One of our iHEARThmong readers was wondering about a general budget for a Hmong-American wedding. Well, here it is!
Keeping your wedding budget on track is the most difficult thing to do. Our original budget was $10,000 total but, that definitely was not feasible after knowing were going to have over 500 guests and the venue we chose. By the way, John and I both felt that we still weren’t able to invite many of our friends as our families made up the majority of the 500 guests. So sorry we couldn’t invite everyone! 
We wish we would have invited more of our friends!
1) Make a list of items you want for the wedding.
Pick and choose the list of items with your groom (i.e. a videographer, photobooth, photographer, flowers, etc). I was fortunate to have a laid-back groom. For me, having a videographer and photobooth were on my priority list. I would say that there were times we didn’t agree on everything and got into heated discussions… but, post – ‘wedding’ day it was all worth it. Hint: Sometimes he won’t understand what you are talking about until post-wedding day. lol!
2) Connect with family + friends.
We were fortunate to have talented and supportive family and friends! Singers, photographers, fashion designers, make-up artists, etc. Many of our family + friends helped with the wedding as our wedding gift. You could make a list of tasks and delegate to your close family + friends. Thank you to all of YOU who helped (you know who you are) and making our wedding day simply amazing!
To give you a general idea, here’s our initial budget for each item. Items add up quickly and you get through $10,000 pretty fast. For each item, I would research that item, contact vendors for price quotes and create a spreadsheet of the item, vendor and price quote. If a vendor was out of my budget, I would let them know. For example, wedding chair covers and sashes typically cost $2.50 to $3 per chair. It took me quite a while before I found my vendor on craigslist. He rents out quality chair covers for $1 to $1.50 per chair cover. Check him out at garzarental.com. He’s based out of St. Paul, MN and was great to work with via email/phone. You definitely need a HUGE van to haul those chair covers. Also, make sure to have money saved up for all the deposits you will have to make for each vendor.
Venue $3000
Drinks + Wait Staff + Kitchen Rental $5000
Photographer $2000
Videographer $1200
Photobooth $1000
Wedding Dress $1000
Rings $1500
Gifts $500
Decorations + Flowers $300
Printing + Programs $100
Cake $400
Food $4000
TOTAL: $20,000
With research and detailed planning, you can have your dream wedding under your budget. We saved for an entire year and post-wedding we came under budget by $5000 with the help of family + friends!
Hi! I am also in the process of planning my wedding and have found some interest in The Grand Meridian as well. I was just wondering how and if you had to negotiate between bringing in your own food. I see that you had kitchen rental? I was browsing through their website and it said that all food needed to be made within the premise and by Grand Meridian staff only? I would appreciate if you can give some feedback about that. Or any advice about the location would be helpful. Thank you!
Hi Bao!
The Grand Meridian was an amazing experience. I did reserve for the kitchen rental as my in-laws own a restaurant and wanted to prepare the food on site. I believe they do have an option if you are preparing “authentic” meals that they are unable to prepare. I would call Sue and she would be happy to answer your questions as well. She was wonderful to work with and it felt like I was family when I was working with her and her staff. There are also a couple of places in Appleton that I found but none of them allowed us to bring food in. Good luck with wedding planning! Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions. I would be happy to help!
- K