Open bar, band and venue that had no curfew, wedding requirements or rules were non-negotiables for us. Wedding planner/day of was non negotiable too, I don’t want to do anything or have friends/family do anything. We want everyone to show up, party and then leave. Those are our most expensive, then we filled in the budget from there.

While we know we have to feed our guests, we don’t really care if it’s fancy and do not want a sit down dinner, so we will either do just a taco bar or a cocktail food style reception then have late night munchies. Throwing a big party/concert is more important to us than any of the traditional stuff.

I am getting my dress made so I won’t have to pay extra to have it fitted after ordering it (I am also paying for my own dress, so it’s not really in the “our wedding” budget along with rings, we are getting our own rings, we have separate finances and will keep them separate even after marriage).

I don’t want a cake, so we will probably do cookies, which people, can easily take with them. Also, much cheaper.

Photographer was used by our friends last summer and did a really good job and is really affordable. We don’t want video and single shooter is just fine.

Flowers will be from a fresh flower farm that sells them by the bucket and I’m already saving wine and bourbon bottles for centerpieces. We (and friends) drink wine and bourbon so it won’t cost us extra and we can recycle everything afterwards.

My advice, figure out your budget and then list all the things you want in the order of importance, then go from there.

I never planned on getting married so all the tradition behind it doesn’t matter to me, I don’t like managing people so I don’t want a wedding party, I travel and party with friends already so a bach party isn’t important. To me, the day should be about bringing people together and celebrating friendship and love in a wild mess of chaos.