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After Ian and I got engaged, we were faced with the terrifying reality of The Average American Wedding . According to The Knot, weddings in the US cost an average of about $31,000. People are willing to spend some serious money on this one day and really, more expensive weddings have been linked to less successful marriages.
Ian and I were right out of college with little work experience, but we wanted to get married and start a family. Coming from a family of nine children, where my dad graciously offered to pay for us to go to a Catholic College, there wasn't a wedding fund to dig into. We also didn't want to spend everything we had or go into debt, when we could be putting money toward a house, our future children- even a honeymoon! We had lots of conversations with our parents about how we were going to make this work financially, while still giving the sacrament of marriage the celebration it deserved. As practicing Catholics, we are called to a life of humility as well as a life of celebration, which is a balance we we wanted to honor and glorify on our wedding day.
Quick note: This is not meant to be a judgmental post about anyone who was blessed enough to have the funds for a big expensive wedding! I have loved every single wedding I have had the privilege of attending, expensive or not. I just wanted to help show that there are other options if you are in a similar position :)
I remember researching so much and asking so may people how to cut costs. Every venue was overpriced. Every catering price made my jaw drop. I had several friends in the wedding industry tell me that no decent wedding could be under $15,000.
We had a very clear idea of what we wanted. We did not want to adapt the attitude of this being our special day where everyone had to worship our every whim. We wanted this day to be a representation of us laying down our lives for one another. We wanted this attitude to be included in every detail of our wedding.
With the enormous help of my thrifty, crafty, creative French mother who worked tirelessly for a whole year, we ended up being able to cut so many costs by taking out the middle man and doing almost everything ourselves and with the help of friends. It was so humbling to have help from our wedding party, our aunts and uncles and friends. Let me just say this- in order to keep prices low you need help from loved ones. Ask for their help with decorations and cake baking instead of a wedding gift! I promise it's worth it.
Everyone came together to get us started on our new life together. Our wedding was a day we will never forget. It was beautiful and tasteful. It was fun and memorable. And it was a fraction of the cost of the Average American Wedding- dare I say, less than $15,000? Even less than $7,000? ;)
Stay tuned for how we did it!
Photography: Calley Watters Photography
Video: Annie Lind