Weddings!

MB2MN

I just got married last Saturday (the 15th) and finally tallied up all of our wedding expenses just to see what the damage was. Around $13,000. I read that the average in the US is close to $30,000! Just curious how much everyone spent on their weddings...I'm MOH in my sister's next year and she wants help coming up with a budget for 150 guests so I guess I'm just trying to help by finding a ballpark!

MityMax96

Congrats and many blessings to your and your husband

wjstoj

Too much - elope and buy a motorcycle instead

MB2MN

Too much - elope and buy a motorcycle instead

I don't disagree necessarily, but not helpful!

heatherlynne22

We spent about $2,500 on the wedding, costumes, food and venue. We had a Scottish Renaissance wedding. It was a lot of fun. We all dressed up (Hubby is 75% Scot), we had a Celtic band (his cousins) we actually were married in the woods in a clearing surrounding by ferns. We made our pews out of tree trunks and served turkey legs, mead, and potato soup in a bread bowl. Hands only eating It was great. Our reception was at my dad's motorcycle club house. Congrats on your wedding

erockem

$7,000. 200 Guests. 15 years ago.

But several friends recently have gotten married and $10,000-$15,000 seems to be the norm.

Go_Mizzou99

27 1/2 years ago...

Wedding dress, tuxes, wedding, and reception with food/beer (cash bar for hard liquor) was around $3,000.
Honeymoon was $5,000 (back when taking a cruise was total luxury)
Total $8,000.

blgerig

We kept it right at $10,000. That includes everything, my dress, the photographer, seated dinner and beer/wine for 120 guests, custom invites/programs/etc. and flowers. I think that covers the big expenses - we didn't have a video. If anything if I had to do it over I might keep it even smaller guest-wise. Good luck!

Tight_Fit

Not including honeymoon, we spent around $80,000 I believe. I don't think I was ever brave enough to total it all up. Including honeymoon we spent a week in Ibiza, around ($10,000) and then we flew back to the states, got my son, and spent 6 months traveling the world teaching him about different cultures. about ($110,000).

wjstoj

Not including honeymoon, we spent around $80,000 I believe.

HOLY CRAP ! Hope you are still happily married.

Tight_Fit

Not including honeymoon, we spent around $80,000 I believe.

HOLY CRAP ! Hope you are still happily married.

Haha we are, and now with baby number 3 in the oven!

MB2MN

Not including honeymoon, we spent around $80,000 I believe. I don't think I was ever brave enough to total it all up. Including honeymoon we spent a week in Ibiza, around ($10,000) and then we flew back to the states, got my son, and spent 6 months traveling the world teaching him about different cultures. about ($110,000).

Holy smokes! My hubby told me to try to keep it to 10,000 then left all the planning to me. I think I did pretty well I can't imagine how extravagant an $80,000 wedding would be!

MB2MN

We spent about $2,500 on the wedding, costumes, food and venue. We had a Scottish Renaissance wedding. It was a lot of fun. We all dressed up (Hubby is 75% Scot), we had a Celtic band (his cousins) we actually were married in the woods in a clearing surrounding by ferns. We made our pews out of tree trunks and served turkey legs, mead, and potato soup in a bread bowl. Hands only eating It was great. Our reception was at my dad's motorcycle club house. Congrats on your wedding

Very cool! Great budget-friendly wedding!

Tight_Fit

Not including honeymoon, we spent around $80,000 I believe. I don't think I was ever brave enough to total it all up. Including honeymoon we spent a week in Ibiza, around ($10,000) and then we flew back to the states, got my son, and spent 6 months traveling the world teaching him about different cultures. about ($110,000).

Holy smokes! My hubby told me to try to keep it to 10,000 then left all the planning to me. I think I did pretty well I can't imagine how extravagant an $80,000 wedding would be!

We did go above and beyond, but to be honest, it was worth it. When I was younger I missed my prom, and I only plan on getting married once, so hubby kinda really wanted me to have everything I wanted since it was my one day I'll get to truly feel like a princess. We were married in a castle in France, we had Ina Garten cook for us, Florian Bellanger made our cake, and we paid to fly out our closest family and friends. We had about 100 people attend all together, but it was still very intimate, and stress free. Best day of my life.

burns429

Sept 2012, just over 300 invited, my budget was $15, spent just under $10k. I did most everything myself and found A M A Z I N G deals on a lot of things (invites = $40, I think the postage was more than the actual invitations).

seltzermint555

Mainly because I'm crazy-frugal but also because I am nonreligious and not especially close with extended family...I've been married twice and never spent over $3k.

My first wedding in 2002 (age 25) was somewhat traditional but on a mini scale with just parents, grandparents, and super-close friends. It was at a B&B in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in a package deal that included decorations, photography, officiant, flowers, mini-reception with cake & wine, and 2 days' stay in a cottage for like $495. It was actually super nice for the price and looking back at the photos it appeared to have been like a larger, typical wedding. More money was spent on unique outfits to suit the 40's theme and announcements and a larger reception later in my town for extended family (which was a waste IMO).

In October of last year I eloped at Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs, CO) with my wonderful husband. It was just the two of us with no officiant (legal in Colorado) and it was absolutely perfect. We dressed up and took photos of ourselves and spent practically nothing. After signing the official documents at the local courthouse, we went to a super fancy cake boutique (specializing in wedding cakes) and spent less than ten dollars on our little cake feast with a DIY topper I'd made. We made a 3 day road trip out of our wedding and had a wonderful time sight-seeing and staying in quaint old motels. It was very perfect and very "us". At our friends' insistence, my husband set up a webpage for them to donate to us in lieu of gifts. I was very hesitant about that because we're in our thirties and financially solvent, but our friends and a few family members donated smallish sums that added up to pretty much the entire cost of our wedding/trip...roughly $750-800...that was very cool (if not entirely necessary)! I was happy that people kept it to small amounts though, especially with it being the second go-round for me :-)

I see no problem with big lavish expensive weddings if that's what you're into. I just never wanted that for myself.

seltzermint555

We spent about $2,500 on the wedding, costumes, food and venue. We had a Scottish Renaissance wedding. It was a lot of fun. We all dressed up (Hubby is 75% Scot), we had a Celtic band (his cousins) we actually were married in the woods in a clearing surrounding by ferns. We made our pews out of tree trunks and served turkey legs, mead, and potato soup in a bread bowl. Hands only eating It was great. Our reception was at my dad's motorcycle club house. Congrats on your wedding

That was gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing :-)

wolfsbayne

I'm getting married in October and I anticipate the estimate to be around $4-5 thousand.

kr1stadee

Start to finish, somewhere around $6,000.
We had 150 guests, a sit-down meal, a reception and dance with a DJ...

How I did it..
David's Bridal - it's like Sears for wedding dresses LOL Paid $400 for dress, shoes, crinoline and bra
Rings - I was working in a jewellery store, got 40% off the set
Invitations - found a small print shop and had them done and it cost less than anywhere else I looked
Programs and Wedding favors - Made fans (married in July) for the programs, made chocolate suckers for the favors
Photographer - $2000 - biggest expense but it's worth it
Venue - $75 because we used their catering company (a bunch of church ladies hehe)
Catering - $1500 ($10 per person)
Decorations - can't remember the cost here, but I only paid for the linens, she had decorated for a wedding the day before mine and just left the decorations up, switched out the colors. A company was supposed to pick up a riser for the head table from the wedding before, but they couldn't get there on time so we used it for free.
DJ - $250

Then there were the little things but they really didn't add up to much, and I started buying things from the time we were engaged to the time we got married, over a year later

MB2MN

Start to finish, somewhere around $6,000.
We had 150 guests, a sit-down meal, a reception and dance with a DJ...

How I did it..
David's Bridal - it's like Sears for wedding dresses LOL Paid $400 for dress, shoes, crinoline and bra
Rings - I was working in a jewellery store, got 40% off the set
Invitations - found a small print shop and had them done and it cost less than anywhere else I looked
Programs and Wedding favors - Made fans (married in July) for the programs, made chocolate suckers for the favors
Photographer - $2000 - biggest expense but it's worth it
Venue - $75 because we used their catering company (a bunch of church ladies hehe)
Catering - $1500 ($10 per person)
Decorations - can't remember the cost here, but I only paid for the linens, she had decorated for a wedding the day before mine and just left the decorations up, switched out the colors. A company was supposed to pick up a riser for the head table from the wedding before, but they couldn't get there on time so we used it for free.
DJ - $250

Then there were the little things but they really didn't add up to much, and I started buying things from the time we were engaged to the time we got married, over a year later

Yeah, the catering cost is where you saved big! $10 a person is amazing. Gotta love those church ladies. My mom volunteers for a group like that and they cater weddings and things for about $22 a person including venue which is also pretty darn good. If I lived in the same country as her that would have been a viable option. Catering was our biggest expense by far...hired a gourmet food truck style catering company and including 4 servers, gratuity for them, appies, dinner and dessert, linens, glassware...pretty much everything is was around $75 a person including tax. It was a lot but we had rave reviews about our food and they customized it to suit our personalities. My hubby has an insanely loving relationship with mac and cheese (he had his senior pics taken with boxes of Kraft Dinner) and I'm Canadian and therefore love poutine so they made stations for each of these with gourmet ingredients. SO GOOD.

Collier78

September 2012, after all was said and done we spent around $8,000. The most expensive part was the food and venue..I had some awesome friends that helped with decorating and favors. We did t-shirts with nicknames on the back and a small logo with our wedding date where a pocket would be on the front as gifts for our briday party...