How Do I Plan A Wedding On Nantucket?

Liz, The Island Bride To Be

I've lived on Nantucket since I started high school. I worked for one of the top florists on the island and saw some of the most elaborate, amazing, outlandish, over-the-top weddings on this island. These brides must have spent upwards of $60-80,000 for their weddings. 250, 300 guests, overlooking the ocean at elaborate estates with no expenses spared. You see it every summer and fall out here. Brides and their bridesmaids floating up cobblestone Main Street looking beautiful. Cliffside weddings, sunset toasts, flowers and martinis everywhere. I heard last summer there was a wedding where the father-of-the-bride was a big-wig for a security company and their security at the wedding alone was $50,000 worth. And that the wedding was at one of the yacht clubs and it was over-the-top-amazing-awesome-ness. Oh how I dreamed.....

What Is This Going To Cost?

A normal wedding these days is said to be about $28,000. I figured Nantucket should double that pricetag. I don't know about you but I'm on a budget. A tight one. Our budget is about $26,000 thanks to the generosity of my fiancee's parents and my mom and stepdad, plus we're planning on saving about $8000 total ourselves. That's lowballing it but rather safe than sorry, I say.
Funny thing is, we've had caterers tell us that our budget for food and tent/rentals ALONE should be $30,000. Whoops, there goes our budget.
I refuse to believe it.


The Goal: Have the wedding of our dreams and still come in under $30,000 with food, booze, tent/rentals, and everything else.
Our plan: Utilize our resources. For example, I work in a restaurant that will give me a good deal on the food. Our wedding photographer is a friend of ours and she's giving us a helluva price on the photos. Plus my background is in photography so I'll be doing the edits and favorites myself. Another friend of ours is making the cake as our wedding gift. And our transportation is run by one of my bridesmaid's families, so that is yet another cost saving factor. My biggest suggestion when you're on a budget is UTILIZE YOUR RESOURCES.

Here's our wedding stats:
Date: June 23, 2012
Theme: Beach meets Backyard

Head Count: 260 (we're hoping 200 come)
Time of Day: Evening, so we'll be feeding people.

The three most important things to me at this wedding are: food, drink, and dancing. I want lots of all three going on.

I hope you all enjoy reading this blog as much as I'm going to enjoy making it.

xoxo