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Ceremony, Reception · July 31, 2013

Planning Your Dream Wedding On a Budget: The Cost (A Guest Post from Heather of On The Go Bride)

I won’t forget the excitement I felt the day my now-fiancé, then-boyfriend, finally proposed. We had met two years prior while I was visiting the USA for the summer from Canada. After spending one too many hours with the under 12 crowd (as a nanny), I felt the need to seek out local friends. Scott and I met online, and I won’t say it was love-at-first-sight, but certainly love-at-first-week! Tragic, for a pair who would be forced to part ways just 4 weeks later. We made a decision to make it work, whatever it took; to beat the odds. I had two years remaining in my bachelor’s degree and we would have to live apart for at least that long. Our decision was quick, but we were all in.

I won’t forget the excitement I felt the day my now-fiancé, then-boyfriend,
finally proposed. We had met two years prior while I was visiting the USA for
the summer from Canada. After spending one too many hours with the under 12
crowd (as a nanny), I felt the need to seek out local friends. Scott and I met
online, and I won’t say it was love-at-first-sight, but certainly
love-at-first-week! Tragic, for a pair who would be forced to part ways just 4
weeks later. We made a decision to make it work, whatever it took; to beat the
odds. I had two years remaining in my bachelor’s degree and we would have to
live apart for at least that long. Our decision was quick, but we were all in.

Post1Image1
Image Courtesy of: Sugar and Soul Photography via Intimate Wedding

One year later, we were visiting Stinson Beach on the California coast and
we were chasing seagulls and dog watching along the shore. It was there that he
caught me off guard and proposed. We had spent all of our money from the last
year on our education and on trying to visit each other every 3 months to keep
the relationship going. Needless to say, a ring was way outside out budget, so
instead he fashioned one out of seaweed and tied it on my finger. He told me, I
can’t give you a house, or money, or a big wedding, but I can give you all the
love you will ever need. I went home after that visit, ecstatic for the future
when we could share our lives, every day, for better or worse.

A year after the proposal I finally moved to California and we faced
immigration costs, moving costs, being-without-work costs, etc. We decided it
was time to plan our wedding ceremony, and realized that again, all of our
money had gone to making it work, whatever it took (in this case, a lot of
funds!). We decided that in true Heather & Scott fashion, our wedding would
have to reflect a time in our lives when we didn’t have everything figured out,
were not living in great abundance, and we could not afford to spend $1000 on
our wedding, let alone $10,000 or the average wedding cost of around $26,000.
We were disappointed, but this left us with a challenge; something we had both
become very good at conquering.

We set our wedding date for August 14th, 2012, just one year later. We had
one year to create a realistic budget and save for our dream-budget wedding.
Needless to say, we succeeded. Our wedding date is now approaching and we feel
amazing about what we were able to do with a dream in our hearts and a little
determination.

Post1Image2
Image Courtesy of: Wedding Wire

Planning a budget wedding can be stressful. We all want the best of the best
on our big day, whether it is an intimate ceremony in a backyard, or a cathedral
wedding with 400 guests. Negotiating the cost vs. want dilemma is one that
nearly all brides face at some point in their wedding planning adventure. There
are a myriad of ways to save money on your wedding day, and still marry with
class and style. Over the next few blog posts, I show you how we beat the odds
and planned our dream wedding on a dime.

The first thing that saved us with our dream wedding plan was to quickly
have those awkward conversations with family about who would be helping with
what, and then budget what we could actually afford to spend on our special
day. The reason I did this before gathering any ideas, inspirations, etc, was
to give us a reality check on what we had to work with. The majority of people
always want bigger, better and more exciting when it comes to big events in
their lives. Some people do just that. We didn’t have that luxury. After
learning that family was unable to assist at all with our wedding, we were
faced with many decisions about how to secure enough money to pull off our big
day. We decided we did not want debt to plague our love story from the get-go,
so we calculated how much we could save in one year and without family
assistance (very common these days). This way, we knew what we had to work
with.

Next, we headed on over to a wedding budget website. I recommend
weddingwire.com’s Wedding
Budget
as it spells everything out for you. This quickly showed us how
quickly our funds would depreciate and, although discouraged, we are now
thankful we had a very honest and detailed tool to work with.

Once your budget has been established and your general costs allotted,
finding ways to save on the money you are spending is key. Researching ways to
incorporate DIY projects (stay tuned for ideas and inspirations!) and finding
easy ways to save on your wedding essentials will allow you to splurge on those
must have wedding details (such as the wonderful photographer or makeup artist
you have been eyeing, or the venue of your dreams).

Weddings don’t have to break the bank at the price of class and style. You
can have your dream wedding cake and eat it too!

Krisstin-thorburn-bio-picKrisstin is the
Founder and Editor of On the
Go Bride
. Launched in 2010, Krisstin’s focus is on the busy-bee brides of
California and Nevada. As a professional always on the go, Krisstin discovered
the difficulties of planning a wedding. Her struggles with limited amounts of
time for meetings and mistakes made along the way inspired her to create a
resource with quality vendors, inspiration, and advice for the professional
brides.

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Posted In: Ceremony, Reception · Tagged: bride, budget, ceremony, groom, On The Go Bride, Planning, reception

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I'm Cris. I live in Alaska with my husband, two kids, and two cats. I love sleeping, Disney, Marvel, and fries.

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