Trimming... or SLASHING - The Guest List

From the beginning, I wanted to keep our wedding intimate and small. As we started writing out our guest list, it quickly grew from the 75 people I wanted to over 300. Our $5000 budget limit quickly maxed out and spilled over to something closer to $7000, and I was starting to panic.


That's when Kristofer and I decided to do something drastic. We cut our guest list to 25.


But we did come up with a compromise to keep our friends and family happy, and let them participate in our celebration. 
We decided to have two receptions - one tiny picture perfect one for our intimate wedding, and one huge casual celebration reception to share with all of our friends.
Our intimate wedding guest list is made up of our parents, grandparents, siblings, and wedding party. That's it.
The second, casual reception guest list is made up of everyone else - aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. 
We'll have the second reception a few days after the wedding, and play a video of the ceremony on a projector screen for everyone to enjoy.


Now, I realize not everyone can use this plan for their wedding. If you can, do it! It's working out great for us so far.


For those of you who just need to cut down their normal wedding guest list though, here are some questions to ask yourself:

- Who are the important people in our lives?
- Is it necessary to invite co-workers?
- Are we including guests simply out of guilt? (i.e. They invited you to their weddings.)
- Are we including guests that we haven’t seen within the last year?
- What if a guest does not have a significant other. Are we allowing guests to bring dates?
- Do we want to invite children?
- What about extended family? Is it necessary to invite second cousins and great aunts?

Setting a Budget

According to The Wedding Report, in 2007 couples spent an average of $28,800 (interesting side note: the average budget couples set that year was $14,250) on their weddings.  When Kristofer and I read that we wondered - is it even possible to have a beautiful, magazine worthy wedding for under $5,000?


We think so. In fact, we think it's possible for far under $5,000. We'll let you know if we're right in June 2011. 


According to every "wedding budget calculator" I've tried, I'm going to have a pathetic wedding. According to the computer brain that tallied up my budget and spit it out with a smirk, I had to find my dress at a thrift store and feed my guests crackers and cheese. And I could just forget about photography - best I could afford was a friend that owned a digital camera.


This is the story of how I proved that computer wrong. Come along for the ride as I investigate creative ways to make my budget shine.

Wedding Of My Dreams... On The Budget Of My Nightmares

Like any other girl in the world, I want a beautiful wedding. When I got engaged in October 2010, I knew it was going to be a challenge to create the wedding of my dreams on the budget of my nightmares.

Like most modern day engaged couples, we were paying for this wedding on our own. We've always been careful with money (we didn't have a choice!), so spending as little as possible was seemed like a good idea. On the other hand, I'd been dreaming of my wedding since I was six years old, and didn't plan to have more than one wedding in my life. 

We didn't lose hope and elope. I decided to find a way to create a bridal-magazine worthy wedding on a dime. This blog will take you along for the ride as I learn how to create "cheap chic and budget beauty".