at a firm hour when you must be done, the evening lasts until the celebration really ends.
2. If it's a challenge to accommodate guests and parking at home, consider public parks which can be rented for special occasions. As an example, check out our real wedding feature in this
post (the ceremony took place downtown in Pritchard Park).
3. If your heart is set on finding a public wedding venue, consider a little known gem in Black Mountain:In The Oaks. Through Montreat College, the property is commonly available for conferences, but it's also available to rent for weddings. Part of the National Registry of Historic Places, this charming estate built in the late 1800's is the perfect answers common problems couples worry about while planning their big day: parking isn't a worry, a natural shady landscape has space for your ceremony and reception. In case of rain, the estate's library works as a backup plan for the ceremony. To find out more, use the old fashioned way of calling the college to request more information. (important tip: the college gives a big discount for NC residents, $1,6000 vs. $3,600 for out of state couples)
4. If you have a rustic affair in mind, take a look at
the dairy barn in Valle Crucis, North Carolina which rents for $1,100.00 for a full day and includes a large open lawn for the ceremony and historic red barn for the reception.
5.
Marshall High Art Studios in Marshall, North Carolina (about 20 minutes from Asheville proper) is available to rent for weddings with ample indoor and outdoor space. To visualize what a wedding would look like here, check out
this blog post from local wedding planner Shay Brown Events which features a wedding from Marshall High Studios. This venue is a blank canvas for a creative couple and rents for just $450.00 (wow). Rob Pulleyn, from the studios, informed me, "We have an auditorium which is frequently used for wedding and other events. It does require that you rent chairs and tables, for instance, but we can work with couples on the details. Some folks want to have the wedding ceremony on the island or in the audiorium. When it's rented for a wedding, it's for at least two days so you can decorate, get caterers in there, set up, etc."
6. Check out the rental of a private home for you wedding via the websites
VRBO and
Homeaway.
6. Check venues to see if their winter rates are more affordable.
ATTIRE: $250.00 to $1,500.00. 1. Check out local vintage, antique stores and small boutiques (like Ragtime,
Honey Pot or the back section of the shop at
Magnolia Beauregard's Anitiques and Minx Boutique, all in downtown Asheville) for classic options that won't feel regrettably dated in five years (Price range can vary from at little as $36.00 to $200+). Check out
this blog post (July 2011) which features out of the box antique dress ideas for your wedding from Magnolia Beauregard's Antiques.
2. Well known wedding blog,
www.oncewed.com, began as a website where soon to be brides bought consignment wedding dress. You'll find that part of the blog is still alive and kicking and it's easy to find options in the range of $125.00 to $1,000.00+.
3. Locally,
Black Tie Affair, in the Biltmore Square Mall offers consignment wedding attire and Clothes Encounters on north Merrimon Avenue is another option.
PHOTOGRAPHY: $1,500 to $3,500. With digital photography the norm and megapixels getting bigger and bigger, it's tempting to let your friend or relative volunteer to take your photos as their wedding gift. When you immediately see the image in digital photography, it's easy to think that digital makes things more certain, but photography is actually more complicated and requires a nuanced understanding of lighting and exposure that only professional photographers posses. At some point, every wedding presents lighting challenges, and a friend or relative may not be up to the challenge of solving that problem when they're put on the spot to capture a fleeting moment that will mean a great deal to you when it's captured in an artful way by a pro photographer. For these reasons, photography is one area I encourage you to allot more money to. For 5 hours of wedding coverage, expect to spend at $1,500 to $3,000+. When you narrow your choices down to your top picks, ask to review all the photos from a single wedding in an online photo gallery (request to review 500+ images) to see how they tell the entire story of the day. Evaluate their strong points, for example, is their strength portrait photography or photojournalism that captures genuine moments, and how does that match up with what you really want? Inquire about their hourly rate and consider hiring an excellent photographer for 2 to 4 hours, rather than a less talented photographer for 5 hours at a cheaper rate.Who doesn't love a great deal, but be cautious of photographers who promise a lot for less than the average photography cost, as this practice is usually unsustainable. Remember, won't pay for your vendor's services all at once, photographers often require a 50% deposit to reserve you date with the balance due closer to the wedding.
CATERING: $300.00 to $600.00. Potlucks are a great southern tradition and signify community coming together, which is a great metaphor for a wedding and the perfect place to save money at your big occasion. Consider asking guests to bring lots of cold salads while you take care of the protein. You're not just another job to your friends and family, so the food will be made with love. This is one area which usually takes up a big chunk of the budget, but it can be a place to think outside the typical wedding box for the budget savy bride. Local DIY bride, Jesame McClellan, speaks from experience, advising brides, "Ask your guests to bring a covered dish, in lieu of a gift, which saves a ton of money. For our wedding, we bought beer (4 kegs), a whole pig to roast for the party and an extra large pot of homemade tamales. Let as many people as possible help out and pitch in. Turn your wedding into a community event. Ross (my husband), his mom, and three of our friends worked for three days to get the family farm ready for the event. At the end of the day we may not have had the most glamorous or detailed of weddings, but it was beautiful to us and full of meaning and heartfelt gestures. We went for quality not quantity and that is exactly what we got. So, don't worry over fussy details, high expectations are the death of serenity. Let your friends and family be the stars of the event!”
FLOWERS (BOUQUET, Boutonniere AND TABLE CENTERPEICE): $300.00 to $900.00. You'll find a variety of flower farms (for example
Lady Luck Flower Farm in Leicester, NC) where couples buy seasonal blooms by the bucket for DIY flower arrangements. A note of caution; before the wedding you may feel that you can do it all yourself, but a big part of DIY is asking for help. Recruit 2 to 4 friends to tarrange your centerpieces and expect it to take twice as long as you anticipate when choosing your start time. Plan to have it completed at least 1 or 2 hour before the ceremony (wedding guests always arrive earlier than you imagine). To hold your arrangements, mason jars immediately come to mind for the budget conscious bride, we see them everywhere at wedding and for good reason: they're affordable and have the perfect visual personality for a homespun event. Another creative idea, if arranging centerpieces on the day of your wedding sounds less than fun, is to use collections of small, antique glass bottles as vases for single buds that you group closely together. You'll have lots of time when you don't have to worry about how the arrangement is coming together. For your wedding bouquet and boutonniere, I encourage you to spend more of your budget, the bouquet is an art you will find challenging without the professional skills of local florist. Remember, you don't want to work at your wedding. Inquire with local florist for their rates on just the bouquets and boutonnieres. DIY brides can also request consultations, for a fee, with local florists (for example,
Flora Events) on how to do DIY flower arrangements and decor for their weddings.
DIY DECOR: $200.00 to $400.00. Online, type in DIY wedding decor and you'll find no end to your results. When choosing projects on a budget, look for those ideas that show the potential of ordinary objects to be transformed in unexpected ways, for example, garland made from tan coffee filters and white cupcake papers strung from tree to tree around your ceremony.
CHAIRS, TABLES, LINENS, TENTS: $500.00 to $1,000.00. I recently attending a wedding at a family farm where the ceremony took place in front of a barn and all the guest stood, and I never wondered for a second, where are the chairs? Don't buy everything your sold. If you're serious about saving money, consider a picnic style potluck and ask your guests to bring an old fashioned quilt from home for a picnic on the lawn. The quilts add charm, visual interest and color to the event and to your wedding photos. At the same time, it's likely some of your guests will necessitate the presence of tables and chairs. For good rates, check out
Artful Shelter on River Road in Asheville and
Rental Me This on Merrimon Ave. in Asheville
MUSIC: $600.00 to $1,000. Contact schools, for example
The Asheville Music School in downtown Asheville, and considering hiring their best students to play during your ceremony. At the reception, you'll find a dj more affordable than a live band.
