First Update!

Weddings are beautiful. The flowers, the music, the whimsical decor – it’s all just so…EXPENSIVE. I’ve been on this debt free journey for almost 5 months and there’s no better wrench to throw in to the mix than wedding planning!

Weddings can be so expensive so I’m getting creative to plan the wedding of my dreams all while not climbing deeper into debt. Follow along for my progress and status updates!

The Venue

My fiance and I got engaged a few weeks ago and I started to scope out venues. I found a beautiful beach side spot that was absolutely perfect. It also had a $30k price tag. THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS! Or at least that’s how I read it! Lol Okay – keep looking. I kept searching for different venues that are more inland and maybe not as majestic as this “perfect” location, but even still the most affordable spot I could find was just about $5k to book. We haven’t even started looking at food menus, a DJ, photographers, or the many many other vendors that would be needed to make this day happen.

Ryan & I have always known that we wanted a smaller wedding and could do without all the bells and whistles. We decided that a Destination Wedding would be a better option for us. I have frequent flier miles that helped with the travel plus the vendor we are working with is all inclusive so we won’t have to hire in any other outside vendors. We booked the venue, music and all of the services needed to make our special day happen all at once and for less than half of the price than what it would have cost us at home. (I’ll share these details with you after the event so I can offer some honest insight on the experience and how it all went.)

Extra bonus points, by keeping a smaller guest count we can keep a little more in our pockets to put towards our debt payoff. That might sound selfish but this is what made the most sense for us – and you have to keep in mind that your wedding day is really all about YOU!

While our goal is to pay off debt, it’s also important to have flexibility in our budget to be able to accommodate the little road bumps along the way. And this just so happened to be a very large, profound road bump 🙂

The Dress

Warning! Unpopular opinion ahead –

I know, I know the dress is such an important part you can’t skimp out on this. But I did anyway! The wedding industry is so lucrative and there is so much hype surrounding weddings. And rightfully so, I don’t want to take away from how important and amazing your wedding day is. But watered down to it’s core, you’re making a decision to spend the rest of your life with someone. You’re making a commitment and the ceremony & reception is celebrating your decision to do just that. Does my dress need to cost $3000 in order for that commitment to mean more? No. Does my dress need to cost that much for me to look and feel amazing? Not really. There are sooo many options out there to find great, affordable dresses.

I started looking on Poshmark first. There were gorgeous designer gowns at extremely reasonable prices. I didn’t choose mine from there because I had a set style in mind that I couldn’t find in my size. But an amazing option, nonetheless. I ended up ordering my dress from an online wholesaler. It was under $100! I did my due diligence and checked the reviews and also watched some YouTube videos from women doing unboxings & try on videos from the same vendor. I will definitely share with you how this turned out when it comes in! But for now, I’m really happy with this and this dress alone saved us so much money!

I was also able to able to pick up my daughter’s dress for the wedding, she is going to be my Maid of Honor. We paid under $100 for this dress from Windsor. It’s a formal wear store at the mall and they have such beautiful styles right now because it’s prom season. I’ll link the store for you here: https://www.windsorstore.com/

While I still have quite a bit to plan and figure out, I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to have a beautiful wedding all while still making progress with my debt pay off goals. I’ll continue to share my updates with you all to let you know how the planning is going!

Are you also planning a wedding and trying not to go in to debt? Find me on Instagram and tell me about your plan!  https://www.instagram.com/_lovelyfinds/

Shop my Poshmark Closet!:
https://poshmark.com/closet/_lovelyfinds