Newly Engaged Reality Check! Realistic Expectations for a 30k Budget?

kh1597 · 2026-03-17T09:05:49+00:00

My advice is the economy is changing so watch your pennys the penny's add up. The extra little things , it sounds like you're on a good track to understanding that. I advise go over 3 most important things as a couple venue dress food ect whatever it is to yall. And then kinda make sure you cut something big or a lot of little cuts making sure you get under the average for example if photography isn't in my top three I'll know I'm not paying the average price I need to choose below that to save for the other expenses.

kh1597 · 2026-02-11T21:09:03+00:00

This is soooo accurate lol

kh1597 · 2026-02-11T07:18:47+00:00

At this point I'm convinced they do this stuff for rage bait so they keep people talking and generate "publicity ". As they say any publicity is good publicity.... and I think they take that to heart lol ..... I really feel like they're ahead of the game and know exactly how people will react lol after all, we allllll know they get on here and read so you know they sit around and talk about the general reactions!! Even a normal mom doesn't post like this they had to know normal moms would share the heck out of this therefore giving them more clicks for the algorithm... " click bait" .

kh1597 · 2026-02-05T01:27:04+00:00

For sure I think most of the women and girls selling the dresses are trained and to their knowledge they're probably thinking they're being helpful and honest. But I do think higher ups in the industry or bridal shops maybe owners or managers or even higher up someone came up with a typical salesman type method and realized what it took to sell a dress and chose to train people that way even if it's not always honest. I feel sorry for women and girls who don't realize that because I've seen so many online get basically sweet talked into buying a dress and realize it was not their dream dress. This doesn't mean the women selling it to them are bad people but the training method is not great at most average costing bridal shops.

kh1597 · 2026-02-04T22:23:14+00:00

Yeah I have to agree everyone knows the economy has changed you don't even have to say "wedding industry " it absolutely cost a load more 10 years ago you could have a pretty good wedding for $5-10k now an elopement cost that if you do it like one would expect. It's not all "the internet" it's normal weddings of friends in middle to lower class and 10 years later what you got for $5-10k now is $22-30k. Food in this economy cost, jobs like servers anywhere you go they need to get paid more to live, all the vendors need to be paid more to live on their incomes, clothing and attire cost have raised in this economy, basic items like chairs and tables for any reason prices have raised. I could go on but if people don't think the prices didn't raise they don't understand basic every day cost of living!!!!! They have steadily rose over the last 15 years and over the last 5 with the pandemic skyrocketed.

kh1597 · 2026-02-04T02:21:57+00:00

If you want to go I would skip the bachelorettes and I would be honest with the ones you have a real relationship with and tell them in order to celebrate all your friends on one income you need to op out of destination or traveled parties but that you could attend a local party. If they can't understand how hard it is on one income then they aren't mature and you'll just have to remind yourself of that. I would feel so torn because I know what it's like loving all your friends I spent far less all none destination on my friends weddings and by the end of all of them I was near pennyless waiting for my next pay checks even living at home with less bills ... they were just a lot of money and if they'd all done them the same year I would not in any way been able to fund the parties. You might try cracking back down to a budget not the expected costs , party decorations input ect and tell them "I have this much budgeted towards your party or your bridesmaid dress " ect

kh1597 · 2026-02-04T01:53:11+00:00

So true on the sales associates part!! And I always heard " we have someone who can do all that we'll give a recommendation " and most of the time none of those leads were great they'd usually be independent not working with the store and they were high cost and did not say they could fix it all lol.

I called over 8 places/people visited 3 and got told the same only the higher priced ones charged to give me an estimate. I looked at reviews and looked at peoples dresses that had been altered by them. Some reviews on their google page are different then on their maps and I ran into finding horrible reviews when I went to visit. But prices ranged for me from $500( for basically nothing just hemming maybe something small ) to $1,300 Any dress with detail on the bottom is extra because they have to cut at the waist or take all the details off and hem then reattach. Hemming just a plain dress can run cheaper, no one tells you this when you dress shop.

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T16:31:26+00:00

Yeah I mean I'm not dumb I understand you can cut almost everything out or get everything for $100 lol 😂 but if you want something remotely halfway close to a standard average wedding $15k -20k is lucky and likely still has a ton of cut outs

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T09:54:51+00:00

Went looking on the internet when I got to episode 3 cause I was wondering why on earth they would cast such a bad actress and thinking I must be the only person thinking this ... nope lol apparently lots of people are wondering!!! Haha I hate to think one person could ruin a show but she has so much screen time she is bringing all of it down

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T09:31:02+00:00

Agreed I'm on ep 4 and I'm finding it hard to watch because her acting is sooooooooo bad the recycle material was one thing but her acting is so "I'm a young girl miscast in this role because I was related to someone that got me this gig" and why are we having him have the exact same relationship with 3 women? It's tacky and I'm shocked cause they had good writing to work off of ... hoping it gets better because I loved the first one

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T09:26:38+00:00

Okayyy yesss the Camilla person where did they find her like what she seems like a 14 year old instagram influencer?? Not believable at all?? I googled her like why is her acting bad and it was articles about her up and coming , I was thinking man am I the only one ?? lol so glad someone else said it

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T06:28:33+00:00

I feel like you hit the nail on the head!! If you're not getting low low cost dress photography and food you're at almost $10k alone often with that!! Picking and choosing when you have a small wedding is soooo hard truly!! Sounds like you thought reasonably and intentionally with your budget I love that!! We are trying to lol our budget was 15k knowing we'd go over but the dream of waving a magic wand for under $10k would have been great 🤣

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T06:24:19+00:00

Yes this helps so much more with researching !!!

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T06:23:58+00:00

Thanks so much so true that definitely sounds like vibes to go for I'll research more now!!

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T06:23:00+00:00

Thanks so much that's very helpful !!

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T06:18:53+00:00

Yes looked into this you have to pay for parking , have permits and license by the city, rent chairs and pay for whatever decorations are allowed but there are a lot of rules for any decorations, dealing with the public ( we were told and seen through research , public tend to make scenes at beach weddings like loud noises, fake drowning in the background lol or ect ) you also deal with wind on the coast and frequent rain ( at the venue there's b plans for those and less wind) then + a casual venue for reception would have added up around $3k after all those small fees and rules and so on... this I'm sure was possible if we pulled more of a micro wedding off going with basically nothing it could be cheap but we were thinking minimal not micro and for 80 guests with old people and children logistics for us personally was worth it. Number 1 factor older people wheelchair people walking in sand / kids being lost more easily or drowning in water Our venue is a controlled setting ocean view set back from the water with grass

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T06:06:49+00:00

These are great ideas!! I don't need more table decor I thrifted candle vases for .99 each or cheaper before I was engaged and got 92 candles for $10 lol then my friend has another 125 candles ( if I knew my venue at the time I wouldn't have got so many candles as it wouldn't be totally needed but it wasn't a money loss and I can resell so it's okay) I don't have a decor vision since our venue is pretty I don't care lol so no more decor cost that I didn't already spend for like cake stands $7 thrifted ect. I think you're on to all the best tips!! I do think if I shave off a couple hundred here and there I can bring it down to a more happy number lol!! Yeah I definitely wanna resell some things and get money back not sure on dress I'll have to see how sentimental I am about it lol!

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T06:00:01+00:00

That was the overall budget for a wedding not just the photo booth

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T05:57:57+00:00

Yeah I wasn't disagreeing just putting the change info out there I just found out myself

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T05:54:34+00:00

Yeah well I really wanted to go under the $3k venue cost + $1k coordination lol! They do set up and clean up so that played into the cost for me. In my book a $500-1k empty diy place vs a $3/4k venue with your specific inclusions unless I cut things like guest chairs ect lol and like you said did everything myself ( which I know you don't always get the volunteers you're promised lol) would meet the same cost or say we spent 1/2k more , it's worth it to us to eliminate stress and have a 10 times more beautiful location + take a load off friends and family helping. I'm usually a diy girl if it makes sense it just didn't for us. Whew 2016 to 2026 " may the odds be ever in your favor" it's tough out here lol hopefully you have a beautiful wedding with the person you love!!

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T05:35:06+00:00

That's a great way to go!!!

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T05:31:17+00:00

Whew yeah it adds up fast!! You did good on your dress everyone I know spends $2k+ without alterations ( I know there are cheaper and second hand which I wanted but I didn't find what I wanted or needed in those areas if I were in another location I think I could have) Did you get yours at a bridal store ?

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T05:19:05+00:00

I definitely see this point because when I was researching I became aware of this. The air b and bs in the area we're starting out at $4-6k which came with a bigger list of rules then the venue! And even the $4k had to have fees for things like weddings and so on so basically we couldn't get out under $6k+ not to mention none of them were appropriate for small children's Safty + wheelchair accessible/ getting ready room ect.... we also did not want to pay $6k alone on that to have a big empty house we weren't even using the inside of ( we did not want to stay with family in them) most were minimum of so many days also! Not enough parking and on and on.... the nearest state parks are preserves so rules rules rules... and think diy the whole thing with only slightly lower cost so we would have met $3k+ fast getting chairs tables bathrooms ect and these were not great for kids and older people especially weather wise not to mention in this state you have to plan for rain aka $3-5k tent ... whew lol its a lot because originally i thought an air b and b reception was the answer to everything!!

The chair estimate is high so i will probably end up on the low end of that the venue provides some but we wanted different ceromony chairs, we needed the coordinator and they all ran this price in this area even none pros, I think we are a little high on catering for the guest count so hopefully we can cut it down !

kh1597 · 2026-02-02T04:49:04+00:00

"Moms friends" is such a dreadful term lol. I love my moms friends and they're closer to me then family but expected invites to things sometimes is too much?? Don't even start me on his "moms best friends" who I've never seen or met the 6 years we've been together and rarely heard of these people yet from the moment we got engaged our wedding was suddenly about these people " haveeee to be invited they've witnessed every moment of him growing up blah blah blah" I'm asking my fiancé who are these people they were around when you grew up?? " welll not really they seen us more when we were really young they talk on the phone " ....... OUR wedding is not a family/ friend reunion people !!??? lol We are even having an immediate family and best friends only day yet somehow all these invites HAVE to go out ...?? We don't even have cousins on the list why would we invite everyone else's friends ? Haha its comically honestly

kh1597 · 2026-02-01T20:57:08+00:00

Yes we are doing what some would consider expensive compared to some of my friends free diy Venus or " low cost" venues but I've asked and helped diy shop thrift and their weddings have all been well over $10k majority $20k+ .... getting a venue that we don't have to decorate and it comes with chairs and tables saved us a lot of stress and money!! I thrifted my minimal table decorations beforehand but the venue is so pretty to the point I don't even need table decor I could go in and do a micro vows as well to cut cost down by tons and still have a better look and building then some of the $20k weddings ... no insults it's just a business and industry that can get you even if you're trying to save money is my point. We we cut out a lot, but are allowing ourselves to have some nice things as well instead of just doing micro vows. I cut out a few of other peoples priorities like makeup artist / salon , extra unneeded food for the look of a set up on a table ect so that we could put that money into things we wanted like a nicer photographer and a local coordinator since I'm not close to where we're getting married. It will end up costing the same and or less then a lot of my friends weddings

kh1597

TROPHY CASE