A wedding under R70 000.00

When David and I sat down to plan the budget for our wedding we soon realized that we would need to do something really simple and low budget, as we did not have as much money saved up for our wedding as most weddings cost. Our final budget for our wedding was R48 000.00 and our final spend on our wedding was R46 107.57.

Admittedly we were blessed by David's parents who paid or my dress and veil, our table wine, lawyers fees and flowers which would have added a lot more to our wedding fee. I added this prices onto what we sent and we still came to R68 000.00 - which meant that our wedding was still under R70 000.00.

How did we do this?

I think this was possible because we involved our family, friends and community. We did a lot of DIY stuff - Pinterest is great for ideas, as well as creative people you know. I remember explaining to someone what I wanted as our table centre and two weeks later she sent me a picture of exactly what I wanted. All we hat to supply was paper and sticks - found in the forest.

Another way to save money was to look at idea from an objective point of view, which can be hard when it's pretty and you REALLY want it, and ask your self it's really necessary. It's true, there is a lot of "fluff" that makes weddings expensive and to be honest... your guests won't notice, remember or care if there are no chair covers or draping from the ceiling. These were the hard decisions for me to make, because I wanted ALL the pretty extras but Dave and my maid of honor was firm and eventually I saw sense in it.

God also helped us stay in budget as we planned our wedding. When Dave proposed we both knew this was what God wanted and we also knew He would provide for our wedding. There were many moments when we wanted the big things, but the quickly remembered the purpose of our wedding and that was to have it focused on God. That was what really mattered... and to share what God was doing our life and the next step of our journey with the people who meant the most to us and who we were close to. Yip, we didn't invite the world... just our close friends and family. It can be hard to cut people off your list, but everyone doesn't need to be invited.

Dave and I have been married for 2.5 months now and in hind sight I'm really glad we didn't spend tons of money on our wedding. It was perfect with what we had because it was all about spending the day with people who mean the world to us and having a God focused ceremony and reception.

xKx