Hi everyone!

Welcome to the Budget Savvy Brides($10K). Weddings can be very expensive and we all love it when we can save a few hundreds or thousands on a ticket without having to sacrifice our "dream" wedding. We would love to hear your ideas, tips, budget savvy saving stories on how you planned are planning to keep it under 10K. Please remember to introduce yourselves in your first post and lets make this board a resourceful place for everyone who is trying to save $$$.  

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About Me

My name is Ghana_Bride and I currently live in Milwaukee , WI. We are getting married in a beautiful outdoor location in Hot Atlanta on 10/10/09. I am originally from Ghana, W. Africa (hence my user name), and while I love everything wedding these days, I also love to read, DIY, travel, learn new things, and meet new people.

Hola!  My name is ConsciousBride and I live in Maryland (DC Metro).  Currently planning an October 24, 2009 wedding in beautiful Macon, Georgia (my hometown).

Hi, I'm Sandra and better known around here as LadyY. I live in the Netherlands (or the NL) and my fiancé is American. We will have an intimate wedding in Louisiana, our budget is around $3000,- We're paying for it ourselves.

I too am a budget bride (budget $5k). I'm from Delaware and managed to remain within budget by doing research, research, research, rather than jumping on the first deal that "sounds good". the FI and I lucked up on having such talented family members. we have his aunt catering as a wedding gift, my uncle's doing floral decor, &  i'm doing our invites. My photographer was booked for less than $1000, reception is being payed for by the IL's, and the outdoors ceremony location is only costing us $300. Being able to save on those major things leaves us with alot of $ left to play around with elsewhere.

Hi All!

My name is Bunn2Be. I am a budget bride, but I believe I am heading closer to the 10K mark. I am from MS, but live in AL. I am getting married on the beautiful eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Although my wedding is inside, there is a wonderful pier that you can walk out on to have a look at this sleeping city.

I am personally DIYing a lot of things in my wedding because I wanted a personal hand on things. I guess I consider myself a jack of all trades and definitely a master of none. :)

We've been fortunate that my sister is paying for our catering and his aunt is purchasing our cake. Our wedding and reception venue is the same location so that gave us extra money to play with. My FI had a lot of connections so that allowed us to have some splurges like a full bar with a real bartender!   I look forward to getting to know everyone.

Hi!  I'm 2dBride (i.e., Second Bride).  I'll be close to the $10,000 mark, even after selling a lot of the stuff we are buying.  However, we have some special budget pressures.  First, as a same-sex couple, we can't get married locally, so we are having to pay nonmember rates for a synagogue and rabbi in MA, plus pay for accommodations for ourselves and our 12 guests there.  About $4,000 of our budget was attributable to those items alone!  Add to that the fact that every one of the "bridal" expenses (dress, veil, undergarments, shoes, jewelry, hair, make-up, bouquet) is doubled by having two brides, and you see our issue.

We are, however, paying for our wedding entirely ourselves, and keeping the budget for everything else as small as we can.  That includes foregoing engagement rings or a honeymoon, and renting a club that is a converted warehouse for our reception back in DC, then decorating it ourselves.  "Catering" is being accomplished by paying a friend on an hourly basis to buy food from BJ's, prepare it, serve it, and clean up.  We've done everything from buying my bra at the Salvation Army to learning how to do our own lighting to save money.  Details are at http://sites.google.com/site/2dBride

Hi all,

We're having our wedding in the SF Bay Area -- Palo Alto to be exact.  And it is definitely a huge challenge to have a budget friendly wedding in this area!  We can cut out a lot of stuff but it won't be what we wanted...  I would've been happy getting married at SF City Hall (which is absolutely beautiful) but my FI insists on having the whole traditional she-bang: church, reception, band, etc.

Hi bargin hunters,

My name is Jami and my FI is Brian. We are from NM but are getting married in Durango, CO on May 12, 2012. Due to my FI not getting the bonus we were hoping for, I am now a budget bride/DIY :( I am only sad because I can not draw a straight line let alone design all the invitations, favors, etc etc. So my budget is around 10K and I have not started anything yet. Help!!