A lot of people have heard my moped story but I don’t think I’ve ever told the story of my extremely cheap wedding lol 😂
I got married in 2016, at the time I was aggressively stacking sats and trying to be as frugal as possible.
So I convinced my fiancée to have the wedding in our backyard to save money.
Total cost was under $5,000 which included the dress and her ring (seriously). So how did I pull that off when weddings in America routinely cost 30-50k?
Here’s how…
1. Ring: Her ring is fake. More specifically it’s a moissanite which is a lab grown gemstone that looks like a diamond but isn’t a diamond. My wife was on board with this because it allowed her to get a much bigger stone than she otherwise would have and no one can tell the difference. Total cost: $1,200
2. Dress: When it came time to pick out the dress I didn’t want to interfere, so I just let her mom and sister go pick one out with her. She didn’t have a budget, but she was fully bought into my crazy money saving plan and found a dress she loved that only cost $500. That’s how you know you’re marrying the right girl. Total cost: $500
3. Venue: Free obviously because we did it in our backyard, but I did spend a little buying gifts for the neighbors because we were going to be making a lot of noise. Total cost: $200
4. Tables & chairs: We rented these, something to understand when it comes to rentals. When I called vendors for this wedding I didn’t tell any of them it was a wedding. I used the word “event” on the phone. This makes everything 30% cheaper. Total cost: $600
5. Decorations: we bought a nice metal arch to get married under for $300 and then we spent an additional $500 on lanterns, tablecloths, candles, fake flowers etc… I put them all up myself. Total cost: $800
6. Drinks: Instead of having a fancy bar with a bartender or whatever I went to Costco bought a bunch of wine and beer, threw it in a cooler and called it a day. Total cost: $500
7. Music: at this point in the thread you really think I’m hiring a fancy DJ for this shit? lol no we had a Bluetooth speaker. Total cost: $200
8. Food: instead of doing some BS catering company we got a taco cart guy. Taco cart guy is the shit, you should really have one of these at every event. Everyone loved this dude and said they were some of the best tacos they’ve ever had. Total cost: $500
9. Photo/video: Even though I was running a production company at this time we decided to skip the video altogether. Why? Because nobody ever watches it. Plus my business partner and crew members were going to be attending the wedding. The only thing you want is that one photo of you walking down the aisle that you’re going to hang in the house. So I hired a good photographer I knew in town to show up for 20 mins and take a few shots of the ceremony. Total cost: $400
Bringing the grand total for the backyard wedding to $4,900
The wedding was so out of the norm by modern standards, that my new father in law pulled me aside and suggested I was being too frugal and needed to loosen up a bit. I smiled and nodded politely and then continued right along my path. My wife was on board, I was on board. We had a vision for our future. No one was going to stop me, no matter how “well intentioned” A vision I’m happy to report we are living today.
You want different results than others? You gotta do different shit than they do. Be weird. People will judge you for it, but it won’t matter, because in the end you’ll win.
Today we look back fondly on our cheap wedding. 10/10 would recommend.
