Yep. You read that title right.
You CAN plan a wedding in Washington D.C. for under $500.
Is that a joke? Absolutely not. Does it sound crazy? Absolutely yes.
Let me give you guys a little back story to my wedding. In 2013 I married a friend of mine. I wasn't in love with him and he wasn't in love with me. The entirety of our marriage neither one of us said "I'm in love with you." In fact, we always talked about how we would never say it because it wasn't true. That wedding was, in hindsight, a huge waste of money. We got married in a turn of the century chapel with friends and family and had a lovely reception. Hindsight being 20/20, I saw that we spent the money on a wedding to cover up the mere fact that we didn't really love each other.
Fast forward 5 years and a divorce later...
I started dating the most incredible man I have ever met a few months after getting divorced. Our first date lasted 16 hours because we didn't want to leave each other's company. I have never in my life thought it possible to know that you love someone and want to be with them on the first date- but with him I knew without a single doubt I wanted to be a part of his future. Very luckily he felt the same.
I know you're asking, "Ok, Jenna, so how does that story lead us to a $500 wedding in D.C.?"
Simple. When you know you truly love someone, you know in your heart you would marry them in the pouring rain, in a paper bag, with a ring pop as your engagement ring. Then once you realize that...the desire to have all the frills of a lavish wedding just kind of fade away.
So here's how I spent my $500 wedding budget.
THE DRESS: $55
I was determined to have a wedding dress I was in love with. Unfortunately, most wedding dresses I wanted had a price tag between $500-$5,000.
YEAH. NO THANKS.
So I did the creative thing...
I shopped for my wedding dress on Poshmark! Yes, you read that right. POSHMARK. If you aren't familiar, Poshmark allows people from all over the U.S. to sell their slightly used or new clothing items. It didn't take long for me to find a brand new Adrianna Papell wedding dress, originally priced at $429 for $55. I received the dress 2 days later and it fit like a dream!
THE VENUE: $50
Did you know that most national parks and monuments only require a permit to get married?
That permit can range from $25-$50 and it just so happened ours was $50. For $50 we reserved the D.C. War Memorial. If you're unfamiliar, the D.C. War Memorial is the memorial located to the left of the Lincoln Memorial. It's classic dome shape and rich representation made it the perfect location for us to tie the knot.
THE FLOWERS: $0
Ok, this may sound silly, but I had purchased a beautiful bouquet of fake flowers from TJ Maxx to decorate my room with a few months ago. When I got my dress, I picked them up to see what it would look like with a bouquet and was pleasantly surprised at how good they looked! So I just decided to use those. And they'll never die, so I can keep them forever!
HAIR, NAILS, AND MAKEUP: $55
My hair and makeup I decided to do myself. At my first wedding I hired a make up artist and hair stylist and was not pleased with either look...so this time around I decided to not spend the money. My nails, however, I decided to have extensions put on with SNS (dip powder) so I would be able to show off my ring in photographs. $45 for the nails, $10 for the tip!
THE PHOTOGRAPHER: $200
Now this took a LOT of research and reaching out. Because our wedding was only going to last about 15 minutes for the "ceremony" part, I wanted to make sure to book a full hour of photos so we could take some right next door at the Lincoln Memorial as well. I messaged dozens of photographers in the area and finally found one willing to work for less than $1,000.
THE BRUNCH: $100
Since we only had 4 people in attendance for our wedding (our families live 14+ hours away) we decided to take our few attendees out to a nice brunch after the ceremony. Inexpensive and yet we had the best time! It was even better and more intimate than a reception could ever be, so no regrets!
THE LICENSE: $30
Yeah, ok. Not the most fun part of planning a wedding, but the marriage license is a necessary item to add to the budget. Our local clerk office cost was $30.
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