A Bohemian Sedona Wedding on a $8k Budget
When planning a wedding, whether it’s your own or for a client, emotions run high and spending can run even higher. It’s important to make a plan for how you’ll spend money, and creating a written budget early-on in your wedding planning is a great place to start.
Have a heart-to-heart early on with your fiancé or client to determine their top three or four aspects of the wedding that they feel is important: bridal gown, food, drink, band, ceremony, etc. Then also decide on the least important. Now you have a clear plan on how you’ll use your money during difficult wedding planning decisions.
We’ve created a template that can be downloaded and used for your wedding budget. Download it or make a copy, and use it to your advantage. If you need advice or help planning your big day, Reach Out! We’ll be happy to discuss your plans with you and offer our advice.
*A disclaimer: many wedding budgets include the honeymoon, engagement ring, engagement party, bridal shower, etc. This template does not include those items.
Agave Social Wedding Budget
Use it, and reach out if you need help!
Attire → 8%
Lacy, vintage, bohemian. The style is all over Instagram, but it’s actually difficult to find this style in shops, unless you want to spend $5k on a designer dress.
After months of searching at shops in Phoenix, Denver and Los Angeles, and actually purchasing four BHLDN dresses online, we found the dress at The Green Bride in Denver, a small consignment wedding dress shop that also has a small run of new dresses. Mine was a new dress, and it was beautiful. It was $500. Saldana Vintage was also a close contender and I’d recommend them.
Beauty → 4%
I colored my hair platinum blonde twice before the wedding, I did my own makeup, and splurged on some mani + pedi love for my bridesmaids.
Venue → 18%
We chose the Red Agave Adventure Resort in Sedona as our venue, and we were incredibly lucky to find it. Our guests took over the entire venue - nine A-frame cabins and 4 studio rooms - for the entire weekend. The venue has a pool, two hot-tubs, hiking/mountain biking trails directly from the resort, full kitchens with outdoor bbq’s, and lots of freedom for outdoor games and fun.
Having a “hands-off” venue allowed us to DIY our wedding weekend as much as we wanted to. There was a small fee to host the ceremony and reception at the venue (and you have to take over the entire resort or get permission from any other guests that are staying), but otherwise, we were free to do our own food, drinks, decor, setup, music, etc. This is rare in wedding venues, and it fitted our wedding perfectly.
One of the many joys of our wedding weekend was seeing our families mix and mingle and spend quality time together.
Ceremony → 2%
Our altar was built as a wedding gift by a groomsman, and the flowers are included as a separate line item. This 2% includes our marriage license, ceremony accessories (our flower girls blew bubbles as they walked down the aisle).
Drinks → 8%
For drinks, we offered a specialty cocktail of smoked tequila, seltzer, limes, and hibiscus syrup. We purchased large dispensers from Target (they' were so cute). One had water, the other had our cocktail.
Dessert → 2%
We had delicious and adorable cupcakes by Sugar Mamas, a local bakery in Flagstaff. Mom surprised us with a mini cutting cake. We were honored to borrow my Grandmother’s depression glass platter as our cake platter.
Favors + Gifts → 3%
This included wedding party gifts, favors for our guests, and parents thank you gifts. If you need ideas for any of these things, Etsy and Pinterest will be your friend. If you need more guidance, shoot us an email!
Wedding Rings → 2%
We found our wedding rings on Etsy and an Amazon private seller.
Flowers + Decor → 8%
We had a non-traditional wedding and were not afraid to make things ourselves. With that in mind, we spent $150 at two grocery stores in Sedona and created our own altar flowers, bouquets and accent pieces. The flowers were beautiful and fit the theme of the wedding perfectly.
Food → 18%
Our venue allowed us to cook ourselves (really, our venue was the best), so we asked my brother, a celebrated family chef, to cook carnitas tacos, ceviche, bomb-ass guacamole, fajita veggies, and scorched corn. I purchased bamboo plates and recycled cloth-like dinner napkins from Amazon.
Invites + Paper → 2%
We utilized our design skills and created all designs on Google Slides (for those with limited design skills, we highly recommend using Google Slides - we’ll do a tutorial video soon). We sourced our paper and envelopes from Paper Source, and printed the invites at Staples. We LOVE how they turned out.
Our thank-you notes were ordered through
Music → 8%
We initially wanted to hire a live band, and after LOTS of research, we couldn’t find a band that fit the style we were going for, or our budget. We opted for multiple Spotify playlists and we asked an outgoing cousin to serve as an emcee and help with announcements. Our wedding party helped add songs to the playlists, and we listened and edited the playlists the week before the wedding.
Photos + Video → 10%
We cut back on a lot of areas to help make our desired budget. But a photographer was not an area that we wanted to cut corners. It was important to find a photographer with a style that we love - so we reached out to a photographer friend in LA, and she was able to make the trip to be our photographer.
Extra Fees / Emergency Fund → 5%
Don’t forget little things like stamps for the RSVP cards, ribbons for the favors and marriage license fees seem so small that you can shrug them off, but like any costs, they add up. Going "just over budget" in a couple different categories with a vague plan of making it up somewhere else can push you past your limit.