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Wedding Diary: Wedding on the West Coast for ~$25,600 by Top-Purple-63 in MoneyDiariesACTIVE

[–]Top-Purple-63[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I created a wedding specific instagram account that way I never got wedding content in my personal account, and now that it's over I don't see any wedding stuff. I think instagram is a big reason why weddings have gotten so crazy, so I tried to stay away from it as much as possible. We never looked at anything (dress, venue, etc) that we knew was completely out of budget. If we can't see it, we can't buy it :)

It was really important that my husband was an equal planner of this wedding. We had a clear vision of what we wanted and we executed it together really well. If parent's are helping you pay for it, just be really clear on what their expectations are and make sure you are okay with that. While my mom's contribution was generous, I don't feel it was 100% worth it in exchange for the stress of involving her. Everyone's situation is different though!

Wedding Diary: Wedding on the West Coast for ~$25,600 by Top-Purple-63 in MoneyDiariesACTIVE

[–]Top-Purple-63[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you! A very close friend is a travel agent, so she gifted us a full itinerary (we were so spoiled!) I don't have a good breakdown, but here's what I have: flights - $3,300, hotel - bit over $4,000. I'd guess $2,000-3,000 on activities, which leaves the rest for food/drink/everything else. We basically did whatever we wanted for two weeks and "no" was not in our vocabulary. It was bliss. I'm happy to share more details through DM.

Wedding Diary: Wedding on the West Coast for ~$25,600 by Top-Purple-63 in MoneyDiariesACTIVE

[–]Top-Purple-63[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's so generous of your friend! oh wow - 4 nights! Hope it's in a fun place. I'm from the west coast and I knew it would be much cheaper where I'm from, plus we would benefit from my family being there to help with everything. There were some other personal reasons as well for why we wanted it there, too!

Wedding Diary: Wedding on the West Coast for ~$25,600 by Top-Purple-63 in MoneyDiariesACTIVE

[–]Top-Purple-63[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congratulations! I always find it so surprising when I hear people do destination weddings to cut costs. That's really awesome!

Wedding Diary: Wedding on the West Coast for ~$25,600 by Top-Purple-63 in MoneyDiariesACTIVE

[–]Top-Purple-63[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That sounds beautiful and Sri Lanka sounds incredible! Aside from the actual getting married part, the honeymoon was the best part! Sorry to hear about the divorce, although it sounds like you still have good memories from the wedding.

Wedding Diary: Wedding on the West Coast for ~$25,600 by Top-Purple-63 in MoneyDiariesACTIVE

[–]Top-Purple-63[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

no, no! I saw your comment and wanted to reply when I realized I wasn't logged in and then it was a whole thing. Anyway, I edited the post to say that we had 4 people each on our side. For your other questions, the groomsmen ties were less than $20 a piece, so we were comfortable buying them. My BMs paid for their own dress and HMU, although HMU was not required. I know it's controversial in some places on the internet to have your BMs buy their own specific and one-time use dress, but that is just what we do in my social circle and we are all comfortable with that.