I've been taking a break from Reddit, but I really enjoyed this sub, so I thought I would do a brief write up. We got engaged in December 2019, and had our wedding almost two years later October 2021. We read A Practical Wedding very early and made our mission statement, "a fun, tasty, dance-y event that showcases our personalities." We skipped bridal parties, most decor, photo booth and would have skipped flowers if my mother hadn't insisted. Our personalities came out in the custom written ceremony by me, the decor which was travel themed, and the style and types of food (small plates, varying cuisines). We didn't end up with any Halloween details since we postponed to Halloween weekend. Husband is very against photos of us online, so sorry, no pictures. If you're really interested in some detail shots, I can send you some.

Jewelry

I bought us matching silicon rings from Qalo, but the nice metal jewelry came from Lang Antiques, Scintillant Studios and Partita. Highly recommend Lang if you like unusual and old pieces. I love my ring.

Total: 6k

Clothing

My mother graciously bought my dress, custom from Lace and Liberty. I made lots and lots of changes to the Gaia (changed the under layer to red for one thing). If my mom hadn't paid, I would've stayed under 1k and gotten a dress from Etsy. Husband got a custom suit from Indochino and got measured at Nordstrom. Good thing since we had a friend do the same thing and the pants didn't fit. He bought new shoes, I wore my father's shoes for the ceremony and dance shoes that I already owned for the reception. I bought some hair accessories from Taobao and ended up using two of them, but not all of them.

Total: 6k-ish

Photographer

We tried not to spend a lot on photography, so we didn't end up going with my first choice photographer. I really like her, and she was second shooter at our friend's wedding. However, she's been a pain to contact via email, and may have not gotten any shots of hubby's family. Engagement photos were included, and I like how they turned out, but everything was significantly more staged than I hoped.

Total: 3k-ish

HMUA

A friend of our photographer's, who does more movie and special effect makeup than event makeup. We did two trials since the engagement photos ended up so far ahead of the wedding. She also did husband's makeup. She did a great job weaving my hair with flowers on the day of, and I like the hairstyle we ended up with.

Total: 500-ish?

Venue

We got married at CuriOdyssey museum, and we had raptors come out during our cocktail hour, which was awesome. It doesn't come with much, and is a bit of a pain for caterers to work with, but we loved it. We got married in the center of the top level.

Total: 6k-ish

Catering

We ended up using Melons, since they had been at our venue before. The first two or three caterers we contacted closed due to the pandemic or ceased catering. They were not cheap, but they were delicious, and we've had nothing but compliments about the food. Their fee included labor, tables and linens. My mother ended up paying for this as well. The original deal was that she would pay for the food, but she insisted.

Total: 20k-ish?

We brought in boba and mochi donuts for dessert, which went over well. This was less than $500 from Teaspoon. I think we paid cash for a slight discount.

Flowers

I didn't want flowers, but my mother insisted on flowers for people (bridal bouquet, groom bout, corsage for MOB and speakers). Then she gave me a headache on trying to match the right style. The Flower Girl in San Francisco did a great job with the brief, especially considering I never met them. I got a wild overgrown "picked by the fairies" look in shades of red. My mom paid.

Total: ? No idea.

DOC:

Technically, she was a month of coordinator. She kept commenting that we were very relaxed, but we were clear on what we wanted to stress out about and what not.

Total: 1k-ish

DJ/MC:

We ended up with the most expensive guy from the three preferred companies listed. He was great, but the sound didn't work perfectly. People complained about not hearing our ceremony - but being masked and not being used to a microphone will do that. He tried Really hard to get people to dance, but people seemed uninclined overall. Husband and I danced most of the time though. He brought some uplighting as well.

Total: 3k-ish