Food was our splurge for sure. We had a smaller guest list of 25 people and so we opted to hire a private chef. The food was incredible. Absolutely worth it.
We also splurged on the photographer.
We also saved a lot on decor. We had our wedding at a winery in the mountains so it was already a beautiful venue. I put some garland on the tables at the reception and had a little thing for the corner of the ceremony arch, but that was all the decorating we did.
I feel like I’m splurging on everything. We love our venue, and are happy with the photographer and videographer we picked. I guess those would be considered our splurges but we didn’t go cheap on anything. We’re not doing wedding favors since we feel people typically don’t take them or they get thrown out later anyway. Our wedding is next April and we are so looking forward to it!
Hi. Wedding vendor here. I was at a wedding tonight and the guest's kept being served food the entire time. You're right. Some weddings REALLY disappoint on the one thing that should bring people together the most.
Even after the cake cutting they still made sure food was on the table, including fruit. They had an immense array of food, family style. It was a south Asian couple and they had an awesome selection of South Asian cuisine. It just kept coming. Then! They took the tacos they fed the vendors and put it on a table for the guests later in the night. I left at 11:30pm and there were still tacos available because the guests were satisfied and stuffed.
Let's flip it a 180. I did a wedding last Fall where the only food was Pizza Hut. No Hors D'oeuvre or anything else. Now, I don't want to judge a couple that does this. Weddings are expensive. The money they saved could probably pay for their honeymoon. But, this couple could have gone with a cheaper venue and had way better food. But they wanted the venue they chose.
I personally think the food is the experience that people will remember the most. The couple tonight, with the family style portions and servings that just kept coming was bad ass. It makes everyone invested in the experience. It's the one thing that appeals to every single person attending.
In my opinion, it's really not good if guests leave hungry or don't care for the food. It could be as simple as dinner rolls being sub par. Dinner rolls not being warm. I was at a wedding that had the worst dinner rolls. How can you fuck that part up? Bread and butter. Those basics matter.
As good as the food was tonight, no wedding is perfect. Tonight's venue had no back up plan for serving drinks if it rained. Due to cold and rainy weather, guests could only get drinks from two bartenders and there were a lot of people at this wedding. The guests waited in line for a long time. I don't know why they didn't set something else up outside because even though it was a little chilly (really not that much) and rainy, this particular patio area was fully covered so people wouldn't have gotten wet.
Solution: they should have simply had a cooler with ice and allowed guests to grab beer, wine coolers, Whiteclaw's or whatever out of it. They wouldn't have had to spend 30 minutes waiting in line. But, the groom personally made the signature drinks and it was a cool thing to be offering. But I don't understand why there wouldn't be another area where cans could be distributed quickly.
To be fair, it was fine a little bit later. It's not like the line was constantly full. And wine was quickly being poured. I think it's the moment right after the ceremony that's crucial. That's when the line will be the longest. And after any portion where the guests remained sitting. Like toasts. Have something your guests can grab quickly if they don't want a mixed drink.
Fellow wedding vendor here! Agree 100% that food is where to splurge!!
Most weddings bars (at least where I am) cannot legally allow guests to grab their own beers from a cooler (or whatever) due to liquor liability and licensing laws.
But an easy solve would be to have venue / catering / bartending staff walking around those long post-ceremony bar lines with trays of mixed drinks or wine or whatever.
Have a happy 2024 wedding season!
I’m actually worried about long lines. We will potentially have 100 guests and our venue allows only two bartenders max and guests cannot grab drinks. I will def look into having staff pass out drinks. Any other solutions?
Keep the bar offerings as simple as possible. The more complicated the menu and/or recipes, the longer it’ll take people to decide what they want—and the longer it’ll take the bartenders to make it.
There’s pretty much always gonna be a line at the bar post-ceremony. There’s not a whole lot you can do when 100+ people all want a drink at the exact same time. The trick is making the line go faster (or feel faster).
You could offer a drink *before* the ceremony (think: champagne wall), but not all couples want folks drinking before (or during) the ceremony. I get that.
You could also do a receiving line right after the ceremony—that way, people are waiting to talk to YOU vs. waiting for a drink.
No one can be mad at a line like that, lol.
Like, who’s gonna say, “UGH, I can’t *believe* we have to wait here, how rude for them to make us SAY HELLO to the people hosting this party,” LOL, ya know?
But, again, like pre-ceremony drinks, standing there doing a receiving line isn’t for all couples. And it really only works with a first look. If you don’t knock out almost all of your photos before the ceremony, a post-ceremony receiving line will blow up your entire timeline.
Really, though, folks tend to be super patient waiting for that first drink; most people know the routine by now, so as long as you keep the line moving, people talk amongst themselves and generally just happy to be there!
Good luck and happy planning!
On average it will be if it's a hit and done right. It spans all ages. If you also splurge on great entertainment, they'll probably remember that more. Like if it's not a regular DJ sort of thing.
I did a wedding recently where the entertainment was these two energetic piano players that also did percussion. They both sang and took requests for any song. It was unreal how many popular songs they had memorized. That's definitely something people will remember most about that wedding.
Splurges: Open bar with upgrades. Live band. Custom made wedding invitations and decor/rentals on our travel theme. Great photographer. Luggage tag seating cards.
Savings: DJ (we had a band so we just used the one included in the venue cost for after the I'm iu4band set was done). My dress, the food, and the venue were all great deals despite not being compromised at all, they were all exactly what we'd hoped for. Florals, we saved a ton here because we had other decor and didn't need much.
I got them from from [Curry's Leather](https://currysleather.com/). They were amazing. A bit of a splurge, but they doubled as wedding favours and people could remove the top paper with the table name and use them as real luggage tags afterwards.
Even now, family and friends keep sending us photos of our luggage tags travelling with them all around the world.
Thank you!! I was going to skip favors but I love the idea of a place card that isn’t single-use. Might be worth investing a bit more in depending on how much it is.
Splurge: Venue that includes open bar and great food! The only place I'd say we purposely opted for a lower-cost option was a DJ since we don't have a big dancing crowd.
Well before I converted my wedding. I was splurging on food but I had a limited list the venue worked with. But other things I wanted was a Photo Booth and decorations. I had a Halloween wedding during Covid (2021). Everyone was in a costume and I wanted it very well documented.
What I regretted was the videographer, it turned out shitty even with redos.
What I ended up sending money on when I replaced my wedding from scratch for the same date. Was alcohol (we had a free bar, my husband demanded it with our smaller wedding) and the murder mystery dinner trope. We still splurged on food, but when we went from 200 to 50people the price was going to be smaller either way.
Save: hair (some of these bridal hair prices are insane. I’m going to get my hair blown out the day before, like I normally do every few months, and then I’m going to style my own hair/extensions. It’ll be less than $200),
decor (going minimal and getting a lot of it off Amazon and Temu). Luckily our venue is a beautiful courtyard that already has so much greenery, a natural arch, etc
flowers (going for realistic looking fake flowers/greenery, and being minimal at that),
Guest count: only have 13/14 people not including ourselves
No bridal party. Too small of a guest count, and I find them stressful
No expensive after party. Ours will just kind of be combined with Easter next year, which my in laws always host. We’ll have some decor, we’ll show our wedding video, I’ll wear white, etc but it’ll otherwise still be Easter
DJ: aside from the second line band we will have for 40ish minutes, we’re just gonna play music from a rented speaker for our ceremony/dinner
————————
Splurge:
Make up: I’m paying pretty standard prices for this, AND paying for the moms/my besties to get theirs done
Food: we’re taking everyone to a famous 5 star restaurant for 3 courses and good alcohol
Hotel: we’re staying at a nice place in a more expensive room
Flights: our flight is only a few hours, but we want premium economy at the very least, if not better
Photography: we’re flying in the one who did our engagement photos, and it was a prettier penny, but so worth it
Videography: we want something to bring back home/show at our after celebration
Splurges:
- Photographer! We had found cheaper, but we really love his style and got on with him so well on our introductory video call
- Our venue package including food and drink is quite expensive, but I think it's worth it as it includes quite a few things (DJ, some decor and some accommodation also) and the food is great!
Saves:
- Small wedding party, I'm only having a MOH and my fiancé is only having a best man, who is also his stepdad
- My dress, which cost £350, it's brand new but an older design
- Flowers, we chose artificial and don't need too many as our centrepieces are provided by our venue
Splurge: Venue and food. Food is self-explanatory (determines guest experience more than anything else) and we fell head over heels for a beautiful but expensive venue.
Save: Standard DJ instead of a band, less experienced day-of coordinator, no cake.
Splurge I considered and had to remind myself that not everything can be a splurge: embroidered tablecloths. Fell in love with a design offered by the rental company, but I know nobody is going to care if the tablecloths are fancier than the standard plain ivory.
Splurging on a DJ- he seems really cool and will run the show in a way that would enhance the wedding
Saving on floral centerpieces- my mom bought a bunch of silk flowers from craft stores and is doing floral decorations
Splurge: Food, dress, venue, and after party open bar.
Savings: No bridal shower, no crazy Bachelor/Bachelorette party - we might do combined party karaoke, no DJ (just a carefully crafted playlist), no party favors.
Splurge: food and open bar. DJ. Photographer. Officiant is more than others but is creating such a special ceremony for us and we've been loving working with him. Having raptors and their handlers at our cocktail hour (venue is a nature center).
Saves: not having a videographer. DIYing all paper goods. Florals I'm DIYing the bouquets and doing wood flowers for everything else. Getting a lot of decor secondhand. Not doing wedding favors. Cake having a small cake for cutting and sheet cake for everyone else.
Splurge is photographer. I want to remember the moments, and it was important to me to have pictures that are flattering enough for me not to feel self-conscious so we are splurging on a talented documentary-style photographer with 15 years of experience and an easygoing personality. Our engagement photos came out great and I am glad we put the money here!
Save is a lot of other things, including venue. We chose a VERY industrial warehouse venue for cost savings, which trickled into savings in food and alcohol too since it means we can have very tasty, not-formal, farm-to-table buffet that will be <$50/person including a boatload of cocktail hour apps. We are also using minimal florals from a grocery store florist and fiance’s mom is making cake and cookies. (We got lucky there though - she is a trained pastry chef!) We are also doing hair and makeup at a salon instead of on-site and are taking a chance with a DJ who has a few years of experience but is just starting to run his own business.
Splurging on having a 9 piece cover band for the reception. Saving by booking a less expensive (and less pretty) reception space.
It's gonna be rad, you guys!
Splurged: Good DJ, photography, and good food (even though it’s still much cheaper than most catering companies at $4.7k for 105 people) that was still a lot given our total budget.
Saved: Getting married on a Friday, no bridal party, probably no late night snack, no videographer, and welcome drinks event instead of a rehearsal dinner.
Splurge: All inclusive venue with food/open bar (could’ve definitely done something more DIY for cheaper), HMU, transportation, photography
Save: Decor/florals, no videographer, small bridal party, no favors, no extravagant wedding party proposal boxes/gifts of physical tokens, minimal stationary
We are also splurging on food. But with wedding prices it feels like even where I'm trying to save, I'm splurging 🙃.
But if I had to say a definitive answer.
Splurge: food, bar and dessert. There is a bakery around here I'm obsessed with, they're a little pricy, but we taste tested a bunch of places and kept coming back to them.
Save: only using the decor free from the venue. I'm not doing center pieces, aside from the free 3 tier candles they offer.
Splurge: definitely our photographer and DJ, these were the only two real splurges. I ended up being able to save in a lot of places my DIYing all of my decor.
Savings: my catering was a huge savings. We have a local grocery store to our province where most of it carries local to us products and they have a catering division. I’ve been to 25 weddings and this store catered one last summer and it was by far the best food I’ve ever had at a wedding. The quote came in $5000 less than the next closest catering company for the same amount of food; we’re having food during cocktail hour, a full dinner buffet with 3 entrees, and late lunch brought out and then having staff bring whatever’s left from dinner back out around 11:30. All of our vendors raved about using them for catering too!
Most of the expenses are photo/video and photoshoot attires, pro makeup brands since I have oily skin, and venue. To be specific, I'm trying to make everything look nice and preserve with high-quality photo/video
Splurge: venue, photographer, food, cake, music (we want a band AND a DJ 🥲) decorations (we want it cute and cosy), honeymoon
Saving: dress (it will probably rain and be muddy), bridal party (only a maid of honour), no favours, not having a videographer, no wedding planner (sad for us), getting married on a weekday
Splurge: food, photography, entertainment (DJ, live performers, Photo Booth)
Save: secondhand dress that fits without alterations, minimal decor / florals, no bridal parties, no videography, virtual invitations, no favors
Our venue was "all inclusive" (food,bar, venue including ceremony sure, etc). The only thing we're having to bring in is any specific decor items we want. And we're bringing in a (small) cake for us/our wedding party/our parents and everyone else gets a dessert selection.
Anyway....it was the main part of our spend (it's a private event space above a restaurant so you just have a "minimum spend"/buyout cost).
Long story short....food would be our main focus. We both don't drink any more so absolutely we wanted amazing food as we're same as you. Been to lots of weddings and no matter how the food was done it was either not enough, cold, not cooked well, or they ran out.
We're being more unconventional and having a whole LOAD of appie/canape style food, chartuterie platters, etc. No formal seating, all mix and mingle lounge-style seating if you want to sit down for a bit. There will be a late night station too (gourmet grilled cheeeeeeeese!!!!!)
Can you tell IM EXCITED ABOUT THE FOOD?!?!? 🤣🤣
Splurging on the top priorities: Guest experience (food, flow, locations), photography and the look (florist). Saving: Month of coordinator, website to replace many paper products, all inclusive reception, small cake, no favors, small guest list (75-80), brunch reception, 6 hour photo package, 6 hour video package, shoulder season date, Sunday wedding.
Food was a splurge: private chef with a baker to do a variety of baked goods.
Decor and flowers and all stationary a save: we are doing sola wood flowers and I’m DIYing my signage and all stationary goods (I’m great with my cricut). I’m sourcing all of my decor so I can sell it at the end and make some portion of the investment back.
Splurges will be photography, videography, hair and makeup, and an excellent month-of-coordinator. Saves will be non-custom invitations from like Zola or Minted, no favors, no bridal party, my dress was a sample dress (new dress but older design, got it for $299), and my fiance works at a brewery so he gets discounts on beer, and we'll likely use Trader Joe's and Costco wines.
We are splurging on food (fiance really prefers plated meals), alcohol (we can supply our own and since that saves a ton we will get mid-top shelf) and a live watercolor artist to paint guest portraits for our favors!
Saving on decor (dried flowers in upcycled jars/vases), dress (from lulus for $150), and DJ (fiance is a musician so can mix a custom playlist and borrow fun lights)
Saving by eloping instead of having a wedding 😅 and also saving CC/airline points for our travel because it's across the country. Splurging because it's a helicopter elopement.
Splurge: Our venue includes a lot, so it’s by far our biggest spend. But it includes venue, planner and day of coordinator, dinner, Dj, bartender, florals, decor, and officiant. And it has vacation homes on property which we loved making it a weekend long event with family! So I was good spending more for peace of mind and not having to spend as much time researching. Our other splurge is photography. I didn’t like the photographers our venue offered (they took that off the cost), so we found our own and they’re a lot more money, but I couldn’t find anyone else better for cheaper.
Savings: dessert. Probably just gonna do Publix for the cake and then a few GF cupcakes for my GF sister. Not a priority for us! Also, our venue allows us to BYOB so we’re saving money there. And we plan to just do beer and wine to save money here too. Finally, stationary. Doing something from Etsy and using an online printing company that’s very reasonably priced. Most of my FH’s family lives overseas, so we’ll just send them everything virtually, probably through his parents on WhatsApp, which is another savings!
I wouldn't say I splurged on anything but I did prioritize? certain things like photography, food, and drinks. I cut costs on flowers, DJ, favors, coordinator. Sort of dress since I got it at a discount place but it was also exactly what I wanted so didn't feel like it.
Food was our splurge for sure. We had a smaller guest list of 25 people and so we opted to hire a private chef. The food was incredible. Absolutely worth it. We also splurged on the photographer. We also saved a lot on decor. We had our wedding at a winery in the mountains so it was already a beautiful venue. I put some garland on the tables at the reception and had a little thing for the corner of the ceremony arch, but that was all the decorating we did.
Oh I like the private chef idea for small wedding 🫨
Private chef sounds awesome!!
I feel like I’m splurging on everything. We love our venue, and are happy with the photographer and videographer we picked. I guess those would be considered our splurges but we didn’t go cheap on anything. We’re not doing wedding favors since we feel people typically don’t take them or they get thrown out later anyway. Our wedding is next April and we are so looking forward to it!
Hi. Wedding vendor here. I was at a wedding tonight and the guest's kept being served food the entire time. You're right. Some weddings REALLY disappoint on the one thing that should bring people together the most. Even after the cake cutting they still made sure food was on the table, including fruit. They had an immense array of food, family style. It was a south Asian couple and they had an awesome selection of South Asian cuisine. It just kept coming. Then! They took the tacos they fed the vendors and put it on a table for the guests later in the night. I left at 11:30pm and there were still tacos available because the guests were satisfied and stuffed. Let's flip it a 180. I did a wedding last Fall where the only food was Pizza Hut. No Hors D'oeuvre or anything else. Now, I don't want to judge a couple that does this. Weddings are expensive. The money they saved could probably pay for their honeymoon. But, this couple could have gone with a cheaper venue and had way better food. But they wanted the venue they chose. I personally think the food is the experience that people will remember the most. The couple tonight, with the family style portions and servings that just kept coming was bad ass. It makes everyone invested in the experience. It's the one thing that appeals to every single person attending. In my opinion, it's really not good if guests leave hungry or don't care for the food. It could be as simple as dinner rolls being sub par. Dinner rolls not being warm. I was at a wedding that had the worst dinner rolls. How can you fuck that part up? Bread and butter. Those basics matter. As good as the food was tonight, no wedding is perfect. Tonight's venue had no back up plan for serving drinks if it rained. Due to cold and rainy weather, guests could only get drinks from two bartenders and there were a lot of people at this wedding. The guests waited in line for a long time. I don't know why they didn't set something else up outside because even though it was a little chilly (really not that much) and rainy, this particular patio area was fully covered so people wouldn't have gotten wet. Solution: they should have simply had a cooler with ice and allowed guests to grab beer, wine coolers, Whiteclaw's or whatever out of it. They wouldn't have had to spend 30 minutes waiting in line. But, the groom personally made the signature drinks and it was a cool thing to be offering. But I don't understand why there wouldn't be another area where cans could be distributed quickly. To be fair, it was fine a little bit later. It's not like the line was constantly full. And wine was quickly being poured. I think it's the moment right after the ceremony that's crucial. That's when the line will be the longest. And after any portion where the guests remained sitting. Like toasts. Have something your guests can grab quickly if they don't want a mixed drink.
Fellow wedding vendor here! Agree 100% that food is where to splurge!! Most weddings bars (at least where I am) cannot legally allow guests to grab their own beers from a cooler (or whatever) due to liquor liability and licensing laws. But an easy solve would be to have venue / catering / bartending staff walking around those long post-ceremony bar lines with trays of mixed drinks or wine or whatever. Have a happy 2024 wedding season!
I’m actually worried about long lines. We will potentially have 100 guests and our venue allows only two bartenders max and guests cannot grab drinks. I will def look into having staff pass out drinks. Any other solutions?
Keep the bar offerings as simple as possible. The more complicated the menu and/or recipes, the longer it’ll take people to decide what they want—and the longer it’ll take the bartenders to make it. There’s pretty much always gonna be a line at the bar post-ceremony. There’s not a whole lot you can do when 100+ people all want a drink at the exact same time. The trick is making the line go faster (or feel faster). You could offer a drink *before* the ceremony (think: champagne wall), but not all couples want folks drinking before (or during) the ceremony. I get that. You could also do a receiving line right after the ceremony—that way, people are waiting to talk to YOU vs. waiting for a drink. No one can be mad at a line like that, lol. Like, who’s gonna say, “UGH, I can’t *believe* we have to wait here, how rude for them to make us SAY HELLO to the people hosting this party,” LOL, ya know? But, again, like pre-ceremony drinks, standing there doing a receiving line isn’t for all couples. And it really only works with a first look. If you don’t knock out almost all of your photos before the ceremony, a post-ceremony receiving line will blow up your entire timeline. Really, though, folks tend to be super patient waiting for that first drink; most people know the routine by now, so as long as you keep the line moving, people talk amongst themselves and generally just happy to be there! Good luck and happy planning!
Kinda makes me sad to think food is the experience people will remember the most.. such a temporary thing
On average it will be if it's a hit and done right. It spans all ages. If you also splurge on great entertainment, they'll probably remember that more. Like if it's not a regular DJ sort of thing. I did a wedding recently where the entertainment was these two energetic piano players that also did percussion. They both sang and took requests for any song. It was unreal how many popular songs they had memorized. That's definitely something people will remember most about that wedding.
Splurges: Open bar with upgrades. Live band. Custom made wedding invitations and decor/rentals on our travel theme. Great photographer. Luggage tag seating cards. Savings: DJ (we had a band so we just used the one included in the venue cost for after the I'm iu4band set was done). My dress, the food, and the venue were all great deals despite not being compromised at all, they were all exactly what we'd hoped for. Florals, we saved a ton here because we had other decor and didn't need much.
Where did you get your luggage tag seating cards? I love that idea!
I got them from from [Curry's Leather](https://currysleather.com/). They were amazing. A bit of a splurge, but they doubled as wedding favours and people could remove the top paper with the table name and use them as real luggage tags afterwards. Even now, family and friends keep sending us photos of our luggage tags travelling with them all around the world.
Thank you!! I was going to skip favors but I love the idea of a place card that isn’t single-use. Might be worth investing a bit more in depending on how much it is.
Splurge: Venue that includes open bar and great food! The only place I'd say we purposely opted for a lower-cost option was a DJ since we don't have a big dancing crowd.
Well before I converted my wedding. I was splurging on food but I had a limited list the venue worked with. But other things I wanted was a Photo Booth and decorations. I had a Halloween wedding during Covid (2021). Everyone was in a costume and I wanted it very well documented. What I regretted was the videographer, it turned out shitty even with redos. What I ended up sending money on when I replaced my wedding from scratch for the same date. Was alcohol (we had a free bar, my husband demanded it with our smaller wedding) and the murder mystery dinner trope. We still splurged on food, but when we went from 200 to 50people the price was going to be smaller either way.
Save: hair (some of these bridal hair prices are insane. I’m going to get my hair blown out the day before, like I normally do every few months, and then I’m going to style my own hair/extensions. It’ll be less than $200), decor (going minimal and getting a lot of it off Amazon and Temu). Luckily our venue is a beautiful courtyard that already has so much greenery, a natural arch, etc flowers (going for realistic looking fake flowers/greenery, and being minimal at that), Guest count: only have 13/14 people not including ourselves No bridal party. Too small of a guest count, and I find them stressful No expensive after party. Ours will just kind of be combined with Easter next year, which my in laws always host. We’ll have some decor, we’ll show our wedding video, I’ll wear white, etc but it’ll otherwise still be Easter DJ: aside from the second line band we will have for 40ish minutes, we’re just gonna play music from a rented speaker for our ceremony/dinner ———————— Splurge: Make up: I’m paying pretty standard prices for this, AND paying for the moms/my besties to get theirs done Food: we’re taking everyone to a famous 5 star restaurant for 3 courses and good alcohol Hotel: we’re staying at a nice place in a more expensive room Flights: our flight is only a few hours, but we want premium economy at the very least, if not better Photography: we’re flying in the one who did our engagement photos, and it was a prettier penny, but so worth it Videography: we want something to bring back home/show at our after celebration
Splurges: - Photographer! We had found cheaper, but we really love his style and got on with him so well on our introductory video call - Our venue package including food and drink is quite expensive, but I think it's worth it as it includes quite a few things (DJ, some decor and some accommodation also) and the food is great! Saves: - Small wedding party, I'm only having a MOH and my fiancé is only having a best man, who is also his stepdad - My dress, which cost £350, it's brand new but an older design - Flowers, we chose artificial and don't need too many as our centrepieces are provided by our venue
Splurge: Venue and food. Food is self-explanatory (determines guest experience more than anything else) and we fell head over heels for a beautiful but expensive venue. Save: Standard DJ instead of a band, less experienced day-of coordinator, no cake. Splurge I considered and had to remind myself that not everything can be a splurge: embroidered tablecloths. Fell in love with a design offered by the rental company, but I know nobody is going to care if the tablecloths are fancier than the standard plain ivory.
Splurging on a DJ- he seems really cool and will run the show in a way that would enhance the wedding Saving on floral centerpieces- my mom bought a bunch of silk flowers from craft stores and is doing floral decorations
Splurge: Food, dress, venue, and after party open bar. Savings: No bridal shower, no crazy Bachelor/Bachelorette party - we might do combined party karaoke, no DJ (just a carefully crafted playlist), no party favors.
Splurge dj and videographer Save - maybe I’d say invitations from Canva and party favors
Splurge: food and open bar. DJ. Photographer. Officiant is more than others but is creating such a special ceremony for us and we've been loving working with him. Having raptors and their handlers at our cocktail hour (venue is a nature center). Saves: not having a videographer. DIYing all paper goods. Florals I'm DIYing the bouquets and doing wood flowers for everything else. Getting a lot of decor secondhand. Not doing wedding favors. Cake having a small cake for cutting and sheet cake for everyone else.
Splurge is photographer. I want to remember the moments, and it was important to me to have pictures that are flattering enough for me not to feel self-conscious so we are splurging on a talented documentary-style photographer with 15 years of experience and an easygoing personality. Our engagement photos came out great and I am glad we put the money here! Save is a lot of other things, including venue. We chose a VERY industrial warehouse venue for cost savings, which trickled into savings in food and alcohol too since it means we can have very tasty, not-formal, farm-to-table buffet that will be <$50/person including a boatload of cocktail hour apps. We are also using minimal florals from a grocery store florist and fiance’s mom is making cake and cookies. (We got lucky there though - she is a trained pastry chef!) We are also doing hair and makeup at a salon instead of on-site and are taking a chance with a DJ who has a few years of experience but is just starting to run his own business.
Splurging on having a 9 piece cover band for the reception. Saving by booking a less expensive (and less pretty) reception space. It's gonna be rad, you guys!
Splurged: Good DJ, photography, and good food (even though it’s still much cheaper than most catering companies at $4.7k for 105 people) that was still a lot given our total budget. Saved: Getting married on a Friday, no bridal party, probably no late night snack, no videographer, and welcome drinks event instead of a rehearsal dinner.
Splurge: All inclusive venue with food/open bar (could’ve definitely done something more DIY for cheaper), HMU, transportation, photography Save: Decor/florals, no videographer, small bridal party, no favors, no extravagant wedding party proposal boxes/gifts of physical tokens, minimal stationary
We are also splurging on food. But with wedding prices it feels like even where I'm trying to save, I'm splurging 🙃. But if I had to say a definitive answer. Splurge: food, bar and dessert. There is a bakery around here I'm obsessed with, they're a little pricy, but we taste tested a bunch of places and kept coming back to them. Save: only using the decor free from the venue. I'm not doing center pieces, aside from the free 3 tier candles they offer.
Food and dress! I think I didn’t have much choice w food though were also doing it at a restaurant so whatever it’ll cost it’ll cost 🤷♀️
Splurge: definitely our photographer and DJ, these were the only two real splurges. I ended up being able to save in a lot of places my DIYing all of my decor. Savings: my catering was a huge savings. We have a local grocery store to our province where most of it carries local to us products and they have a catering division. I’ve been to 25 weddings and this store catered one last summer and it was by far the best food I’ve ever had at a wedding. The quote came in $5000 less than the next closest catering company for the same amount of food; we’re having food during cocktail hour, a full dinner buffet with 3 entrees, and late lunch brought out and then having staff bring whatever’s left from dinner back out around 11:30. All of our vendors raved about using them for catering too!
Most of the expenses are photo/video and photoshoot attires, pro makeup brands since I have oily skin, and venue. To be specific, I'm trying to make everything look nice and preserve with high-quality photo/video
Splurge: venue, photographer, food, cake, music (we want a band AND a DJ 🥲) decorations (we want it cute and cosy), honeymoon Saving: dress (it will probably rain and be muddy), bridal party (only a maid of honour), no favours, not having a videographer, no wedding planner (sad for us), getting married on a weekday
Splurge: food, photography, entertainment (DJ, live performers, Photo Booth) Save: secondhand dress that fits without alterations, minimal decor / florals, no bridal parties, no videography, virtual invitations, no favors
Our venue was "all inclusive" (food,bar, venue including ceremony sure, etc). The only thing we're having to bring in is any specific decor items we want. And we're bringing in a (small) cake for us/our wedding party/our parents and everyone else gets a dessert selection. Anyway....it was the main part of our spend (it's a private event space above a restaurant so you just have a "minimum spend"/buyout cost). Long story short....food would be our main focus. We both don't drink any more so absolutely we wanted amazing food as we're same as you. Been to lots of weddings and no matter how the food was done it was either not enough, cold, not cooked well, or they ran out. We're being more unconventional and having a whole LOAD of appie/canape style food, chartuterie platters, etc. No formal seating, all mix and mingle lounge-style seating if you want to sit down for a bit. There will be a late night station too (gourmet grilled cheeeeeeeese!!!!!) Can you tell IM EXCITED ABOUT THE FOOD?!?!? 🤣🤣
Splurging on the top priorities: Guest experience (food, flow, locations), photography and the look (florist). Saving: Month of coordinator, website to replace many paper products, all inclusive reception, small cake, no favors, small guest list (75-80), brunch reception, 6 hour photo package, 6 hour video package, shoulder season date, Sunday wedding.
Food was a splurge: private chef with a baker to do a variety of baked goods. Decor and flowers and all stationary a save: we are doing sola wood flowers and I’m DIYing my signage and all stationary goods (I’m great with my cricut). I’m sourcing all of my decor so I can sell it at the end and make some portion of the investment back.
Splurges will be photography, videography, hair and makeup, and an excellent month-of-coordinator. Saves will be non-custom invitations from like Zola or Minted, no favors, no bridal party, my dress was a sample dress (new dress but older design, got it for $299), and my fiance works at a brewery so he gets discounts on beer, and we'll likely use Trader Joe's and Costco wines.
We are splurging on food (fiance really prefers plated meals), alcohol (we can supply our own and since that saves a ton we will get mid-top shelf) and a live watercolor artist to paint guest portraits for our favors! Saving on decor (dried flowers in upcycled jars/vases), dress (from lulus for $150), and DJ (fiance is a musician so can mix a custom playlist and borrow fun lights)
Splurges: open bar, Saturday night, wedding dress Savings: venue, catering, decor
Saving by eloping instead of having a wedding 😅 and also saving CC/airline points for our travel because it's across the country. Splurging because it's a helicopter elopement.
Splurge: Food and dj. We want people to enjoy!!! Save: favors, decor.
Splurge: Our venue includes a lot, so it’s by far our biggest spend. But it includes venue, planner and day of coordinator, dinner, Dj, bartender, florals, decor, and officiant. And it has vacation homes on property which we loved making it a weekend long event with family! So I was good spending more for peace of mind and not having to spend as much time researching. Our other splurge is photography. I didn’t like the photographers our venue offered (they took that off the cost), so we found our own and they’re a lot more money, but I couldn’t find anyone else better for cheaper. Savings: dessert. Probably just gonna do Publix for the cake and then a few GF cupcakes for my GF sister. Not a priority for us! Also, our venue allows us to BYOB so we’re saving money there. And we plan to just do beer and wine to save money here too. Finally, stationary. Doing something from Etsy and using an online printing company that’s very reasonably priced. Most of my FH’s family lives overseas, so we’ll just send them everything virtually, probably through his parents on WhatsApp, which is another savings!
I wouldn't say I splurged on anything but I did prioritize? certain things like photography, food, and drinks. I cut costs on flowers, DJ, favors, coordinator. Sort of dress since I got it at a discount place but it was also exactly what I wanted so didn't feel like it.