How a Small Wedding Saved Us $23,000 and Helped Us Buy a House

In 2022, the average wedding cost $30,000, according to The Knot. That's a huge chunk of change to come out of your checking account.

When I got married over a decade ago, the average costs weren't quite so high -- but they weren't much lower either, coming in at around $28,427 in the year I tied the knot.

When we decided to get married, we considered having a lavish wedding -- especially since both my husband's parents and my parents were willing to contribute some money towards the big event. But, we made a different decision instead, and it's one that's paid off for us big time.

A small wedding opened up the door to a home purchase

When we got engaged, both sets of parents offered some money to us, which amounted to close to $30,000 between them. This was a huge amount of money and we were really grateful that our parents were able to help us out in that way.

But, when we started thinking about moving forward, we just couldn't justify spending that kind of money on a one-day event -- especially since it's not as if our parents were millionaires and the money didn't matter to them. We knew that they had worked hard to save it and we wanted to do something meaningful with it.

So, we ended up talking to them about whether they'd be OK with us having a smaller wedding and using a good portion of that money towards a down payment for a home instead. They were not only OK with it, but they were excited about the idea that they could help us to do something that would enable us to set down roots.

Our $5,000 wedding ended up being just what we were looking for

After some careful consideration, we decided to have a very small wedding at the house we were able to buy with an affordable mortgage loan thanks to the wedding fund that turned into a down payment assistance fund. To celebrate with the rest of our loved ones, we'd have a larger casual picnic in the backyard the next day.

Both of the events that we had cost us a combined total of around $5,000, leaving us with a lot of extra money for a down payment and putting our total at about $23,000 less than the average wedding cost during the year we got married. And that was with a great vintage wedding dress I found online, some unique food options (including a crepe station at the ceremony), and a beautiful wedding cake made by a friend of mine as a wedding gift.

We didn't end up having to spend a fortune to have a memorable day, and we still live in the house that we bought with the down payment fund, so the gift our parents ended up giving us turned out to be very long lasting.

Of course, not everyone is in a position to get money from their parents for a wedding. But if you are thinking about spending anywhere close to the average wedding cost -- either from your savings or by borrowing -- it may be worth considering whether a small, simple, and beautiful ceremony could work for you while opening up the door to do other great things with the rest of the cash.