Milwaukee is a large part of this couple’s relationship, so they knew they wanted a downtown venue to host their big day. Enter Chrome at the Harley-Davidson Museum, a perfect fit for their wedding!
They loved that Chrome included a lot of things like tables and chairs, and also that it didn’t require a lot of decoration. Read on to see what this couple did for $38K and make sure to read their “Note from the Couple” below for more insight into their awesome Harley-Davidson Museum wedding.
Married In Milwaukee Family Used
This couple used Married In Milwaukee to research their vendors and budget, so it’s no surprise they used a ton of MIM Family. We love that!! Here’s the MIM Family Members they used:
- Venue: Harley-Davidson Museum
- Bride’s Dress: Miss Ruby
- Transportation: Milwaukee Food and City Tours
Wedding Quick Facts:
- Guests: 214
- Ceremony/Reception: Harley-Davidson Museum
- Total Costs: $38,474
Wedding Essentials ($3,984):
- Invitations: $1,138
- Desserts: $891
- Photographer: $1,687 (family discount)
- Flowers: $268 (included: 12 boutonnieres, 8 white bouquets, 6 wrist corsages. 1 brooch bouquet – all artificial flowers)
Reception and Ceremony Costs ($26,982):
- Ceremony: $359 (decor and glass blowing unity sculpture by Square One Art Glass)
- Reception: $515 (set up fee)
- Food: $13,126
- Drinks: $10,363 (cocktail hour, beer wine and soda all night and bridal party tab)
- Officiant: $150
- DJ: $1,874
- Transportation: $595
Attire, Jewelry and Beauty ($4,058):
- Bride’s Dress: $2,363
- Groom’s Attire: $245
- Brides’ Shoes: $150
- Rings: $900
- Hair and Make-up: $400
Other Costs ($3,449):
- Favors: $220 (hot sauce bottles)
- Wedding Party Gifts: $1,200
- Parent Gifts: $465
- Hotel Suite: $964
- Rehearsal Dinner: $600
Honeymoon (Not Included in Total – $7,500):
- Honeymoon: $7,500 (trip to St. Lucia )
A Note From The Couple
We asked the couple to tell us about their planning and budgeting process, and this is what they had to say:
The Venue:
We knew from the beginning that we wanted to have our wedding in downtown Milwaukee. We are both from the Milwaukee area and went to college at Marquette so Milwaukee is a large part of our relationship. We had trouble looking for affordable venues that included tables, chairs, etc. with our initial guest list of 300.We used Married in Milwaukee to look at their featured venues and ended up touring 3 of the venues we found on the site. Chrome at the Harley-Davidson Museum really spoke to us when we visited, it was already a beautiful space that didn’t need a lot of decorating and included a lot of the items we didn’t want to rent separately and we both ride motorcycles- so what better place to get married! We also got an amazing coordinator and catering manager to work with which made the experience even better!
The Photographer:
My cousin is a professional photographer, she also did our engagement photos and we absolutely love her work so this decision was probably the easiest we made during the wedding planning process. Vjoy Photography did such an amazing job and we have such great pictures that capture all of the special moments of that day!The DJ:
We knew that the DJ was a really important piece to our wedding, they really keep the wedding flowing and create that party atmosphere! This was an area that we wanted to go with a top tier DJ, after talking to a few of the top ranked DJ’s in the Milwaukee area, Double Platinum DJ made a lasting impression on us at a Married in Milwaukee event at the Harley Museum.They made us feel like they wanted to understand every aspect of our wedding and they really did throughout the whole process. Rob from Double Platinum made sure we spoke a week before the wedding to finalize details and make sure there were no changes. The party was going until the end and we had such an amazing day because of his choices in music!
The Flowers:
Flowers were never an important aspect for us, we decided to use fake flowers that we could end up reselling later. The flowers turned out great and we even were able to add a little sparkle to the girl’s bouquets and a touch of Milwaukee beer to the groomsmen boutonnieres.Using Married In Milwaukee:
For pretty much every part of the planning process we consulted Married In Milwaukee. We had absolutely no idea what a typical budget for a wedding would be and google searches had too much of a range with very little breakdowns of what things cost.Married in Milwaukee helped us setup a realistic budget for our wedding. It was a great tool to find local vendors from venues to cakes and so on. I cannot thank you enough for this site it introduced us to a lot of our vendors and helped us through each stage of planning.
– The Bride and Groom
A BIG thanks to the couple for sharing their awesome Harley-Davidson Museum wedding and to vJoy Photography for the photos!
If you’re currently working on your wedding budget, make sure to read through our previous articles featuring real Milwaukee wedding cost breakdowns.
