Sam and I have been engaged for a little over a year as of this month. Between school and the pandemic, we haven’t really had the chance to plan our wedding. We also could not figure out what we wanted to do for the longest time. We went back and forth between venues and dates a few times. However, we finally decided on a date and location! I will be starting a mini Wedding Planning series on my YouTube channel, but will also have in-depth blog posts as well.
As of right now, we have set our “budget,” created our guest list, determined who is in our wedding party, booked our venue, and ordered our Save The Dates.
Initial Plans
To start the wedding planning process, I of course needed a planner. So I purchased my Erin Condren Wedding Planner right after we got engaged. We are going to be doing everything ourselves for the wedding from planning to decorations to catering. Our goal is to keep the wedding under $2,000.
However, this wasn’t our budget initially. While we didn’t necessarily have a real budget we were initially looking to stay below $5K-$6K. Most of our friends and family spent anywhere between $10-$20K on weddings so we thought $5-$6K for something small would be a good amount. With that in mind we looked at two venues:
- Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood, Washington
- Parsons Castle, Clifton, Texas
We loved both options (and I go into more depth in the YouTube video on each) but everything kept becoming more and more expensive and then the wedding kept growing into something we didn’t want. So we decided to scratch everything and focus on doing something small, which is what we both really wanted to begin with, and something inexpensive because we both did not want to spend a lot on a wedding.
So, we decided to do a reception-only wedding. Although we are not having a ceremony, we are still going to be recognizing our best friends and have a wedding party & take the normal wedding style photos. We just didn’t want to do a ceremony and we honestly don’t want to spend a lot of money 🙂 So, that leads us to everything that we have planned within the past few weeks that we are both very excited about!
Date & Location
The first decision that we made was that we will have our wedding this year on our 6 year dating anniversary. We also decided to keep the wedding in Austin (where we live). This will not only make things easier on us but also on our friends and family since 90% of them live within an hour of Austin. The others that will fly in can stay with us, friends or other family members. After we decided this, I ordered our Save The Dates from the Basic Invite (preview in the YouTube video).
Venue
After that, I found the perfect “venue” and we signed the contract this week! For our wedding, we booked a 3-hour private cruise on Lady Bird Lake. The wedding will be in the evening so we will be on the boat during sunset and get to see the skyline at night. May is also when it gets warmer in Texas so the weather should be perfect at night on the boat. For privacy reasons, I will share the exact company we used after the wedding.
Budget
The 3-hour ride is quoted for under $1,000 with the initial amount of people we invited (30 adults, 6 children). The final amount will change based on our final count of attendees but we put in the max amount expected. So we essentially have $1,000 for everything else and as of right now, the following are the only anticipated costs:
- Decorations: $200
- Cutlery & Dinnerware: $50
- Catering: $150
- Leis & Floral: $200
- Invitations: $100
I will be buying most of our decorations on Amazon and at Target and we will be buying everything starting this month to spread out the costs. So, while we may go over these anticipated costs, we are still currently under budget.
Current Actual Costs
Budget: $2,000
Paid:
- Save The Dates: $70.91
Pending:
- Venue (Quote): $983
- Invitations: $137.93
Remaining: $808.16
At the moment, I am currently looking at decorating, deciding on a cake, and creating my Wedding Party (Bridesmaids & Best Man) proposals! The next video and blog post will most likely be my Wedding Party Proposals and then I will share the invitations and decorations after that.
