I’ve alluded to our cheap wedding and honeymoon a couple of times, but I had never gotten around to writing out the details of what it took to make it happen. When I got asked to write a guest post for Millennial Money Man though, I realized it was the perfect opportunity to finally recap that experience.
It’s been eight and a half years since we were married, and almost nine since we got engaged (we were only engaged for four months before the wedding). Looking back, I have only fond memories of our wedding, and I’m glad we didn’t spend any more than we did on that special day. Rather than a big, fancy, expensive wedding, we saved our money and eventually used that cash for a down payment on our home instead of paying off an expensive one day celebration. After all, we are no less married for having a less extravagant wedding celebration.
We had a wonderful wedding with our family and friends and took off for a five day honeymoon, keeping our total cost to under $3,500. To hear all about the wedding details and expenses, head on over to Millennial Money Man and read my guest post there.
Since the guest post doesn’t include pictures of the wedding, I thought I’d include a few here:
Nice pictures, you guys make a really handsome couple! And $3,500, that’s amazing, this is an area most people tend to splurge, in my opinion keep that money to payoff debt or as down payment on a home. You don’t need a fancy wedding to celebrate true love.
Thank you! And obviously, we completely agree 😉
Nice pics Angela:) $3,500 is very reasonable compare to some of the numbers I have been reading about.
My husband and I had a very informal wedding followed by a small bbq in our backyard. It was great!
Amazing how awesome the low key weddings can be. Bonus is that they tend not to have the stress associated with the big ones either 🙂
$3,500 is dirt cheap for a nice small wedding. That’s awesome. We had a shotgun wedding at the courthouse… Well, I guess not really shotgun because Mrs. RB40 wasn’t pregnant. It just got thrown together in about a week so it kinda felt like a shotgun wedding.
Oh I don’t think I’ve heard that story! Now I’m curious as to your story. People thought I was pregnant as well because we were engaged for such a short time. Little man didn’t show up for over 5 years though, so definitely not a shotgun wedding here either 😉
Great post! We are planning our wedding now and trying to find ways to be resourceful. This post was inspiring! I find the venue the most challenging from a cost perspective. And of course if you are booking a venue, you’re required to use their food/booze, chairs, etc. which all come at a premium. Unfortunately for me, my fiancé could not be swayed on venue 🙂
Yeah, venues are often the most expensive part of a wedding. If not for my parents’ house, we probably would have gone the park route.
we got hitched on the relative cheap and did a ton of stuff ourselves. we were able to rent this great music hall for just a few hundred bucks just for asking. got our booze wholesale from a restaurant friend and another restaurant friend catered some light food. even the band was a former coworker who is a jazz/soul singer. did you see the headless horseman or rip van winkle near sleepy hollow?
Very nice! It pays to have friends in the industry 😉 All of the Sleepy Hollow town signs actually feature the horseman 🙂
Love the pics. Looks like you guys had a great time!
It’s awesome when you’re on the same page with your spouse.
We did! Sure lucked out there 🙂
I remember you mentioning your wedding cost when I did my wedding post a few months back. I’ve wondered how you spend so little. Having it at your parents house really helps bring down the costs because renting out a venue is probably the most expensive part for a wedding.
Thanks for sharing some of your wedding pictures, looks like it was a lot of fun.
Oh yeah, we could have easily doubled the cost or more with a wedding venue. That said, there are other options that are cheap or free even if you don’t have a house to host the wedding. One of the best weddings I attended was in a friend’s backyard. It was a low key potluck and an absolute blast.
Please, more pictures of the dress!! (I sew, not as well as I’d like, but have dreams of sewing dresses for my daughters.)
I’ll have to go dig out my wedding album. She really did a fantastic job 😊
I want some of that cake.
Also, you guys look amazing. And that bouquet is from the grocery store??
Please send cake.
My aunt is the best, isn’t she?? It tasted even better than it looked.
Ours wasn’t nearly that inexpensive, but so much less than most of our friends. We had the best time and more money wouldn’t have changed that. Yours looks fantastic and a happy union is way more important than an expensive wedding!
“A happy union is way more important than an expensive wedding” – so much truth to this.
It doesn’t seem like the guest post link still works – is there another way to access this article?
Hmmm no. Unfortunately I don’t know that I kept a copy.