What you need is who you love

Low-Cost Wedding Tips

When thinking about getting married you may easily find yourself becoming overwhelmed with the seemingly countless tasks to be done. What will everyone wear? What venue will you choose? What food will you have? But before you get too carried away, you need to think about the price of it all.

The average cost for a wedding in the United States is $28,000, which can definitely be a little daunting, but there are certainly ways to trim down that price with careful planning, budgeting, thrifting, a bit of borrowing and forgetting a lot of conventionally held wedding beliefs.

Breaking down the budget, the most expensive aspect of a wedding is most likely going to be the venue. When you think about your wedding, what do you envision? Do you think about an open space? Why not opt for a wedding in a friend or family member’s backyard? Something more closed and intimate? There’s nothing wrong with a courthouse wedding. Thinking of something halfway in the middle? The High Country has no shortages of barnes for a more rustic appeal. In the Boone area alone, you can find venues such as the Barn at Fraser Hill, The Mill at Rock Creek and Whispering Waters Farm, just to name a few.

Next to think about is attire, specifically the ring and the dress. Everyone knows of the old, outdated saying that you should be prepared to spend two-to-three months salary on a wedding ring but nowadays that isn’t exactly attainable for many. While an expensive ring is nice to brag about, you can find a perfect and charming ring for a fraction of the price. Try utilizing pawn shops, local artisans and maybe even sporting a non-diamond forward ring. Plus, the odd-bought ring can open many doors of conversation among friends and family.

The concept of renting a tuxedo (and even a dress!) is common and widely done, but there are other options for the gown. There’s the tried and true tradition of wearing the bride’s mother’s dress, whether it fits like a glove or needs tailoring. Here, the sentimentality can’t be matched.

You could also opt for a shorter dress, which in recent years has become quite vogue with the likes of Lily Allen and Kourtney Kardashian opting for the less-materialed choice. If you’re trying to keep with a more customary look you could consider buying a simple dress, which you should be able to find under $500, and splurge on custom tailoring to make an iconic dress personally tailored to your needs.

Seemingly the most simple and memorable of tips that can be shared is to refrain from trying on the more expensive dress option in the first place. Yes, this is a really exciting time and you want to try all options, but you may find yourself constantly comparing every dress you find to the expensive, over-budget one that, at the end of the day, you’re only going to wear once. Remember, a wedding dress can be anything you want it to be, it’s your day after all!

Next to mention is all of the accessories that come with the big wedding day. Barware arches, chairs - really anything that isn’t the venue itself. You don’t have to outright buy all of that! Sure, here and there you can show a bit of coin but many venues sometimes have pre-packaged deals to go along with your special day. If your venue is bare bones, you could look into a company that will rent out equipment. In the High Country there exists such a company for multiple-use rentals: Boone Rent-All and Parties Too, and also one for place settings: Miss Match Rentals. Then again, you could borrow miscellaneous goods from friends and family. This eclectic approach is not only sure to weave you closer to your loved ones through the use of incorporating personal belongings, but level off on renting and buying costs all together.

Food is another big factor to weigh in on. Wedding catering can quickly rack up in price, with the average meal amounting to $75 per person. Depending on how many people you have, this can quickly get into the thousands. Before you make that purchase, have you heard of an old-school tradition of a ‘Cake and Punch’ reception? Instead of serving a full-coursed sit down meal, you provide snacks, desserts, and beverages. You can even see ripples of this recently with the phenomena of fashionable grazing tables.

Remember there’s really only three things you need to have a wedding: a couple, someone to officiate and a license. This is a day all about your union to one another and the love you share, cost aside.