A New Year’s Eve Wedding: Budget Breakdown & Planning Tips
Who out there is wondering how to have a Christmas Wedding? Do you celebrate it on the holiday, before the holiday or do you follow Stacy and Evens lead and throw a huge New Year's Eve bash reception in order to ring in the new year in elegant style? All good options, but we are sure you'll love the latter especially after seeing all of these gorgeous images captured by Jeff Newsom. Be sure to see everything by visiting the full gallery here and see just what they spent on their big day below! 
The Perfect Wedding Date
From the Bride: Evan and my first kiss was on New Year's Eve (cliché, but true!). When we got engaged, there was no question that we would have a New Year's Eve wedding. We wanted our wedding to be different, but that was difficult. It was almost impossible to find a venue indoors that would let us go until midnight or later, we were very limited for venues. 
Unusual Wedding Venue
Both Evan's sister & my parents were married on the local Army Reserve base, so we decided to check it out. I fell IN LOVE with the World War II white chapel! With some coaxing, the on-site manager agreed to let us go until after midnight, so we could throw our dream NYE party! 
Sensible Wedding Advice
Don't over DIY! Pinterest is both a blessing and a curse for Brides. Just because you finish a project with time to spare, doesn't mean you should add another project! Keep things simple, and your personal touches will shine through. 
A NYE Party To Remember
The bathrooms were super outdated, so we framed humorous phrases to lighten it up in there! Our #1 priority was to make sure EVERYONE had a wonderful NYE, with plenty of food, champagne & dancing. Evan and I gave a speech close to midnight, thanking our friends and family for sharing the beginning of the rest of our lives. We expressed that NYE not only means a new beginning for us, but a clean slate for everyone, and how special for us to celebrate that with our favorite people. 
You simply must watch the entire video from A Celluloid Dream. A breathtaking and memorable wedding film that we could watch over and over.
Read on to see how much this how to have a Christmas wedding cost. Please note that costs change as the years go by, and prices are subject to change. This is just one couple’s breakdown to give you a rough estimate on how much a wedding like this may cost you.
Having a wedding on California's Central Coast is pricy. Evan and I have a lot of local friends and family, so our edited guest list came to 257 people, of which 190 came! We had to get crafty to turn $50,000 of wedding amazingness into our budget of $25,000. It was TOTALLY do-able. I am a hairstylist, and offered my styling services in trade for a few vendors. Because our wedding was on a holiday, I expected to pay top-dollar. I'm glad someone told me to always ask for a discount. I got most (if not all) of my vendors down from their original quote!
Dress - $2,000 (including sash, veil, alterations) - The sales girl at Nicole Miller advised me to wait a week to purchase my dress (and accessories) because they were having a quarterly sale! Go girl!
Photography - $5,000 - Photography was at the top of our priority list, so we allotted the biggest percentage to this. We eliminated the photo album in order to get this price. I made an album on my own from www.artifactuprising.com for $100!
Videography - $1,200 - A friend of ours gave us a kick-ass deal because he was building his business Venue - $2,500 - Including tables and chairs Floral - $1,571 - Not including $500 trade for hair services DJ - $1,250 - Including lighting Linens - $1,126
Hair & Makeup - $0 - Trade for hair services Invites - $700 - Including postage (and about twelve grey hairs)
Décor - $1,200 (paper goods, NYE party horns, hats, noise makers, candle holders & candles)
Catering - $5,000
Alcohol - $1,500
Photo Booth - $500
TOTAL - $23,547
Things I scaled back on to make the budget work :
- Flowers (not that big of a deal to me)
- Cake (neither of us likes cake!)
- Invites off of Etsy (mixed feelings about that transaction)
- Went with "up and coming" caterer, florist & videographer. We took the risk (based on recommendations for all of them) of hiring new vendors. Saved a TON of money & gave them a chance to shine in their local community.
- Waited for sales
- Got super lucky that NYE was on a Tuesday! I played that card to my advantage at every vendor meeting. I mean, who's busy on a Tuesday?!
- Cinematography: A Celluloid Dream
- DJ & Lighting: Bailey Entertainment
- Flowers: Brooke Edlelman Designs
- Hair: Cori Holzer of Studio C | Makeup: Candice Cleary of The Face and Body Shoppe
- Photo Booth: ShutterBooth
- Photography: Jeff Newsom
- Venue: Camp San Luis Obispo
- Wedding Dresses: Nicole Miller