This blog post is sponsored by Greenvelope. 

Nico and I finally decided to put a date to the wedding and start planning it. At the same time, we discover how incredibly expensive weddings actually are. The average of spend on a wedding in the US is about $30,000 and believe me, I much rather use that money to travel.

So after a lot of research, we came up with a few ways to save money for the big day and not spend a fortune. Here’s our game plan in case you are interested.

The guest list

one of the easiest – and most difficult at the same time – to save money on the big W day is to have a short guest list for your wedding.

We are doing a super small wedding between 40 to 50 of our closest loved ones.

The food, the alcohol, wedding favors, and even rentals become more and more expensive the more guests you invite to your wedding. In catering, you can spend an average of $40 per guest on that night.

Something that you need to ask yourself is, do I really want 100 people at my wedding? How would I feel if I don’t invite that 4th cousin that hasn’t seen, text or call in the last 5 years?

Digital invitations instead of killing trees.

We had the idea of doing digital invitations but we also felt they were kind of impersonal until we found Greenvelope. 

Greenvelope is a tool that lets you create and customize your own digital invitations. They have hundreds of templates to choose from and you can also pick things like the font, the placements, adding your own pictures and more.

But what really sold us into this idea was that you can not only send the invitation, your guests can RSVP through the app, you can add a gallery for your guest to see your engagement pictures while it plays a song that you picked (does it get any sweeter than this?)

You can also your wedding website and up to two more websites like the venue or hotel that you recommend for out of the town guests and any other detail that your loved ones need to know.

Your wedding registry from Target, Kohls, Macy’s and even Travelers Joy can be attached to your invitation, making it easy for your guests to find the perfect gift for you and your fiance.

Do I need to say more about them?

Oh yes, they have packages starting at $19.99

Viva la Vida and the DIY.

I’m going to tell you the name of your next best friend: Pinterest.

There are so many things that you can find in this app wedding related and much more if you want to do it yourself.

I actually paid for a florist course for my mom (as she loves DIY) to learn how to make bouquets and centerpieces. It cost us around $250 with one of the best florists in Miami and is going to save us thousands in decoration.

But flowers are not the only thing you can DIY. You can make your own favors like little succulents, make your own paper flower backdrop and decorate the place with a bunch of fairy lights that always make the place look even cuter.

Fewer flowers, more balloons.

This was our engagement party

Instead of spending hundreds on more flowers for decoration we decided you fill the place with balloon arches. Balloons can cost a lot less than flowers and fill more space and make the place look gorgeous and original