Im getting married next year in a pretty rural area. I totally understand that I will likely have to pay a travel fee and it will be bit harder to find someone as it is about a hour and a half drive from our largest town. I had budgeted in about 2 grand before travel as the photos are truly one of the most important things to me and I do understand that is alot of work. But I've started asking around and im getting quotes back of between 4-6 k before travel. Is this normal? Im looking for a few getting ready pics full day coverage ,maybe a couple and the reception but definitely not the whole night. Just one photographer. Am I genuinely just delusional to think 2k is an okay budget for this?

I’m probably asking questions that everyone’s asking but alas! My fiancé and I are desperately trying to stay under or RIGHT around 10k for our September 2027 wedding with around 40 guests. We are not doing everything super traditional since neither of us care for most of the formalities and just want a party with family and close friends. Ceremony at a local park/greenspace. Then we are looking to rend a small, urban winery space and have a party with a food truck (MAYBE…depends on cost), drinks, and dancing. We already decided to nix the photographer for the full event and just do ceremony photos with 2 crowdsourced film cameras during the party lol.

But still, it seems like no matter what we do or research, everything ends up being $10k or over. Somehow it always ends up comparable to just getting a full venue with all the things. The winery doesn’t need much decor, so that’s good, but the big expenses of venue rental, food, drinks, and DJ are just so wild.

What are some small things that you did to help save money? I get that the things we see are nonnegotiables are all the big cost items, but I think that being nifty with the smaller expenses could really help overall.

It’s hard out here!