MORE BUDGET Wedding Advice from TIKTOK | Wedding Planner REACTS

Well, hello lovely humans, and welcome to Engage, a wedding planning podcast for the modern day couple. I'm your host, Jamie Wolfer, and I truly believe that wedding planning does not need to be complicated or time consuming. I kind of picture these episodes like jumping on a quick phone call with your wedding planner. You get your answers and you go on your merry way. Because sometimes not all of us have an hour to dedicate to listening to super long podcasts or super long intros. So without further ado, let's just jump right on into it. Today's episode is actually a audio recording of one of my most popular YouTube videos. I don't know about you, but sometimes I just need to sit down and and be able to process through the audio without the distraction of a video. So we decided to take this sweet little nugget and turn it into a podcast for you. I hope you find this helpful, my friends. Well, hello lovely humans. Welcome back to my channel and to another episode of Wedding Planner reacts to TikTok budget advice. Is it good or is it garbage? Or is it somewhere in between? I don't know. Let's find out together. Hi. If you're new here, my name is Jamie Wolfer. I'm your online wedding planner and I'm here to help you plan easy, stress less. And I also love my couples that are ballin on a budget. Love giving you advice, tips and tricks. So you should probably jump on down hit subscribe now before we even jump into the video, unless you want to wait till the end, you know, let me convince you woo you a little bit with my advice. Any hoodles? In today's video, we've got a couple of TikToks giving budget advice allegedly. So without further ado, let's just jump right on into it. Ah, Meredith. If you guys are not following her on different platforms, you absolutely should be. It's plus one Planning llc. She just drops truth bombs with intention grace, but like a ton of clarity. So what's the cheapest wedding possible? The comment says what's the cheapest? You think someone could effectively hold a ceremony and reception?

Go off mare wedding planning question, what is the cheapest that someone can effectively have a ceremony and reception? This is a question that I get asked often and I try to answer it about once every six months or so. Because while I talk about lots of wedding planning fluff on this page, it's important to keep perspective. This is me hopping up on my little soapbox. I'm gonna get my little spiel again. Some of you may have Heard me say this before. Getting married is a right. Having the ability to plan and host a wedding is a privilege. And the validity of your union is not determined by how much money you spend.

Unless you don't have an arch or an arbor, then your union doesn't count. If you know, you know.

Cost of a marriage license in the state of Wisconsin is about $110. If you can find $110, you can be legally married. Then if you want to go pick up a sheet cake from Costco, they cost $24.99. In fact, while you're there, maybe you pick up some soda too. You could wear something that you already have in your closet, or you could go to Goodwill, or you could go to JCPenney. You could buy something on Amazon. You could find floral or decor from Facebook Marketplace or from the Farmer's Market, or you could skip it entirely. As long as you can afford the cost of the marriage license, you can get legally married. The rest of the party after that, that's all just a bonus.

Yeah.

These elaborate, highly produced, highly executed wedding days that you're seeing all over social media, that's a privilege. I am deeply, deeply aware of that. But my point is a $20,000 wedding or a $200,000 wedding is not any more valid than a $200 wedding. That paperwork is all exactly frickin the same.

The cheapest wedding you can have is at the courthouse. I mean, like I told you, this girl is always spitting facts. She's so good at this. I love her so much. You can make this as cheap as possible. I've worked with couples that have budgets as low as like $2,000, $3,000. And we've figured out a way to make that budget work and still hit all of the line items that they want to hit to have the event that they want to have. What you're gonna run into, however, on the Internet is a lot of advice that kind of starts at like 20k and above. That's why I created this channel. That's why I created the master plan. I do live phone calls over there. I also have a budget breakdown spreadsheet in the master plan if you need help with that. We have it priced at $29 a month specifically to make it affordable for couples who do not have a large budget to spend. Highly recommend you come join me over there. I also have specific budget breakdown videos here for 5, 10, and $15,000 weddings. If you're interested in seeing those. It's kind of like saying what's the cheapest you can make dinner for. I don't know. Have you ever seen a 25 cent packet of ramen? That's probably the cheapest. But if you mean a three course meal with salad, bread, a starter, and then some sort of dessert afterwards, then we're talking about something different. I don't know. You tell me what you're looking to do and then I can tell you how cheap we can make that happen. Sitting here listening to a podcast is all fine and dandy, right? But sometimes you need an actual person to be asking some of these questions to, and you may be sitting there going, you know what, Jamie? Actually, yeah, that. That makes a lot of sense. I would love to be able to ask you these questions. Guess what? You need to join the master plan. You've heard me talk about it, but do you know why I love it so much? You get over 10 lessons that walk you through planning your wedding with videos and spreadsheets and other detailed resources along the way. Join me and my virtual clients over in the master plan and get all your wedding planning questions answered. Literally thousands of couples have gone on this journey with me, and I'd love for you to be next. Check it out@wolferenco.com tmp that's wolferandco.com tmp Listen, wedding budgets suck. They're just like the actual worst. And the hardest part for me is that weddings are not cookie cutter. They're not one size fits all. And I think it's important to make sure that you're budgeting according to your priorities. Build a budget that works with your vision, and you'll be on the path to planning a wedding that you really want. So if you want my recommendations for making your perfect budget for you and your partner, head on over to Wedding priorities dot com. Anyways, I'm gonna make sure I leave Meredith's information down below. Highly recommend. Go give her a follow.

We're getting married on a budget. And let's talk food.

Food.

Food is so expensive to get catered. Food for a wedding is so expensive. But there's like tips and tricks to it, and I've learned tons from a Facebook group that I'm in. But what we're doing is we're gonna have to.

You should come to my Facebook group. It's all about budget couples getting married. It's got over a hundred thousand people in it. Okay. Okay, go ahead.

Tacos. We're gonna have unlimited tacos for four hours. Wait till I tell you what the price is and what I did to find this is like, I went to local Mexican restaurants that I really enjoy eating. So especially those like mom and pop shops, like the small ones. And I got a catering deal and I am so excited. So we're gonna have unlimited tacos, four types of protein for four hours. And they're gonna cook it in the yard already. So they're gonna have like a little like skillet in a sense. And they're like, oh, we'll do a show, which I'm not really about. Like, I don't want the hibachi looking scene, but it's gonna be hot tacos all night, Unlimited four proteins. And the tacos are so good because it's like a mom and pop shop. So like, if you're thinking food, I've heard tacos, pasta, bar, pizza, like it sounds weird, but having like custom pizzas or like make your own pizza, like how fun is that? Are like the three most inexpensive. And we got everything for a thousand dollars. Unlimited tacos for four hours, cooked fresh in front of you for $1,000. And all of the plates, all of the napkins, the cleanup and churros and agua fresca for $1,000. So if you're on a budget, this is your sign. Find a local small restaurant that you enjoy and just ask them if they cater. Most of the times they're going to say yes because it's good business and let's say on a budget.

How many times have I said it? How many times have I said it? If you can make a majority of the meal, like grain or starch based, you're gonna have a lot more affordable of a dinner. So tacos, 10 out of 10 recommend. Especially because it comes with beans and rice on the side, right? So protein is important. We can all agree on that. But protein is also tends to be the most expensive. So when you are balling on a budget, you want to make sure you're really intentional about the meal that you're getting. So tacos are great. Any sort of like Mexican food is fabulous. Especially if you go local and you shop small. You probably made someone's day by booking them, right? Like you, you. That's huge. That's so wonderful. I love, I actually love the little like hibachi esque moment. Like I think that's kind of cute. I think your guests would really enjoy that as well. Even if you don't like it, it's okay. Sometimes you want to do things just for your guests enjoyment. Pasta is another one I highly recommend. Love a little pasta moment. You can Even get some gluten free options for those who have gluten sensitivities. Pair those with a salad and some bread and you're going to have some pretty full happy campers that you can also get catered through a local mom and pop shop. Imagine your local Italian restaurant. You know, the one that's been open for 55 years and like the third generation is now working there. Do something secret with their sauce that makes it absolutely bomb. That's the kind of meal experience that you want your guests to have. You want something that's really memorable. Picking something like that is not only really sweet, that way you're honoring this local business, but it's really intentional. And honestly, you're going to get really good food out of it. The pizza. The pizza. No, no. Love pizza. Love pizza. But unless you're ordering from, like, Costco, because we love Costco. Unless you're doing that. Custom pizzas. No, ma'. Am. Story time. I was an attendee at this event and my husband and I actually, we weren't even married yet. The couple got a wood fire pizza company to come out and make pizzas on the spot for everyone. And of course, in theory it sounds great, right? Like, who doesn't want different kinds of pizza? That sounds awesome. They're making it right in front of you. Great. Now, as a seasoned planner, I know better. So here's the experience. You walk up, you see five different options for pizzas. They've got little labels there, right? Like here is Hawaiian pineapple doesn't belong on pizza. I will die on this hill. You've got like a combo. You've got like something with balsamic and figs. Also doesn't belong on pizza. Okay, why are we putting fruit on savory things? So rude. You know, you just got like a myriad of options. So you come up to the front of the line and you go, oh, I want something without fruit on it. But all those are taken. Okay, so do I have to eat the fruit ones or do I. Can I wait for, you know, the meat lovers to come back out? Can I have that one? They're like, yeah, you can. So you just sit there and wait for that pizza to come out. And yeah, wood fired happens really fast. And they just, you know, chuck them out pretty quickly, but you're still waiting. And the next person comes up and perhaps the same thing happens again. And this line, I kid you not, took forever. So what ends up happening is the guests that are coming back through for a second time because they didn't get enough pizza the first time around because, you know, sometimes wood fired pieces are not huge. They didn't get enough slices the first time. So they're taking the entire dang pie the second time around because they're like, I watched this happen. I'm not playing this game anymore. Get your figs out of my face. I want this pizza. I'm hungry. It's not super filling. Especially the crust on this was like super thin. So just an entire pizza would be gone to a groomsman. And then you just be like, okay, well, I guess I just have to wait. Sometimes situations like this sound like a really good idea. It is. You know, obviously grain based because we're working with pizza, but if it's not thick enough, it's not going to be filling enough. If you are wood firing them on the spot and you've got a lot of different options. That sounds great, right? That sounds bougie. That sounds like it'd be a really fun experience for your guests. But if you get too weird and you start putting fruit on pizza, then some people might not want to eat it and they're just going to camp out and wait for the pizza that they do want, which can make your line take forever. And then the groomsmen are going to steal entire pies. I didn't realize I had such a deep, deep feeling about pizza at weddings. But apparently I do so highly recommend if you are going to do pizza, have your pizza. What is culinarian? Is that what she called them in the last video? Have your pizza maker have several of those pizzas ready on deck to simply fill in. Okay. So giving yourself a little bit of that buffer will help out tremendously. I don't necessarily think that that's going to be as cheap as going with a local Mexican restaurant or local Italian restaurant. It's worth looking into, but it's probably going to be a little bit more on the spending end of things. But also, she didn't tell us how many guests she had. But no matter what way you cut it, $1,000 for catering is absolutely nuts. Open for four hours. That's excessive. We don' need that. That's bougie. Okay. Four different kinds of protein. Who gave you permission? Who gave you permission? I love everything about this. Congratulations. You won the budget advice on the Internet today.

I kept my winning under $3,000 and this is what we did for food.

Okay. We got another thing about food. Okay. I didn't intend for this to be a food episode, but here we are.

The number One thing that really made this a lot more affordable was that we kept it to literally 100 people for the guest list. And we wanted people to have seconds. So we did catering to a local Hispanic shop that was very, very affordable. And it was the most affordable thing that we can find. Plus, it was authentic, delicious food. We did, I think around like feeding 200 people and it cost like $300. And we had so much left over. We did rice, pork, chicken, plantains, and I'm not sure if we did anything more than that, maybe yuka. But it was amazing and no regrets. I also documented every single thing that I bought and did for my wedding. So if you're interested, there is a whole wedding playlist on my YouTube channel.

I'm telling you, this hack, this hack needs to go more viral. I need more people supporting small. I need more people going to mom and pop shops for their catering. Here's what that means, though. That means you probably need someone to go pick it up. Especially if it's only 300 bucks. They're probably, I mean, they might deliver it. This would be something called drop catering where someone like drops it off. You also will need some way of serving it. Ideally, they will send them in some sort of vessel. That's not the most hideous thing you've seen on the planet. And then you still need serving spoons, tongs, utensils to get the food from the serving tray, platter situation onto your plate. You also need to think through stuff like plates, forks, knives, napkins, et cetera. A lot of times when you're working with a full service caterer, a lot of times, all the time. When working with a full service caterer, they think of those things for you. So it's already covered. When you go this route, it takes a lot more administrative work on your part. But when you're talking about $300 for 100 people, which, by the way, did you catch that? Did you catch that? They kept the gasless small, but kept it small because the biggest way to save money on your event is to keep your guest list at a place where it feels more manageable. Because guest list is your number one budget killer. Number one, hands down. And food is one of the big categories for that. The other thing to keep in mind is if you're doing the style of catering service, it's probably going to be buffet style and people are going to self serve. A concern that we have with this or a suggestion or a little tidbit, like just a nugget of information. I like to Tuck into people's brains is just bear in mind if there's not a server, they're actually serving the food. People might be inclined to take more. So. So I think her move of ordering for 200 probably excessive, right? She said she had lots of leftovers. She doesn't seem to mind that though. Also, if you're going to do leftovers, please make sure you have lids and containers to take the leftovers home in. We've seen some food thrown away. We've seen whole sheets of cake thrown away. We've seen a lot of stuff thrown away at weddings because there isn't anything to take it home in, which is really unfortunate. If you have leftover food, I want it going home with you. I don't care if you're eating rice for the next three months. Hey you. You already paid for it. Uh huh. It was only 300 bucks, but that is good rice. Okay. You're gonna eat every last bit of it. You're gonna be stoked. So while I'm not necessarily saying you have to double your order with whatever company that you're working with, I would still add on a little bit extra when it comes to the self serve buffet. A lot of people think, no, that's extra. I'm not gonna do that. That's doing too much. I'm gonna order for our exact headcount and not a single person more. And I'm just saying we've seen events where food has run out and that's unfortunate. And we don't want that for you and we don't want that for your guests. We don't want that for your vendors. And too because sometimes they eat last and then there's like no protein left or all they get is like three rolls. And do not get me started on the. Well, vendors should bring their own meal and they don't need to be fed by the couple. That is soapbox for another day, ladies and gentlemen. But yeah, if it's in their contract, you have to feed them. And since she's so cute, she did her whole wedding for less than three grand. I mean, with already based off vibes and the photos that I've seen, I think you should go check out her content. All right, last but most certainly not least, if you are engaged.

Engaged and want your wedding to look super expensive without actually being super expensive, keep listening. There are so many ways to get creative and make your wedding look like a million dollars. But staying in budget, let's go over the magic of candles and cheesecloth. Two things of which are really inexpensive, but they're so romantic. They photograph so well. They're beautiful, elegant, classy. All of the right things. I'm going to show you a few examples, but this is absolutely stunning. And just to give you an idea about how cheap cheesecloth can really be for a runner, I have one in my storefront right now for $10. It's $10. It's so inexpensive. And candles, they go on sale all the time too. So, I mean, it's really just a win, win look. And no one's ever going to look at this and think that this does not look like super expensive. Classy, elegant, literally all the things that you want.

Candles go on sale all the time. Pillar candles are so expensive. They're so expensive. Okay, I need to rewind this just so I can see the. Okay, this table behind her is stunning. It's so pretty. Do you know how much money that is in candles on that table? Like in the previous video, they all talked about Facebook Marketplace and getting candles off there, which is great. Highly recommend. Because candles are so expensive. I have scoured the Internet. I've scoured it. The cheapest, most consistently that I have found is ikea. They have a five pack of pillar candles for $12.99 currently, at least. This would be great, right? 13 bucks plus tax, you know, let's call it 1450. 15 bucks for easy math. For five. Okay. It's basically $3 a candle. That's fantastic. Hold, please. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 23, 24, 25. Let's call. I mean, I hit. I feel like I hit 25, like halfway through. Let's call it 50. 150 bucks? Yeah. For the table. Yeah. Let's say this is one of three tables with the same amount. Depending on the guest count, we're looking at 450 bucks on candles. That's still a generous chunk of change, however, when you compare them to centerpieces. Centerpieces can oftentimes get pretty costly as well. If we're looking at three tables, let's say your centerpiece can be anywhere from 65 to $150. So in the grand scheme of things, we're not saving a ton on centerpieces in general. If we're looking at the high end of centerpieces being about 150 bucks, we have about $150 worth of candles here. It's kind of a little bit of a wash. Now, looking at these candles, they look beefier and bigger than the ones at Ikea the ones that IKEA are not as big. And that's also not including the hurricanes that they are in. They are in. It looks like all the same height. So they're probably the ones from Dollar Tree. But then we'll need to obviously account for a dollar for each of the hurricanes if the cost hasn't gone up. So then we're looking at 50 of these. That's another 50 bucks. Didn't even think about that. That's $200. It's probably three cheesecloths that are here. If they're 10 bucks a piece, that now we're at $230 for a centerpiece. Again, circling back to the logic train here, we would probably do a garland on this table, right? So I don't have the pricing of the garland pulled up. So average cost of wedding garland per foot. If it's greenery only, it can start as low as 14 to 18 per foot. Flowers, 25 plus, but can also get up to like 45 to 50 bucks per foot. And obviously, if you're going super, super thick, it's going to cost a lot more, just depending on the size of them. So after that, fully elaborate rabbit hole candles are not cheaper. They're not. If you buy them used, great, that's fantastic. But candles are obscenely expensive. And then you're stuck with a metric ton of candles afterwards that you're probably gonna have to resell. And if you are not good at returning things, then you're stuck with them for the rest of your life. Or you're, like, giving them away. Or they, like, live in your closet for the next seven years. Cheesecloth, though. Cheesecloth is supreme. I love it. Oh, wait, we didn't even finish the video. Oh, Jamie.

Another thing I love about cheesecloth runners is you really don't have to use it as a runner. Like, for this sweetheart table. You can replace what would typically be a bunch of flowers in the front with just cheesecloth. And it's so elegant, dainty, and just classy. I love it. When I say it's multifunctional, I mean it. Typically, this would have flowers. Save some money. Use some cheesecloth. I love the way this looks. I'm autumn. I save people tons of time and money on their wedding planning process. So if you're not already following me.

Make sure you do love the cheesecloth. No notes. Love that. You can dye it whatever color that you want. I think this is super smart. You can use them on long tables, you can use them on round tables. Some people don't love that look, but I think it totally gets the job done. The purpose of cheesecloth is to add weight and texture to the center of your table. And what I like it for, the best, is to stretch the overall look of your decor. Right? So let's say you're opting for a thinner garland, so it's going to be on the less expensive end of things, and then you have a cheesecloth underneath it. White on white is great. Like, the white cheesecloth on the white runner is fine, especially if you're going really monochromatic. But if you can incorporate a color here, it will give the eye the appearance that the centerpiece, the garland, is weightier than it actually is. So you can afford to go thinner with your garland because the cheesecloth is taking up that visual weight. And this can be said for any form of table runner. I just happen to think that cheesecloth is one of the cheapest. Especially if you get cheesecloth that has, like, a really, really loose weave to it. Those are gonna be a lot more affordable. I wouldn't recommend getting something like butter muslin. I make my own ch, so I get kind of nerdy about cheesecloth. I do recommend ordering some, having it early enough, take a look at it, because some of the loose woven ones are really loose. Like, they'll snag on just about anything, air included. And so they're. They're kind of persnickety to work with. So you're gonna want to make sure you get one with a nice enough weave that looks good on the table and doesn't look like a pirate's net that needs to be repaired. That was a horrible example. But, you know, you get what I'm saying. Any hoodles? That's. That's the Internet for today with the budget advice. I loved a lot of this. I loved a lot of this food. Biggest takeaway for today, y'. All. If you are balling on a budget, find someone local to you. Ask some questions. A lot of local restaurants do catering, and they are going to be astronomically, astronomically cheaper than if you go with a traditional catering service. A taco truck is going to be cheaper than if you go with the traditional catering service. But if you're really balling on the budget, consider drop catering through a local restaurant. Italian or Mexican would be great. And just remember, at the end of the day, your wedding is only as expensive as you want it to be. That might be controversial. Ooh, was that controversial? I don't know. Tell me also, tell me what some of your favorite budget hacks in the comments down below help each other out. Who knows, maybe we'll inspire someone else to save some cash for their big day. All right, that's all we have for today's video, guys. Thank you so much for watching. If you haven't done so already, jump on down there, hit that like button and subscribe to this channel for more tips and tricks for the modern day bride. Did I woo you? Did you do it? You should do it. You should totally do it. And until next week, bye guys. If you are struggling with wedding planning and you have questions and you just need someone to listen and to chat with, come join us in the master plan community over@themasterplanwed.com I would love to have you in there. Thanks so much for listening. If you haven't done so already, subscribe, jump on over to wherever you're listening to this podcast and leave a five star review so we can let the podcast people know that Jamie knows what she's talking about sometimes. And until next time, bye guys.