You’ve said yes to a life together. Now it’s time to say yes to the dress, venue, flowers, food, photographer, planner and so many other details—and all of it carries a hefty price tag. The wedding site Zola calculates that the average 2024 wedding will cost upwards of $30,000.
While that figure can be hard to stomach, it’s also possible to create your dream wedding within a manageable budget if you spend your money where it matters most to you while saving in other areas. Maybe you’ve been dreaming of the stunning venue overlooking the foothills, or all you care about is documenting the day with professional photos and videos that’ll last a lifetime. Those elements deserve more of your budget than others you can live without or find for a lower cost.
Bridal consultant Allie Pilkington hangs a dress at Abeille Bridal. Photo by Jordan Secher. Inset: Dora Grace Bridal.
Who’s paying, and how much?
According to The Knot, more couples are paying for their wedding these days, and it’s not necessarily because parents aren’t willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their child’s special day. The site states that the old-fashioned rules dictating who should pay for a wedding are “based on old gender roles and stereotypes,” resulting in more couples paying for their own big day. The Knot Real Weddings Study also notes that in 2022, the average age for saying “I do” was 31, and by that age, many couples are financially self-sufficient.
However, that doesn’t mean conversations with family about covering the cost of your wedding are off the table. The Budget Savvy Bride, a wedding site with money-saving tips, recommends reaching a consensus on who’s contributing to your wedding and exactly how much. Together, define your cost ceiling and figure out how much you’re willing to spend on every detail before sending vendors your deposit.
That involves pinpointing the most expensive elements of the wedding (the venue, for example) and figuring out how to make them work with your budget. In addition to Northern Colorado’s beautiful wedding destinations—Windsong Estate Event Center, Brookside Gardens and The Hillside Vineyard & Event Center, to name a few—there are plenty of low-cost outdoor locales for couples who are looking for an affordable spot to tie the knot in the spring or summer. These include picturesque backyards, parks, open spaces and trailheads up the Poudre Canyon or near Rocky Mountain National Park.
Of course, you can always splurge on the venue and trim the guest list to reduce the cost of food and drinks, or vice versa, if you want to make sure your guests are well-fed and have their choice of drinks from an open bar. The same goes for other elements, like the wedding dress. You don’t always have to pay designer prices for a designer look and feel, and most bridal shops can help you find what you’re looking for within your budget.
Left: Pick-your-own flower field at Garden Sweet. Right: A bouquet made with flowers from Blush Flowers on Vine. Photo by Caitlin Steuben Photography.
That dress, though
If your dream wedding involves floating down the aisle in a stunning wedding dress but you have less than a grand to spend, see what you can find at an off-the-rack bridal store. Lauren Bourquin, owner of Abeille Bridal at The Promenade Shops at Centerra in Loveland, carries closeout, overstock, liquidations and discontinued wedding dresses. Her prices range from $99-1,200, but she says $800 is the sweet spot.
Before you balk at those prices, consider the alternatives for finding a cheap dress. You could order one online without feeling the quality or how it fits, wear a hand-me-down in need of restoration or buy a more expensive wedding gown somewhere else. Bourquin says designer brands, like Maggie Sottero, House of Wu and Allure, can easily run up to $3,500, and the trendy Little White Dress by Galia Lahav will set you back by a whopping $7,000.
Abeille carries both the classics and the latest trends in sizes 0 to 32W. Bourquin says lace is still popular, and she’s seeing a resurgence of classic satins, scoop necklines and deep V-cuts. If you don’t see an off-the-rack wedding dress that’s swoon-worthy, she offers special order options ranging from $900-1,800.
“It’s the same quality as a designer gown, not a knock-off with cheaper fabric,” Bourquin says. “You’re just not paying for the designer label, which has to cover expensive advertising on bridal websites and big photo shoots.”
Dora Grace Bridal’s Windsor location only carries off-the-rack wedding gowns, which cost anywhere from $500-2,000 and are available in a size range of 2 to 32. The discounted wedding dresses are samples from their Fort Collins location, where their regular-priced gowns cost up to $3,000. Those dresses are great options for brides who want to put more of their budget toward their wedding-day attire.
Shopping off-the-rack dresses doesn’t mean you won’t have the excitement of selecting your dream gown. Both Dora Grace and Abeille are appointment-only bridal shops, ensuring that you have a personalized experience with the help of a wedding stylist.
Wedding dress alterations are another expense to keep in mind, says Hunter Jetkoski-DeFries, sales manager at Dora Grace. Wedding dress alterations vary from $300-700, so it’s important to leave room in your budget to make sure your wedding dress fits. She recommends working with one of Dora Grace’s in-house seamstresses or another local seamstress from their referral list.
“It’s not like hemming pants or opening a side seam,” Jetkoski-DeFries says. “A chiffon-bottomed bride’s gown is tricky to handle. That’s why we work with brides to determine their maximum budget. You don’t want to buy a dress that’s two sizes too big—a different dress may have lower cost alterations.”
Both budget bridal shops offer veils and other accessories, but not shoes. They recommend deciding which shoes you’ll wear on your wedding day before having your wedding gown altered, as switching shoes later can cost you more money if additional alterations are necessary.
Frugal flowers
Wedding florals enhance the day’s beauty, but they also add to the bottom line, averaging $2,400 nationally, according to The Knot. If curated wedding florals are high on your list of priorities, local florists can do everything from arranging and delivering your bouquets to styling impressive floral installations, centerpieces and more. Many of them support the region’s agriculture industry by sourcing their flowers from Northern Colorado farms, giving you more options while keeping their impact local.
Florists can also help you cut costs by selecting seasonal blooms or inexpensive ones, like alstroemeria, a Peruvian lily that comes in a kaleidoscope of colors; carnations, a colorful flower with a sweet and spicy scent; and, amazingly, roses, which are sturdy, classic and more affordable than other showy blooms. Some florists even offer the option of providing your wedding flowers and letting you do the arranging.
If you’re creative and have some time on your hands, DIY options abound at local flower farms, like Blush Flowers on Vine in Fort Collins. From July 1 through Sept. 15, you can preorder Blush’s two-gallon buckets of wildflowers for $95 or a premium mix of showy, seasonal flowers for $125. Add a bucket of filler greens for $85 to give the arrangement depth and texture.
Also in Fort Collins, Garden Sweet offers a pick-your-own flower experience every June through September. The bouquets and buckets range from $20-45 and can be preordered throughout the growing season. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) memberships are available in the spring, allowing you to shop the farm stand, pick seasonal produce, buy nursery plants (including perennials, annuals and vegetable starts) and cut fresh stems from the flower fields.
“Bright colors have been really popular with brides, including delphinium, dahlias, phlox, zinnias and peonies,” says Amy Kafka, owner of Garden Sweet. “I think what the brides like most is having fun picking and arranging their blooms and making an event out of it. DIY flowers don’t cost a fortune, and they are so much fresher and more sustainable.”
You can also scour the grocery store for affordable bouquets if your floral budget is tight. For example, King Soopers offers wedding flower packages, floral design services, delivery options and ready-made, chop-and-drop bouquets.
“It’s easier for us to sell flowers at a lower cost because, as a bigger company, we’re ordering in bulk,” says King Soopers-Northgate floral manager Holly Salas, who has 15 years of experience in the floral industry.
Salas, who designed her own wedding flowers for around $500, compared flower prices and noticed that it would cost several thousand dollars more to go to a private florist. She already knew how to arrange wedding florals, so it made sense for her to take a DIY approach.
No matter how you try to maximize your wedding budget, just remember that time is money, too, so although you might save a little cash by doing some things yourself, the extra energy you spend is just as valuable.
