Why, hello there!
I’m Jessica Tung, the owner and lead coordinator at Wichita Coordination. We’re a wedding planning and coordinating service based in Wichita, KS, and we’re on a mission to create beautiful days for brides on a budget!
Since I have a passion for budget brides, I deal with setting priorities with my clients a lot. When you don’t have a ton of money for your big day, you have to make some tough choices between all the options you have for your wedding when it comes to vendors and decor!
So, whether or not you’re on a tight budget for you big day, I’m incredibly excited to share some tips with you!
First off, let’s get something straight. Think of making purchases for your wedding as investing in memories. This is the best and biggest day of your life, and you’re going to tell your children and grandchildren about it, so make your money count. And if you’re truly investing in memories, there are a few things you should definitely prioritize:
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A great photographer. You want great photos to share with all your friends and family and to have as keepsakes forever! It doesn’t matter if you go all out with decor; if you try to save money by hiring a friend, an amateur, or someone who has no experience capturing weddings, you risk only having your own memories to remember your wedding by. We happen to know that Jessica DeWeese photography is amazing 😉
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A videographer (if you have it in your budget). Having your own wedding film to remember your day is an amazing thing to invest in if you have room in your budget! You should definitely invest in a professional photographer, but if you truly can’t afford a videographer, you can at least ask a friend to use any kind of camera to record your ceremony.
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The venue. This is the setting for your photos, video, and all the celebration, so make it count! If you can find the perfect venue at a low price, then that’s awesome! But, depending on where you live and what’s available on your preferred dates, you might have to be okay with spending some serious cash in this area. If you can find the right venue, you don’t have to worry about spending money on rentals, chairs, decor, or even florals!
In all of these areas, you can probably find some great deals! But if your dream photographer is booked on your wedding day or the venue you want is booked for the entire year, you’re going to have to work with the situation. Remember: you’re investing in memories!
When it comes to planning your wedding, the same reasoning applies. I would suggest that locking down those three things should be your top priorities. Once you have your photographer, venue, and videographer booked, you should book the following:
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A wedding coordinator. It’s always best if you have a professional making sure things go the way you want on your wedding day! It’s a lot harder and more stressful to do it yourself than you would think.
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Any rentals you might need. It’s best to do this early on, because the decor you want might be booked by someone else!
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Caterer
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DJ
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Musicians
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Florist
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Cake
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Any other vendor you may want!
None of the above are absolutely necessary—you may not want real flowers, or your venue may have plenty of flora already, you may want to use Spotify instead of a DJ, you may want pie instead of cake… You get the idea! We do think that having a coordinator is in your best interest, though, so that you aren’t the one dealing with little emergencies as they arise and taking on the stress of running a big event when you should be enjoying it!
You can rearrange these things in order of their importance to you, but I arranged them roughly according to time-sensitivity. Ideally, you won’t take too long to book any of the above!
And that’s about it! If you could use some help staying on top of all the wedding details throughout your planning process, or if you just need a wing-lady on your big day, Wichita Coordination offers services from day-of coordination to standalone budget and wedding consultations to all-inclusive planning help!
You can check us out at www.wichitacoordination.com, on Instagram @wichitacoordination, or on our Facebook page!
Happy wedding planning!
XOXO,
Jessica T.