Our DIY Bonding Ceremony Costs, Savings, And Ways You Can Have Your Own Creative Wedding Without As Much Cost Damage
For those of you who are on a budget and think you could never possibly afford to have a wedding of your own, my Dragon and I are here to show you that even on a small budget you can still put together an amazing experience that all involved can enjoy with you.
Cody and I went into planning our Bonding Ceremony knowing it would be costly, we had no idea how crazy prices got just by adding the word "wedding", but we learned quickly. Early into planning we decided to make a game of it for ourselves. The point of this game: to see how effective we can be while spending the least amount of money that we can. Not just ourselves either, when people offer to help by purchasing one aspect or another we do all we can to encourage them to go ahead and shop sales and discount sections because we want the savings to be shared just as much as the fun parts. For much of this we have had to tap into a lot of our own skills, learn new skills, and seek the assistance of some wonderful friends and family.
As some of you may know, funding around here can get rather tricky, and requires some fine balancing skills. Our over all budget while planning thus far has allowed us roughly $150.00 that we can sort of afford to spend each month (as long as we pinch our pennies until they cry!), more was able to be spent as I made sales, as all of my sales between now and the wedding are going towards funding our Bonding Ceremony. (Special discount offer found here) We gave ourselves a little over a year to plan, about 15 months to be more precise. That budget, of course, has been assuming we didn't have any issues, like blown out shoes, or anything else that required a redirecting of funds. Things, of course, got a little tight here and there, roadblocks definitely popped up as such seems to be the way of life. During months like December we didn't focus on spending anything towards the wedding, just focused on making sure that Roo's Christmas was awesome.
Now, I had been told again and again that a DIY wedding would be the most costly and hardest to pull off. So far, I'm not seeing it being the problem that I was lead to believe it would be. A lot of that is due to the fact that I did not wait until the final few months to start crafting. As soon as we had a clear plan in mind, the crafting began. Even when purchasing crafting supplies I looked for sales, discounts, best priced places to shop (most of our shopping is online). This habit alone will help save a lot of money.
Below you will find a list of rough averages based upon duckduckgo and google searches for the average cost of each item or service in the year of 2018. These searches were also based off of a generalized 100 person guest list, our list is 50 people total. (That's a hint hint at a huge cost saver... the size of the guest list makes a huge difference in the over all cost of the wedding.)
Between his technical ingenuity, my creative adaptability, and the help of those amazing friends and family members, I would say that we are doing really, REALLY well so far. All of the planning and coordinating has been done by Cody or myself. There was no hiring of a wedding planner, which also saved a bunch of money. Sure, I had a ton of questions through the entire process. I searched the internet for answers in most cases, learning not only about traditions and superstitions, but especially to find the best deals I could. Discount and clearance sales were awesome, as were thrift stores in some cases, and yes we were able to find many of our crafting supplies from these areas. Doing the research definitely helped keep a clear image of what sort of items would be needed for each project.
There were of course still areas that we had to reach out for more assistance though. For example, I didn't make his suit or my dress, we ordered both of those. His suit was a custom order from an artist on etsy. It came with many obstacles and we almost thought we might not see a suit at all, but it when it did finally come, it fit him perfect and he absolutely loves it. We went through a business that specializes in fancy dresses for my dress, even sending in my sizes, it needs alterations, but I still love it. I'd say be patient with your artists and crafters, you'll get a better product and probably pay less. Even in the cases where you don't pay less, it's still just more worth while over all to shop from artists and crafters. I don't say that because I'm an artist and crafter myself. I say it because a machine won't put the love into your item, whatever that item is, that an artist or crafter will.
That being said, if anyone out there has questions, tips or comments, I'm open to hearing them and happy to help if I can. Who knows? Maybe one of my skills can help you with the planning of your big day.
Shandie
That being said, if anyone out there has questions, tips or comments, I'm open to hearing them and happy to help if I can. Who knows? Maybe one of my skills can help you with the planning of your big day.
Shandie
RSVP
Rough Average Cost
$75.00 - $1000.00
How we saved $$$
Website, Free
Created Ourselves
Roughly Saved
$75.00 - $1000.0
Rough Average Cost
$75.00 - $1000.00
How we saved $$$
Website, Free
Created Ourselves
Roughly Saved
$75.00 - $1000.0
Thank You Cards
Rough Average Cost
$65.00 - $300.00
How we saved $$$
$5.00
Thrift Stores
Roughly Saved
$60.00 - $295.00
Rough Average Cost
$65.00 - $300.00
How we saved $$$
$5.00
Thrift Stores
Roughly Saved
$60.00 - $295.00
Bride
Rough Average Cost $100.00 - $7,000.00 How we saved $$$ rinaimports.com $14.00 Temporary Band Roughly Saved $86.00 - $6,986.00 |
Groom
Rough Average Cost $100.00 - $4,000.00 How we saved $$$ $20.00 (Temporary band) amazon.com His Dream Band alaskajewelry.com $-917.13 Roughly Saved $80.00 - $3,980.00 |
Grand Totals
Rough Average Cost
$16,961.00 - $130,489.00
Our Total Cost Spent
$1,115.00
(+$95.00 total on license)
($1,210.00, with license fees)
Roughly Saved
$15,846.00 - $129,374.00
($15,751.00 - $129,279.00, with license fees)
Rough Average Cost
$16,961.00 - $130,489.00
Our Total Cost Spent
$1,115.00
(+$95.00 total on license)
($1,210.00, with license fees)
Roughly Saved
$15,846.00 - $129,374.00
($15,751.00 - $129,279.00, with license fees)
General Things To Consider When Looking For The Best Deals And Not Sacrificing Quality
*Use the word "wedding" as little as possible. One thing we learned very quickly was that all items of course have their standard price averages, but once you add the word wedding the price can go through the roof. For example, when shopping for my dress, I looked at many wedding dress sites and bridal shop sites and choked on most of their prices. I searched amazon, google, etsy, basically every site I could think of an noticed that there are some amazing dresses at decent prices for their quality but once you add the word wedding or the site that you are shopping at, a $150.00 dress can quickly become a $1500.00 dress. We paid a grand total of $150.00 for my dress (found on ebay) and it's definitely all it was advertised to be. It's EXACTLY what I wanted. The whole cost of my entire outfit, $240.00, and that covers all three parts.
Flowers, decorations, party favors, invitations, everything seemed to be price effected in this way. By using the word "wedding" as little as possible in our shopping, we were able to save quite a lot.
Flowers, decorations, party favors, invitations, everything seemed to be price effected in this way. By using the word "wedding" as little as possible in our shopping, we were able to save quite a lot.
*DIY Vs. Buy... I was told again and again that the cost would be equal or greater by doing a DIY wedding. That we would in no way be able to save money by making as much of the stuff we wanted involved ourselves. However, this step of crafting as much as we can seems to have saved us a lot of money, even when we have an oops and need more supplies. For example, our cake topper was inspired by a design we saw on etsy. They were charging $350.00 (plus shipping), where as we spent $20.00 (shipping costs included) and I made us a cake topper in our colors that we love. That means on that one item alone we saved $330.00 just by taking the time to make our own cake topper. That's just one item... Shopping online, discount, sales, and bulk helps a lot if you can when doing DIY anything.
*Dried flowers and petals not only look awesome but can smell really pretty. If you are considering dried flowers for your bouquet anyway, see what sorts of flowers might be growing that time of year that you might be able to harvest and dry yourself to craft your own bouquet. My bouquet is silk flowers, but we are collecting flower petals for our flower girl in this way. I have made dried flower bouquets in the past and they keep well for years. As long as you don't plan to use this as your "toss bouquet", check with nature first for sure.
*Speaking of checking with nature, did you know that often times an outdoor venue won't charge nearly as much as an indoor one? Another thing to consider here is that there are many "off the beaten path" outdoor areas that would be fantastic for a wedding, that because they are not as commonly used may come with less of a price. Yet another really awesome thing about an outdoor wedding, Nature will do most of the decoration work for you and therefore save you bunches. This is another area where you might want to be careful with the "w" word though as some venues will charge more just for the event being a wedding. Not all of them are like this, fortunately the place we are looking at is very awesome and honest here and isn't tacking on their own "wedding tax", for lack of better wording.
Make sure though if you are having your wedding outside to be respectful of the land and not leave a mess or be destructive. Better still, we like to go by the leave no trace motto around here. Keeps nature looking and feeling beautiful that way.
Make sure though if you are having your wedding outside to be respectful of the land and not leave a mess or be destructive. Better still, we like to go by the leave no trace motto around here. Keeps nature looking and feeling beautiful that way.
*Do NOT impulse buy! This logic could be safely applied to all aspects of life, but is especially true when building your own wedding. Make sure to shop around as much as you can and find the best deal that you can. It may take a little time, but taking that time could save you a small fortune.