How to Get Married in Maryland for Under $30K
Congratulations on entering your wedding planning chapter. From the start of planning I knew I wanted to get married in Maryland for under $30K, but still wanted some foam on top 🙂 Was it difficult? Yes. Was it doable? Absolutely!
Honestly, some of the planning was easier because of the budget because I didn’t need to waste energy deciding on certain things that were already ruled out by the budget. Below I will share what we did and rough price estimates for things so you can plan better and figure out what works for you.Â
Venue for Getting Married in Maryland
We had our ceremony and reception at the Howard County Conservancy. What I love about this venue is that it’s affordable and doesn’t require a whole lot of decorating because the grounds are beautiful. We spent $3,800 in total for the venue.Â
I liked having a venue that is JUST a venue as opposed to the all-inclusive style because I felt like I could better customize and stay within budget. On the flip side, this meant more planning and more decisions so you’ll have to determine what makes sense for you.
Guest List
Of course the smaller the guest list the better in terms of cost, so how do you keep it small-ish? What worked for me was leaving off fringe friends. A fringe friend is a friend of a friend. This is difficult because sometimes you are very close with one of your friend’s friends. It may be uncomfortable, but it is an effective way to shorten the list and if they are a good friend of a friend, they will understand.Â
Getting Ready/Wedding Night for Getting Married in Maryland
We saved money in this area by renting an ABnB which we used for the groomsmen/groom and the bridesmaids/bride to get ready in AND then used again as our wedding night lodging. If your venue already has a getting ready location then you may not need this. But my venue, the Howard County Conservancy, as great as it was, did not have a location for us to get ready in (because of the season).Â
It may be hard to find an ABnB that works as a getting ready spot and a wedding night spot, but what worked perfectly for us was the historic Inn at Mt. Ida in Ellicott City, Maryland. I found the inn on ABnB, but if you don’t see it, you can also visit their website. This inn is incredibly charming and great for pictures. Our favorite part was having coffee on the balcony overlooking the trees the morning after our wedding. The inn also had space for the hair stylist to come and style hair.Â
In total, we spent just over $1,300Â on the inn as both our getting ready location and our lodging for wedding night.
Catering/Day-of Coordinator (DOC)/Drinks
We used Putting on the Ritz (POTR) for catering and ended up spending around $8,800 for an 80-90 person wedding. We went with POTR because we felt like we were able to customize the menu and they were willing to work with us on several things. The food is going to be good at a lot of the catering companies, but I feel that price and flexibility is what helps a caterer stand out.Â
The other major reason we went with POTR was their DOC Mariah! Mariah works at POTR and may work with you to coordinate catering if you use POTR, but she also does DOC-ing which can be added on. We added on that service with her for about $800 (including having her run the rehearsal the night before) and that was one of the best, quite possibly THE best decision we made throughout the wedding planning process. She was great in every way and went above and beyond to make our day run smoothly.Â
The bottom line here is is three-fold. 1) pay close attention to everything in the contract when comparing caterers. 2) don’t be afraid to ask about pricing if it’s not listed. 3) once you select a caterer, save old versions of your contract because mistakes may be made and you want to stay on top of how much different things cost when changes are made to the menu.
Our venue allowed BYOB alcohol, so we bought liquor from Total Wine, a bulk store for alcohol, and then had the caterer provide beer, wine, and champagne. We were able to return unopened bottles after the wedding which helped us save money. We ended up spending a little under $500 on liquor for our open bar wedding.
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Wedding Cake for Getting Married in Maryland
You can get single-tiered cakes from POTR or token cakes as they call them, but we wanted multiple tiers so we had to hire a baker. We got a two-tiered wedding cake and spent $370 which included the baker delivering the cake. We saved money by getting a relatively plain design (just a rough white frost). To add a little something, we then provided the baker with our own silk flowers that she put on the cake day-of. The price goes up significantly the more elaborate the decoration for the cake.
In order to still draw attention to the cake we made a floral base out of styrofoam and silk flowers. With materials from Michaels, and utilizing their sales, we spent about $50 on this.
We also got a cake that supposedly fed fewer people than we had in attendance at the wedding and instructed the staff to cut the cake slices smaller than usual. We thought we might run out of dessert so we ordered a few other smaller desserts from POTR. With doing this we still had plenty of leftover cake and other desserts.Â
We used the Cake Studio for our wedding cake and learned a lot from the experience. I would recommend making sure that you get a contract in writing from the baker that specifies exactly what you ordered and where and when the cake is to be delivered (if you are having the baker deliver it) before giving the baker any money. We found that, at least at this bake shop, there was a generic terms & conditions agreement that we signed, but that this contract did not have any details specific to our wedding.Â
I can’t say that I recommend this bake shop due to communication style preferences, but their cake was very good.
Wedding Dress for Getting Married in Maryland
Realistically, I could probably write a whole post just on selecting a wedding dress to get married in Maryland. And I actually might, but for now I’ll just highlight a few key pieces of advice I have in this area.
1) Go to multiple different stores
Prices vary drastically between different sellers so you want to explore a bit before purchasing a dress. I recommend going to multiple different stores with multiple groups of people and once by yourself. In total, I went to try on wedding dresses three times. The first time I went to David’s Bridal with my soon to be sister-in-law and my mother. The second time I went to Cherie Sustainable Bridal with my now mother-in-law, my mother, and my maid of honor. Lastly, the third time I went to a different David’s Bridal location by myself.
For me, it was easier to make a decision by myself, but I love that I still have the memories of trying on wedding dresses with those other important people in my life. No matter who you go with, as you try on more dresses, you’ll find out what you like and with multiple trips there is less pressure to pick THE DRESS the first time.
I like that Cherie is sustainable given that the dresses have been worn before, but the downside is that the dresses are final sale, unlike David’s Bridal which has a return window.
2) Don’t rule out ordering online
There are several affordable wedding dresses online. I liked trying on dresses from Lulu’s because they had a quick and easy return process.
3) Consider having a backup dress (worth the money!)
I ended up having a little bit of indecisiveness with picking a dress, so I actually got a more affordable used dress from Cherie and then later bought a different dress from David’s Bridal (leaving me with the Cherie dress as well since it was final sale). I loved the David’s Bridal dress I got so much that I figured I would wear it the whole night, but I also thought why not bring the Cherie dress as a backup just in case.
Turns out, having a backup dress is KEY. You never know what will happen day of, but you can pretty much expect at least one thing to go wrong. The thing that went wrong for me was that my bustle didn’t stay bustled while I danced, making it very hard to dance without tripping. Luckily, my backup dress did not have a train, so I was able to do an emergency unplanned dress change later in the night and then dance the night away!
In total, I spent under $1,500 for both dresses, alterations, wedding shoes, and the veils (I had two veils, both from Cherie). If you are getting married in Maryland, I would check out both these stores.
Bridesmaids’ Dresses/Groomsmen Attire
I went for the mis-match bridesmaid dress look so I selected a bunch of dresses from Lulu’s, in a price range of $85-$150, and then let my bridesmaids give input on which styles they liked and assigned from there. They have tons of styles and the return policy is great so your bridesmaids can be sure to get something that makes them feel great!Â
For groomsmen, we rented tuxes from Men’s Warehouse. They have the groomsmen groups pretty much down to a science and made everything easy. They even worked with us to get a groomsman from out of the country fitted for the correct attire and ready to go. For those in the U.S. there are locations all over the country. If you have enough groomsmen in the party, Men’s Warehouse sometimes runs a deal where you can get a credit or refund for the groom’s attire.Â
We didn’t pay for the attire for the bridal party, but did our best to find affordable options. Also, pro tip for an affordable and customized groomsman gift: my husband bought custom cufflinks for each groomsman which were between $20 – $35 per pair of cufflinks.
Florals for Getting Married in Maryland
As lovely as flowers from a florist are, that was simply not in the budget for us. We opted to locally-source our wedding flowers from Gill Hill Flower Farm. I loved that we were able to do this because not only did it support the local community and save us money, but it also allowed us to have a super unique wildflower vibe.Â
We gave Gill Hill our wedding colors in advance and she was able to grow specific flowers to fit our vibe. Make sure you reach out in advance for this to give the grower enough time to plan around planting seasons.
You order the flowers in buckets and each bucket is $90, plus an additional $20 if you select specific colors, which we did. We ordered two buckets, so we spent around $220 on florals. I would check the website or reach out to Gill Hill for updated pricing. We used Gill Hill flowers for my bridal bouquet and reception table centerpieces and then supplemented the rest of the decor with silk flowers from Michaels (around $500 in miscellaneous decorations), so we only needed two buckets, but if you wanted to use the flowers for bridesmaid bouquets or other decorations you would likely want to place a bigger order.
One potential downside to keep in mind with this option is labor and logistics. We picked up the flowers a few days before the wedding so that we could arrange the bouquets, and the flowers do better in a cool environment, so ideally a fridge or a basement is needed to keep them fresh.Â
You also need someone to trim the leaves and stems, transport them to the venue the day-of, and arrange them. You will need help from a friend or family member for this, but it will save you a lot of money.Â
Hair & MakeupÂ
This can be a huge wedding expense! What I did to save money here was have a friend do my makeup. I feel like most people have that one friend who is really good at makeup. This may not be the case for everyone, but if you do, having that friend do your makeup could save you upwards of $500 when you factor in practice trials and makeup for day-of.
One of my bridesmaids, Anastacia, did my makeup. Since Anastacia did my makeup for free I just had to pay for the actual makeup, which I spent between $300 and $400 on. However, I opted for high-end makeup (which isn’t necessary) but I needed a makeup refresh anyway and I use many of the products I bought on daily basis now, so I wouldn’t necessarily include this figure in my wedding budget total.Â
For hair I looked into local salons and ended up using Ooh La Lal hair salon. It seems like salons that don’t specialize in bridal hair can sometimes be more affordable than specifically bridal hair salons. My stylist was Sheela and she gave me the option of having my bridal hair be done in studio or having her come to me day-of. I ended up having her meet us at the getting ready location.Â
I paid around $100 for the first hair trial and then $60 for a second hair trial. Don’t be afraid to have the stylist try at least two hairstyles during the hair trial AND don’t be afraid to do multiple trials if you don’t love the first trial!! My bridal hair for day-of was $100. I gave my bridesmaids the option of getting their hair done and bridesmaid hair styling ended up being between $60-$80 per person.Â
If you have a really large group this may not be best, but if you have a smaller number of people getting hair done, a local salon could be a good option!
Accessories for Getting Married in Maryland
I found that Gorjana and Mejuri had affordable quality options, especially for gold. In total, my wedding band, wedding day necklace, and wedding day earrings from these two stores cost me around $1,300 ish for all three. I selected jewelry that is elegant enough for my wedding, and high enough quality in a classic style, to last forever even with everyday wear.Â
Officiant/DJ/MC for Getting Married in Maryland
The cost of an officiant can range anywhere from $200-$1,500, depending on the location, and type of officiant. We had a friend officiate our marriage ceremony. They got certified through Universal Life Church. You can pay around $40 to get documentation to show the officiant is ordained/certified, but depending on the state and county where your wedding will take place, you may not need documentation. Check with your county’s rules. For my area we went to the circuit court office for this info. Â
Not only can you save money by having a friend or relative officiate your wedding but it can also be more personal and special to have someone you know perform the ceremony. In addition, you will have more input for the script/flow of the ceremony and make it your own.
We had a DJ/MC couple team from Dance Masters Entertainment named Sue and Don. They really brought the energy and I would definitely recommend them. In total for the DJ/MC we paid a little under $1,500.Â
Photography for Getting Married in Maryland
This is probably the best hack we used to save money. My advice here is a bit taboo, but essentially, I would hire a few different amateurs to capture your wedding. For our wedding photographers, we used three friends of friends and then another friend of a friend (a last minute addition because this individual wanted to build their portfolio) to photograph our wedding. None of the three did this full-time and some had never photographed a wedding before.Â
Could all the photos be terrible? It’s certainly possible. But most likely someone is bound to get some good photos. We paid them each $300 since they were friends and just starting off, but I think the price you pay will depend on their level of experience and whether they want to build their portfolio. If they want to build their portfolio it’s possible they’ll shoot for free! This is what happened with the fourth photographer we had.
So we got over 300 photos for under $1000, but the downside for using amateur photographers is that you will have to put more effort into planning. For example, I made a photographer timeline telling each one where to be and when. I also created a Pinterest board with ideas for the vibes I wanted.Â
We had to be a little more documentary-style with the posing (which I tend to like anyway). In other words, amateurs will not have as much experience arranging people in group photos or giving you pose ideas. So pros and cons.Â
Save-the-Dates & Invitations
I used the knot.com for save-the-dates and invites. I liked that I could match the theme of what I sent out via mail to the design of the website. In total for stamps and all stationary we spent $350. So much of what you send is personal preference, so this is very flexible in terms of saving money.Â
Rehearsal Dinner
We spent around $1,700 on the rehearsal dinner and had it at the Turn House on Hobbit’s Glen golf course. They had a wide range of options here and the communication with the restaurant was excellent. I would definitely recommend checking out their private event package.
In conclusion, getting married in Maryland for under $30K and having a nice wedding are not mutually exclusive!
There were a couple other things I didn’t include on here like funds set aside for a bridal shower, an after party, and tips, but these are some of the big ticket items. It’s definitely possible to get married in Maryland for under $30K. It’s not easy, but I hope these tips help! Let me know if you have any questions, and happy planning!
If you are thinking of having a ~camp bach~ themed bachelorette weekend, check out my tips for bachelorette trip planning.
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