The Bridge Lemont Wedding Podcast
Conversations to provide value to brides and grooms planning their wedding to make sure their wedding day is the best it can be!
The Bridge Lemont Wedding Podcast
E5 - Creative and Cost-Effective Wedding Planning with Alisa and Kevin
Planning your wedding can be exciting and stressful, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. Join us in this episode as we share practical tips to help you plan a beautiful, budget-friendly wedding without sacrificing the magic of your big day.
We’ll show you how to set a realistic budget, understand local costs, and focus your spending on the things that matter most. Since the venue and catering often take up a big part of the budget, we’ll help you figure out how to allocate your funds wisely while keeping a little extra for those unexpected expenses.
From low-maintenance unique touches to DIY invitations and creative guest books, we’ll share ways to add personal touches without overspending. Plus, we’ll guide you on simplifying your guest list and reimagining decor to fit your vision and budget.
With a little creativity and smart planning, you can create a wedding that tells your love story and wows your guests—all without unnecessary splurges. Let’s make your dream day a reality!
Hello everyone, welcome to the Bridge Lamont Wedding Podcast, where we talk about all things wedding related to provide knowledge and valuable information to couples planning their wedding to help make their wedding day the best it can be. I am here, alyssa, and I'm here with my husband, kevin, one of the other owners of the Bridge, and today we are here to talk a little bit about, I guess, budgeting kind of, but more on where you can really cut costs. So we will just dive right in. So when you are thinking about budgeting for your wedding, I guess the first thing you have to do is just come up with a number that you think that you're comfortable spending on your wedding. But also, before you like really do that, I guess research, um, a little bit about like where what things cost, so you can come up with like a realistic number.
Speaker 1:Because I think a lot of people start the wedding process and they're like, oh, this might sound crazy, but we're going to spend $20,000 on a wedding. And then they start touring venues and looking at cost of you know, caters, dj, whatever it is, and then you're like, wait, there's no way I can only spend twenty thousand unless, like you're, you know, going with really small, like a small venue, small, and that's possible. But most people want like the larger scale thing anyways. So I think, yeah, just staring at me, I think that's where you're at.
Speaker 2:I'm just listening.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think that you have to just in your area, kind of research a little bit before you decide on your specific number, because you don't always know what it's going to cost you until you start looking into it.
Speaker 2:So I would.
Speaker 1:Yeah, add stuff, change it up.
Speaker 2:I would say the opposite, right. So you're saying like go into it almost blindly, no, I think you need to know your number, like you need to know your number before you start looking. Like you can't just be like, oh, kind of like this, but Well, what's this going to cost? What's this going to cost? Like you need to have your number first yeah, I mean to an extent.
Speaker 1:But, like some people are like if, if the numbers, if you're flexible with that number, but you don't know what things are going to cost to start with on, like what you're looking at, I mean some people just don't have that realistic number because I've never done this before and they don't know what it's going to cost to start correct?
Speaker 1:so you're saying do do a little bit of research first yeah and then finally come up with a final number right, yeah, because if you, if you come up with a number first and then you start going, look, you might be like, well, I don't, you might be just overly surprised on cost, because I don't think it's a hidden thing, but weddings cost a lot of money. So, um, yeah, and especially depending on where you're looking and how many people and all those things factor in. So I guess if you're thinking budgeting wise, list your priorities on what's most important and priorities are important, yes, so what would you?
Speaker 1:say, are the? Are the top like, like an idea of what to prioritize?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think obviously bias, but the space is. Yeah. I mean, typically people are going to book their venue first.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is going to be their first priority.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean because your whole date revolves around that in a way. Yeah, correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean I think that couple getting together and prioritizing whether or not, like they care, like they care that much about the space or if they just care about having more people there yeah it's, it's prioritizing what is important to the couple, and it might not always be the space, it might not always be the alcohol or a crazy party or a fun dance floor or food. It could just be like oh, we just want our closest people there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So when you're looking at a venue, um, like, what aspects of the venue are important, like, do you care that it's just a typical like hall, or you like a banquet hall, or do you want something that's like unique or surprising, or that you don't have to add a lot to because we'll talk about a little bit coming up but, um, but if you have a venue that is really unique in itself, you don't have to add a lot.
Speaker 1:Well, you're cutting costs already on decor. So after you make your list of priorities, you can kind of start allocating almost like a percentage of your budget towards your highest priority things. And I kind of looked some of this up before this to see, on average, like, where your budgeting kind of goes. So once you have your number, the venue and the food slash, the drink are usually your largest sum. So usually the venue is around around 20 of your budget and food drink is around 25 of your budget and I feel like that's about right, based on a lot of um saying almost 50 is space food alcohol, yeah, yeah, just about that sounds like it adds up.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, um, and then you know photo, video, video, entertainment, so you're DJ and stuff, and then, like those are, I guess your next two that I would say are you know to add like the text on the list um, like photo, video, if that's super important to you, you might be spending like 15% of your budget on that Um, and then entertainment, coordinator and decor you might be like 10% for each Um. But if you get, if your decor is not important to you, maybe you only have 5% of your budget going towards that and um, then you always want to have like a little bit of a buffer. It's like whatever miscellaneous. And then a buffer so like miscellaneous things could be like your hair and makeup, your dress or your suit, tux, whatever, um, transportation you might not even need transportation. So that's why I kind of just bunched it all up into like miscellaneous other things. I mean some people do gifts for the bridal party and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that's kind of breaking it down Venue 20-ish percent. Food, drink, about 25%. Photo video 15%. Entertainment 10%. Coordinator 10%. Decor 10%, miscellaneous 10%. So you could just like look at your, your number, and then figure out where that would be and that can give you a good idea of kind of where to start, um, on cost wise, and then you just want to look for something that fits within that. Or if you find like, let's say you come here in the venue like we're out of your budget based on what you're looking for, like where can you cut elsewhere? Like you're like, okay, I don't need that many, that much decor, I can take a thousand dollars from my decor budget and move it on to my venue, um, so yeah, that's how you can play with the budget a little bit, if that yeah, hopefully makes sense.
Speaker 2:The biggest indicator of, or ability to cut cost wise is going to be your guest count, regardless of what it is yes, yeah, yep, so no matter, no matter what, that is always going to be your easiest way to reduce cost, so a wedding for 170 people is obviously going to be a lot more expensive. Yeah than 120 so I mean you're thinking cutting 50 people if you're talking about food drink whatever being anywhere from 50 to 100 dollars a head, depending on what you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, more crazy, yeah yeah, more if you're talking alcohol and I mean favors. Favors is something you could just completely tax in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got that written down like get rid of favors. You don't need it, people don't care and you can. If you really want to do something for your guests, you could do a handwritten note, but that that would take a lot of time I think the favors koozies says the favors are probably like the most common.
Speaker 1:No, why do you say the worst? I just feel like there's it's. There's so many left over every time. Correct, yes, no matter what Like you, and if you are going to do favors, you really don't need one for every single guest because not everyone's is going to take it. I would say like 75%, and that's being generous still I was going to go closer to 50.
Speaker 2:If you run out of favors is anybody going to be upset that you didn't get a koozie?
Speaker 1:Yeah right, I mean probably not.
Speaker 2:Priorities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Again, listing your priorities, let's say your food is your biggest priority. Then again you're going to take it from a different budget, like you don't care so much about the music or the DJ. Then you're definitely not going to do a live band, probably, and you might go with like a lower cost DJ, but it for, like Kevin and me, like we probably would agree that we almost prefer a better DJ to the food, correct, because we like to be on the dance floor and we know our crowd likes to be on the dance floor too.
Speaker 2:So our wedding was a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah we always say that, but yeah I mean shout out dj sean, yes, so I don't think cost cutting on the dj end is the greatest idea but but again, some people don't care and some people aren't dancers, and that's that's.
Speaker 1:That's fine. Yeah, I mean, everyone's gonna have their own priorities. That's why your list of priorities is important it's your own or like photos. Like you, we I don't know how often do we really go through our wedding photos like not at all. We have some printed on our walls. I don't even think they're on our wall.
Speaker 1:They're in your they're in your office um, but yeah, now that we I mean, if you're looking grand scheme of things, if you're having kids, like you're gonna have photos with your kids on the walls, versus your wedding photos probably everyone's different but yeah, um, I mean, photos are great but some people don't care as much about the photos and we'll cut there. So, yeah, um. But yeah, the biggest thing is the guest list. Um, the smaller the guest list, usually the cheaper or the less expensive your wedding would be.
Speaker 1:Um so like it opens up the budget a lot more to be able to not have a giant wedding and I think that that is a direction a lot of people are going in these days is going a little bit smaller and not inviting. Like, let's say, your parents have all these friends and they want all these friends to come to the wedding, but you've never talked to them. Or like these family members that are you haven't seen for 10 years, but the parents want to invite them. Like you can say no, like why? Why are you inviting someone who you just are going to say hi to and you don't care, and they might not even care either. So, um, I think that that, yeah, really honing in on who you want at your wedding is is big we had 80 people at our wedding yeah we definitely could have had more less.
Speaker 2:Oh, we could have had less too.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm not saying that I would cut anyone out, but like I feel like we had people there that now we don't even like see as often anyways.
Speaker 2:So yeah, but I think that's going to be, that's regardless.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I mean, we had a blast of a wedding and we had 80 people, so, um, but yeah, we could have had more and it would have been just fine, but again we had, like, the 80 people. We saved a lot of money that way too we were gonna have 200 or something people and then, like, covid hit and then we had a smaller wedding and we saved money and it was actually worked out more ideal, yeah, and then kind of like what I was saying with the venue.
Speaker 1:If you choose a venue that's already charming and like almost decorated in itself and you don't have to add a lot, you're going to save quite a bit on decor. And talking about decor, um ways that you can save on that is there's Facebook groups you can join and get used decor. So you know, if you just need, like, glass cylinders, you don't have to buy them or you can just rent them to. Some of the coordinators actually have them and we'll do that for you and like you can rent it from them. Um, there's also places you can rent floral. That's their fake flowers.
Speaker 1:I've, um, I don't know why I want to say it's something borrowed, but I don't think that's they're fake flowers. I've, um, I don't know why I want to say it's something borrowed, but I don't think that's the right name for it. But there are places that you can like rent flowers, um, and then um. So let's see Now I've like lost my train of thought for whatever reason. Okay, anyways, diy stuff. You just have to be careful with DIY, because if you're doing DIY and you are like buying all these things for the decor, sometimes you're going to go over budget just because you're buying all this stuff. So that's why I say I'll like get things used or rent them, because it's going to be cheaper in the long run than if you just start buying all these things and you have it then sitting at your house unless you plan on reselling.
Speaker 1:But I think diy gets a little dangerous in terms of your responsibilities that you don't want on your wedding day and I think it's harder to budget too, because now you're like, oh, I'll buy this because this will be cute, or I'll do yeah, and then you have someone else. Then you have to have someone also like setting it up which so we require a coordinator, and the coordinators typically will do it.
Speaker 2:But um, yeah, I mean, it's just a whole earth, and then you have to clean it up, take it home some people are gonna like it, though some people are gonna like that process of their wedding, so, oh, for sure but from a budgeting standpoint, like you need to think about the value of your time as well yeah, yeah, I know decor can be hard, but you really don't need much like floating candles are pretty easy and something like simple, simple tea lights and whatnot.
Speaker 1:Those are all great options. So, yeah, and definitely when you get a coordinator because you definitely need a coordinator regardless of what your budget is, because that's the best thing you can do for your wedding day. In my personal opinion, and it's also a requirement for the bridge at least they can be really helpful with decor, because some of them do again, like I said, have their own decor and that they rent out to their couples and they will set it up, take it home and you don't have to worry about it. Um, yeah, hassle free drinks, like kind of goes with the food, with the drinks, if you don't care that much about the drinking.
Speaker 1:Like a lot of sunday weddings or yeah, picking the day, even sunday weddings are cheaper um, but if you're like I'll just do beer and wine, it's a sunday wedding, or just you know, if you want to request one cocktail, like you know, you can do that and, um, save quite a bit of money on the bar just from doing beer and wine and most people aren't going to care that much and sometimes some venues will allow you to do like a cash bar option as well.
Speaker 1:So you just got to check in with your venue and see what is a possibility with the bar package in general. But, yeah, going more basic, even with the caterer, like if food's not important then you might do like a buffet, simple, they're like I don't want to say bottom tier, but essentially their basic package of chicken maybe and I don't know, like pork or whatever. Like those are usually on like the cheaper end of the scale. Um, and dessert wise, like you don't have to do crazy fancy desserts. You can just do sheet cakes from like costco and the caters will cut them and put them out on a dessert table and you can just get your own little cutting cake to cut when you walk in if you want to even cut a cake some people don't even do that.
Speaker 1:Done costco, just costco desserts and stuff yeah, yeah, even cookies or whatever, like you don't need to do, yeah, you don't need to do. Like the fancy, fancy things, yeah, yeah, got a lot there what about uh signage and invites?
Speaker 1:and yeah, I have that listed here too. Invites can be very pricey. I wish I had known about Canva earlier on. I love working with Canva. I feel like it helps me be creative. I just like that aspect of it and it's easy to use and it's fairly inexpensive when you're ordering like invites or brochures or anything like that.
Speaker 1:Like, almost everything that we make or like have for our stuff from the bridge is through Canva, um, so if you are comfortable working with that, you can make your own invitations. You can make your own thank you cards. You can make your own like if you. If you want to do like a ceremony um, not itinerary, but like the handout I forget there's a name for it Uh, you can make those all on Canva and order it and it's like on a nicer sheet of paper and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So, um, that can be a huge cost cut, because we spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on invitations and thank you cards and sorry, you're no longer invited cards, um, yeah, so that is, that could be huge. I mean, some people really like the our cards did have the tinsel or whatever. It was like imprinted tinsel, pressed tinsel, I don't know what they call, but it was like shiny and it was like gold and whatnot and um, it's not really necessary you're talking about something that I don't even remember making a decision on or even seeing, so yeah, well, there you go, it's it's probably not important and most people don't care.
Speaker 2:People aren't going to remember the invites. Yes, people are not going to remember the thank you cards.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:People are going to remember the experience at the wedding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which.
Speaker 2:What are people?
Speaker 1:going to remember. Usually music, yeah.
Speaker 2:For me personally.
Speaker 1:I don't even like yeah, I think it's just, it's the vibe's, the vibe, the vibe and the fun like I don't, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:Like, if I go to a wedding, I don't remember the food yeah that's me personally, unless it's like really really good and like unique, like people I don't want to like put caterers above other caterers, but like people will remember having wooden paddle, like people will remember that wooden paddle. Like people will remember that experience. Well, yeah, again it's an experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a, it's a whole like it's. So it's not a common thing to have at a wedding, so people are going to remember that. Um, yeah, I mean, what are other unique things that people can do, though, to make like their wedding memorable? That aren't, um, that isn't something that's crazy expensive, like I know. Um, the phone thing is kind of a cool option people can. It's a guest book, but they talk it into it um, I've we've seen a lot of really cool guest book ideas which I don't full disclosure.
Speaker 1:I don't know how much they cost to do these things, but like we've seen puzzle piece ones, I've seen there was like a lego person like you, build your own person that was kind of um, some people do like a sign, but we had a regular guest book and I think I've gone through it like once or twice, just because it's like randomly going through a box, and it's there and I'm like, oh, like, let's look. But we did, uh, polaroids on ours, which I think is fairly inexpensive as well, like it's not, wasn't crazy, and a lot of people have friends that already have Polaroid cameras and you're like, can I borrow it? And then, yeah, just get the film. And yeah, I mean definitely a lot of ways to cut cost there. Uh, yeah, and again, favors, just don't do them, it's not necessary if you want to late night snacks.
Speaker 1:You don't have to, but I do recommend it. If you have a lot of heavy drinkers. I think that that it's good for people to have a little something extra, especially if you have a longer wedding sometimes. If you only have like a, um, a total time of like five hours, let's say, and your dinner is two hours into it or something like that, then you know whatever, um, but late night snacks are people like that a lot but it could also be cheap as well yeah, you don't need to yeah, pizza yeah, pizza sliders from white castle
Speaker 1:like a very popular one. Um, yeah, I would say the biggest places to cut could be decor. Like flowers are very expensive and I hate to say that you don't need that many flowers because we love our florists on our list. Um, they do such an amazing job and I will say that the weddings that have a lot of flowers are just like so beautiful but not necessary. Um, you can cut music wise if you don't care so much about the dj and like the party aspect, but that's not something, kevin, and I would usually usually suggest sitting down and prioritizing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not something, kevin, and I would usually usually suggest Sitting down and prioritizing. Yeah, that's literally what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, food, I mean. Yeah, you can cut anywhere from any place, you can cut venue and you know you can cut guest list. Yeah, it's just what, what is important.
Speaker 2:I think sitting down and like actually taking a step back and thinking about what is important is the most important part. Otherwise, you're going to be fighting yourself the entire time, like throughout the wedding process is wedding planning process is like you're going to be in constant conflict. But if you have like a direction and a priorities list like you can more easily determine where you're able to cut costs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Cool, is that it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean those are like hopefully that was kind of helpful. I mean I feel like that might be helpful if you're just starting out, just to get an idea of yeah, I mean biggest tip is prioritize and you don't have to spend money where you don't want to spend money. And also don't let anyone pressure you to spend money in a certain spot. If they want something for your wedding, say you can pay for it.