This article was first posted on the Knot a while back now, but I completely forgot to blog about it! I was asked by The Knot to come up with a hypothetical wedding in Cincinnati… for $10,000 or less. It had to be for 80-100 guests and include just about everything! I didn’t want to say “throw it in your back yard and have your friends take the pictures” so I worked to come up with a list of truly professional vendors that could be combined at a rate of under $10,000. The result: a picnic-style afternoon wedding at two very Cincinnati locations: ceremony at Ault Park’s rose garden and reception at The Observatory. To view the full article, click here. What I wish the editors included, but didn’t, was my plea to splurge on a professional makeup artist! It is so worth it, especially when you are spending so much on photographs, and also because everyone deserves to be pampered a bit :)

The point of coming up with a wedding on $10,000 was not (in my opinion) to necessarily say that your wedding should cost you as little as possible, but to show that you truly can have a wedding you’ll love at any budget. Whether that’s $10,000, $30,000 or $150,000 doesn’t really matter. Whether you are spending more or less than the “average” is irrelevant; just know that you do have choices at every level. If you’re not sure where to start, a wedding planner can help you prioritize and set up a budget breakdown as well as a planning timeline. And if you’re not sure you need a wedding planner, many of us offer wedding consultations on an “a la carte” or hourly basis, which in some cases may be all you need. In the end, whether you are working with a wedding planner or not, what matters is that you take the time to prioritize what is most important for you and your fiancé and to make the choices that work for you.