January Budget Challenge: A Wedding in Indianapolis for $10K (and not a dime more!)

Posted Tuesday, January 20, 2009 8:53 PM

This week, we hit up April Foster from April Foster Events in Indianapolis for our $10K budget challenge of the week. Here's her plan for a $10K wedding in Indianapolis....

Photo: Troy Hill Photography

The Vision
This is a plan for a winter wedding in Indianapolis. The wedding will have an elegant, intimate, home-for-the-holidays feel. A menu with turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes, tons of glowing candles, holiday ornaments, and pretty patterened table runners will help to create this atmosphere. The color combo for the wedding is burgundy, silver, and ivory, but any warm palette like this will work.

The Wedding Dress
I would recommend a full ball gown for this winter wedding. Look for pretty silver embroidery and something with a little sparkle like light beading for this winter wedding. She should seek out bridal salons that carry sample and discontinued dresses to find a deep discount. A few stores in Indianapolis worth checking out are David’s Bridal in Indianapolis, Nancy’s Bridal Boutique (they usually have a lot of sales), and Sophia’s Bridal and Tux. All these stores have a selection of gorgeous discontinued bridal gown designs for around $800. To complement the winter wedding, the bride should look online for a faux fur shawl. Try Ebay.com for a shawl around $40. And look for simple jewelry to go along with your look. I love L. Stone Designs on Etsy.com for handmade jewelry -- you should be able to find a pretty necklace for around $30.

His Formalwear
The groom should rent a tuxedo for the nighttime winter wedding. Check out formal tuxes at Men's Wearhouse in Indianapolis. He might want to wear a silver vest and black tux while his groomsmen rent and wear burgundy vests.

The Ceremony Site and Ceremony Decor
To save money, the couple will rent out the top floor of Factory 12 Event Loft and separate it in half for the ceremony and reception. The top floor is huge, about 10,000 square feet with windows all around and it rents for $1,800 on a Saturday. That rental price includes tables and chairs!
The couple will borrow a pipe and drape from the event space to separate the ceremony and reception space. The ceremony space will be set with two aisles facing the windows and two simple pillars topped with glass vases and candles will help to define the altar space. The ceremony aisle will be lined with ivory candles in tall glass vases.
The ceremony will start at 5:30 p.m., and as guests arrive at the door, they’ll be greeted with a table of homemade cookies and hot chocolate. The cookies will be homemade by family and friends and will also function as the take-home at the end of the night.

The Officiant
If the couple doesn’t have a minister with whom they are close to, they can ask a close friend or family member to officiate the ceremony. They will want to have that person ordained online (costs about $30). As a nice gesture and a thank-you, they might want to give their officiant a gift.

The Ceremony Music
The music at the ceremony will be a mix of traditional and holiday tunes and will be provided by a cellist from one of the universities in the area. The couple might start by soliciting musicians at IUPUI Music Academy through Indiana University and Purdue University in Indianapolis.

The Reception Decor
After the ceremony, guests will make their way into the next room separated by the pipe and drape. In the next room, there will be 19 tables set with ivory linens and burgundy patterned runners and the brown house chairs. Check out Elegant Presentations for rentals. Glass vase centerpieces filled with round holiday ornaments, will top each table. Try Ikea or Hobby Lobby for votives and Flower Factory Warehouse in Greenwood for inexpensive vases. (Borrow the ornaments from friends and family, find them at nearby antique stores, or shop the post-holiday sales a year beforehand.) To add a nice glow to the tables, the centerpieces will be surrounded by four or five glass votives filled with twinkling candles.

The Menu
A sit-down dinner will be served to all the guests provided by Jug's Catering. They’re a great budget catering company because they can create a mobile kitchen right on site for you. They use fresh ingredients, have amazing prices ($9/person for dinner with 150 guests or more!) and will provide all the dishes for you. Dinner will be a downhome cooking-style menu of turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls.

The Bar
To keep costs down, the couple will have a holiday signature cocktail -- a pomegranate sparkler to go with the theme of the evening. After the cocktail hour, Jug's Catering will provide a 3-hour open bar of beer, wine, and soft drinks at $9/person.

The Reception Music
There’s a great space for dancing at this venue, so the couple should fill up their iPod with tunes and plug it into the space’s sound system for the evening. They should also enlist a friend to help announce the essentials like the cake-cutting, first dance, and toasts.

The Photography
There are a number of really talented photographers in the area who should be within the couple’s budget. Look for a photographer who will agree to shoot the day (7-8 hours) and who will give you the rights to your photos but won’t require you to buy prints or an album. Check out Nicole Neff or Jenny Grise with Grise Photography.

The Cake
The mother-daughter team at Sugar Mammas in Mooresville not only turns out great designs, they’re also very reasonable! The couple can order a four-tiered cake with four different flavors (such as white cake, red velvet, lemon, and chocolate) covered in buttercream for 150 guests for just over $400.

The Transportation
At the end of the evening, the couple will make their getaway in a car borrowed from one of their close friends or family members.

Favors
The cookie table from the ceremony will be on hand at the reception as well. On the table will be paper sacks labeled with the couple’s name and date on them and inside will be a piece of paper printed with the recipes for all the cookies on the table. Couples will be able to grab and go at the end of the evening.

Bouquets and Boutonnieres
The couple will be able to save money on flowers with a smaller bridal party of two bridesmaids and two groomsmen. For the bride, a pretty and textured bouquet of burgundy dahlias and dark red calla lilies and hypericum berries wrapped with a burgundy patterned fabric would be fitting. Her bridesmaids might carry simple ivory rose or dahlia bouquets. For the guys boutonnieres, they should order three small evergreen branches accented with a few hypericum berries. Two florists to work with in this price range are Chuck with Indy Floral Designs or Angela from The Painted Daisy.

Invitations and Stationery
For save-the-dates, get guests in the holiday spirit with holiday post card save-the-dates. DIY is a great option for your invitations, table numbers, escort cards, and more. Check out Martha Stewart’s line at Walmart as well as Etsy.com for tons of designer options. 

The Exit
The sendoff should be something special. At the end of the evening, the couple should appoint a few friends to pour small handfuls of confetti into each guest’s hand. Check out Ecofetti for inexpensive options. 

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

ATTIRE $970

1. Wedding dress $800

2. Bride's accessories (jewelry and shawl) $70

3. Groom's tux $100

CEREMONY TOTAL $214
1. Officiant registration $30
2. Marriage License $18
3. Officiant gift $50
4. Rental for 2 ceremony pillars $20
5. 12 glass vases for ceremony aisles ($5 each) $60
6. Candles for glass vases ($3/candle) $36



RECEPTION TOTAL $5,459.00 (incl tax & gratuity)
1. Site rental fee $1,800

2. Table runners ($5 each for 19 tables) $100.00
3. Glass vases for centerpieces $171
4. Glass votive candles to cover 4-5 per table (12 glass votives with candles $5) $40
5. Ornaments $0
6. Food per person ($9/person) $1,350

7. Drinks ($9/person) $1,350

8. Taxes and gratuity $648.00

CAKE $400.00 (includes tax and delivery)
1. Wedding Cake $400


STATIONERY $321.00
1. Save-the-date Postcards $40
2. Invitations $200.00
2. Escort Cards $20
3. Table numbers $10
4. Stamps (for post cards and invites) $51

TRANSPORTATION $0
1. Borrow a friend's car for the getaway $0

EXIT $40.00
1. Confetti $40

PHOTO / VIDEO $2,000

1. Photographer for 7-8 hours + CD of photos (includes retouching) $2,000
2. Video $0

MUSIC $150

1. Ceremony musician $150
2. Reception iPod $0

FLOWERS $400
1. Bridal Bouquet $150
2. Bridesmaid Bouquets (2) $200
3. Boutonnieres (3) $50

FAVORS $10
1. Cookies $0
2. Hot Chocolate $0
3. Paper bags and labels $10

GRAND TOTAL $9,829!

Get more winter wedding ideas and keep track of your spending with our online budgeter! 

Planning your wedding for $10K? Whether you're a bride planning your wedding on a budget, or a professional wedding planner, we want to hear your ideas! Email them to us at editorialideas@theknot.com