These are the tricks I used to have a $5000 wedding with 130 guests at a vineyard in Southern California.

According to The Knot, the average wedding costs $35,000. When I discovered how expensive weddings are, I immediately researched elegant weddings on a budget. I planned a $5000 wedding that was unforgettable and I’m here to tell you that you can have a beautiful wedding for under $5,000 too!

As a note, you will be super lucky if you find a $5,000 wedding package. If you find a cheap package that meets your needs, jump on it! Creating a DIY wedding will take some planning and maneuvering.

Need some wedding inspiration? Start your wedding off on the right foot with this free printable wedding planner. Also, check out diy budget wedding decorations to get you started!

This is how I planned my wedding:

Ceremony and Reception Venue

Having a wedding in Southern California is pricey! I will admit that the ceremony venue was my splurge item because I wanted a beautiful landscape for our wedding pictures. The ceremony took place at a vineyard in a valley surrounded by hills. The ceremony at the vineyard cost $800 for two hours of use.

Unfortunately, it would have been too expensive and restrictive to have the reception at the same venue so my husband and I decided to split the ceremony and reception into two locations. I researched reception venues that were within a 1 – 2 mile radius of the vineyard and almost settled on a park. Fortunately, we lucked out! Family friends offered their home to use for our party. The house was on top of one of the hills overlooking the vineyard! This was a generous gift by our family friends that my husband and I deeply appreciated!

Total: $800

Locations we also considered:

• Rent a mansion – we considered renting a private home with a huge backyard for 5 – 10 days. To find big homes you can start at airbnb.com or vrbo.com. If you are considering this option, let the owner know your plans up front and make sure there is enough room for a ceremony and a reception to take place.
• Parks – If you go this route be sure to consider what the rental fee includes. Many parks in our area didn’t include a liquor license which would have been an extra fee.

Guest List

The goal was to have a wedding under $5,000 for 150 guests. Originally, we had 200 people on our list including coworkers, friends we haven’t talked to in years, and friends of our parents.

To slim down our list, I categorized guests into three groups. The first group included people that had to be there such as our parents and the bridal party. The second group included people that we wanted to invite such as mutual friends. Finally, the third group included those that we wanted to invite such as coworkers and our parents’ friends. To further cut down our guest list my husband and I made some rules:

Criteria of who was cut from our guest list:

• People that we had not spoken to within a year.
• Coworkers that we knew less than a year (which were most).

After some compromise, we widdled our guest list down to 150. Also keep in mind not every guest will RSVP. You may have an idea of who will not show, but plan on everyone showing up rather than not budgeting enough for everyone.

Guest list invited: 150

Guest list showed: 130

Dress

The dress was a tough situation. So many ball gowns that looked like a marshmallow. While I was on the verge of giving up and settling with a poufy ball gown, Mom and I went to Bloomingdale’s and tried on formal event dresses. I tried on a beautiful Sue Wong dress that had the perfect mermaid fit and hand sewn glitter beading priced at $600. Unfortunately, the dress was discontinued in white!

I wrote down the designer and skew and searched the internet once I got home. Amazingly, the dress was available in white on eBay, it was brand new and in my size for $300! The dress was sold as part of a store’s closeout. I bought it and was so proud of my find! Here is my dress in champagne:

Total: $300

Tips

• If you like a dress that is no longer available write down the designer and search the designer’s website. Often you may find a dress that is similar!
• Look on discount websites such as eBay. Make sure the sellers rating is high in case you need to return the dress. Of course, note the return policy.
• Attend bridal events or bridal store closeouts. Dresses can be discounted to decrease the store’s stock.
• Consider borrowing a dress from someone in your family!

Photographer

When it comes to wedding photography, photographers price their packages based on two components: the hourly rate to take pictures and the Photoshop services. Photoshop services take time and require a level of skill that customers will pay extra for.

Knowing that, we went the simple route and paid for our photographer by the hour without the Photoshoped images. On google I found a photographer that was starting out. He had a great website with positive testimonials. After speaking with him I had a good feeling about him and I liked his transparent services and pricing. We chose to get two photographers through his company. Each charged 75 per hour and we hired them for four hours which came out to $600. We got to keep all 1,500 pictures taken during the 4 hours!

Total: $600

Tips

• Do you need stylized wedding images? You can create your own special effects on Canva or PicMonkey! Read my review on Canva vs PicMonkey here.
• On every table at our reception we placed a disposable camera. The pictures that friends took were hilarious keepsakes!
• Ask a photographer friend if they would be willing to take pictures. Keep in mind that this is a lot of work so be sure to offer them something in return. Before considering them, review their work and make sure they are familiar with wedding posing.

Food & Cake

We got Mexican food and served it buffet style. Buffet style is the cheapest way to go when priced per person, also Mexican food is abundant in Southern California. I sampled a few local Mexican restaurants and settled with the caterer that had the best Carne Asada. Prices came out to $8 per person which included two enchiladas per person, a three meat taco bar, two tamales per person, and toppings (lots of guac). We had a ton of leftovers!

Our cake was from our favorite baker. I’m a big fan of a French Baker that I have been going to since high school. My husband and I agreed that we wanted our cake to taste great, we didn’t care for fondant or for a cake that was a showstopper. We bought one large sheet cake and one half size sheet cake which was more than enough for everyone to have at least one piece. We also had a ton of leftover cake.

Total:  $1,190 ($1040 food, $150 cake)

Tips

• What kind of local food is good, cheap and abundant in your area?
• Buffet is cheaper than table service (table service is usually priced per head and includes a service fee).
• Consider a trendy food truck!

Drinks

We didn’t drink at the time (no I was not pregnant) but it was important for us to have an open bar because we wanted all of our guests to enjoy themselves. There are lots of website that can calculate how much wine, spirits and beer you would need based on a guest count. I calculated the averages from a few websites and gave the numbers to Dad. My Dad oversaw shopping for the bar, but rather than using the calculated amount of alcohol that I researched he went over board and got enough to store in my parent’s garage for a year after the wedding.

We went to BevMo, an alcohol chain on the West Coast, and stalked up during the 5-cent wine sale. There, he bought cheap mid-level bottles of red, white and tons of champagne. He also bought several varieties of beer in bottles, and vodka.

Dad made a signature drink based on my wedding colors using guava passion juice and orange soda. He was making the first drink weaker (since we got cheap vodka) and the second batch stronger. Yes, this is opposite of what you should do, but I let my Dad do whatever he thought was best. The signature drink trick worked and people got tipsy, danced and had a great time.

Total: $600

Tips

• Make a signature cocktail that tastes great and is secretly cheap.
• Stock up during great sales.
• Purchase drinks a little at a time to not overwhelm your budget all at once.

Music

My husband always played in a band when I first met him and we were lucky that he knew so many musical people. One of the groomsmen, who is in a band, offered to play at our wedding for free! It was awesome because his band was willing to learn covers to a few songs that I wanted played at our wedding. Best of all, many of our musically talented friends knew each other and would come up to the stage to rock amazing solos. The band impressed quite a few of my Dad’s friends.

To give the band a break, I set up an iPod playlist. The playlist was mostly feel good Motown grooves because everyone loves Motown. Separate playlists were set up for the first dance, dad-daughter dance and other special dances.

Total: $0

Tips

• Set up an iPod playlist with appropriate and recognizable music. Make sure the music is appropriate for all ages. If you go this route, ask a friend if you can borrow an amp and speakers.
• If you want live classic music such as a string quartet, consider asking local college professors (or go to a college and ask around in a non creepy way) for music students that are willing to play at your wedding.

Flowers & Decorations

Mom oversaw flowers and decorations at the wedding. She has a business license and fortunately we used it to gain access to a local wholesale flower shop. While Mom was browsing the flowers on her own, she met a florist and they had a creative connection. The woman offered to help my mom set up the bouquets for a nominal fee.

For the decorations, we used one of my Mom’s business connections, a local welder, to make custom wrought iron flower boxes for each table. For the rest of the decorations, my Mom got wrought iron hooks from Walmart to hang flowers and she bought bulk mini mason jars to fill with flowers at Smart and Final.

Any additional decorations were supplied by my Aunt who has a garage full of finds from thrift stores. At this point in the planning I was overwhelmed and couldn’t handle talking about bow ties on napkins. I let my Mom and Aunt figure out the tiny details. The little decorations turned out great and it was all thanks to my Aunt!

One last thing that’s important are the table covers. Normally table covers can be rented, however I found that it was cheaper to buy table covers. I bought 10 at $8 a piece

Wholesale Flowers and Florist: $200

Custom Center Pieces and Walmart odds and ends: $100

Purchased table covers $80

Total: $380

Tip

• Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks. If you are overwhelmed ask for help!
• Ask to borrow decorations from friends and family.

Miscellaneous

Rentals

For the party, we rented tables and chairs. Google was my friend while researching the lowest quote.

Total: $305

Valet

The house that we had the reception at was on a hill led by a one-way road. The house itself is gated and surrounded by other gated residential homes. To manage the parking situation we hired a valet service. This was essential because guests didn’t have to worry about hiking up a hill or parking in front of a neighbor’s house.

Total: $500

Party Servicing

Hiring a servicing company to manage the food and drinks was another essential. They took care of all the background work such as serving drinks, replenishing the buffet and cleaning up messes. I hired a team of 6 people for 4 hours.

Total: $300

Grand Total: $4975

The key to an awesome $5000 wedding is to have plenty of good food, great music, and drink. Oh yeah and love too! Much of the success of our wedding was thanks to friends and family helping. If you’re looking to have a budget wedding, know that it is possible! To give you a jump start on your wedding planning, checkout this free printable wedding planner. Feel free to comment and let me how your wedding plans are going!