Low Key is Key

The wedding planning has officially began. The first decision Thomas and I made about the wedding is that we wanted something small and intimate (with only family and a few close friends), and that we wanted something to capture our rustic, country personalities and southern-style upbringings. 

We have also decided to start our search for our first house together. So now we are taking two of the most expensive events in our lives and trying to do them at the same time! That is when Thomas suggested a backyard wedding. We are already searching for land out in a country setting anyway, so this fits perfectly with our rustic theme. Because we have decided on a small, intimate wedding, a backyard setting would be perfect. This also takes some of the stress out of trying to pay for the wedding because the venue is pretty much free considering we were going to be paying the mortgage regardless of whether or not our wedding took place at our home.

If you are trying to save money on your wedding, one of the best ways to do so is by choosing a free or inexpensive venue. By choosing to use the backyard of the home we buy, we have already saved over $2000 (the price of the venue we had originally planned on using)! 

The next step to saving money on your wedding is limiting the guest list. Many brides choose not to do this, and that is perfectly okay...but for us, limiting our guest list to strictly family and very close family friends makes our wedding day feel like less of a show and more like a celebration of our marriage and the beginning of our next chapter in life. The final guest list has not yet been composed, but we are currently estimating about 80 people including the wedding party. This is pretty small as far as the "wedding world" is concerned.