Bride goes viral for her $47 wedding gown after marrying on a $500 budget.
Weddings are notoriously expensive, but one Los Angeles couple discovered a method to cut costs down on their special day.
According to an article from wedding planning website The Knot last year, Kiara and Joel Brokenbrough were able to pull everything together for just $500, far less than the almost $30,000 national average.
“Our goal was to just be as minimal as possible,” Kiara told “Good Morning America.” “And to spend the least amount of money as possible.”
The bride and groom stated they were able to accomplish so by focusing on not going into debt during the early stages of their marriage.
Kiara started their low-cost wedding with her dress, which she bought for $47 on digital fashion store Shein’s website.
Kiara documented her dress shopping trip on TikTok. Almost one million people have watched the video so far.
“I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a dress because I had the mindset I’m gonna wear this one time for a few hours,” she said.
When it came to saving costs for the wedding itself, Kiara recalls receiving flowers and a runner from her family.
The pair also saved money by securing a free parking spot right off one of California’s major highways. At the reception, guests had to pay for their own food and drinks.
“You have a wedding, with witnesses there to witness you, vowing to your spouse, vowing to God that you guys are going to stay together for life,” said Kiara. “And then you celebrate with food, drinks and dance. And that’s exactly what we did.”
A Budget Wedding
Kiara emphasised that in order to pull together a budget wedding, you need a lot of help from your loved ones. One of her most important pieces of advice is to choose a location that is both free and already attractive so that you don’t have to spend money on decorations. She also said that couples must remember their end goal, which is marriage, throughout the process.
“The people we have there, they understood the assignment, they understood the things that we were trying to do, and they really supported us,” said Kiara.