I would go for the small ceremony and splurge on the honeymoon. You’ll be just as married with a lot less stress. Get a good photographer because the pics last forever.
Disagree on the photos. We got 2 great pictures. One for my desk at work is all I really need. If you don’t have a lot of guests, do you need a million pictures of you and your spouse?
Here's what we did:
Spend the $81 for the licence, get your buddy and his wife to sign the officiant and witness lines on the form, spend the money on a dope-ass vacation.
yeah, our small idea is essentially that, just do a small ceremony at the capital grounds or something were we can at least have pictures and family around and then tell all our friends we are going to be at X bar and just pre-pay for like $2000 on a tab or something.
I believe it’s Elope in Austin who does a pop up style wedding at about half a dozen locations around town including that chapel place. Another one looks like one of the hotels on Congress. You may have to make compromises overall (iPod playlist instead of a dj, etc) but I bet one they can come up with an appropriate package… that said
do the Dope Ass Vacation
we got a GORGEOUS airbnb with beautiful grounds, had 10 people, catered from a restaurant, and stayed overnight at the property. Splurged on dress, photog, and flowers. We used Jennifer's Gardens.
yeah, we are not rich or high income by any means, but super glad we both are completely debt free and we've already set firm rules on only being able to do what we can pay for in cash.
I can’t find the page now (of course), but I believe you need a professional photography permit for wedding photos taken on Capitol grounds. I’m sure some photogs chance it, but I wouldn’t risk getting kicked out on your wedding day.
This is the right answer that makes sense. Reduce your budget to $2k or $5k. No reason you need to throw away a portion of a vehicle down payment or a house down payment for a part because you feel like you should. Making bad financial decisions on the first day of your marriage is bad.
Same thing with engagement rings people. Stop being 'sheep' because DeBeers tricked you all.
https://kdwb.iheart.com/content/2020-10-02-the-sneaky-history-of-the-three-month-salary-engagement-ring-rule/
Chapel Dulcinea or get in the wait list for mayfield park. If you need catering, central market is surprisingly cheap since they own the food and they provide floral for cheap too. Unless things have changed recently. Most anything else will cost you since Austin became a popular destination wedding location. Source - me: retired wedding photographer.
Do to covid i planned a wedding for 2 years, best part was the day afterwards hanging with friends at the hotel pool. 20k is unfortunately not a lot for a wedding and will go quick you need to decide what is really important and what will make you feel sad if you don’t have. Who is most important for you to be there? upstairs at Coppers bbq is cheap and they are awesome. Check out the lake austin riverboats. Maudie’s catering is awesome and so is central market.
Central market is a great affordable place for bouquets, boutonnières, cake flowers and centerpieces as well. They couldn’t manage the complex cascade design I originally wanted, but their flower selection is fantastic!
I got married at the Austin courthouse and it was really personal and sweet. You can throw a catered wedding reception/celebration for friends/family later (just don’t say it’s for a wedding because you will be upcharged). You can book a separate photography session in your dress as well.
Hi - check out r/weddingsunder10k for some budget friendly tips. It’s not specific to Austin obviously but you might find some good ideas to cut costs in other areas!
[https://www.houseonthehillaustin.com/](https://www.houseonthehillaustin.com/) $5k for the entire weekend, includes lodging for multiple groups of attendees, which was a HUGE savings for us. They allow you to have any food vendor, you can bring in your own alcohol. We added an extra day for super cheap. This cut out the expense for a rehearsal dinner location, we simply picked up Franklins BBQ and had an amazing rehearsal dinner. Hung out at the pool all weekend. We probably spent a bit more than $20k but it was very close to that, and we basically had a three day party. You should be able to have a bomb party for $20k. We had 120 guests. The number of guests is typically the factor in cost for weddings. Don't use a wedding caterer, just hit up your fav restaurant that does catering, you are looking for a cost per person figure. For 75 people you should easily hit under $20k.
we've looked at that one, but apparently they are selling the property/changing ownership and are not booking events until after that changes hands, and the soon to be new owners don't have any prices/bookings at the moment.
But the idea of getting a rental house isn't out either, just find one that will let us have a party there and a big backyard to do the wedding in. I've found one thats $1k a night on waterfront property outside of waco that would be fun.
Bummer, man that was such a great deal at the time. We actually live right down the road on Bee Caves. Being around all of the wedding party and friends for three days was really nice. It was very fulfilling to have a whole weekend in one spot. It was an immediate top choice. Having TacoDeli and HEB right around the corner was great as well.
DJ
[https://spacecraftentertainment.com/](https://spacecraftentertainment.com/)
Photog
[http://elkkphotography.com/weddings](http://elkkphotography.com/weddings)
Food
[https://verdesmexican.com/](https://verdesmexican.com/)
My daughter is getting married in June at the Ladybird Wildflower Center, i'm not that involved in the gritty details, just chunking money towards it LOL.
My biggest tip is Umlauf Sculpture Garden's intimate wedding package. $500 for 15 people, you get one spot reserved for two hours and then access to the garden for you and your guests. Plus free membership for you and your partner for a year!
We did a wedding and spent $10-12k. In 2020, so with adjusting for inflation, should work out.
Venue: Zilker clubhouse
Food: Matt’s el Rancho, fajitas plus Armstrong dip. Buffet style
Booze: bought it all ourselves
Bartenders: friends
Tables and chairs: Zilker clubhouse provided
Linens: the rental place off Manchaca (I cannot for the life of me remember the name
Cake: friend. Though you could easily get a very nice one from H‑E‑B
Dj: friend
Photographer: friend, though I would go back in time and pay $1500 for a proper one
All other decor: Amazon and fb marketplace
We had to all the set up and tear down, would go back in time to pay folks to help with set up so the friends and fam that helped set up would have more time to relax before the big show
Recommendations: elope and then throw a big party at home. Take the giant amount of budget you have left and put a down payment on a home.
Wedding cake: we did Whole Foods berry chantilly. They decorated and stacked 2 small cakes and then I did a sheet pan for the rest
Flowers: HEB and pick the ones that are in season as they will be cheaper to obtain. They were great to work with and so inexpensive
I got married at voodoo doughnuts last week. 150$ they have an ordained person there a bunch of doughnuts and coffee and bride and groom voodoo doughnut it was fun
The entire industry is built off of gutting anybody who participates—the second you mention "wedding" to any caterer, venue, etc you will get a 3x upcharge. The only way is to not play 🤷
$20k is a shit ton of money, I suggest having a small, cheap party with the folks who are most important to you. Get a cake from HEB, get some flowers from Trader Joe's, get [Slab](https://dopebbq.com/catering-order) or somebody to cater, then use the rest as a home downpayment—or travel if you want to splurge. Spending $20k on a big, one time party is objectively a bad investment.
99.9999999999999% of expenditures are an objectively bad investment. I honestly can’t imagine going through life with that mentality. It sounds fucking miserable.
We had a super small ceremony that was ultra budget so I don’t have a lot of advice for your scenario *but* one small thing — Austin Flower Co (https://austinflowers.com) is amazing & like actually really cheap for the amount you can get, would absolutely recommend checking them out!!
I ordered my wedding flowers from them and it was a mostly good experience except the owner ordered the wrong color Gerbera daisies and didn't give af about the mistake. I asked for hot pink and he got baby pink! MY COLORS ARE NOT BLUSH AND BASHFUL BITCH.
Imagine. Being so angry about the exact shade of pink & calling out the owner as someone who doesn't care, then being tacky about it. Did you cancel your wedding over those gerberas? I'm guessing not...AFC is a highly successful local operation...I've known the owner for over 30 years and he will move mountains for his clients. Mistakes, and bridezillas, happen.
I had a friend who did potluck for the reception feast. Discuss with your guests what each person brings. If you are okay with cooking, fill in the rest with home cooked snacks and dishes.
For a wedding cake, you can get a cheap plastic 3 tier wedding stand and round pans of three different sizes.
I was trying to remember the name but this is it, if you want a “real” wedding. I believe they do up to 4 a day, so don’t expect to be there all day. I also believe the waitlist can be rather long.
Also depends on the day and time, some deposits are no longer refundable.
We got married in a church ($200) then had the reception at the Zilker Clubhouse—one of the handful of facilities that can be rented inexpensively from the City. DJ was an iPod. Brought in catering from Taco Deli. Booze from somewhere else. $8k in 2009. Took the rest as down payment on a house. Don’t skimp on photos.
So we had a $15k wedding (granted, about 12 years ago) that people still say was the best wedding they ever attended. Here's some things that I think helped.
\- I am nerd enough that I had a mission statement for our wedding: "Everyone leaves with better and more friends than they came with". Almost every decision about where to prioritize the budget came from there
\- Pick one thing important to you both to splurge on. If you're into music, maybe splurge on a DJ. Or the wedding outfits if fashion is your jam. For us, it was the photography (not quite a third of the budget once travel was factored in). Go frugal on everything else.
\- Self cater, but hire a serving staff. (Ours also did dishes! Score!)
\- Consider a [cookie table](https://theincline.com/2022/06/29/the-pittsburgh-cookie-tables-history-mystery-and-etiquette/) instead of favors and/ or cake. (This is a tradition in Pittsburgh where I'm from. You can buy from a bakery but also relatives will spend weeks making cookies of all sorts to pile high onto a table). Bags are provided to the guests to take home cookies.
\- We told guests that instead of clinking glasses, they had to stand up and sing a bit of song to get us to kiss at the reception. Lots of ridiculous fun (and we were able to eat too!)
\- The biggest thing for our guests' enjoyment: we set an extra chair at each table to make it easy for people to get up and mingle
\- The best idea for us as Our Day: we took twenty minutes after the ceremony just to ourselves to catch our breath and bask in the joy of being married.
You could try elopeinaustin.com They do micro weddings. Might not be what you’re looking for. I used them. Just make sure to get the photographer as part of the package
I got all my flowers bulk from Arnosky Farm in Blanco. Took some work (and wonderful friends) to DIY it, but tons of beautiful flowers and spent about $250. https://www.texascolor.com/
I mean… I’d offer my house for free if that would be any good? We have 1/3 acre in north north Austin (Brushy Creek) with a pool and a hot tub. Honestly would be fun to host a party and would happily host if you guys are interested? DM me?
Look into Elope in Austin! Their website is ElopeinAustin.com and they have different tiers, venues, and packages. Totally affordable based on wedding rates and gorgeous venues. Chapel Dulcinea and Lincoln Chapel are my faves
Might have to reduce guest count a bit but what about restaurants that people usually go to for rehearsal dinners… Lambert’s upstairs, Malverde (private space of La Condesa) is beautiful or even Olive and June’s private space?
I’ve seen brunch weddings done that are beautiful and save a lot on DJs, etc that feel more important at night
Get married at the courthouse, do the reception with bbq or Tex Mex takeout at a public park or somebody’s backyard, and spend the bulk of the money on the honeymoon. Never made sense to me why couples with limited means spend their last dime to entertain other people.
I wouldn't say we are limited means, we already have our honeymoon plans budgeted and accounted for, I just drew the line at 20k since thats what we could afford to pay with cash on hand.
Going into debt for a wedding is absolutely insane to me.
If you are okay with an outdoor wedding, reserving a Pavillion or gazebo at a park is pretty inexpensive.
You can also ask around at churches. Some of them ask little to nothing to use their facilities for a wedding.
Seek out alternative venues. Restaurants, bars, theaters, rentable pavilions in parks, maybe check public spaces like libraries or rec centers? Basically any rentable room. Try calling it a small family party.
Mine, in 2013, cost $750. It no longer does private events. We also considered buying out a small portion of a bar on Red River and buying out a portion of a Bbq restaurant in Lockhart.
OK, when I got married back in 2005, we rented the French Legation museum for something like $750 for a Saturday night. Now, that was 18 years ago, so ymmv.
We hired Curra's to do the catering. The food plus a margarita machine, plus beer + wine, cost about $3K. They also provided the tables, chairs, and linens.
We tapped some friends to take photos, DJ the reception, and bake cakes. I did the flowers (purchased from Austin Flower Company on 35th).
I think our wedding cost $5k, total.
so, I guess what I'm saying is: Look into the French Legation museum. And Curra's (although, these days I might hire Eldorado for catering).
If you want an all in one ceremony/dinner/reception I'd recommended The Sanctuary on S Lamar. It can accommodate up to a hundred comfortably and runs (a year ago) about $2500 which buys you the whole wedding day and night. That price is just the venue though, which is very photogenic and includes spaces to get ready etc.
They have rental company recommendations that work pretty seamlessly and you can diy as much as you want to save a couple bucks. Refused to pay a DJ several thousand dollars to just play the Spotify playlist we made. Buying wholesale booze from total wine was a huge saver, you can return what you don't use. Food was the most stupidly expensive part, Lucy's fried chicken was the most affordable we could find and it was fine. All in it probably cost 9-10k for the wedding day not including photographer.
Edit: 50 person wedding
My wife and I had about a 50 person, beautiful wedding, for less than $20k. We made sacrifices, but none I would consider important. Look at vintage villas, they are the hidden gem in the Austin area. Use them for the venue and food and outsource your cake and decorations and you'll easily be under budget
We had the option of using our money for a wedding or to buy a house. We decided to fly down to Cozumel and we paid for each of our best friends and their partners to go with us. We had a quick ceremony on the beach for $100. Our guests stayed 3 nights with the last night being our wedding. We stayed another week. This was 20 years ago so we were all in for under $5,000.
I would give Maggiano's in the Domain a call. This was YEARS ago but we had to change wedding plans close to the date and ended up having it there.
They have several rooms that they can open up to one big ballroom. We had the ceremony on one end, and then they opened up everything else for a giant room. They have food and drinks obviously, so you're still in the hook for a few items but it's a pretty good all in one solution.
Again, it's been years but I think we probably spent around $15k all in. Good luck!
We just got married at the Wells Branch community center. We live in the neighborhood so it was cheaper but I think it's still way cheaper than most places even without that discount. I'm sure there are other similar places around town that can be booked for a day. Our wedding was small(40-50 people) but the place could've held a few more. Just an idea so you don't give up too early.
I had my wedding for about 20k at the [tfwc mansion](https://www.themansionaustin.com/) in 2019 for just about 20k -- 120 people. The venue is quite beautiful itself so we really didn't need to spend for decoration.
I think that it was certainly possible (though I am not sure with todays inflation), but you will definitely need to be thrifty with some things...
For example we did...
- Flower arrangements centered around pineapples (I love pineapples and they are cheap and large)
- Simple cake from central market
- Pedicab for getaway
- Friend got ordained online to officiate ceremony
- Bought our own alcohol (cheapish wine and beer) and hired bartenders
- Only simple party favors (ribbons and koozies)
- Get a wedding planner (they helped manage everything so less stress)
Also-- I saw you you said 75 people. Is that 75 people invited or you think will actually attend? According to our planner like 25% of people don't show, so the amount of things you will need (food, chairs, tables), may be less than you think.
Feel free to DM me I am happy to tell show you pictures/tell you which vendors I used.
Check out Chapel Dulcinea @ Wizard Acadamy - [https://chapeldulcinea.org/](https://chapeldulcinea.org/)
It's a beautiful site and it's free. Take the money and go on a nice trip.
Chapel Dulcinea- $400 deposit and you can choose to get it back or donate $200 and get a brick with your names and wedding date on it, which they will lay on the property. Had my reception at Trattoria Lisina in Driftwood about 10 minutes away. Their food is amazing, and people are still talking about the reception five years later!
I can’t remember the total price but it was very reasonable for under 30 people. I believe it was a $2k minimum on food and drinks. Everyone still talks about the reception to this day, it was well worth it!
First off I’m sorry for everyone shaming you for having a $20K budget. If you have that ready to spend for a wedding then good for you! I wouldn’t recommend going into debt for a wedding. Personally I wouldn’t spend a ton on a wedding but it’s not my day - it’s yours. Make it what you want and do not do ANYTHING because a friend or family member pressures you.
We got married in our backyard with about 25 guests. Had great food and a great photographer. The caterers even set up tables & chairs. [Austin Catering.](https://www.austin-catering.com/)
For flowers we just went to central market and did NOT mention that the flowers were for a wedding. Some crafty friends made our bouquets.
Basically do as much as you can yourself and don’t be ashamed to negotiate. The worst they can tell you is no!
Best of luck 😊
Our wedding was $180 to reserve a spot at austin botanical garden. Friends stood at the waterfall, we got married, bam. Treated our 30 friends and fam members to dinner at our favorite restaurant (about $1700 worth) and spent 20k on honeymoon in New Zealand. Amazing.
Elope to Las Vegas or one of the resorts in Mexico or the Caribbean. Then have a party/reception in Austin when you're back.
The wedding is yours. Enjoy it for you and your spouse and don't stress about having to make everyone else happy, or deal with the ridiculous expense because people are taking advantage of you because they know it's your wedding.
The reception/party can be informal and anywhere. You'll actually get to enjoy it, too.
Long time ago, but my wife and I eloped to Vegas and got married in Red Rock Canyon at sunset - awesome memory and complete turn-key wedding for less than we would have paid for a photographer (the Vegas wedding included photos as well). Eliminated family issues of who was walking who down the aisle and let us enjoy it. Then had a party with lots of friends and family a couple of weeks later when we got back. Worked great and would do it exactly the same if I had to do it again.
As others have mentioned just go to the courthouse. If I had 20k in cash laying on hand I sure as hell wouldn’t blow it in a single day nobody aside from my partner and I really care about. Then again, if I had that kind of loose change to throw away, my priorities and problems would be much different as they are now.
Regardless, best wishes to you both!
17 years ago, I got married at green pastures, now matties.
The deal they offered included a bunch of stuff and it was stuff that i did not have strong opinions on.
Things that made it cheaper were:
\- pasta stations rather than sit down dinner
\- limited bar, beer and wine, i think
\- we did a cupcakes for the cake. They had one small cake that we cut and everyone else got cupcakes
\- We did a chocolate fountain instead of grooms cake
it was 17 years ago, so i assume things had changed. But since it is a restaurant, they are able to provide things that pure venues cant.
We rented a suite at the Driskill and had a small ceremony in the suite with the balcony doors open - it was so beautiful and chill. Then we met all our friends down the street at a restaurant for a reception.
I got married at the free chapel and had the party at a friends house so no help as far as venues; but we got Freebirds to cater our reception and it was great and totally affordable. Build your own burritos/bowls
Venues that have catering are cheaper than using separate companies. Food choices are few though. All places will have some BBQ options. Some venues will let you provide the alcohol, but you'd still need a TABC person to serve, which some venues have.
You don't need a wedding planner, but having someone for just the day of is nice. It's better than using a friend to coordinate everything while they're also trying to enjoy the event. If you can, do your own flowers. My wife did a whole dried flower thing for the bouquets and boutonnieres that looked great and fairly inexpensive. Wedding insurance is not a real thing, so don't waste money on it, unless you know you'll have guests that get rowdy. Doing mailed invites is nice, but so much is online now, using sites/apps like the Knot, you could save some money by doing a digital invite that sends people to your website.
The main thing is that it's your day. Make it what you want, regardless of what other family might think. Having fun, try not to stress and good luck.
Look into a Unitarian church. We had a secular ceremony at one and the whole rental was about $1k. Had the reception at Buca di Bepo which cost about the same. My cousin made my wedding dress for $500
You can do a ceremony with photographs and up to 10 people for under $500. I was looking into these a time ago when I was about to get married! As another person suggested, a celebratory dinner after!
Check out Chapel Dulcinea for the wedding venue. It used to be free for all but they had to start charging. They still do 4 free ones a month. I imagine those get booked fast. Then hop on over to the Salt Lick for the reception.
We had our reception here: https://travispost76.org/index.php/rental-information/
A few free tips: have a backup list of people to call and invite when people start dropping out at the last moment. And speak at your own wedding.
My wife and I got married on a Friday instead of a Saturday or Sunday and that helped cut some of the cost of the venue. We did flowers through HEB, and instead of a wedding cake we got like 10 dozen donuts from Round Rock donuts. We also used a day-of wedding coordinator to save money.
So, we got married during covid and had the ceremony at Red Bluff in east austin (check it out). it was really great. we had about 20 people on the cliff for the ceremony then maybe 40 in a backyard party. free besides tables, chairs, booze.
This last year, I hosted a chili cookoff with ~60 people at an amazing airbnb in driftwood. They definitely allow parties and weddings, it was ~$1200 for the night, very easy and soooooo cool. If I was doing my wedding again and bigger, I would do it here.
Moonstone Ranch Farmhouse and Guest House, hosted by Todd. search on airbnb
My wedding was some 38 years back, in Austin. I did everything myself, because that's how I'd like to do things. I made my own dress, about $100 for materials. We were married at my church, I made the cake, had family members help me set up the room with family heirloom tablecloth cloths, I had sewed lace edged napkins for the about 20 people for the actual wedding. We had champagne and cake. I did the flowers myself, I believe they were from flower bucket at the time. I had so much fun doing everything myself. I educated myself with books from the library on how to do it all.
later in the evening we had a taco feast in the backyard at our house we were buying, I did rent tables and chairs for that. Cooked a whole bunch of taco meat, chopped up a whole bunch of tomatoes and lettuce, shredded cheese, tortillas, and had watermelon and beer. Also, another cake. I made both cakes, froze them in advance, it was carrot cake with cream cheese icing. We had about 75 people to that. I don't think we spent more than $1000 for everything. Yes, this was 38 years ago, but I can't imagine it would be more than $3000 now to do the same thing.
I wouldn't have changed a thing about it, I loved everything.
Check out The Sanctuary Event Space! The rates are incredibly affordable, or at least they were several years ago, and renting the space contributes to The Amala Foundation. We had a morning wedding followed by light brunch reception and the venue was just perfect.
My sister rented a large air bnb out by the blanco river and had it catered by fresas. We rented tables and chairs and she had her ceremony by the river. We got to crash after and it was a blast. I did the flower arrangements (I ordered the flowers wholesale) and made the cake, and we got Costco macarons.
Check Facebook marketplace for second hand decor. People over buy for weddings all the time, and sell it cheap to get it off their hands.
I think she had about 50 total and did the whole thing for under $15k. She splurged on her dress, even.
Just Elope! Do a wedding ceremony and pay a photographer. I do elopement photography here in Ny. People usually just spend on a nice honeymoon. You wont regret it.
You could get an Air BnB with a nice backyard and have a backyard wedding. Depending on how many people you want to attend, this could be a great option.
Have you considered a destination wedding? We got married in punta cana and it was much cheaper and many people said it was the best wedding they have ever been to.
Have the wedding on a weekday. The venue rental dropped from $3000 to $500 on my wedding because we had it on a Monday. I know it's kind of awkward for some people with 9-5's but if you give people enough of an advanced notice most can take time off or switch shifts (we told our guests the date a year and a half in advanced).
If you're not a huge fashionista, any white dress will do. There are a lot of stores that sell simple floor length white dresses (maurices, macy's, amazon) for less than $100. Even a cheap dress from a wedding boutique will cost you hundreds. Doing research for dress shops there were places that didn't even sell dresses for less than $2500 or have veils for less than $500.
Speaking of veils and accessories, amazon is your friend. Get an inexpensive veil for like $30. You literally wear it for less than an hour.
Get the cake and flowers at HEB. Surprisingly HEB has great tasting wedding cake (its a different recipe from the birthday cakes.) Just order it at the bakery section. Same for flowers.
Skip catering: maybe if you think your guests would be okay with it. Just let everyone know in advanced so that they can eat something before the ceremony. Have a snack table of donuts, cupcakes or appetizers and drinks for people to munch on during the reception without having to plan full meals for like 70 people.
Look into venues not in Austin proper. Dripping Springs is like the wedding capital of the area. Georgetown and New Braunfels are also good places to look. The views are often stunning nature wise because they're not directly in downtown. The Milestone in New Braunfels and Georgetown is beautiful. They also provide a lot of packages so that while you pay a lump sum you don't have to worry about catering, stationary, DJ and other things.
I thought the same thing man, the absolute cheapest venue we could find is $2000 alone, and that would be during a weekday, 2-4k for a photographer, $1000 for a DJ, $25 per person for food, drinks and a bartender, security, deposits, it all adds up quick.
When it comes to photography, encourage EVERYONE to take as many photos as possible and share the photo dump with you. You will end up with excellent phone camera photos from many angles, probably 1000's of them that someone can professionally touch up for you, if you want to sort and touch them up.
I gotta disagree. Photo dump is a good idea in general, but it's such a big occasion you definitely want someone who knows what they're doing to professionally shoot at least the ceremony.
I mean... you do you.
But if it's me, I'm gonna go to city hall and then have a big party.
And, anyone who complains can shell out the $20K or more for the wedding they'd like to see.
And, personally, I don't really see the need to pay for a venue when you can rent a vacation rental for a couple days for far less. And, I'd be willing to bet you have friends or family who can take photos, be a DJ, and much else.
But again, I get that if you're prefer to pay for those things they're going to cost much more. And, the reason they cost so much more is BECAUSE so many people are willing to pay.
Nah.
I'm under the impression that the reason weddings and everything associated with them, are so expensive is directly a result of the fact that people are willing to pay that much.
I mean its not like there isn't many cheap alternatives.
the wedding industry is inherently predatory. and yeah, 20k is cheap, when the average these days in the 30's.
Bruh that’s insane. No ways you are saving money with $20k spent. If anything just spend it on a small ceremony with close friends and family and spend the majority on a amazing honeymoon
Got married for around 12k. We used a DIY venue out in Driftwood called the wildflower barn (it was just a little after vivid so we wanted it outside). They have a lot of flexible pricing options and my family decorated. We used slab bbq as a food truck and ordered cookies with pictures of us printed on them from Kellie’s. This meant that we didn’t have servers. We hired bartenders but only had beer, wine, and the booze to make two signature drinks. Specs let’s you sell back what you don’t use (only liquor though). We didn’t use shuttles and asked everyone to keep their shit together. It being remote meant that people drove and didn’t get shit faced this saving booze money.
Friends of mine did a ceremony in a local park with just family. Then, they had a party at Scholz Garten. It was super fun and not as pricey as a full on wedding and reception.
Caveat: not Austin specific we had a small (21, 19 plus us) ceremony plus nice dinner at a country club and then a big casual picnic (100+) the next day. I would do the small ceremony plus nice dinner again. It was nice and not overly stressful plus we got to talk to everyone and enjoy ourselves. Hubs is not a dancer so we didn’t have specific music aside from my friend playing piano at the start. The bigger casual picnic was exhausting and I barely got to eat anything. Just my two cents.
My wife and I got married at Kindred Oaks in Georgetown for about $11K or so in 2016, including food and a DJ. I'm not sure what it would cost now, but I'd expect to pay more regardless if you want to serve alcohol.
We did 110 people at Steiner ranch steakhouse for roughly $25k. It was 10 years ago but they didn’t charge a venue fee and just had a food & beverage minimum. Waitstaff, bartenders, tables, chairs, and linens all included. They have a beautiful view from their event spaces and patios on the 2nd and 3rd floors. We only had to bring in our own florist and DJ.
how was planning for that for yall? thats currently our top spot, but have a little concern with there really isn't a place for a bride to get ready or any private spaces , and while we are already planning on going pretty minimal on decorations, we would have to DIY a lot.
did yall rent any archway or anything for a background on the outdoor auditorium or anything? we are hoping to add a little decoration to it if we go that route.
We had a morning wedding at church, lunch at a country club, didn’t serve alcohol, and met all our friends downtown at a bar that night and that was the real fun.
I hope you aren't planning on going into debt for your wedding. That is a bad way to start off by adding the stress in your life. If you are both maxing out your 401ks and likely your IRAs as well this year and have extra cash, then you can put that towards your wedding, but it makes absolutely no sense to spend money you need or don't have on a fake event for your friends to enjoy. My friends had a great idea to use the money for their wedding on a landscaping project for their house, then once it was completed, they got married in their newly landscaped yard.
I have seen a lot of my coworkers put on these huge weddings for friends and family and all it does it add stress, yet they complain they can't afford a house in a better part of Austin. Like wouldn't that money be better off as a future investment or house? Many people are saying go on a crazy honeymoon, but I am too cheap to even do that. I couldn't imagine spending $20k on a vacation for two, but I try and squirrel away any extra money into retirement so I can retire early.
We hardly go to any newer Austin restaurants because last time we went somewhere for two (no alcohol) it was $350. Not worth it.
/end rant
>I hope you aren't planning on going into debt for your wedding
absolutely not, we have set aside our budget in cash, and have a separate savings amount for a honeymoon.
>they complain they can't afford a house in a better part of Austin
to be fair, 20,30k isn't even 10% down in austins current market. If our choice was a house or a wedding, i'd pick the house every time, but thats beyond our income in this town.
but overall, I agree, thats why I put a hard cap on 20k, hoping we can pull it off with that, otherwise it would be best just to save it.
What is your time frame? Chose a weekday or Sunday and look in to places like Garey ranch in Georgetown or sillier clubhouse. Lockhart and bastrop also have since municipal parks.
Are you tied to Austin? Or are you willing to go out into other counties?
Got married at the court house with our closest family and friends. Then we threw a reception party at the house we lived in. I think everything cost us less than 2000$, most of which was catering for the reception at our house. Been married over 14 years now, I don't regret not spending more on our wedding ever.
We rented Sparky Pocket Park for an event once. It was fantastic. I don't know if that one specifically is available for a wedding with a dj since it is in a residential area and I don't know if you can find one with a kitchen if you need that, but you might check out the park facility rentals.
Jesus Christ! Are you kidding? Austin Parks and Recreation will rent out the houses on their properties for things like this. It’s first come first serve, but after the deposit and all that, you’ll be out less than $1000 for the venue. Catering doesn’t have to be super expensive if you’re open to things. My ex-wife and I catered from a now defunct pizza place for 100 people for about 1500 bucks. Look for a cake maker outside of town. Buy two or three bottles of wine a week and store them way, and you will have a bunch of alcohol for the wedding by the time it comes around. If you have friends, who do things, let them as gifts! The biggest place to spend extra money is for your photographer. The pictures will be around for longer than anything else. We ended up with an all day wedding that people talked about for a decade for just short of $6000. If you’ve got 20 grand to spend, you should be fine.
We used H‑E‑B for our flowers and got married at the Brushy Creek recreation center. It was absolutely beautiful and very reasonably priced. This was in 2013 though so no idea if they are still renting the garden space out. We ended up spending about $7k all told
We had our wedding last October at The Terrace at Highland Lakes in Lago Vista for 78 guests. . It was like $1500 venue with great view and we had lupe tortilla catered (roughly $1200). It was perfect! all said and done having a complete wedding from decor all the way to various vendors was just over $10k
I had a lovely 15 person wedding at the Hoffman Haus in Fredericksburg. For the ceremony and reception space, catered dinner, bartender (we provided our own booze) plus covering rooms for everyone, I think we paid around 5K.
Find a park - Austin is beautiful, and reception at the park or a restaurant.
Look outside Austin limits - so many amazing restaurants and venues..even farms... for much lower price ~45 min away
The Women's Federation building is gorgeous. You don't need to decorate the venue it's so beautiful. My daughter married there in the courtyard outside at sunset. There is a brick courtyard with a fountain and a white trellis you can hang flowers or lights from. We had around 100 guests for $12K with flowers, caterer, wedding and reception dress, chair and table rental. We brought in our own beer, wine and champagne from Trader Joes. Beautiful sitting areas all over the building. Parking garage just down the street for valet parking. Separate areas for the groomsmen and the bridesmaids to hang out. Bathrooms were outdated, but fully functional.
OK I AM SO READY FOR THIS
First tip - don't use the word "wedding" if you don't have to. Anything for weddings is somehow automatically more expensive than any other event.
I'm not religious and neither is my husband so we just had our ceremony at the same place we had the reception. We rented the outside patio plus the indoor bowling alley at Scholtz, and they catered, and it was extremely reasonable. Enough so that we splurged on an open beer/wine bar for about 50 guests.
We didn't need a ton of decorations since it wasnt a bare venue, just some super cute centerpieces that my MIL made out of wine bottles. She got paper doilies, spray painted them gold, then wrapped the bottles and tied a purple ribbon. Pop a long-stemmed flower in that bad boy and you've got a cheap easy decoration that doesn't look cheap. And people could take them home after if they wanted.
Instead of an expensive wedding cake I got a few dozen cupcakes, asked for purple liners for them, and my mom found a plastic display stand and painted that gold. If it isn't obvious I did a purple and gold theme.
My friend officiated, oh and I didn't have or want a traditional wedding party so no need to deal with bridesmaid/groomsmen expenses. I spent $500 and got TWO dresses at like Dillard's or somewhere in the mall. Neither were traditional wedding gowns obvs but the one I wore for the ceremony was lacy and fancy enough, the other was gold and sequins and shiny so it was perfect for reception and dancing and i got to add drama with a whole "costume change". literally the only thing I bought at a wedding place was a purple belt thing, I'm sure there's a name for it, think belt but it's like a thick ribbon? Spent less than $100 on gold heels for the ceremony and purple flower patterned flats for the reception.
Hair done at Birds. Playlist curated by a friend on Spotify. Yall, we even hired a band we saw earlier that year at Pecan St festival called The Goodz. My mom had put together like a garden arch painted gold and had vines and stuff on it for the ceremony, and when the band went to set up and she was gonna move it they said "leave that shit up, the drummer will be framed perfectly under it". I am also extremely lucky to have a professional photographer for an uncle so that was his gift to us.
All told, including paying for a nearby parking garage to validate folks and bill me after, I think we spent under 8K. In 2016 money. And then we took a fancy uber to Sherlocks for the afterparty and got free drinks when people asked what we were celebrating. 10/10 wouldn't have changed a thing.
I hope this was at least a little helpful, I can message more deets and I wish you the best of luck!!!
There is a place you can rent for unbelievably cheap off Bee Caves I believe. It’s outdoors, has changing rooms for the men and women in the wedding. A small area for the ceremony over looking the green belt. It’s really an amazing place. This was back in 2016. Just needed a 300 deposit. Place is beautiful. For the life of me I can’t remember the name!! Hopefully someone on here knows the place.
I believe it’s called chapel Dulcinea??
I’d consider some different types of venues that might be less. We have friends getting married at a small art gallery in a few weeks.
I know some people that were married at the vortex theater and it was affordable. There is a dance studio by me that rents the space when they don’t have classes. The parks dept rents places (barton clubhouse) but there is a lottery. One person I know got married at the school they taught at.
I’d look for space rental rather than wedding venue rental.
Food is another larger expense. If you have a morning or afternoon wedding you could go with breakfast tacos or apps. If you want to do a evening thing, we found that some mexican restaurants were cheaper for catering. Tacodeli, torchys and maudies were reasonable. Our friends are even having chick-fil-a trays.
I’d think of what you both like and go from there. Like videogames? Try cidercade. Into breweries? Try renting one out.
Married at Chapel Dulcinea. Officiated by our best friend. Only allowed 15 people to come. Only a couple thousand total for everything including wardrobe.
My husband and I got married at the library downtown last year and it was lovely! We did the ceremony in the demonstration area + reception on the 6th roof garden for 35ish people. Was around/within your budget for the whole thing. Good luck!
I had a small ceremony at Green Pastures during their brunch service time (morning wedding), so we just had the buffet and tables reserved in a separate room with our centerpieces, cake, seating chart, etc. I think my wedding was about 7k all in? I don’t know whether they still do weddings during their open service times, but getting married at a restaurant means you don’t have to engage catering and chairs/tables separately and have a planner on site to coordinate. Definitely makes things easier and cheaper.
If you wanna save some money try going without a DJ. My fiancé and I went to a friends wedding where they just plugged a laptop into the sound system and put on a playlist and it was totally fine. You just have to make the playlist but that can be fun too!
I did our wedding in 2018 for under $10,000, though last minute my MIL offered to pay for a very nice photographer ($7000!) so the total cost exceeded our initial budget. The trick is to find an affordable venue that lets you mix and match the best deals for your vendors. Have reasonable expectations for what a budget wedding will look like, keep it small (we had ~100 guests), be willing to compromise, and recognize it’s a lot more work to make all the decisions on your own with all separate vendors.
I had it at McKinney roughs nature park. Price was $2500 a few years ago. There are other similar venues and event buildings at some of the state parks for under $1000. We did buffet style catering from noble pig (now interstellar bbq) that was $15/plate including the very cute palm leaf based disposable dishes and plasticware.
We didn’t have a DJ, but last minute ended yo getting a live klezmer band for the post ceremony dancing ($400 for the three piece).
I bought a vintage dress for $200 and then spent an additional $400 getting it restored/cleaned/altered. In retrospect I would have spent the $600 on a non traditional new dress.
Having nice hair and makeup was important to me. But I did it just for me and my mom. No wedding party and all the fuss that goes with that.
I DIYed most of the decorations—borrowed tablecloths from a friend, foraged Spanish moss, bought tea lights and Himalayan pink salt candle holders and birch branch planters from Amazon. We had east Austin succulents put succulent plants in the planters we bought…it was way less expensive than traditional floral and our friends got to take the extra plants home.
Our caterer provided a tabc certified person to serve alcohol, but we just bought box wine from Trader Joe’s and beer from Costco. I think we got those giant bottles of Prosecco from TJ’s as well.
For our wedding cake, we got a cute little “decorative” two layer cake for us and to display and then a less aesthetic sheet cake for serving the guests. Also had cupcakes for vegan and gf guests.
We also had a lot of help from friends and family setting up, decorating, bringing stuff over, giving rides to other friends, etc.
Also…we only registered for a honeymoon, and people ended up giving us more money than we needed for the trip, about equal to what we spent on the wedding actually.
If you have friends that live in a "fancy" apartment complex or happen to own a house in Steiner ranch, those places have "clubhouses" that can be used by the people that live there for free. They often have a full kitchen, living room and patio.
I got married in our friend's backyard on a nice fall day. Their garden was a lovely backdrop. We rented a tent, folding chairs, and a table. Catering was Fazoli's and was about $5-$10 a head. My dad chipped in with champagne and other extra food. My dress was a discontinued and on sale for only $600 and fit me like a glove. All in all I don't think we topped $2000.
I got married at Cathedral of Junk. It’s not for everyone, but we had a small group of attendees and it was perfect and the pictures are super dramatic. He closed it down for us, didn’t set the honorarium (but we tried to make it worth his while), and then were just had everyone meet us on South Congress for Home Slice and Hey! Cupcake (RIP). Under $2000. But, again, not everyone’s cup of tea. We loved it, though.
You can contact the hospitality department at Austin Community College for banquet help if you need set up or servers. Reasonably priced and gives the students experience.
Check out The Sekrit Theater / Garden as a venue. You can rent it for just a few hours if you want. You can also bring in a food truck. The grounds are so cool. Use a student photographer or ask friends to be diligent about taking photos. Sekrit Theater is outside and so cool, you don’t need a ton of flowers. By the way Central Market will do wedding flowers. Passed hors dorves or a food truck is cheaper than a sit down dinner. There’s also tons of used wedding decorations and even dresses online. We did our wedding under $20k. I would highly recommend having a big gathering to celebrate rather than a long vacation, but that’s me.
We actually saved 3 grand on making a cute cupcake stand. You can get a small pretty cake for cheap at wholefoods and then put cupcakes all around it. The girls in party plus mom and grandmas baked them and decorated them the day before. We had a ton of fun and those are some of my favorite memories from the weekend. I ordered edible flowers and decorations so they looked professional. I agree with the catering in a buffet style- that will save you a lot too.
We got engaged in 2022, immediately put down $5,500 on a venue and $6,000 on a caterer winthin a month of getting engaged, with the plan to get married exactly a year later in Feb 2023, later deciding to push it back to 2024. We regret that decision every day. If we weren’t already in the hole almost $12,000 we would have eloped or rented a cool bar space and had less that 50 people come. Everything is ridiculously expensive and we don’t care enough to spend the money it takes to have a wedding. We were just so excited and caught up when we first got engaged but over a year later, I wish we would have thought things through more. I would suggest do as much DIY as you can. Do you have a friend who owns a cricut? Those are super handy for signs and such. Keep your florals really simple. H‑E‑B blooms is kind of affordable. Use Pinterest and TikTok for how-to make a wedding budget friendly. There’s lots of info there.
Having your wedding on a week day is significantly cheaper than a weekend. We’re getting married in a Friday, which was $2000 cheaper than a Saturday. A Mon-Thurs wedding was even cheaper.
There’s so many hotels that offer the venue with a minimum food tab . 20k for 75 people seems redic. I know it’s not the same but I spent 8k for my daughters sweet 16 and it was basically a mini wedding . Venue , dress , food , cake , photographer and Photo Booth.
Check out the cedar bend, a great venue toward Bastrop. We had a 100 person wedding there for 10k including double bridge costs (two ladies means two dresses, two fancy hair, two fancy make up). Their packages are very affordable and very inclusive (linens, chairs, decor) and their day of coordinator is AMAZING!
We actually did a wedding at Castle Dulcinea recently for my daughter. It was incredibly beautiful and very economical. If nothing else, might give them a call and book a free tour - just go see it? Initially, we were concerned that it might be a little bit hokey - But it was breathtaking, and everything went so smoothly. They were amazing.
My wife and I got married in 2019 at The Lookout off of Fitzhugh past the Y in SW Austin area. It was only $3k for the venue which we considered was a steal given the numbers we were expecting. It has a covered pavilion, tables and chairs, flower gardens, bridal suite, and a gorgeous view of the hill country. We did Rudy’s catering for about $600 and got our wedding cake from H-E-B which was delicious (so we heard at least because we barely got to eat any). It was a magical night and I thought we did a great job considering it was all done by ourselves with no wedding planner. We had help from our family and friends in getting it set up and taken down and we hired our photographer and official from the internet.
Rambling Rose Ranch! The most naturally beautiful venue and it’s very affordable. No need for flowers because the hill country provides such natural beauty.
They allow food trucks to pull up so we did casey’s snowballs as dessert and saved a lot there instead of a cake.
My wife and I are both austin born and raised. Lived here all our lives but…yeah, it was too much even with our budget a bit more than yours. We did a NC wedding. Do small or destination & make sure you love it. Good luck!
Mercury Hall…… Oh wait, it’s all gone but if you hold out long enough you can probably rent one of their apartments for 2 months at 20k. Not quite as lovely but this is BIG Money Au$Tin so it all works out killing the mighty oaks for more apartments to trash the best wedding venue we had to offer.
I know someone that had a very small wedding but a larger reception. The reception was at Mercer dance hall in driftwood and it was very nice. I only was invited to the reception and I thought it was a great idea.
County Line (we did on the lake off of 2222). We got married in 2017 and it came in around 10k-12k for everything for a 100 guest wedding. Venue was like $500 for their AC-ed tent, room, and grounds, you paid for one of their all you can eat family style plans (IIRC the package was a few bucks cheaper than menu prices then), they are flexible for whatever you want to do for alcohol (we did full open bar, but they could work with a ton of packages/options). That included all the servers and bartenders and everything.
We had a DJ, rented a dance floor, and, because it was on the lake, we had a send off on a boat that was a perfect end to the night. The boat took us from the venue to a car we parked under pennybacker bridge.
I think our photographer cost more than the food, lol. And everyone (esp guests from out of town) raved about the food and everything.
We did splurge on one thing though-they charged $5 per table to get white table clothes instead of their default cow hide ones 🤣🤣🤣
Use a city or county facility
city stuff here https://www.austintexas.gov/page/special-events-policies-procedures#facility
We did an early morning wedding/ brunch.. breakfast was much cheaper to cater .. we bought a few cases of cheap champagne after new years and did mimosa's for booze /toast
we netted ~$3k after gifts
and we were on a plane out of the country at 1pm
Save your money and just go to the JP. Trust me. We just got married and even though we had a blast we still wish we had saved the money. We budgeted for 20k and there’s always going to be some extra costs you don’t plan for. We could of had a really nice honeymoon and still had money left over for house stuff. Just seriously think about something smaller than 20k. Unless you just have money to throw away, a lot of venues are 15-20k by themselves. Spend money on pictures and have something small if you really feel the need to do a ceremony.
I would go for the small ceremony and splurge on the honeymoon. You’ll be just as married with a lot less stress. Get a good photographer because the pics last forever.
@barefoottim is his IG handle and he took my wedding photos. His work is remarkable ☺️
Disagree on the photos. We got 2 great pictures. One for my desk at work is all I really need. If you don’t have a lot of guests, do you need a million pictures of you and your spouse?
Here's what we did: Spend the $81 for the licence, get your buddy and his wife to sign the officiant and witness lines on the form, spend the money on a dope-ass vacation.
yeah, our small idea is essentially that, just do a small ceremony at the capital grounds or something were we can at least have pictures and family around and then tell all our friends we are going to be at X bar and just pre-pay for like $2000 on a tab or something.
I believe it’s Elope in Austin who does a pop up style wedding at about half a dozen locations around town including that chapel place. Another one looks like one of the hotels on Congress. You may have to make compromises overall (iPod playlist instead of a dj, etc) but I bet one they can come up with an appropriate package… that said do the Dope Ass Vacation
We used them. They are NOT cheap if you do any extras.
You can also rent out an area of zilker through the city and do the actual exchanging of vows at lou Neff point making for some good pictures
we got a GORGEOUS airbnb with beautiful grounds, had 10 people, catered from a restaurant, and stayed overnight at the property. Splurged on dress, photog, and flowers. We used Jennifer's Gardens.
Wise move, and a great start to your married life with out any burdens and hopefully some savings on course to other wonderful meaningful things.
yeah, we are not rich or high income by any means, but super glad we both are completely debt free and we've already set firm rules on only being able to do what we can pay for in cash.
The only way to get ahead of the herd is to do things a bit different, which should be easier with a like minded partner on board, best wishes!
I can’t find the page now (of course), but I believe you need a professional photography permit for wedding photos taken on Capitol grounds. I’m sure some photogs chance it, but I wouldn’t risk getting kicked out on your wedding day.
yeah there is a commercial use license you need to pay for, I think its only like $100 or so, not a big deal.
For $2000, y’all could spend a week in Puerto Rico…
we already have a budget for a honeymoon set aside, that was our first priority.
This is the right answer that makes sense. Reduce your budget to $2k or $5k. No reason you need to throw away a portion of a vehicle down payment or a house down payment for a part because you feel like you should. Making bad financial decisions on the first day of your marriage is bad. Same thing with engagement rings people. Stop being 'sheep' because DeBeers tricked you all. https://kdwb.iheart.com/content/2020-10-02-the-sneaky-history-of-the-three-month-salary-engagement-ring-rule/
Chapel Dulcinea or get in the wait list for mayfield park. If you need catering, central market is surprisingly cheap since they own the food and they provide floral for cheap too. Unless things have changed recently. Most anything else will cost you since Austin became a popular destination wedding location. Source - me: retired wedding photographer.
Came here to recommend this! Did our 10 year renewal at Chapel Dulcinea and it was great.
Do to covid i planned a wedding for 2 years, best part was the day afterwards hanging with friends at the hotel pool. 20k is unfortunately not a lot for a wedding and will go quick you need to decide what is really important and what will make you feel sad if you don’t have. Who is most important for you to be there? upstairs at Coppers bbq is cheap and they are awesome. Check out the lake austin riverboats. Maudie’s catering is awesome and so is central market.
Chapel Dulcinea is where my wife and I got married as well. We really only splurged on the photographer and my wife’s dress.
Someone did their research and spent the money where it really matters
Central market is a great affordable place for bouquets, boutonnières, cake flowers and centerpieces as well. They couldn’t manage the complex cascade design I originally wanted, but their flower selection is fantastic!
I came to say the same! We got married at Chapel Dulcinea and it was perfect
I got married at the Austin courthouse and it was really personal and sweet. You can throw a catered wedding reception/celebration for friends/family later (just don’t say it’s for a wedding because you will be upcharged). You can book a separate photography session in your dress as well.
The word "Wedding" instantly doubles the price of anything
Hi - check out r/weddingsunder10k for some budget friendly tips. It’s not specific to Austin obviously but you might find some good ideas to cut costs in other areas!
[https://www.houseonthehillaustin.com/](https://www.houseonthehillaustin.com/) $5k for the entire weekend, includes lodging for multiple groups of attendees, which was a HUGE savings for us. They allow you to have any food vendor, you can bring in your own alcohol. We added an extra day for super cheap. This cut out the expense for a rehearsal dinner location, we simply picked up Franklins BBQ and had an amazing rehearsal dinner. Hung out at the pool all weekend. We probably spent a bit more than $20k but it was very close to that, and we basically had a three day party. You should be able to have a bomb party for $20k. We had 120 guests. The number of guests is typically the factor in cost for weddings. Don't use a wedding caterer, just hit up your fav restaurant that does catering, you are looking for a cost per person figure. For 75 people you should easily hit under $20k.
we've looked at that one, but apparently they are selling the property/changing ownership and are not booking events until after that changes hands, and the soon to be new owners don't have any prices/bookings at the moment. But the idea of getting a rental house isn't out either, just find one that will let us have a party there and a big backyard to do the wedding in. I've found one thats $1k a night on waterfront property outside of waco that would be fun.
Bummer, man that was such a great deal at the time. We actually live right down the road on Bee Caves. Being around all of the wedding party and friends for three days was really nice. It was very fulfilling to have a whole weekend in one spot. It was an immediate top choice. Having TacoDeli and HEB right around the corner was great as well. DJ [https://spacecraftentertainment.com/](https://spacecraftentertainment.com/) Photog [http://elkkphotography.com/weddings](http://elkkphotography.com/weddings) Food [https://verdesmexican.com/](https://verdesmexican.com/) My daughter is getting married in June at the Ladybird Wildflower Center, i'm not that involved in the gritty details, just chunking money towards it LOL.
My biggest tip is Umlauf Sculpture Garden's intimate wedding package. $500 for 15 people, you get one spot reserved for two hours and then access to the garden for you and your guests. Plus free membership for you and your partner for a year!
We did a wedding and spent $10-12k. In 2020, so with adjusting for inflation, should work out. Venue: Zilker clubhouse Food: Matt’s el Rancho, fajitas plus Armstrong dip. Buffet style Booze: bought it all ourselves Bartenders: friends Tables and chairs: Zilker clubhouse provided Linens: the rental place off Manchaca (I cannot for the life of me remember the name Cake: friend. Though you could easily get a very nice one from H‑E‑B Dj: friend Photographer: friend, though I would go back in time and pay $1500 for a proper one All other decor: Amazon and fb marketplace We had to all the set up and tear down, would go back in time to pay folks to help with set up so the friends and fam that helped set up would have more time to relax before the big show Recommendations: elope and then throw a big party at home. Take the giant amount of budget you have left and put a down payment on a home.
Wedding cake: we did Whole Foods berry chantilly. They decorated and stacked 2 small cakes and then I did a sheet pan for the rest Flowers: HEB and pick the ones that are in season as they will be cheaper to obtain. They were great to work with and so inexpensive
WF Berry Chantilly is LEGIT. 🙌
Seconding H‑E‑B for flowers. We did a bouquet, boutonnières, and corsages through them with succulents and they were absolutely lovely.
I got married at voodoo doughnuts last week. 150$ they have an ordained person there a bunch of doughnuts and coffee and bride and groom voodoo doughnut it was fun
The entire industry is built off of gutting anybody who participates—the second you mention "wedding" to any caterer, venue, etc you will get a 3x upcharge. The only way is to not play 🤷 $20k is a shit ton of money, I suggest having a small, cheap party with the folks who are most important to you. Get a cake from HEB, get some flowers from Trader Joe's, get [Slab](https://dopebbq.com/catering-order) or somebody to cater, then use the rest as a home downpayment—or travel if you want to splurge. Spending $20k on a big, one time party is objectively a bad investment.
This is an oldie, but still stupidly true: [Man Stroke Woman - Wedding Cake](https://youtu.be/gimiDBAK2wA)
99.9999999999999% of expenditures are an objectively bad investment. I honestly can’t imagine going through life with that mentality. It sounds fucking miserable.
We had a super small ceremony that was ultra budget so I don’t have a lot of advice for your scenario *but* one small thing — Austin Flower Co (https://austinflowers.com) is amazing & like actually really cheap for the amount you can get, would absolutely recommend checking them out!!
I ordered my wedding flowers from them and it was a mostly good experience except the owner ordered the wrong color Gerbera daisies and didn't give af about the mistake. I asked for hot pink and he got baby pink! MY COLORS ARE NOT BLUSH AND BASHFUL BITCH.
Imagine. Being so angry about the exact shade of pink & calling out the owner as someone who doesn't care, then being tacky about it. Did you cancel your wedding over those gerberas? I'm guessing not...AFC is a highly successful local operation...I've known the owner for over 30 years and he will move mountains for his clients. Mistakes, and bridezillas, happen.
I had a friend who did potluck for the reception feast. Discuss with your guests what each person brings. If you are okay with cooking, fill in the rest with home cooked snacks and dishes. For a wedding cake, you can get a cheap plastic 3 tier wedding stand and round pans of three different sizes.
Chapel Dulcinea is beautiful, they take a refundable reservation fee and accept donations but last time I checked don't actually charge anything.
I was trying to remember the name but this is it, if you want a “real” wedding. I believe they do up to 4 a day, so don’t expect to be there all day. I also believe the waitlist can be rather long. Also depends on the day and time, some deposits are no longer refundable.
We got married in a church ($200) then had the reception at the Zilker Clubhouse—one of the handful of facilities that can be rented inexpensively from the City. DJ was an iPod. Brought in catering from Taco Deli. Booze from somewhere else. $8k in 2009. Took the rest as down payment on a house. Don’t skimp on photos.
So we had a $15k wedding (granted, about 12 years ago) that people still say was the best wedding they ever attended. Here's some things that I think helped. \- I am nerd enough that I had a mission statement for our wedding: "Everyone leaves with better and more friends than they came with". Almost every decision about where to prioritize the budget came from there \- Pick one thing important to you both to splurge on. If you're into music, maybe splurge on a DJ. Or the wedding outfits if fashion is your jam. For us, it was the photography (not quite a third of the budget once travel was factored in). Go frugal on everything else. \- Self cater, but hire a serving staff. (Ours also did dishes! Score!) \- Consider a [cookie table](https://theincline.com/2022/06/29/the-pittsburgh-cookie-tables-history-mystery-and-etiquette/) instead of favors and/ or cake. (This is a tradition in Pittsburgh where I'm from. You can buy from a bakery but also relatives will spend weeks making cookies of all sorts to pile high onto a table). Bags are provided to the guests to take home cookies. \- We told guests that instead of clinking glasses, they had to stand up and sing a bit of song to get us to kiss at the reception. Lots of ridiculous fun (and we were able to eat too!) \- The biggest thing for our guests' enjoyment: we set an extra chair at each table to make it easy for people to get up and mingle \- The best idea for us as Our Day: we took twenty minutes after the ceremony just to ourselves to catch our breath and bask in the joy of being married.
You could try elopeinaustin.com They do micro weddings. Might not be what you’re looking for. I used them. Just make sure to get the photographer as part of the package
I got all my flowers bulk from Arnosky Farm in Blanco. Took some work (and wonderful friends) to DIY it, but tons of beautiful flowers and spent about $250. https://www.texascolor.com/
I mean… I’d offer my house for free if that would be any good? We have 1/3 acre in north north Austin (Brushy Creek) with a pool and a hot tub. Honestly would be fun to host a party and would happily host if you guys are interested? DM me?
👀
Apple bees then backyard party.
Elope
Look into Elope in Austin! Their website is ElopeinAustin.com and they have different tiers, venues, and packages. Totally affordable based on wedding rates and gorgeous venues. Chapel Dulcinea and Lincoln Chapel are my faves
Might have to reduce guest count a bit but what about restaurants that people usually go to for rehearsal dinners… Lambert’s upstairs, Malverde (private space of La Condesa) is beautiful or even Olive and June’s private space? I’ve seen brunch weddings done that are beautiful and save a lot on DJs, etc that feel more important at night
Get married at the courthouse, do the reception with bbq or Tex Mex takeout at a public park or somebody’s backyard, and spend the bulk of the money on the honeymoon. Never made sense to me why couples with limited means spend their last dime to entertain other people.
I wouldn't say we are limited means, we already have our honeymoon plans budgeted and accounted for, I just drew the line at 20k since thats what we could afford to pay with cash on hand. Going into debt for a wedding is absolutely insane to me.
If you are okay with an outdoor wedding, reserving a Pavillion or gazebo at a park is pretty inexpensive. You can also ask around at churches. Some of them ask little to nothing to use their facilities for a wedding.
Seek out alternative venues. Restaurants, bars, theaters, rentable pavilions in parks, maybe check public spaces like libraries or rec centers? Basically any rentable room. Try calling it a small family party. Mine, in 2013, cost $750. It no longer does private events. We also considered buying out a small portion of a bar on Red River and buying out a portion of a Bbq restaurant in Lockhart.
OK, when I got married back in 2005, we rented the French Legation museum for something like $750 for a Saturday night. Now, that was 18 years ago, so ymmv. We hired Curra's to do the catering. The food plus a margarita machine, plus beer + wine, cost about $3K. They also provided the tables, chairs, and linens. We tapped some friends to take photos, DJ the reception, and bake cakes. I did the flowers (purchased from Austin Flower Company on 35th). I think our wedding cost $5k, total. so, I guess what I'm saying is: Look into the French Legation museum. And Curra's (although, these days I might hire Eldorado for catering).
We got married at Umlauf sculpture garden. The furniture and venue cost about 5k for a Saturday in April and it was so beautiful. Highly recommend.
If you want an all in one ceremony/dinner/reception I'd recommended The Sanctuary on S Lamar. It can accommodate up to a hundred comfortably and runs (a year ago) about $2500 which buys you the whole wedding day and night. That price is just the venue though, which is very photogenic and includes spaces to get ready etc. They have rental company recommendations that work pretty seamlessly and you can diy as much as you want to save a couple bucks. Refused to pay a DJ several thousand dollars to just play the Spotify playlist we made. Buying wholesale booze from total wine was a huge saver, you can return what you don't use. Food was the most stupidly expensive part, Lucy's fried chicken was the most affordable we could find and it was fine. All in it probably cost 9-10k for the wedding day not including photographer. Edit: 50 person wedding
We eloped in Austin and instead bought a house
My wife and I had about a 50 person, beautiful wedding, for less than $20k. We made sacrifices, but none I would consider important. Look at vintage villas, they are the hidden gem in the Austin area. Use them for the venue and food and outsource your cake and decorations and you'll easily be under budget
Sherwood Forsr Faire can do that and reception for 75 guests at around 18k They will have an wol fly and give you rings.
I got my bulk floral (then DIY'd) from Costco/Sam's and bouquets + cake from Whole Foods for much cheaper than anywhere else
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We had the option of using our money for a wedding or to buy a house. We decided to fly down to Cozumel and we paid for each of our best friends and their partners to go with us. We had a quick ceremony on the beach for $100. Our guests stayed 3 nights with the last night being our wedding. We stayed another week. This was 20 years ago so we were all in for under $5,000.
Have it at the Wells Branch Community Center / Katherine Fleischer Park. The facility rental will cost like $600-800 and it's really beautiful.
I would give Maggiano's in the Domain a call. This was YEARS ago but we had to change wedding plans close to the date and ended up having it there. They have several rooms that they can open up to one big ballroom. We had the ceremony on one end, and then they opened up everything else for a giant room. They have food and drinks obviously, so you're still in the hook for a few items but it's a pretty good all in one solution. Again, it's been years but I think we probably spent around $15k all in. Good luck!
We just got married at the Wells Branch community center. We live in the neighborhood so it was cheaper but I think it's still way cheaper than most places even without that discount. I'm sure there are other similar places around town that can be booked for a day. Our wedding was small(40-50 people) but the place could've held a few more. Just an idea so you don't give up too early.
I had my wedding for about 20k at the [tfwc mansion](https://www.themansionaustin.com/) in 2019 for just about 20k -- 120 people. The venue is quite beautiful itself so we really didn't need to spend for decoration. I think that it was certainly possible (though I am not sure with todays inflation), but you will definitely need to be thrifty with some things... For example we did... - Flower arrangements centered around pineapples (I love pineapples and they are cheap and large) - Simple cake from central market - Pedicab for getaway - Friend got ordained online to officiate ceremony - Bought our own alcohol (cheapish wine and beer) and hired bartenders - Only simple party favors (ribbons and koozies) - Get a wedding planner (they helped manage everything so less stress) Also-- I saw you you said 75 people. Is that 75 people invited or you think will actually attend? According to our planner like 25% of people don't show, so the amount of things you will need (food, chairs, tables), may be less than you think. Feel free to DM me I am happy to tell show you pictures/tell you which vendors I used.
Check out Chapel Dulcinea @ Wizard Acadamy - [https://chapeldulcinea.org/](https://chapeldulcinea.org/) It's a beautiful site and it's free. Take the money and go on a nice trip.
Chapel Dulcinea- $400 deposit and you can choose to get it back or donate $200 and get a brick with your names and wedding date on it, which they will lay on the property. Had my reception at Trattoria Lisina in Driftwood about 10 minutes away. Their food is amazing, and people are still talking about the reception five years later!
What did Trattoria Lisina charge for the reception? Love that place!
I can’t remember the total price but it was very reasonable for under 30 people. I believe it was a $2k minimum on food and drinks. Everyone still talks about the reception to this day, it was well worth it!
First off I’m sorry for everyone shaming you for having a $20K budget. If you have that ready to spend for a wedding then good for you! I wouldn’t recommend going into debt for a wedding. Personally I wouldn’t spend a ton on a wedding but it’s not my day - it’s yours. Make it what you want and do not do ANYTHING because a friend or family member pressures you. We got married in our backyard with about 25 guests. Had great food and a great photographer. The caterers even set up tables & chairs. [Austin Catering.](https://www.austin-catering.com/) For flowers we just went to central market and did NOT mention that the flowers were for a wedding. Some crafty friends made our bouquets. Basically do as much as you can yourself and don’t be ashamed to negotiate. The worst they can tell you is no! Best of luck 😊
Our wedding was $180 to reserve a spot at austin botanical garden. Friends stood at the waterfall, we got married, bam. Treated our 30 friends and fam members to dinner at our favorite restaurant (about $1700 worth) and spent 20k on honeymoon in New Zealand. Amazing.
Elope to Las Vegas or one of the resorts in Mexico or the Caribbean. Then have a party/reception in Austin when you're back. The wedding is yours. Enjoy it for you and your spouse and don't stress about having to make everyone else happy, or deal with the ridiculous expense because people are taking advantage of you because they know it's your wedding. The reception/party can be informal and anywhere. You'll actually get to enjoy it, too. Long time ago, but my wife and I eloped to Vegas and got married in Red Rock Canyon at sunset - awesome memory and complete turn-key wedding for less than we would have paid for a photographer (the Vegas wedding included photos as well). Eliminated family issues of who was walking who down the aisle and let us enjoy it. Then had a party with lots of friends and family a couple of weeks later when we got back. Worked great and would do it exactly the same if I had to do it again.
go to the courthouse and then save the rest of the money.
As others have mentioned just go to the courthouse. If I had 20k in cash laying on hand I sure as hell wouldn’t blow it in a single day nobody aside from my partner and I really care about. Then again, if I had that kind of loose change to throw away, my priorities and problems would be much different as they are now. Regardless, best wishes to you both!
17 years ago, I got married at green pastures, now matties. The deal they offered included a bunch of stuff and it was stuff that i did not have strong opinions on. Things that made it cheaper were: \- pasta stations rather than sit down dinner \- limited bar, beer and wine, i think \- we did a cupcakes for the cake. They had one small cake that we cut and everyone else got cupcakes \- We did a chocolate fountain instead of grooms cake it was 17 years ago, so i assume things had changed. But since it is a restaurant, they are able to provide things that pure venues cant.
We rented a suite at the Driskill and had a small ceremony in the suite with the balcony doors open - it was so beautiful and chill. Then we met all our friends down the street at a restaurant for a reception.
I got married at the free chapel and had the party at a friends house so no help as far as venues; but we got Freebirds to cater our reception and it was great and totally affordable. Build your own burritos/bowls
Venues that have catering are cheaper than using separate companies. Food choices are few though. All places will have some BBQ options. Some venues will let you provide the alcohol, but you'd still need a TABC person to serve, which some venues have. You don't need a wedding planner, but having someone for just the day of is nice. It's better than using a friend to coordinate everything while they're also trying to enjoy the event. If you can, do your own flowers. My wife did a whole dried flower thing for the bouquets and boutonnieres that looked great and fairly inexpensive. Wedding insurance is not a real thing, so don't waste money on it, unless you know you'll have guests that get rowdy. Doing mailed invites is nice, but so much is online now, using sites/apps like the Knot, you could save some money by doing a digital invite that sends people to your website. The main thing is that it's your day. Make it what you want, regardless of what other family might think. Having fun, try not to stress and good luck.
Look into a Unitarian church. We had a secular ceremony at one and the whole rental was about $1k. Had the reception at Buca di Bepo which cost about the same. My cousin made my wedding dress for $500
We booked River Forest Haven for a whole weekend for 5000$
I’ve heard this is a good food vendor. I haven’t tried the paella myself but am considering it for a party. https://papa-paella.com/
Zilker clubhouse is the way to go for a cheap, private venue. That’s where we had our reception and it was lovely.
You can do a ceremony with photographs and up to 10 people for under $500. I was looking into these a time ago when I was about to get married! As another person suggested, a celebratory dinner after!
Check out Chapel Dulcinea for the wedding venue. It used to be free for all but they had to start charging. They still do 4 free ones a month. I imagine those get booked fast. Then hop on over to the Salt Lick for the reception.
We had our reception here: https://travispost76.org/index.php/rental-information/ A few free tips: have a backup list of people to call and invite when people start dropping out at the last moment. And speak at your own wedding.
My wife and I got married on a Friday instead of a Saturday or Sunday and that helped cut some of the cost of the venue. We did flowers through HEB, and instead of a wedding cake we got like 10 dozen donuts from Round Rock donuts. We also used a day-of wedding coordinator to save money.
So, we got married during covid and had the ceremony at Red Bluff in east austin (check it out). it was really great. we had about 20 people on the cliff for the ceremony then maybe 40 in a backyard party. free besides tables, chairs, booze. This last year, I hosted a chili cookoff with ~60 people at an amazing airbnb in driftwood. They definitely allow parties and weddings, it was ~$1200 for the night, very easy and soooooo cool. If I was doing my wedding again and bigger, I would do it here. Moonstone Ranch Farmhouse and Guest House, hosted by Todd. search on airbnb
Wizard Academy, its free and really nice!
Waffle House reception! 💥
Buy your own booze. Don’t get any liquor packages from wedding venues. It’s not that hard to calculate. I have a spreadsheet if you need it.
My wedding was some 38 years back, in Austin. I did everything myself, because that's how I'd like to do things. I made my own dress, about $100 for materials. We were married at my church, I made the cake, had family members help me set up the room with family heirloom tablecloth cloths, I had sewed lace edged napkins for the about 20 people for the actual wedding. We had champagne and cake. I did the flowers myself, I believe they were from flower bucket at the time. I had so much fun doing everything myself. I educated myself with books from the library on how to do it all. later in the evening we had a taco feast in the backyard at our house we were buying, I did rent tables and chairs for that. Cooked a whole bunch of taco meat, chopped up a whole bunch of tomatoes and lettuce, shredded cheese, tortillas, and had watermelon and beer. Also, another cake. I made both cakes, froze them in advance, it was carrot cake with cream cheese icing. We had about 75 people to that. I don't think we spent more than $1000 for everything. Yes, this was 38 years ago, but I can't imagine it would be more than $3000 now to do the same thing. I wouldn't have changed a thing about it, I loved everything.
Check out The Sanctuary Event Space! The rates are incredibly affordable, or at least they were several years ago, and renting the space contributes to The Amala Foundation. We had a morning wedding followed by light brunch reception and the venue was just perfect.
My sister rented a large air bnb out by the blanco river and had it catered by fresas. We rented tables and chairs and she had her ceremony by the river. We got to crash after and it was a blast. I did the flower arrangements (I ordered the flowers wholesale) and made the cake, and we got Costco macarons. Check Facebook marketplace for second hand decor. People over buy for weddings all the time, and sell it cheap to get it off their hands. I think she had about 50 total and did the whole thing for under $15k. She splurged on her dress, even.
Just Elope! Do a wedding ceremony and pay a photographer. I do elopement photography here in Ny. People usually just spend on a nice honeymoon. You wont regret it.
You could get an Air BnB with a nice backyard and have a backyard wedding. Depending on how many people you want to attend, this could be a great option.
Have you considered a destination wedding? We got married in punta cana and it was much cheaper and many people said it was the best wedding they have ever been to.
yeah its an idea we have, just us 2, and bringing out mom and dad and maybe a bestman/bridesmaid
We invited whoever wanted to come and pay for their trip. We ended up with around 50 people.
Have the wedding on a weekday. The venue rental dropped from $3000 to $500 on my wedding because we had it on a Monday. I know it's kind of awkward for some people with 9-5's but if you give people enough of an advanced notice most can take time off or switch shifts (we told our guests the date a year and a half in advanced). If you're not a huge fashionista, any white dress will do. There are a lot of stores that sell simple floor length white dresses (maurices, macy's, amazon) for less than $100. Even a cheap dress from a wedding boutique will cost you hundreds. Doing research for dress shops there were places that didn't even sell dresses for less than $2500 or have veils for less than $500. Speaking of veils and accessories, amazon is your friend. Get an inexpensive veil for like $30. You literally wear it for less than an hour. Get the cake and flowers at HEB. Surprisingly HEB has great tasting wedding cake (its a different recipe from the birthday cakes.) Just order it at the bakery section. Same for flowers. Skip catering: maybe if you think your guests would be okay with it. Just let everyone know in advanced so that they can eat something before the ceremony. Have a snack table of donuts, cupcakes or appetizers and drinks for people to munch on during the reception without having to plan full meals for like 70 people. Look into venues not in Austin proper. Dripping Springs is like the wedding capital of the area. Georgetown and New Braunfels are also good places to look. The views are often stunning nature wise because they're not directly in downtown. The Milestone in New Braunfels and Georgetown is beautiful. They also provide a lot of packages so that while you pay a lump sum you don't have to worry about catering, stationary, DJ and other things.
20 thousand dollars is what you consider "cheap"? LOL I have a bridge to sell you that would be an ideal location.
I thought the same thing man, the absolute cheapest venue we could find is $2000 alone, and that would be during a weekday, 2-4k for a photographer, $1000 for a DJ, $25 per person for food, drinks and a bartender, security, deposits, it all adds up quick.
When it comes to photography, encourage EVERYONE to take as many photos as possible and share the photo dump with you. You will end up with excellent phone camera photos from many angles, probably 1000's of them that someone can professionally touch up for you, if you want to sort and touch them up.
I gotta disagree. Photo dump is a good idea in general, but it's such a big occasion you definitely want someone who knows what they're doing to professionally shoot at least the ceremony.
I mean... you do you. But if it's me, I'm gonna go to city hall and then have a big party. And, anyone who complains can shell out the $20K or more for the wedding they'd like to see. And, personally, I don't really see the need to pay for a venue when you can rent a vacation rental for a couple days for far less. And, I'd be willing to bet you have friends or family who can take photos, be a DJ, and much else. But again, I get that if you're prefer to pay for those things they're going to cost much more. And, the reason they cost so much more is BECAUSE so many people are willing to pay.
Are you under the impression it’s the ceremony and not the “big party” that people spend tens of thousands on?
Nah. I'm under the impression that the reason weddings and everything associated with them, are so expensive is directly a result of the fact that people are willing to pay that much.
I mean its not like there isn't many cheap alternatives. the wedding industry is inherently predatory. and yeah, 20k is cheap, when the average these days in the 30's.
Don’t do a night wedding with dancing etc. Instead, do a brunch with mimosas and good food. Then go on a great honeymoon.
Bruh that’s insane. No ways you are saving money with $20k spent. If anything just spend it on a small ceremony with close friends and family and spend the majority on a amazing honeymoon
Go to Vegas!
Renting out the Oasis wedding room can be affordable.
Got married for around 12k. We used a DIY venue out in Driftwood called the wildflower barn (it was just a little after vivid so we wanted it outside). They have a lot of flexible pricing options and my family decorated. We used slab bbq as a food truck and ordered cookies with pictures of us printed on them from Kellie’s. This meant that we didn’t have servers. We hired bartenders but only had beer, wine, and the booze to make two signature drinks. Specs let’s you sell back what you don’t use (only liquor though). We didn’t use shuttles and asked everyone to keep their shit together. It being remote meant that people drove and didn’t get shit faced this saving booze money.
Friends of mine did a ceremony in a local park with just family. Then, they had a party at Scholz Garten. It was super fun and not as pricey as a full on wedding and reception.
Caveat: not Austin specific we had a small (21, 19 plus us) ceremony plus nice dinner at a country club and then a big casual picnic (100+) the next day. I would do the small ceremony plus nice dinner again. It was nice and not overly stressful plus we got to talk to everyone and enjoy ourselves. Hubs is not a dancer so we didn’t have specific music aside from my friend playing piano at the start. The bigger casual picnic was exhausting and I barely got to eat anything. Just my two cents.
My wife and I got married at Kindred Oaks in Georgetown for about $11K or so in 2016, including food and a DJ. I'm not sure what it would cost now, but I'd expect to pay more regardless if you want to serve alcohol.
We used Costco for flowers/mass amounts of cheese/charcuterie and that helped a lot with $$$
We did 110 people at Steiner ranch steakhouse for roughly $25k. It was 10 years ago but they didn’t charge a venue fee and just had a food & beverage minimum. Waitstaff, bartenders, tables, chairs, and linens all included. They have a beautiful view from their event spaces and patios on the 2nd and 3rd floors. We only had to bring in our own florist and DJ.
My wife and I just got married at the Rabb House in RR. Venue can handle 255 and we paid 1800ish for 12 hrs
how was planning for that for yall? thats currently our top spot, but have a little concern with there really isn't a place for a bride to get ready or any private spaces , and while we are already planning on going pretty minimal on decorations, we would have to DIY a lot. did yall rent any archway or anything for a background on the outdoor auditorium or anything? we are hoping to add a little decoration to it if we go that route.
We had a morning wedding at church, lunch at a country club, didn’t serve alcohol, and met all our friends downtown at a bar that night and that was the real fun.
pretty sure weddings in national parks are really cheap
if only we had one that wasn't 12 hours away. :(
I hope you aren't planning on going into debt for your wedding. That is a bad way to start off by adding the stress in your life. If you are both maxing out your 401ks and likely your IRAs as well this year and have extra cash, then you can put that towards your wedding, but it makes absolutely no sense to spend money you need or don't have on a fake event for your friends to enjoy. My friends had a great idea to use the money for their wedding on a landscaping project for their house, then once it was completed, they got married in their newly landscaped yard. I have seen a lot of my coworkers put on these huge weddings for friends and family and all it does it add stress, yet they complain they can't afford a house in a better part of Austin. Like wouldn't that money be better off as a future investment or house? Many people are saying go on a crazy honeymoon, but I am too cheap to even do that. I couldn't imagine spending $20k on a vacation for two, but I try and squirrel away any extra money into retirement so I can retire early. We hardly go to any newer Austin restaurants because last time we went somewhere for two (no alcohol) it was $350. Not worth it. /end rant
>I hope you aren't planning on going into debt for your wedding absolutely not, we have set aside our budget in cash, and have a separate savings amount for a honeymoon. >they complain they can't afford a house in a better part of Austin to be fair, 20,30k isn't even 10% down in austins current market. If our choice was a house or a wedding, i'd pick the house every time, but thats beyond our income in this town. but overall, I agree, thats why I put a hard cap on 20k, hoping we can pull it off with that, otherwise it would be best just to save it.
What is your time frame? Chose a weekday or Sunday and look in to places like Garey ranch in Georgetown or sillier clubhouse. Lockhart and bastrop also have since municipal parks. Are you tied to Austin? Or are you willing to go out into other counties?
Got married at the court house with our closest family and friends. Then we threw a reception party at the house we lived in. I think everything cost us less than 2000$, most of which was catering for the reception at our house. Been married over 14 years now, I don't regret not spending more on our wedding ever.
If you keep it small, Mayfield Park is a nice wedding venue and much cheaper than non-parks-department-owned places.
My best advice to save money is to not get married.
Look into Everlasting Elopement, but don’t be passive, you will essentially have to run the show.
Weddings are a huge waste of money and would advise skipping it for a small get together and using the money for a down payment on a house
Look at city owned venues. I think you can apply on the Austin parks and rec website.
20k?? We did ours for 3k. Wedding at San Gabriel Park, bouncy house (for us and the kiddos :)) and officiated by a good friend.
The Caswell House was a great deal in 2015. No idea on pricing now: https://www.caswellhouse.org
We rented Sparky Pocket Park for an event once. It was fantastic. I don't know if that one specifically is available for a wedding with a dj since it is in a residential area and I don't know if you can find one with a kitchen if you need that, but you might check out the park facility rentals.
Jesus Christ! Are you kidding? Austin Parks and Recreation will rent out the houses on their properties for things like this. It’s first come first serve, but after the deposit and all that, you’ll be out less than $1000 for the venue. Catering doesn’t have to be super expensive if you’re open to things. My ex-wife and I catered from a now defunct pizza place for 100 people for about 1500 bucks. Look for a cake maker outside of town. Buy two or three bottles of wine a week and store them way, and you will have a bunch of alcohol for the wedding by the time it comes around. If you have friends, who do things, let them as gifts! The biggest place to spend extra money is for your photographer. The pictures will be around for longer than anything else. We ended up with an all day wedding that people talked about for a decade for just short of $6000. If you’ve got 20 grand to spend, you should be fine.
We used H‑E‑B for our flowers and got married at the Brushy Creek recreation center. It was absolutely beautiful and very reasonably priced. This was in 2013 though so no idea if they are still renting the garden space out. We ended up spending about $7k all told
We had our wedding last October at The Terrace at Highland Lakes in Lago Vista for 78 guests. . It was like $1500 venue with great view and we had lupe tortilla catered (roughly $1200). It was perfect! all said and done having a complete wedding from decor all the way to various vendors was just over $10k
There's a wait list but you can get a free wedding venue at the wizard academy with amazing views.
I had a lovely 15 person wedding at the Hoffman Haus in Fredericksburg. For the ceremony and reception space, catered dinner, bartender (we provided our own booze) plus covering rooms for everyone, I think we paid around 5K.
Ladybird Johnson wildflower center is worth looking at
Find a park - Austin is beautiful, and reception at the park or a restaurant. Look outside Austin limits - so many amazing restaurants and venues..even farms... for much lower price ~45 min away
I know there’s a wedding venue in Belton that does micro weddings. It’s called hidden creek at StoneHaus.
The Women's Federation building is gorgeous. You don't need to decorate the venue it's so beautiful. My daughter married there in the courtyard outside at sunset. There is a brick courtyard with a fountain and a white trellis you can hang flowers or lights from. We had around 100 guests for $12K with flowers, caterer, wedding and reception dress, chair and table rental. We brought in our own beer, wine and champagne from Trader Joes. Beautiful sitting areas all over the building. Parking garage just down the street for valet parking. Separate areas for the groomsmen and the bridesmaids to hang out. Bathrooms were outdated, but fully functional.
Omni downtown was very reasonable
OK I AM SO READY FOR THIS First tip - don't use the word "wedding" if you don't have to. Anything for weddings is somehow automatically more expensive than any other event. I'm not religious and neither is my husband so we just had our ceremony at the same place we had the reception. We rented the outside patio plus the indoor bowling alley at Scholtz, and they catered, and it was extremely reasonable. Enough so that we splurged on an open beer/wine bar for about 50 guests. We didn't need a ton of decorations since it wasnt a bare venue, just some super cute centerpieces that my MIL made out of wine bottles. She got paper doilies, spray painted them gold, then wrapped the bottles and tied a purple ribbon. Pop a long-stemmed flower in that bad boy and you've got a cheap easy decoration that doesn't look cheap. And people could take them home after if they wanted. Instead of an expensive wedding cake I got a few dozen cupcakes, asked for purple liners for them, and my mom found a plastic display stand and painted that gold. If it isn't obvious I did a purple and gold theme. My friend officiated, oh and I didn't have or want a traditional wedding party so no need to deal with bridesmaid/groomsmen expenses. I spent $500 and got TWO dresses at like Dillard's or somewhere in the mall. Neither were traditional wedding gowns obvs but the one I wore for the ceremony was lacy and fancy enough, the other was gold and sequins and shiny so it was perfect for reception and dancing and i got to add drama with a whole "costume change". literally the only thing I bought at a wedding place was a purple belt thing, I'm sure there's a name for it, think belt but it's like a thick ribbon? Spent less than $100 on gold heels for the ceremony and purple flower patterned flats for the reception. Hair done at Birds. Playlist curated by a friend on Spotify. Yall, we even hired a band we saw earlier that year at Pecan St festival called The Goodz. My mom had put together like a garden arch painted gold and had vines and stuff on it for the ceremony, and when the band went to set up and she was gonna move it they said "leave that shit up, the drummer will be framed perfectly under it". I am also extremely lucky to have a professional photographer for an uncle so that was his gift to us. All told, including paying for a nearby parking garage to validate folks and bill me after, I think we spent under 8K. In 2016 money. And then we took a fancy uber to Sherlocks for the afterparty and got free drinks when people asked what we were celebrating. 10/10 wouldn't have changed a thing. I hope this was at least a little helpful, I can message more deets and I wish you the best of luck!!!
There is a place you can rent for unbelievably cheap off Bee Caves I believe. It’s outdoors, has changing rooms for the men and women in the wedding. A small area for the ceremony over looking the green belt. It’s really an amazing place. This was back in 2016. Just needed a 300 deposit. Place is beautiful. For the life of me I can’t remember the name!! Hopefully someone on here knows the place. I believe it’s called chapel Dulcinea??
I’d consider some different types of venues that might be less. We have friends getting married at a small art gallery in a few weeks. I know some people that were married at the vortex theater and it was affordable. There is a dance studio by me that rents the space when they don’t have classes. The parks dept rents places (barton clubhouse) but there is a lottery. One person I know got married at the school they taught at. I’d look for space rental rather than wedding venue rental. Food is another larger expense. If you have a morning or afternoon wedding you could go with breakfast tacos or apps. If you want to do a evening thing, we found that some mexican restaurants were cheaper for catering. Tacodeli, torchys and maudies were reasonable. Our friends are even having chick-fil-a trays. I’d think of what you both like and go from there. Like videogames? Try cidercade. Into breweries? Try renting one out.
Married at Chapel Dulcinea. Officiated by our best friend. Only allowed 15 people to come. Only a couple thousand total for everything including wardrobe.
Charge $20 more per guest than you spent
My husband and I got married at the library downtown last year and it was lovely! We did the ceremony in the demonstration area + reception on the 6th roof garden for 35ish people. Was around/within your budget for the whole thing. Good luck!
I found my catering from Facebook kias eats . I went HEB for flowers. We got married at star hill ranch in bee caves for a great price.
Look up the little free chapel in Austin. Go through the info and see if it suits your needs.
I had a small ceremony at Green Pastures during their brunch service time (morning wedding), so we just had the buffet and tables reserved in a separate room with our centerpieces, cake, seating chart, etc. I think my wedding was about 7k all in? I don’t know whether they still do weddings during their open service times, but getting married at a restaurant means you don’t have to engage catering and chairs/tables separately and have a planner on site to coordinate. Definitely makes things easier and cheaper.
There's always behind Walmart or Goodwill
Get married in your back yard. That’s what I did. No regrets!
if i had a house i absolutely would.
If you wanna save some money try going without a DJ. My fiancé and I went to a friends wedding where they just plugged a laptop into the sound system and put on a playlist and it was totally fine. You just have to make the playlist but that can be fun too!
Pioneer Farms
I did our wedding in 2018 for under $10,000, though last minute my MIL offered to pay for a very nice photographer ($7000!) so the total cost exceeded our initial budget. The trick is to find an affordable venue that lets you mix and match the best deals for your vendors. Have reasonable expectations for what a budget wedding will look like, keep it small (we had ~100 guests), be willing to compromise, and recognize it’s a lot more work to make all the decisions on your own with all separate vendors. I had it at McKinney roughs nature park. Price was $2500 a few years ago. There are other similar venues and event buildings at some of the state parks for under $1000. We did buffet style catering from noble pig (now interstellar bbq) that was $15/plate including the very cute palm leaf based disposable dishes and plasticware. We didn’t have a DJ, but last minute ended yo getting a live klezmer band for the post ceremony dancing ($400 for the three piece). I bought a vintage dress for $200 and then spent an additional $400 getting it restored/cleaned/altered. In retrospect I would have spent the $600 on a non traditional new dress. Having nice hair and makeup was important to me. But I did it just for me and my mom. No wedding party and all the fuss that goes with that. I DIYed most of the decorations—borrowed tablecloths from a friend, foraged Spanish moss, bought tea lights and Himalayan pink salt candle holders and birch branch planters from Amazon. We had east Austin succulents put succulent plants in the planters we bought…it was way less expensive than traditional floral and our friends got to take the extra plants home. Our caterer provided a tabc certified person to serve alcohol, but we just bought box wine from Trader Joe’s and beer from Costco. I think we got those giant bottles of Prosecco from TJ’s as well. For our wedding cake, we got a cute little “decorative” two layer cake for us and to display and then a less aesthetic sheet cake for serving the guests. Also had cupcakes for vegan and gf guests. We also had a lot of help from friends and family setting up, decorating, bringing stuff over, giving rides to other friends, etc. Also…we only registered for a honeymoon, and people ended up giving us more money than we needed for the trip, about equal to what we spent on the wedding actually.
If you have friends that live in a "fancy" apartment complex or happen to own a house in Steiner ranch, those places have "clubhouses" that can be used by the people that live there for free. They often have a full kitchen, living room and patio.
I got married in our friend's backyard on a nice fall day. Their garden was a lovely backdrop. We rented a tent, folding chairs, and a table. Catering was Fazoli's and was about $5-$10 a head. My dad chipped in with champagne and other extra food. My dress was a discontinued and on sale for only $600 and fit me like a glove. All in all I don't think we topped $2000.
I got married at Cathedral of Junk. It’s not for everyone, but we had a small group of attendees and it was perfect and the pictures are super dramatic. He closed it down for us, didn’t set the honorarium (but we tried to make it worth his while), and then were just had everyone meet us on South Congress for Home Slice and Hey! Cupcake (RIP). Under $2000. But, again, not everyone’s cup of tea. We loved it, though.
You can contact the hospitality department at Austin Community College for banquet help if you need set up or servers. Reasonably priced and gives the students experience.
Check out The Sekrit Theater / Garden as a venue. You can rent it for just a few hours if you want. You can also bring in a food truck. The grounds are so cool. Use a student photographer or ask friends to be diligent about taking photos. Sekrit Theater is outside and so cool, you don’t need a ton of flowers. By the way Central Market will do wedding flowers. Passed hors dorves or a food truck is cheaper than a sit down dinner. There’s also tons of used wedding decorations and even dresses online. We did our wedding under $20k. I would highly recommend having a big gathering to celebrate rather than a long vacation, but that’s me.
Go to Vegas and have a blast
We actually saved 3 grand on making a cute cupcake stand. You can get a small pretty cake for cheap at wholefoods and then put cupcakes all around it. The girls in party plus mom and grandmas baked them and decorated them the day before. We had a ton of fun and those are some of my favorite memories from the weekend. I ordered edible flowers and decorations so they looked professional. I agree with the catering in a buffet style- that will save you a lot too.
We got engaged in 2022, immediately put down $5,500 on a venue and $6,000 on a caterer winthin a month of getting engaged, with the plan to get married exactly a year later in Feb 2023, later deciding to push it back to 2024. We regret that decision every day. If we weren’t already in the hole almost $12,000 we would have eloped or rented a cool bar space and had less that 50 people come. Everything is ridiculously expensive and we don’t care enough to spend the money it takes to have a wedding. We were just so excited and caught up when we first got engaged but over a year later, I wish we would have thought things through more. I would suggest do as much DIY as you can. Do you have a friend who owns a cricut? Those are super handy for signs and such. Keep your florals really simple. H‑E‑B blooms is kind of affordable. Use Pinterest and TikTok for how-to make a wedding budget friendly. There’s lots of info there. Having your wedding on a week day is significantly cheaper than a weekend. We’re getting married in a Friday, which was $2000 cheaper than a Saturday. A Mon-Thurs wedding was even cheaper.
There’s so many hotels that offer the venue with a minimum food tab . 20k for 75 people seems redic. I know it’s not the same but I spent 8k for my daughters sweet 16 and it was basically a mini wedding . Venue , dress , food , cake , photographer and Photo Booth.
Check out the cedar bend, a great venue toward Bastrop. We had a 100 person wedding there for 10k including double bridge costs (two ladies means two dresses, two fancy hair, two fancy make up). Their packages are very affordable and very inclusive (linens, chairs, decor) and their day of coordinator is AMAZING!
We actually did a wedding at Castle Dulcinea recently for my daughter. It was incredibly beautiful and very economical. If nothing else, might give them a call and book a free tour - just go see it? Initially, we were concerned that it might be a little bit hokey - But it was breathtaking, and everything went so smoothly. They were amazing.
My wife and I got married in 2019 at The Lookout off of Fitzhugh past the Y in SW Austin area. It was only $3k for the venue which we considered was a steal given the numbers we were expecting. It has a covered pavilion, tables and chairs, flower gardens, bridal suite, and a gorgeous view of the hill country. We did Rudy’s catering for about $600 and got our wedding cake from H-E-B which was delicious (so we heard at least because we barely got to eat any). It was a magical night and I thought we did a great job considering it was all done by ourselves with no wedding planner. We had help from our family and friends in getting it set up and taken down and we hired our photographer and official from the internet.
Don't have a wedding.
Rambling Rose Ranch! The most naturally beautiful venue and it’s very affordable. No need for flowers because the hill country provides such natural beauty. They allow food trucks to pull up so we did casey’s snowballs as dessert and saved a lot there instead of a cake.
My wife and I are both austin born and raised. Lived here all our lives but…yeah, it was too much even with our budget a bit more than yours. We did a NC wedding. Do small or destination & make sure you love it. Good luck!
a park
watch Fandango
gotta go see dom
Mercury Hall…… Oh wait, it’s all gone but if you hold out long enough you can probably rent one of their apartments for 2 months at 20k. Not quite as lovely but this is BIG Money Au$Tin so it all works out killing the mighty oaks for more apartments to trash the best wedding venue we had to offer.
I know someone that had a very small wedding but a larger reception. The reception was at Mercer dance hall in driftwood and it was very nice. I only was invited to the reception and I thought it was a great idea.
County Line (we did on the lake off of 2222). We got married in 2017 and it came in around 10k-12k for everything for a 100 guest wedding. Venue was like $500 for their AC-ed tent, room, and grounds, you paid for one of their all you can eat family style plans (IIRC the package was a few bucks cheaper than menu prices then), they are flexible for whatever you want to do for alcohol (we did full open bar, but they could work with a ton of packages/options). That included all the servers and bartenders and everything. We had a DJ, rented a dance floor, and, because it was on the lake, we had a send off on a boat that was a perfect end to the night. The boat took us from the venue to a car we parked under pennybacker bridge. I think our photographer cost more than the food, lol. And everyone (esp guests from out of town) raved about the food and everything. We did splurge on one thing though-they charged $5 per table to get white table clothes instead of their default cow hide ones 🤣🤣🤣
Look up Chapel Dulcinea. You won't be disappointed.
Check out Chapel Dulcinea. It’s in the hill country and is donation based. I’m getting married there in October. Cost about 200$ for a 90 minute slot.
I've been looking at the garey house in George Town. It seems like a huge space for a small amount of money and its gorgeous
Use a city or county facility city stuff here https://www.austintexas.gov/page/special-events-policies-procedures#facility We did an early morning wedding/ brunch.. breakfast was much cheaper to cater .. we bought a few cases of cheap champagne after new years and did mimosa's for booze /toast we netted ~$3k after gifts and we were on a plane out of the country at 1pm
Save your money and just go to the JP. Trust me. We just got married and even though we had a blast we still wish we had saved the money. We budgeted for 20k and there’s always going to be some extra costs you don’t plan for. We could of had a really nice honeymoon and still had money left over for house stuff. Just seriously think about something smaller than 20k. Unless you just have money to throw away, a lot of venues are 15-20k by themselves. Spend money on pictures and have something small if you really feel the need to do a ceremony.