planning a diy budget brooklyn wedding

If you know Ben and I, you know we don’t have any money. He’s a writer and I’m a photographer. Low salaries are the price we pay for having jobs we really love. So I knew from the start that I’d be a budget bride and need to cut corners to save for the details I really want.

What we cut:

The ceremony
All brides cut the cake. I cut the ceremony. Neither of us are religious, so we weren't going to have a church or temple ceremony. We thought about using a city or state park, but Ben and I ultimately decided that it's more up our alley to go to Borough Hall and get the papers ($35 for the marriage license and $25 for the marriage ceremony).

The DJ
I like music as much as the next person, but nixing the DJ wasn't a difficult decision to make. With an iTunes playlist and an iPod, I'll be able to put together a soundtrack of my favorite songs for free.

Save the Dates
Save the dates can be cute, but in a world where written correspondence is increasingly rare, they seemed unnecessary. By sending out our invites so early -- and not telling anyone about our engagement beforehand -- our wedding invitations pretty much served double billing as save the dates.

The Engagement Ring
Yep. We didn’t get an engagement ring. Ben and I are clearly working on a tight budget, but he was willing to spring for a ring if I chose one. I looked around at all the standard places. It goes without saying that they were all really expensive! There’s a saying floating around that an engagement ring should cost two months salary. If that’s the case, I’d much rather have a Canon 5D Mark II, which would pay for itself after a few shoots. Not to mention, after the ring, we still have a wedding to pay for! But ultimately, expensive or not, I couldn’t find one that I liked. The traditional solitaire diamond just doesn’t speak to me and I wasn’t excited about the more contemporary designs either. So we decided to go spartan. Wedding bands only.

And this is just the beginning. Considering our bare-bones budget, the cuts are just getting started!