How much did YOUR wedding cost?

[smallgreydonkey]

About $4000 in 2007. We were married on my college campus (and paid next to nothing for a beautiful outdoor location). The wedding was casual, a nice perk for my hubby who did not want to wear a tux in July, and it was officiated by a JOP. We rented tables & chairs, and the most expensive item was the catering. Catering was also casual- they set up a grill and we had a barbecue with a cash bar (immediate family excepted). Everyone loved it, and many took the plants which made up the centerpieces home with them.

[ceejay74]

It was about $2700 for 2 ceremonies and reception--25 guests at 1st wedding and 50 at 2nd ceremony/reception. I did keep track at the time and my dad sent me a check to cover it all, but I don't remember exactly what went where. It went something like:
Rings: $250 for 3
Greenhouse rental for 1st ceremony: $100 + $100 for broken vase
Gifts for officiators + cost of friend getting ordained: $250
Bartender: $250
Clothes: $500
Hair: $25
Food & cakes: $600
Booze: $600

We got the bartender by posting an ad on Craigslist, and we had 2nd ceremony & reception at our friends' place. People took pics for us and sent them to us.

It was wonderful!

[thekid]

Getting married in June. So far expenses look like this:

125$/person for dinner & reception (includes cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, toast with sparkling wine, 6 course meal and reception hall). Drinks will be extra, so we estimate that about 140$ per person total. We have about 80-85 guests (65 adults at 140$ each and 18 kids at 50$ each). (gifts are usually cash in my culture and will more or less cover the 140$/50$ per person)

Violinists (church, cocktail and dinner) and DJ (evening): 1250$

Church: 500$

Dress: 600$

Tux: about 200$

Center pieces and gifts: about 600$

Limo: 500$

Photographer: 550$ with high res DVD of all pictures (person we know)

Flowers: maybe 200$

Invites: 70$ (we made them ourselves)

Wedding bands: 1300$ for both

I think that's about it.

So, that makes about 16K$ (about 6K$ out of pocket, after gifts).

Not bad, I find. And it's a beautifull venue at a renouned hotel in the country, with gardens and a river for cocktails and evening walks.

[Johansen8]

I find beach resort wedding to be less expensive

[rennigade]

Hi Everyone,
I have a carpet cleaning business in Houston,TX that was doing pretty good until the economy went bad, and with it my clientele. I have a website for the business but I dont
know what I have to do the get it to show up in a search. Right now it's somewhere in the yahoo/google netherworld (LOL).

Is there someone on here that can give me some insight or know of anyone that coud give me insight on how I can get my local website on the front
page of a Yahoo or Google search to increase my business without it costing me 5 or 10k $$$? If so please share with me.

I thank you and my hungry over-eating children thank you.

thanks,

I hope your children starve. Flame on spammer.

[thekid]

I hope your children starve. Flame on spammer.

lol..

[financialnut]

We got married last year and maybe spent 25k.

[SavingNut]

About 8000.00$ and it was wonderfull. It was at a uncle's barn with the country theme. White dress with cowboy boots and the guys in their suits with boots and hat. The meal was prepared by one of my Aunt and Uncle whom used to work in a cartering service. Horse carriage, DJ, Cake was made by a friend. Everything was perfect except for the MIL. She was a pain in the ass.
The honey moon was in Quebec city, very romantic and good food.

[DFrancis]

Wedding Costs

Our wedding cost about $10K. $16K, if you count her ring and the honeymoon. We had 150 guests and it was on a Friday night. Friday over Saturday was a big savings. We paid $33 per plate. We did our best at keeping it simple and It was a great time with low stress for both my wife and me.

[b4freedom]

In 2004, 140 guests, $36k total. It rocked. Would do it again in a heart beat.

[Inkstain82]

2003, around 100 guests, roughly $1,300.

My dad was the pastor. He also used to be an associate pastor at the church where most of my family, including my parents had been married (and luckily was roughly centrally located between both sides of the family), so we got the location free.

My bride wore my mother's wedding dress (the resemblance made me very uncomfortable one a Freudian level...).

My new mother-in-law was a florist. One aunt is a seamstress and a caterer, another makes wedding cakes as a hobby. My mother's best friend at the time was a wedding photographer.

[jill8beans2]

I got married for less than $3,000 and it was a destination wedding in the Adirondaks in NY. This included our honemoon and everything. We paid cash for everything; it was awesome.

[sandrark]

We had a wedding for 75 people that cost ~ $9K in 1997. Our budget:

Item Est. Cost Cost to Date

Hall Rental $675 $675 (a weekday rental!)
Minister $300 $300
Food (76 guests) $1,482 $1,482
Servers (Bartender, 3 servers (4@$15/hr x 6 hrs)) $370 $370
Tax $175 $175
Service & Tip $500 $500
Rentals, 76 guests $400 $400
Champagne, Soda, Water $230 $180 (we bought and provided)
Invitations and Postage $280 $293
Flowers and Bouquet holders $80 $87
Decorations & Centerpieces $300 $310
Cake $125 $125 (local cake lady, out of her home)
License $75 $70
DJ and tip $335 $335 (cheap since it was a weekday)
Groom's Tux, Best Man & MOH's apparel $250 $270
Photography $1,700 $1,900 (AMAZING photos!)
Dress $750 $750
Shoes, Veil, Jewelry $95 $83
Nails for women $170 $95
Hotel for Sandi, MOH, 2 nights each $200 $190 (we stayed at the local Motel 6!)
Favors $80 $63 (2 squares of Ghirardelli choc ea)
Parking $90 $82
Rehearsal Dinner (22) & 4 carafes of wine $515 $515

Wedding Total: $9,177 $9,250

Notes to save money: We got married on a Monday - the cost of hall rental, food, DJ and photography were all MUCH less expensive as a result. Our "bridal hotel" - Motel 6. Invitations were mail ordered, at a big savings.

We had a three layer cake, made by a lady out of her home. We did our flowers ourselves, and bought them wholesale. The favors were chocolate squares in lucite boxes, wrapped with curling ribbon - cute but inexpensive. The centerpieces were silk flowers, glue gunned to golden doilies, surrounding pillar candles. The decorations were silk ficus trees with white lights in them, and some plaster columns that I'd painted, and rested plants on - ficus and columns from Michael's, with coupons. We bought our own alcohol - champagne only, no open bar. We had a daytime/lunchtime wedding.

We splurged on the food (fantastic! but the caterer let us provide our own wine!) and on the photographer (unbelievable wedding photos that we still love and display, nearly 11 years later).

To pay for it, we "paid as we went" for many things - the flowers, the invitations and postage, the decorations, the favors. They came from income in the year leading up to the wedding. The wedding became our "hobby", so we spent less on other things as we focused on preparing for the wedding. For example, I bought the invitations ~ 6 months in advance. The silk ficus and pillar candles ~ 8 months in advance. We bought 4-6 bottles of champagne a month, and stashed it in the basement until the wedding. We also set aside $100 each month apiece, and used that as the "wedding fund" to pay for the larger items, such as the hall rental, the photographer, and the caterer.

Realistically, you will probably need to put some of this on a credit card. I would do it just for consumer protection - what if you pay 50% deposits to the photographer or the caterer, and they go out of business before the wedding date? If you write a check, you're up the creek with no paddle. With a Credit Card, you have a hope of a charge-back.

Finally, there may be people who will give you cash. We received ~ $2K in cash gifts, surprisingly. We paid off the last of the wedding and honeymoon costs ($1450 for 6 days in Mexico), and set the rest aside in a "furniture fund." Then, post-wedding we continued the $200 per month into a savings fund, earmarked for furniture.

It was a great way to start saving for joint goals, stretching current income, and MINIMIZING debt. I wanted a wedding too, because we'd spent 16 years together first, and it was a great way to celebrate. But I wasn't gonna take out a loan against the house to have one.

As a result, ALMOST all of this was paid without debt. And it was a wonderful, beautiful day that I am happy to remember, because we didn't bury ourselves with debt.

Good luck! You can do this sensibly, and get what you both want.

Sandi

[alexxa252001]

Our wedding was really cheap:

Marriage license: $72.00
Outfits: $50.00
Rings: $150.00
Food: got paid by a friend
Reception: We had a poolparty over at a friend's house, everybody pitched in and brought food and drinks

That was in August 2007!

[pikey412]

We did a weddingmoon at Sandals in Jamaica. It came in just under $12k which included our and both our parents' all-inclusive* suites for a week, ceremony, photographer/videographer and small reception. It turned out great and we are both happy with it.

*BUYER BEWARE - Sandals is surprisingly not as "all-inclusive" as you'd think. They tout themselves as a "no tipping needed" establishment, but every employee practically begs for tips. And if you don't, you get ignored next time. I ended up spending close to $500 in tips alone for the week. Plus the drinks aren't "Premium". Your choice of rum in Appleton and you choice of beer is Red Stripe. That's pretty much it. They also don't do anything to curb the local "merchants" from harassing you trying to sell you beads, shells, and drugs.