You can get married on a $150 budget
In the US, the average wedding costs around $27,000. It’s as much as a downpayment for a house. But of course, it’s the most special day in your life and if you’re got the dough, why not splurge?
However, if you’re on a really, really tight budget. You can still have the wedding of your dreams for $150. Mary Beth Baptiste shows us how.
You might call me a minimalist, or just plain cheap, but when I set out to plan my recent wedding I didn’t want anything elaborate. My husband-to-be, Richard, agreed, although he did harbor a wish for a Vegas drive-through wedding with an Elvis impersonator as our witness.
While nearly $30,000 may buy more glitz, it can’t buy more joy or romance. Our own wedding in the woods was intimate, dreamy and definitely one-of-a-kind. We snow shoed a short distance into the trees and found a pine alcove for our chapel. Our Unitarian-Universalist minister read some inspirational passages we had chosen, we exchanged our own vows and we kissed. Two friends photographed the ceremony with a digital camera and surprised us by popping open a bottle of champagne they’d carried into the woods in a backpack. Throughout the ceremony, light from the sun and clouds patterned through snow-laden trees. The usual Wyoming wind was absent.
Afterward we enjoyed a simple dinner at a cozy café, complete with wood stove, in Centennial, a town of 100 at the base of the Snowy Range. A few weeks later, we ordered a special cake from a bakery and e-mailed an open invitation to our friends for a potluck dinner, minus gifts. We have a marriage certificate and an online photo album to share with family and friends. The final rundown: Marriage license: $25. Dinner for five: $60. Minister’s snowshoe rental: $15. Flowers: $25. Champagne: $10. Cake: $15. Online photo album: free. Total: $150.
We even had a flower dog.
Cool eh? What about you? How much did you wedding cost? Did you have a tight budget? How did you manage to have the wedding of your dreams with your tight budget?
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