Hi everyone!

My boyfriend and I have been discussing possibly just getting eloped and surprising all of our friends and family. I wanted to come here and ask those of you who went about it the same way, how did you do it?

We’ve been trying to spitball who we would have as witnesses, as neither of us are close with our families and definitely want to keep it a surprise from all of our friends. He does have one friend he thought of that isn’t close with everyone else/would be able to keep the secret, and mentioned his wife could be the second witness but we don’t know her and I’m not sure how I feel about having a strangers name on our marriage certificate.

Also, how did you eventually announce it to everybody? And what was your planning process for an after-the-fact ceremony?

I want to hear as many details as possible, this is a real possibility and I have no idea where to start😭

TIA🫶🏻

Hey guys,

So I typically like my wedding dresses a bit more on the sexy side - sheer bodice, nude lining, slit, etc. I find a lot of the budget options (asos and anthropology) have pretty traditional reserved dresses. I'm happy to buy a used dress on stillwhite etc, but if anyone can help me figure out how to see more of those sexy-type dresses or point me in the direction of a designer with that general vibe, I'd be grateful.

I notice that sheer/illusion bodice isn't a search filter on most sites so that's a bummer for me.

Thanks

Hey y'all! I'm seeking advice on planning an elopement / quickie wedding in Vegas( March - May). I'm open to all suggestions and advice.. from hotels to where to celebrate after the ceremony and what to do while in Vegas. We're an older couple and have been married to other people but still love to have fun!

As far as budget - we haven't mapped one out just yet but definitely want to keep it as low budget but nice as possible.

Hi! I’m currently researching into sustainable wedding dresses for my dissertation.

Please feel free to complete this quick anonymous online survey!

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/lboro/sustainable-bridal-wear

Thank you

Small and xs left!

https://www.lulus.com/products/love-everlasting-white-floral-lace-mermaid-maxi-dress/1202231.html

Looking for an outdoor venue in New England for under $6000 (if possible)! Planning on less than 50 people. Looking for a garden/greenhouse vibe. Definitely okay with doing the reception elsewhere if needed. Thanks!

Hi all! I recently became engaged and we are starting to wedding plan. Looking at venues, I just can’t believe how pricey it is. I’m wondering if we held the reception at a restaurant if that might save us some money.

Does anyone have suggestions for beautiful restaurants that do events in the Chicago suburbs?

Thanks!

Hey all, my fiance and I are getting married in India this December. Since we live in NY and many of our friends cant make it to India, we thought we will throw a party in Feb / March to celebrate the wedding. So I know this post isnt strictly for a wedding but more like a wedding celebration / reception. A few pointers on what we are looking for:

1. A chill party with 50 ppl. Not seated dinner or anything. Can be for a few hours just standing around, drinking and having a good time.
2. Can be an indoors or outdoors space (preferrable rooftop or outdoors)
3. Can be an empty space to be rented / something like a garden / an all inclusive package / reserved part of a restaurant. (Open to any arrangement as long as I can keep it under budget).
4. Preferrable in Manhattan but open for it to be in Brooklyn too.
5. Budget is 5-7k. So around $80-100pp but can stretch that a little bit. Since this is a low budget, maybe I can do food and the space and ask people to do it BYOB?

Thank you, any all suggestions are welcome. Please give me as much as advice as possible as I feel like I am walking in the dark here.

This may be a bit of a vent - bear with me.

I’m getting married, and my fiancé and I are both queer. We want to do so before the new admin is ushered in (as well as due to potential health issues that may arise in my own life).

I have no budget at all.

Basically 500$.

His budget is the same roughly - we are both under the poverty line by a solid amount.

I know there’s plenty of posts here, but I’d love some dress shopping advice, as well as advice in general.

I haven’t been able to have much luck, so far. Luckily we have found someone willing to officiate and will just get married in a public spot. So that’s okay.

But it’s so hard to find my dream dress and not be able to afford it. I don’t want to lose the chance to get married. I grieve what we may never have, if we can’t make it out to a better financial situation.

Edit: still responding. Thank you for all of your lovely comments, I am overwhelmed.

Was wondering if there is any page or group where people offer up their land for free or a low price for weddings? Kinda crazy idea but idk if anyone had thought about it before. Just would need a large grassy area.

I just got engaged and could really use some help. I knew weddings were expensive but I guess I didn’t realize how expensive. My dad just got re-married last year and I just assumed they spent around 30k because they had a very nice wedding. To find out they probably spent closer to 50-80k and now I feel hopeless to plan a wedding under 10k. I just need some tips or places that aren’t crazy expensive. We’re planning on having 50-75 guest, and would like to have ceremony and reception in same place. We’re only 23 and just moved into our own house together and we would like to save more money for the honeymoon then spend it all on one day but I also don’t want to just have a party in our house and consider that our reception.

I want to open this discussion for anyone who has had a US destination wedding or is considering one.

It’s no secret that cost of living has gone up, which only means everything else has as well. I’m curious if there is a limit on one’s travels when looking for something to fit the budget for the big day!

How far did you travel or are you willing to? Is there a limit to fit your budget?

For those who have already done this;

• Did it deter guests from attending? • Where did you end up having it? • What did you pay? What did it include? • What were the things you were looking for during your search?

Thank you in advance for your time and responses (:

Has anyone decided to use something other than flowers to decorate their venue? If so, was it cheaper than decorating with flowers. I'm looking for inspiration. Bonus points if you have ideas that are a bit quirky/nerdy.

TIA

Well, I found a venue that’s exactly what I want. We’re very outdoorsy, and our priority was to get married somewhere scenic. I found a venue that does a wedding ceremony right next to a huge waterfall. It’s my dream!!! I have searched everywhere within a 4 hour radius of my hometown and cannot find anything like this. The venue itself is also so cool, it’s a historic inn in a state park and exactly what we both want.

The only issue is that they do not offer weddings in October due to high tourism. This is an issue for me because I always wanted to get married on our anniversary- mid October. He proposed on our anniversary too, and the day has always been really special to us. Secondly, having this in mind, I’ve always envisioned a fall wedding for myself. Mid October is peak foliage in the state I’m in so it worked out perfectly. I have all these ideas on how to decorate for a fall wedding…I never considered a summer wedding. I really love the foliage.

I’m sooo torn. The other venues I found for fall are much more expensive too, and would put me over 10k. I did find a beautiful park pavilion to do a fall wedding in that would be a lot cheaper, but it would all be DIY, and I’m wondering if I could pull it off. Also, my partner is not American and therefore we will be inviting quite a few international guests. I’m self conscious about inviting them from overseas, all to attend a wedding that’s just at a park pavilion.

With this waterfall venue, we could get it right at 10k so it works for our budget. Everything seems too good to be true except for this one big catch.

What would your vote be?!

Don’t wanna do the cliche shot glass etc.

It’s Black Friday. What main items should be bought?!

Looking for a indoor wedding venue in Vorarlberg, Austria or Zurich, Switzerland. Our wedding budget is very low so looking for a cheap place with food included probably. People around 40-50. Please help. Want to rent a place within 5-10k probably since i don’t live there so dont have much ideas.

I'm trying to keep costs down for invites. I was going to spring for some Minted ones, but I'm wondering if I could buy a pack of some cute blank cards and handwrite invitations for a much lower cost. It would be about 33 invitations. Has anyone done something like this? I don't have any skills on applications/sites like Canva, etc, so designing something on the computer and finding a way to print it is more daunting tbh. I might just go the email route, too. Opinions/thoughts ??

I’m looking for a cheaper wedding dress! I’d like to keep it under 2k and Etsy seems to have lots and tons with good reviews I just need to know if it’s trustworthy, there’s a custom wedding dress seller called oliviaoceana and would love to know if anyone has gotten a dress from them

I wish I would have looked up the reviews before ordering. I debated for almost a year before ordering. I had wanted wooden flowers for a bouquet for so long. I cannot do smells so real flowers are sometimes a problem. So I figured wonderful, flowers that would not smell. I ordered wooden flowers from Etsy before with fake greenery. They were beautiful but the wrong colors. I finally ordered. I contacted customer service about a part of my address missing (and hearing nothing back, at least the post office knew where to deliver). I was excited to receive the flowers. I guess all of this is my fault since I did not realize the greenery was real. I opened the box and an overwhelming eucalyptus smell hit me in the face. I was beyond disappointed. I contacted customer service right away. I received what appeared to be a canned answer about not being able to return the flowers or exchange them because of possible problems when shipping the flowers back. Well I can't understand this because they would be shipped back almost immediately after receiving in the same package they were shipped. They claim they don't want prices to go up. Yet I just received an email that says they are raising prices due to inflation. This is the the only company I've ever encountered that does not accept at least exchanges. On the website it says they have a customer satisfaction guarantee. Please do us a favor and explain that these flowers will smell. Their "helpful advise" was the leave the flowers outside to air out (we live in Northern NY so it is snowing now) and to take them out. The whole bouquet smells because of the greens. So now I am stuck with an expensive bouquet. I would not recommend ordering unless maybe you make the bouquet yourself.

Any suggestions for a small venue in RI, VT, NH? Ideal venue would have an outdoor place for a ceremony with mountain / coastal view, space for a dinner party, and would accommodate our guests (most of us would be traveling from NJ). All-in wedding budget is $20k. Thanks in advance!

I'm a US-Canadian dual citizen: I was born and raised in New England, USA where my entire family is, but I've lived on the West Coast of Canada now for 10 years. My fiance is West Coast Canadian and all his family is here.

We're planning on eloping privately this May and celebrating with family and friends at two different parties: one small one in our Canadian condo building (20-30 guests), and a larger one in a rented hall in my hometown in the US (60-80 guests). We found a spot at a beachside club for $500 USD and expect to pay around $1k in catering, $500 in decor, and have budgeted around $3k total (there will be a cash bar). My parents have offered to contribute as well to the tune of $1-2k (they haven't specified an amount).

We have the hall reserved until we put a deposit down after the holidays, but I'm starting to have second thoughts. All of my fiance's and my income is in CAD and the exchange rate right now is horrible; expected to get worse. I'm also worried about how Trump's proposed tarrifs on Canada, Mexico, and China will drive up costs for things like decor and catering. Not to mention a phethora of other issues I haven't even factored in yet re: the inevitable stripping of Departments (like the Department of Transportation which currently prevents airline price gauging).

Should we scrap this whole plan? I was really looking forward to having a low-key but still traditional-style reception as a sort of farewell to the US. (Afterall we don't plan on visiting again in the next 4+ years considering we're planning to grow our family soon, and travelling with small kids to visit my chaotic family sounds like an actual nightmare, especially considering the current political climate).

Is anyone else planning a cross-border wedding who is worried about expenses? The fact that it's all a giant question mark is the scariest part for me.

My partner and I are getting married in a few months, and we're planning a low-key affair: ceremony at 3pm and then an evening in a very sweet pub (hiring out the whole place for approx 70 people). We're hoping to have different food stations around the pub, with charcuterie, cheeses, oysters, pies etc. and some musical performances as entertainment, starting low-key acoustic and finishing with something a bit higher energy to get people boogying (within reason, as there isn't really space to dance per se...).

I'm a little worried that because we'll just be in one place there won't be a flow to the evening and people will be bored. Do you have any advice for ways to make the plan more fun, or to give people something to do for six hours?

Hey everyone! I know a lot of people recommend Jjshouse for dresses…I found one I absolutely LOVE and I want to try it on in a couple sizes but they don’t offer that specific one in the “try at home” option.

My question - how hard is it to return dresses to them? I saw they have a 14 day return policy but is it as simple as just sending it back to them and the refund you?

I’m super nervous to spend $1,000+ and not get a refund lol

Thanks ladies ☺️

Hello!

Having my wedding in May '25 in BC. Does anyone know if day if coordinators will also do Mc Stuff such as call guests for dinner/ announce first dance and the entrance of the couple? Also would they possibly press play on a playlist for the ceremony processional? Would like to not have to pay for both an MC and a day of coordinator.

Also don't have anyone on my family/ bridal party willing to do MC.

Also, if your doing your even with a day of coordinator how are you doing all the things 😮‍💨? Like set up/ get ready/ processional ect.

Hey everyone!! My partner and I are planning a wedding for July 2025. We selected a bar package at our venue for unlimited beer, wine, and soda. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but I’m wondering if we should add spirits? My partner and I both drink, and so do most of our friends and family. We chose the beer + wine package to a) save money and b) hopefully prevent guests from overdoing it lol. On the other hand, we really want to prioritize our guests’ experience and want to make sure the food and music are amazing (we’re musicians and foodies), and I’m worried people will be disappointed if the open bar doesn’t include cocktails. I’m wondering if anyone has thoughts, either from your own wedding or weddings you’ve attended. Thanks 😊