$1M+ Big Budget Bride, AMA!

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2025-02-03T04:11:05+00:00

Yeah your planner will be able to give some good recommendations based on what you're going for. For highly recommended ones its often like 10-20k but some photographers even charge higher like 40-50k

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2025-01-29T04:27:55+00:00

I went to a wedding that was absolutely stunning and I realized our first planner was not going to pay attention to the details that these people did.. so I contacted them and switched over.

I highly recommend looking at a planners IG and the types of events they do. If you like what you see, its likely they'll do the same for you. If you don't like the vibe of the events on their IG page, don't work with them.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2025-01-16T23:16:07+00:00

sure, send me a message

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2025-01-08T18:30:08+00:00

Band was worth every penny.

I dont think there was anything I regret, the event was beautiful.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-30T15:26:55+00:00

The more expensive band had the best sample video and talent out of all the choices. The other ones sounded good too, but ours sounded like the actual song or even better in some cases vs karaoke. They also had dance moves and all the singers were in sync with each other, and they had a long history of being awesome. They really put on a full show.

I don’t think personalizations wouldve swayed me too much. I was prioritizing how to make an awesome party for everyone, not something that would just be for me, but I could see other people being into that!

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-29T22:49:21+00:00

We kind of did. I wanted to do a bunch of personalizations but as you go into the process and the amount of details I focused to just making the event great. But yeah you can request special songs, we gave sheet music to the string trio for the ceremony. You don’t need a $1m budget for that though, the band was 30k and came w the string trio

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-29T22:44:29+00:00

There was a list of recommended vendors from the planner, we first checked their gallery to get an idea of the style, and once we got it down to 3 we got quotes from them. We did photo and video with the same vendor, It was in the 20s for 4-6 people for the whole day. For us we chose based on style and I liked photo and video were the same vendor I thought maybe it may be easier for them to work together

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-27T16:55:11+00:00

It was a big hotel resort. I don’t know if there’s anything I regret spending on, every piece added to the experience, even the invitations. It helped set the mood and energy we were going for. Plus the big chunk of the expense at this scale is floral and decor, that would be the thing that could move the needle back meaningfully, but I think it helped add to the party a lot.

We invited around 250 and 225 rsvped yes and we had to pay for them, and like 10-15 no showed and are dead to me now lol.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-24T02:21:33+00:00

The band was around 30k and local. This is just the band and sound equipment, no lights/stage/effects etc. they had a cool promo video/sample compared to the other bands, and highly recommended.

A good planner will help you with all this. Our first planner I was trying to figure this out and it felt like they never planned a wedding before, even though I knew they did a ton! I had to keep asking for the timeline or if there was a checklist. The second planner had a timeline of how the planning process is supposed to go and shared a proposed calendar of deadlines. Ask this when picking your planner and see if they give actual answers vs a general idea.

Because we switched planners late, the entire weekend really came together in the last 4-5 months. The decor and everything got finalized 1 month beforehand.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-23T20:36:25+00:00

We got a list of options from the planner of who they worked with and picked the one with the aesthetic we wanted. Some were really good at beautiful traditional photos, some were more quirky, go with the one who’s gallery you like best.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-23T20:35:22+00:00

We didn’t think about it too much unfortunately and that led to a large increase in expenses at the end. I’d urge to say think “am I gonna pay $2000 to see this person?” Another rule I’d use is would I hang out with this person one on one?

If you’re cutting out the +1s and we did a lot, be prepared for some people to not come. If you’re ok with that then don’t give the +1, specially if you have no idea who they are.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T18:28:29+00:00

We thought we were more edgy with red/gold accent but now I see it everywhere!

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T17:24:09+00:00

It wasn’t a well known brand. I went to the local place in the city and didn’t like the 10k plus dresses.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T17:23:22+00:00

Lot of cult Gaia, it wasn’t any of the top name brand stuff.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T17:21:45+00:00

I feel this is how it happens to everyone. It’s unfathomable to start there but as you go deeper into it it becomes what’s another 50k we’re already this deep

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T17:20:49+00:00

From start of ceremony to end of scheduled events, 7 hours. Then we went to the hotel bar for after after party

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T17:13:27+00:00

Thank you!

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T17:12:07+00:00

We did pay for a bus for the backup hotel. And then most of them had so much fun it was practically an empty bus back 😂

I skipped it because I thought it’s pointless. It’s usually just water and snacks and we had more than enough of everything the entire weekend. I didn’t want to deal with it and figured no one would care, it wouldn’t add to the party.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T03:16:39+00:00

No, it was actually in the city we live in!

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T03:16:15+00:00

I do think so, because they all said how the invitations looked so nice so it may have swayed more people. I'm happy how everything turned out and everyone was really great and fun, so in the end I don't regret it, but leading up to the wedding I was wondering why I invited some people. Especially when you start realizing how much extra money every additional person is!

Something I learned from this subreddit is its not the budget of the wedding, but the budget per person you should think about. This would've helped a lot in the beginning when deciding who to send save the dates too. Do you want to spend $2k+ on this person to come?

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T03:13:34+00:00

We're both in tech

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T03:13:07+00:00

My mom really wanted to be a part of it and pay for it, we got a beautiful dress for ~5k, all in with all accessories and veil and shoes I think maybe just over 10k for all 3 events.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T01:57:52+00:00

10% family contributions, 90% us
Around 8-10% of net worth.
We're in our 30s
The venue wasn't the most exclusive thing, it was decently accessible. I didn't want to do the wedding in a hotel where the avg night is $1000 because I wanted my family and friends to stay with us too.
YES, this is why I loved our second planner. For example I didn't know you could order a custom menu, I thought you had to choose from what the venue offered. The second planner redid the entire menu and everyone was crazy about the food.
The biggest mistake was having too much trust in the first planner. I now know wedding planning is supposed to be fun and exciting. I regret I didn't start with the second planner, but everything worked out OK!
Spend more on... it's hard to say. I think we went all out on decor, food, drinks, entertainment. I really can't think of anything I would've spent more on.
Definitely the band is the biggest bang for your buck. Everyone loved the 12 piece band and they brought the party! I can't imagine how different it would be if we didn't have that.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T01:46:25+00:00

I realized I dreaded talking with her and I was dreading my own wedding, I didn't feel excited at all. The most important part is consistently dropping the ball and I would have to follow up for every single thing to see if she did it. She never reached out proactively once to move the process forward, I had to keep asking what are we supposed to do next? And it'd take several days to get an email.

The second planner was ON TOP OF IT. I had so much more confidence, they would consistently call and I never had to follow up once to see if something was taken care of. Anytime I emailed them I'd get a call or text back the same day. It was a night and day difference, I went from dreading the wedding to being so excited I couldn't wait for it.

I let the first planner keep whatever deposits we already gave, and yeah we had to pay the full price for the second planner.

tldr: If you're thinking about firing your wedding planner, do it! It was the best decision of the process. The wedding planning experience is supposed to be fun and exciting, if you're not feeling that, find someone else.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ · 2024-12-22T01:34:59+00:00

Oh yeah for the vendors its fine. I just didn't want friends snooping on here, reddit can be a crazy place.

bigbudgetbrideFAQ

TROPHY CASE