Photo by Danik Prihodko on Pexels Hi, I’m Diane. For over 20 years I coordinated weddings in Charleston, and some of the happiest ones I ever worked cost less than the average couple spends on flowers alone. Five thousand dollars is not a compromise budget. It is a clarity budget. It forces you to spend…
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels Let me start with the sentence I say to every couple who tells me they are having a backyard wedding “to save money”: a backyard wedding is not a free wedding. It is a wedding where you become the venue — and venues have costs. That does not mean…
Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels Can you throw a real reception — a pretty room, a good meal, music, cake, and photos — for 30 guests and under $3,000? Yes. I know because in twenty years of coordinating weddings in Charleston, I helped couples do versions of it many times. But it only works…
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels There is a myth I want to bust right away: a small wedding is not automatically a cheap wedding. In twenty years of coordinating weddings in Charleston, I watched couples plan a 20-person day expecting it to cost almost nothing — then get surprised by invoices that looked a…
Photo by Alina T on Pexels Hi, I’m Diane. I coordinated weddings in Charleston for over twenty years, and I will tell you a secret the wedding industry does not love: some of the sweetest, prettiest weddings I ever worked cost around $10,000. Not because the couples settled. Because they spent on purpose. The average…