Did you know the average cost of an Iowa wedding is over $23,000?! Our goal for our wedding was to stay under that number, and I think we’ll make it! Because we have so many plans for after our wedding – including building a house! – we wanted to make sure we only incorporated things into our wedding that we truly wanted. This meant skipping a lot of lovely things that are traditional and almost expected but not something we need to celebrate our marriage. Below I’ll outline some ways we’ve saved big on our wedding!
The featured image I used for this post is from Ling’s Moment. I exclusively used greenery from Ling’s Moment’s Amazon shop for my florals, and I am very happy with my purchases!
small bridal party
I have been in a handful of weddings, and it’s such a wonderful experience! For our wedding, we decided to just pick a best man and a maid of honor for our bridal party. Our primary reason was because we wanted our wedding to be just about us and the celebration of our marriage. It definitely reduced extra coordination and planning for me since none of my hypothetical bridesmaids would be closer than two hours away from where we live or our venue.
We also can’t ignore that it greatly reduced the cost of our wedding. There were no bridesmaid dresses, proposal boxes, additional florals, party buses, etc.
stationary sales
We spent less than $200 total for our save the dates and wedding invitations (not including postage)!! For our save the dates, we kept them simple and ordered during a 50% off sale on Zola. For our invitations, we spent a little extra to print on the back of the invitation so we could include RSVP information (with a note to RSVP online or by phone, which meant no return envelopes!). This was about half the price of having a separate RSVP card. We also ordered our invitations a month or two earlier than planned due to another 35% off Zola sale.
skipping fresh flowers
I made my wedding bouquet and I love it! I love that I can hold it in front of the mirror whenever I want and even bring it to my dress fittings. I love that it’s a keepsake I could store forever! Fresh flowers are beautiful, but they are so expensive. For me, it just didn’t feel worth it and honestly, I was looking forward to the exciting challenge of arranging my own (faux) florals! Honestly, I was sad when I had no more florals to arrange!
For the arch garland, 20 small table floral arrangements, my bridal bouquet, 6 boutonnieres, and 9 corsages (lots of women in my family!), I spent a little over $500 total. That’s pretty good in my book!
For my florals, I used a combination of eucalyptus greenery spray, pink roses, white chiffon ribbon, petite white roses, green and pink greenery, tender blush flowers (I loved these!!), small vases (loved these too!), blue roses, garland, floral tubing, floral tape, pearl wristbands and magnetic boutonnieres (no pins necessary!), and artificial baby’s breath
having a family member do our photos
This one is so controversial. I know many people say that having a friend or family member take your wedding photos is something you’ll regret, but I didn’t choose my sister as my wedding photographer to save money (although I did let her set her price), I chose her because I trust her and her photography skills. I also trust her as a person and knew I’d feel more comfortable with her behind the camera. My sister likes taking pictures of animals (and people occasionally), and I think if she can make a snake or toad look great, she can make me look great too! She already did a wonderful job with our engagement photos.
And while I do trust my sister 100% with our wedding photos, we’re not really picture people! If there’s a photographer you like and want for your wedding but they have a hefty price tag, go for it!
no videographer
This isn’t something we really cared about although it’s become extremely popular, so we decided to skip it. Videographers are not cheap, so do it because you want to not because of FOMO!
no wedding planner
For a low cost of $0, we got two wedding planners, myself and Brandon! That said, we have hired another sister of mine to be our day of coordinator and will be providing her with a very detailed planner containing all the important information for our wedding day. She’s an absolute boss at keeping things on schedule and making sure everyone’s under control. I know she will be a great day of coordinator!
making our own wedding cakes
This one isn’t for the faint of heart. We already know we make good cakes, and this eliminates the need to find a vegan baker that I like. Including the transport of the cakes (cake boxes, cake boards), the ingredients, and our cake topper, I think we’ll be under $100 for all the cake needed to feed our guests. And there will be NO compromise in taste! We’ve been making many practice cakes and plan on offering chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.
doing my own makeup
I’m never really a fan of getting my makeup done. The makeup artist usually makes my eyebrows way darker than they already are and the false lashes (while I’m told they make your eyes pop) tend to distract from my actual eyeballs. I already have so many makeup supplies and plenty of time to practice doing my own makeup. This means I won’t have to pay for a makeup trial or day of makeup. I’ll also be more comfortable interacting with our guests knowing that my makeup looks good in person, and not just good in pictures.
My biggest wedding advice is to choose the things YOU want, not want is trendy, traditional, or expected! In the future, I will be doing another post to show what we splurged on (within reason!) for our wedding. Thanks for reading!
Davien
fluted wood & marble 
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