Weddingbee Blog

Now that our backyard wedding is done and dusted I can look back and wonder, would I do it again? Absolutely! Here are some thoughts that I hope will help you if you are considering a backyard wedding.

Pros

• Complete control of your wedding. No in-house caterers, restrictions on sparklers/bubbles/bird seed, etc.
• Can be cheaper.
• Everything in one location. You don’t have to worry about forgetting something vital.
• Venue at your fingertips to set things up way before your wedding day.
• Intimate, cozy, charming feeling if that’s what you’re going for!
• No site fee means more money for the fun stuff.
• Can be planned relatively quickly. We planned ours in 5 months due to Mr. G’s visa situation.

Cons

• Can be startlingly expensive, mostly due to the cost of rentals.
• Can become extremely stressful. Unless an event organizer is hired everything needs to be set up and cleaned up by family and friends.
• Lack of space depending on the size of the yard.
• Must consider liability insurance. We didn’t have any, thank goodness no one got hurt!
• I get the feeling some folks didn’t take our wedding seriously.
• The neighbors might be disturbed. Ours were cool, though.
• Weather worries, although I’m sure this is true for all outdoor venues

And now, bravely, I present to you our backyard budget wedding breakdown. I know these posts have always been helpful for me so I wanted to do one although this is actually quite scary now. We dealt with very few vendors so we never had official pricing on much—to sit down and itemize everything is not fun! Here is how everything broke down, from the tippy top to the very end.

Dress/corset/petticoat/alterations/cleaning/preservation from David’s Bridal: $900

Decor from Michaels, Jo-Ann’s, Home Depot, and Daiso:$100

Wedding bands from Bridal Rings Company: $700

Mr. G’s suit from Macy’s: $200

Music from iPod, speakers: Free!

Favors from local Japanese supermarket: $50

Dessert from Food4Less: $50 (Ugh, I ran out of time to bake everything and had to go to the grocery store the day before the wedding!)

Officiant: Free! Mr. G’s brother was not ordained as we were already married anyway.

Paper products including STDs, invites, postage, place cards, programs, etc.: $350

Flowers purchased from wholesale florist: $230

Drinks purchased from BevMo!: $180

Food catered from a British restaurant: $2,700

Videographer: Free! (wedding present from a friend)

Table linens from Anna’s Linens: $76

Fauxtobooth: Almost free! (Bee lovin’)

Photography: $500 (heavily discounted from a friendor)

Rentals from party rental company: $481

Rehearsal dinner at Souplantation: $150

Backyard garden and lawn servicing: $400

40 guests total

Approx. $7,000

Overall, I think we did really well, except for the food which we were willing to go high on because it was something special. We definitely came within budget and I’m happy with the result for the money we put in. I know I’m not the most relatable bee because our wedding was the result of some crazy circumstances, a completely unique location, and practically no vendors, but I do hope I’ve been able to shine a light on a new way to have a wedding.

Here are some other shining resources for a backyard weddings that I’ve personally enjoyed: Young House Love, A Backyard Wedding, how to have a 5K backyard wedding from Project Wedding, a vintage wedding from Green Wedding Shoes, and an intimate Bohemian wedding from Ruffled.

What are the pros and cons of your venue?