This ad lets me offer the course for free, thank you! <3

Hi lovely!

First, I want to tell you that I'm so, so glad you joined the course. It doesn't matter where you are in your wedding planning, it's always wonderful to have a helping hand, right? That's what I'm here for. Helping people plan their weddings while saving money is my favorite thing ever...behind Kit Kat bars and my cat Mr. Tibbers!

I can't come to your house and flip through magazines with you (even though I'd LOVE to!), so instead I am pouring every bit of my research from the last ten years of writing about budget weddings into this course.

It's all for you, and I want you to feel like you've got every possible resource when it comes to planning your wedding.

Like you, I know what it's like to plan a wedding on a small budget - I've planned several (not all my own, just FYI!) All of them were under $15,000 and one wedding cost $8,500, one had a budget of $5000, another had a budget of $3500, one had a budget of $2,500 and yet another had a budget of just $1000! It's just as difficult to plan a wedding with a budget of $1000 as it is to work with a budget of $8,500.

After planning my wedding in 2006, I wrote a book about planning a budget wedding, but it doesn't come close to the knowledge I've gained since then. I'm still writing books, but I know from experience that planning a wedding on such a small budget is incredibly difficult. It caused me to be careful and truly consider why and how I was spending money on our wedding. My family didn't have the ability to contribute significantly - not in the way that is traditional for brides from the Southeastern area of the United States! My budget was small, but I was still picky about what I wanted - so the original book was born of that year of research and negotiation.

When I first wrote Have a Wedding for $1,000, I had a very small vision of what it meant to have a wedding on a very small budget. It was all directly related to my personal needs and experiences. I knew what would be needed to make MY wedding happen on a small budget, but I didn't yet have all the knowledge that I have now. I've had many years since to research, to find out more, to make more connections and to (sadly and yet happily) get divorced and re-marry.

My now husband, Garrett, and I had a budget wedding in 2013, and we still hear that it was one of the most fun and elegant weddings to which friends and family have been. My hope in developing this course is that it will help you have a wedding that is as close to the wedding of your dreams as is possible while sticking to a budget that is reasonable for YOU.

I still feel like I made mistakes in planning the wedding to my husband, Garrett, and I will happily tell you about them so that you have as much information as possible when making your planning decisions. Things didn't turn out like I thought they would at our wedding, and the realities of how decisions turned out are pieces of information that will hopefully empower you with enough knowledge to make the decision that is right for your situation.

In this Wedding Planning on a Small Budget course, understand that any included personal stories and anecdotes from brides as well as vendors in the wedding industry come from various cities across the United States and the UK. Information they have shared about their wedding experiences might be totally different from what you like or expect to enjoy. That's totally okay! They're meant to be for inspiration and suggestion only.

What I consider a mistake or what Jenny in Milwaukee or Lydia in New Zealand considers a mistake is totally subjective. Maybe you would be happy with making the same decision, and maybe you would be disappointed if you made the same decision. Just know that it’s totally fine, whatever you decide.

That's the not the usual "It's your wedding, do whatever you want" nonsense that everyone will tell you because they don't want to hurt your feelings or help you decide. My suggestion isn't do whatever, but rather do what feels RIGHT.

Being informed about possible outcomes of various decisions will help you make the best choices for how to spend your budget. Having an idea of what it is that you would LIKE to include as an element of your wedding is a great starting point. Knowing the best way to achieve those goals at the best possible price is the intended outcome of working through this course.

Thank you so much for joining me, I can't wait to help you plan your wedding!

with love,

Maigen