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Save or Splurge: The Big Budgeting Behind My 10 Lakh Destination Wedding!

BY Latha Sunadh | 06 Feb, 2017 | 5 min read

Who said you have to spend a bomb to have your dream destination wedding? Proof: Ankita's sweet destination wedding in the hills that we captured here and it was budgeted at Rs 10 Lakh. Now, that's the dream, right? The wedding was planned by the bride and groom with their own money. So we asked the resourceful bride who did everything from scratch - Ankita to enlighten us on the way things were done so successfully at this do and she obliged!

Money matters

We wanted an intimate wedding and mostly, it had to be simple and fun. But I knew that there is no way I'm going to use the money my parents saved up for my own extravagance. It isn't fair. Plus, I wanted my parents to rest and enjoy the wedding and not stress out about dowry or gifts etc. I've always been an independent girl so to be honest, all expenses were done by ourselves. Not a single penny came from anywhere else.

Splurged on Lehenga

I splurged only on two things - one was my wedding lehenga and the other one was my bridal makeup. As it was my big day and I didn't wanted to take a risk on these things - after all, pictures last longer. If those things went wrong then I would have had regretted it my whole life. So these are the high-priced areas. My Bridal outfit was from Asiana Couture, Chandni chowk. The splurge on this one because I did not wanted to take any risk.
Cost : 75k-80k as I got additional chunni done from outside.

Splurged on Makeup

Makeup is really important in photos so I wanted to get the best my budget could afford. I chose Sohni Juneja Makeup Artist★ 5  who charges 25000/- for the wedding day.

Cost: Rs  48000/- for two events.

Saved on Venue

We chose a remote and neat resort in Dehradun for our venue as it was way more beautiful and also cheaper comparing to other venues available. They were in the main city but this was a bit away and tucked in sweetly on the hills. The landmark of the venue was a big touristy place so nobody had a problem finding the place even though it was offbeat. We booked the venue for three days and did all the functions at the same place - one good way to save a lot on the venue costs. Our negotiation was way more powerful because of this.
Cost: 1-1.5lac for 3 days  including 10 rooms and 3 mud huts. They also had normal huts but we did not use them . This included the cost of the areas needed for the functions.

Saved on Decor & Catering

Decor and catering was taken care of by the event management company we hired: The Eventalist. The smart way to choose the event management company while having a destination wedding? Just choose a local vendor ( Ideas you can help them with and execution can be done by them. Plus, look at Pinterest and you don't need to search for anything). The second, most significant way you can get a great deal with an event company is to choose a company that is a startup or new in the business. Those are the ones who will put their heart and soul into your wedding completely and will not run behind making huge profits. Because as much as you need them, they need you to show off what they are capable of. It's simple - your wedding can be a great portfolio for them in the future. I got connected with this company through my colleague and they did everything I wanted within the budget I gave him.
Also, I bought few things from aliexpress.com for the decor. It's the best place to shop if you want to DIY your wedding decor.
Cost: The budge for decor, catering, entertainment etc we gave was 5-5.5lac for all the 3  functions and they managed to stay within the budget! Hurrah!

Saved on Jewellery

My jewellery was imitation jewellery that looked like the real thing. I chose to get it from Fashion Zone by Preeti Makhija 

Saved on Favours

Apart from the main spend, we used the extra money and budgeted it well to use for extra things. We saved a lot on favours though. We gave handmade bangles for the Mehendi, silver coins on milni (costing approx 600) and homemade chocolates to all the baraatis while welcoming them.

 Saved on Other Function Outfits

My other function outfits were designed and custom made from Esha Dutta Styling. When you know what you want, you don't need to go to fancy high end stores to shop and Esha did a great job

Guest List & More

1st is the location for the destination wedding which helped us a lot in saving money. No gifts system, no dowry system and even no heavy trousseau system. Also we kept our guest list limited to only our close friends and first families (the guest list was around 150-160 guest).

Pictures by:Memento of Shades Photography★ 4.6

If these details weren't enough, we've got more inspiration and ideas about planning a destination wedding. Do not miss this!

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