Cheap Backyard Wedding Ideas From Real Couples Who Skipped the Venue Bill

Not sure where to start?

If you’re staring down a venue quote that costs more than your car, steal freely from ideas in this article on how to make each element of your wedding budget-friendly. Also, read our tips on keeping your wedding budget in-check.

Scroll to the bottom to see real couples getting married on somebody’s lawn and improvising with super creative elements. The arch built from old doors, the grocery-store bouquets, the paper flowers that took a whole winter to fold. Click any wedding to see the full day, and browse our Real Weddings directory for even more ideas.

Host a Backyard Wedding on a Budget

The neat thing about working with a small budget is that it encourages you to step outside the box and take creative leaps of faith. Whether it’s diving into the world of DIY, or brainstorming delicious recipes to feed a crowd for example. You’ll discover loads of ways to save money while creating a unique and unforgettable backyard wedding.

Keep reading for some ideas to get you started. 

Venue

Pick a spot that has meaning to you or that you love for the atmosphere. Maybe it’s your grandmother’s garden, your fiance’s cottage by the sea, or your own backyard. Walk around the area and get to know it on a wedding-planning level to discover its potential.

Make sure it will suit your needs and the number of guests you are hosting. Ask yourself key questions such as: 

• Does it have cover from the weather? Look, there are no two ways about it – you absolutely need to account for the possibility of inclement weather.  
• Is there a space that’s suitable for dancing?  Grass is a lovely carpet, but not always great for boogying down, especially if your guests didn’t get the note to avoid wearing heels! 
• Are there suitable washroom facilities available? 
• Where will guests be able to park?

Be honest with your answers or you might find yourself in a bind later on in your wedding planning adventures! 

Don’t worry, we know you’ll find the perfect backyard, just like you found the perfect partner.

Food and Beverage

Pizza and buckets of beer or a build-your-own taco station and soda fountain? It’s up to you! 

There are so many fantastic foods and drink ideas for the budget backyard wedding. Just to name a few: 

• Sliders and BBQ
• Cheese boards and picnic spreads
• Rustic comfort food
• Warm bread

The great thing about many of these menus is that they are easy and affordable to put together yourself. 

Another popular option we’ve seen is a ‘bar by donation’. It’s a cross between an open bar and a paid bar. Pop a pretty jar on the bar and invite guests to toss in dolla dolla bills to help you cover the costs of their boozing! 

NOTE: Check local liquor laws or with the venue, as this option may not be possible.

Pssst….need some inspo? 

We just LOVED the spread of food Kaitlyn and Jeremy offered up at their backyard wedding in North Carolina. 

Attire

Since you’ll be getting married outside, you’ll want to adorn yourself in something appropriate for the season and environment. A summer wedding calls for something cool and casual, while you may want to wear a couple of layers for a winter wedding.

While weather should definitely guide your attire choices, don’t let your venue deter you from wearing the wedding dress (or tux!) of your dreams. Whatever your style (elegant, boho, modern or vintage), you can find an affordable dress to match.

Don’t believe us?  

Check out our guide to the Best Online Shops to Buy an Affordable Wedding Dress and our article on Inexpensive Wedding Dresses You’d Swear Cost Thousands! 

Flowers

Seasonal flowers and wildflowers are always a popular choice and are typically less expensive than exotic flowers. Of course, you can always look at what’s already right in front of you, from the colorful potted plants dotting the patio to the looming oak tree that stands watch in your yard. 

Place single flowers in vases or bunches in crates or baskets. You might also create a hanging garden by placing mini bouquets in recycled bottles or vases and hanging them from trees, doorways, and the like. 

Decorations

When it comes to budget outdoor wedding decor, your natural surroundings are your best friend. Use them to your advantage when considering how to decorate the rest of the space. 

Decor is one place where you can save big by sourcing second hand or going DIY, without compromising on the final look. Some of the most beautiful weddings we’ve come across featured loads of DIY decor ideas.

Elevate any theme with candles and soft lighting, like string lights and paper lanterns. Fill buckets with blooms, use textured linens, or create an altar draped in flowers and fabric. 

Wedding Coordination

Wedding coordination includes logistical things like cleanup, parking, permits, and a backup plan in case of inclement weather. You also need to think about extra electrical power, restroom space, neighbors, and yard maintenance.  

A lot of couples outsource the job of wedding planning or coordination to a professional. While this definitely saves time and stress, it can be an expensive investment. Take stock of your friend circle. 

Do you have a trusted friend who:

• LOVES creating to-do lists
• Is always on time (like, annoyingly so!)
• Enjoys planning get-togethers

Ask them if they might be able to help out with certain tasks in the lead up to the wedding, but be mindful of the time commitment.

For day-of-wedding help, ask your closest family and friends to help with certain tasks, such as bringing out the cake or moving chairs after the ceremony. Spread the work out, so no one misses out on actually enjoying the celebrations, but so they all feel extra special for their part in your wedding day! 

Photography

One of the things most couples regret not splurging for on their wedding day is photography.

Whether you hire a professional photographer or have a dedicated friend capture special moments, you don’t want to miss out on wedding day photos!

Try and check off all the essentials, from formals and portraits to the reception and beyond.

If you can’t afford a professional photographer on the big day, consider hiring one for an engagement shoot. The cost will be a fraction and since the venue is your backyard, you can still arrange to get some beautiful shots of the place where your nuptials are going to take place! 

Entertainment

A backyard wedding wouldn’t be complete without some lawn games. A few wedding game ideas we love include: 

• Giant Jenga
• Bocce ball
• Bean bag toss

Get creative with how to keep your guests entertained. If you love wine, why not organize a wine tasting game? Trivia or a scavenger hunt, if done well, can also be fun and serve as a great ice-breaker.

You could also provide music by creating a wedding playlist and renting a small sound system. Just make sure you’re aware of neighborhood noise ordinances. 

Dessert

Top the night off with interactive dessert stations, like a build-your-own-sundae bar, s’ mores station, or a cupcake carousel. Alternatively, you could set up a coffee and hot chocolate station and hand out homemade cookies. 

We also love the idea of a dessert potluck. Pretty much everyone has a treasured dessert recipe they love whipping up for special occasions, and what’s more special than your wedding?! 

Invitations and Stationery

It doesn’t get more budget-friendly than FREE! Check out our wedding stationery free printables for all kinds of design templates and styles. All you need to do is customize, print, and send to your guests.

You can also see our list of handmade invitations – great for a budget wedding.

Favors

You can save on favors and wedding decorations by combining the two. For example, you can give the succulents you use to decorate the tables to guests at the end of the celebration.

And who doesn’t love receiving something edible? 

Baked goods, salsa, homemade jams, and the like are always welcome gifts at weddings. 

Officiant

If you have a friend or family member who will act as the wedding officiant, consider the time and effort (writing the service, attending the rehearsal, etc.) they’ll put in and offer a gift as a token of your appreciation. 

If this isn’t an option, you can also hire a religious or civil officiant. Although a religious officiant isn’t paid, you’ll be expected to donate to the house of worship and tip the officiant. 

Civil officiants generally charge around $200 to $300, but you should ask ahead to see what the service fee includes before you book.

Miscellaneous/Extras

There’s so much to think about when it comes to planning a wedding. We’ve tried to cover all of the big items, but there are many other things you’ll want to consider when hosting a backyard wedding: silverware, tables and chairs, gifts, rentals, etc. 

The best thing to do is to follow a wedding planning checklist and your budget to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

Tips to Keep your Budget in Check

Keeping your wedding budget in check comes down to organization, communication, and creativity. The creative side of planning a backyard wedding on a budget is the most fun part, of course, but staying organized and communicating with your partner is a great way to strengthen your relationship!

Here are some general tips on how to stick to a small budget, no matter where you’re hosting your wedding. 

Determine Your Budget First

Hashing out the financial details for a budget-friendly wedding doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming. One of the best ways to avoid number-crunching stress is to determine your budget, then break down the total into smaller categories. For example:

• Ceremony: 25% or X amount
• Reception: 25% or X amount
• Food: 15% or X amount

Continue for each category we featured in the above section, including attire, flowers, decor, invitations, etc. This system will help you allocate costs and give you a roadmap to stay on track. 

Limit # of Guests

One of the easiest ways to keep your budget in check is by limiting the number of guests you invite to your closest family and friends. Besides reducing costs, an intimate celebration will allow you to spend more time with each of your guests. 

Host Ceremony/Reception at Private Residence or Public Space

Done and done! Backyards are one of the best options for the budget-savvy couple and depending on who you count amongst your close family and friends, your ‘backyard’ space gorgeous outdoor patio with a pergola, a gorgeous green space set against a mountain backdrop, or a private beach. 

Choose 2-3 Top Priorities

Sit down with your fiance and make a wish list, either together or separately, and let your big-day dreams guide your budget. If you don’t see eye to eye on your top priorities, find a compromise by choosing one top priority each and one that you both agree on. 

Look at Alternative Food and Booze Options

A cocktail reception with finger foods, a potluck buffet, a BBQ, or a grazing table – these are just  a few alternatives to the traditional plated dinner. And truth be told, from our personal experience, the sit-down dinner is over-rated and the food is often a let-down considering the price.

To keep the booze budget in check, consider offering a limited selection of alcohol, like three varieties of wine and a few beer types. 

Ask for Help in Lieu of Gifts

Does someone you know have a skill they can offer up in lieu of a wedding gift? If one of your guests has a creative talent, ask them if they’d be up for “gifting” you and your fiance with their help instead of adding to your kitchen essentials collection (not that you wouldn’t appreciate that!).

Friends with photography, videography, decorating, cooking, baking, or organizing skills are the kinds of friends you want when it comes to wedding planning. 

DIY Favors, Flowers, and Wedding Party Gifts

Some DIY projects will save you money, and some are more hassle than they’re worth.

How do you know the difference? You need to think about what items you want to put your time and effort into, how much the items will cost to make, and which projects are practical. 

Wedding favors can be simple, yet meaningful DIY items like jars of local honey or coffee beans, a personalized bag of fortune cookies, or a handwritten letter also used as a place card. 

You might also consider the DIY route for your wedding flowers, whether that means crafting an alternative bouquet made of seashells or outfitting each table with hand-picked flowers from your garden. 

Shop Second Hand or Vintage for Attire and Decor

Let’s face it — most people wear their wedding attire once, and the decorations they spend hundreds on collect cobwebs in storage. Creating a backyard wedding on a budget is the perfect time to shop for unique vintage and second-hand items.

Try sites like eBay and Etsy, as well as your favorite thrift stores! 

Our Favorite Cheap Backyard Weddings

First up, real backyard weddings from the L&L archives, each one pulled off without a venue contract. Click any link to see the full day. Keep scrolling for shoppable picks to recreate the look.

Ceremony Arch Built From Salvaged Doors

Caroline’s dad couldn’t buy a venue, so he made the entrance to one. He tracked down a pair of old farm doors, mounted them, painted them soft mint, and distressed them by hand.

Hang a moss monogram on each and let the forsythia tumble over the top, and the aisle reads high-dollar. It cost a weekend and a can of paint.

See Caroline and Robby’s North Carolina Backyard Wedding →

Petal-Strewn Ceremony on the Grass

Eric’s grandparents offered up their backyard, and Natasha and Eric said yes before they’d booked anything else. The whole ceremony happens right on the lawn. No risers, no rented arch, no floor plan.

A flower girl plops down in the petals mid-vows, the mint bridesmaids stand close, and the trees handle the decorating. This is what a tight budget and a houseful of helping hands gets you.

See Natasha and Eric’s Rustic Backyard Wedding →

Tissue Pom-Poms Down the Grass Aisle

Tissue pom-poms cost next to nothing, and a few evenings of folding turns a bag of them into a ceremony. Here they line the grass and dangle from the branches, with a burlap-draped arch holding the whole scene together.

The real money went to dinner, where the bride swapped a per-head caterer for Rudy’s BBQ and a few hired hands to serve it. Decor this charming is where a small budget gets to show off.

See the Whimsical Pom-Pom Wedding →

A Homemade Limbo Bar for Lawn Games

How low can you go on an eight-thousand-dollar wedding? Tyler and Anika landed right around it, and the reception tells you how: a limbo bar rigged from a painted stick and a couple of milk crates.

Friends made the food, family grew the flowers, and a buddy ran the music. The party spreads across the lawn under string lanterns and a borrowed tent.

See Tyler and Anika’s Orcas Island Wedding →

Grocery-Store Bouquets in Sunny Yellow

Those bouquets came from Whole Foods. Judith’s whole day ran on that kind of resourcefulness, set in Josh’s aunt’s backyard with the wedding party getting ready inside her 104-year-old house.

Mismatched grey dresses, yellow sandals, blooms in the same sunny yellow. She folded the paper boutonnieres herself a few hours before walking down the aisle.

See Judith and Josh’s Vintage Backyard Wedding →

Golden-Hour Portraits on the Lawn

Jen and Tom went vintage and shabby-chic, built on old furniture, flea-market props, and a pay-as-you-go plan so the bill never ballooned at the end.

Come golden hour, none of the spreadsheet shows. Just two people on a quiet stretch of Florida lawn while the oaks catch the last of the light.

See Jen and Tom’s Fun and Games Florida Wedding →

Centerpieces in Repurposed Glass Bottles

Bette and Dan married at his aunt and uncle’s place and filled the tables with whatever caught the light. Vintage blue bottles, little milk jars bundled in a wire caddy, garden roses and billy balls the bride arranged herself.

Set it on a burlap runner, scatter a few blue glass beads, and the centerpiece line item all but disappears.

See Bette and Dan’s DIY Backyard Wedding →

A Handmade Twig Heart Instead of a Sign

Megan’s dad got the backyard into shape and the couple kept the whole Washington wedding under ten grand. The savings hide in the small stuff, like this little heart twisted out of bare twigs.

It’s the five-dollar prop that earns its keep, doing more for a photo than anything you’d order online.

See Megan and Jonni’s Washington Backyard Wedding →

Giant Handmade Paper Flowers

Brittany and Stephen pulled off their wedding for under nine hundred dollars, on free family land overlooking the water on Orcas Island. Nearly everything in frame, she made by hand over eight months.

These are the showstoppers: oversized paper blooms on sticks, crepe paper and coat-hanger wire, standing in for a florist bill that never arrived.

See Brittany and Stephen’s $900 Orcas Island Wedding →

A Dress Hung on the Old Cabin Wall

Julie and TJ leaned Southern and leaned DIY, which Julie called a fun challenge more than a sacrifice. The dress waits on the weathered planks of an old cabin, out in the Tennessee trees.

Her bouquet keeps the theme going: blowsy pink peonies with tufts of real cotton tucked between them.

See Julie and TJ’s Southern Tennessee Wedding →

Bridesmaid-Baked Cupcakes on a Salvaged Shelf

Steven and Jaylene married at her mom’s place, where the family spent a whole summer landscaping and planting so the backyard could be the venue. The dessert table is the budget story in one frame: an old shelving unit Jaylene hauled out of a shack, painted, and carried into the tent.

The bridesmaids baked and decorated every cupcake, the mother of the bride built the wooden trays by hand, and relatives brought the rest from their own kitchens. A bakery order this is not, and it pulled a crowd anyway.

See Steven and Jaylene’s Backyard DIY Wedding →

A Weathered Backdrop That Costs Nothing

Brittany and Seth kept it simple and DIY, the kind of pink, mason-jar wedding that leans on a good location instead of a big decor budget. Here the location does all the work: a weathered old building and a rusted silo, no styling required.

When the setting looks like this on its own, there’s nothing left to rent. The money goes to the day, not the backdrop.

See Brittany and Seth’s Cheerful DIY Pink Wedding →

Silk-Screened Hankies That Pulled Double Duty

Lauren and Jackson’s backyard wedding in Texas ran on a small budget and a lot of borrowed hands. Their smartest line item: silk-screened handkerchiefs that hung as decor during the day, then went home with guests as favors.

That’s the whole approach in one detail. As the bride put it, plan on spending the time instead of the money, make what you can yourself, and say yes every time someone offers to help.

See Lauren and Jackson’s Budget Backyard Wedding →

FAQs

How much does a cheap backyard wedding cost?

Less than you’d think, and the range is wide. The couples here pulled off their days for anywhere from under nine hundred dollars to right around ten thousand. The single biggest lever is the venue: when the lawn is free, the rest of the budget suddenly has room to breathe.

Is a backyard wedding really cheaper than booking a venue?

Usually, yes. Venue and rentals can swallow a third to nearly half of a typical wedding budget before the catering even starts. Take that line item to zero and you’ve freed up the money most couples wish they’d put toward food and photos instead. Just know the savings aren’t total, since you’ll rent some of what a venue would have handed you.

What do you need to rent for a backyard wedding?

The unglamorous stuff a venue hides in its price. Tables, chairs, a tent in case the sky opens, and often a restroom trailer if you’re inviting a crowd. Budget for power, trash, and parking too. None of it is exciting, but skipping it is how a free venue quietly stops being free.

How do you make a cheap backyard wedding look expensive?

Spend your effort, not your money, on the few things everyone photographs. A ceremony backdrop built from salvaged doors, an aisle lined with handmade pom-poms, centerpieces in thrifted bottles. We’ve seen a stack of crepe paper and coat-hanger wire pass for a florist’s whole order. Pick two or three focal points and pour the DIY hours there.

What’s the catch with a backyard wedding?

Logistics land on you instead of a venue coordinator. Weather backup, where the cars go, whether the kitchen can handle the catering, keeping the bathrooms civilized. It’s all manageable, but it’s real work, and it’s worth roping in family early, the way every couple here did.

A Small, But Mighty Wedding Budget

And there you have it, all of our best suggestions and inspiration on how to plan a beautiful backyard wedding on a budget. With your creativity and a little help from your friends and family, your small budget will be plenty enough to create a mighty fine day of ceremony and celebrations.

Remember to have fun, be flexible and keep that budget in check. We know you’ve got this!