How much is your wedding?

[scarlet16]

We''re in NYC and it''s outrageous here. Our budget initially started at $40,000, but now has sky-rocketed to about $60,000 (mostly because of the increase in guestlist). The wedding ceremony will be at the same place in Manhattan, for about 200 people. Surprisingly, it''s a "good" deal for the area.

Ceremony setup: $1000
Reception (including 4 course meal, cake, 5 hour premium open bar, full cocktail hour with food stations and passed hors''doeuveurs): $32000 (not including tips)
Photography & videography (including albums): $8000
Flowers: $4000
Dress, veil, accessories/shoes: $6000 (including alterations)
Music (DJ): $1200
Hair & Makeup: 200
Invitations/STDs/Thank-yous: $1000 (DIY)

Costs not included in budget
Honeymoon (2 weeks in Thailand): $8000
Rings: $2000

 

[tberube]

Date: 1/10/2008 6:11:10 PM
Author: msflutter
I had a wedding in Vegas. It was a small wedding only 50 guests, but it was at the Four Seasons, and we had a 5 course meal and open bar. Here is a breakdown...

Invites- 1k
Dress- 400 (actually a BM dress and I adored it! my RD dress cost more
Tuxes/BM -800
Hair and makeup-500-
Chapel- 1k
Chapel flowers-900
Reception décor/flowers- 4k
Reception F&B- 15k
Photographer- 2k

This does not include hotel, airfare, favors and all the other additions. We just had an ipod reception so no DJ.

You know? I always forget how much invites can cost. I feel lucky to be designing invitations for a living, because I don''t have to pay for them. I should really start a wedding invite business - I have already done enough of my friends'' invites! Ha.

Really, thanks, ladies for giving out all that information - I feel like I''m learning a lot. On one hand, at first I felt as though I was being "cheap" by going the route I am, but when I really lay down how much I''m paying for things, and what things I''m saving on or whatever, it''s not all that much different than the majority of people (that is, of course, except people who live in LA and have a budget of $50,000 or more - I''m turning greeeen

).

 

[Gypsy]

I don''t have a full idea of budget yet.

But so far:
ceremony and reception venue and cake: Cost to us about 8,500 (my mother added a bunch of people at her cost, so I''m still working on the ACTUAL budget for this)
Invites: $250
Dress: 1100 (sample sale)
Shoes 20 bucks (awesome sale a while ago) but need to get them dyed to match.
I''m hoping to get away with under 3K for photography (and since my parents offered to help pay, I''m going to ask for the photography as the gift).
Flowers 800 (I''m doing all the reception pieces and all bouts and corsages except for grooms bout the wedding arch decor, but having my bouquet, BM bouquet and grooms bout. done by a florist)
Don''t know what we are doing for music at all.
Need a veil, wondering if I can borrow fiance''s cousin''s veil as it''s just perfect.
I''m trying to finish it all for under 14K from is, so we''ll see.

Not sure if we are doing a honeymoon after or if we are holding off a little while for that.

 

[sap483]

Here''s an actual breakdown of my budget:
Reception Venue, food, open bar, cake, wedding night accomodations & tax and gratuity: 33,600 for 125 ppl- may be more if more ppl than expected respond yes
Ceremony Fee: 1500
Officiant: Free (My best friend''s dad)
Florist: 4500
Photographer: 5800
Save The Dates: 200
Invites & Other Stationary: TBD (hopefully under 600)
Website: 70
Ceremony/Cocktail Music: 200
DJ: 1000
Honeymoon: 3 weeks in Tahiti, Moorea & Bora Bora, Free minus food and drinks b/c frequent flyer miles and points (I travel A LOT for work)
Rings: TBD
Dress: $1400 (Alterations TBD)
Veil & Other Accessories: TBD
Hair & Makeup: 150
Groom''s Attire: TBD
Favors/Flip Flops for the ladies: 150
BM/GM Gifts: 1200
Parents Gifts: 500
Reception Dinner: Paid for by FI''s parents & not part of budget, but around 5-6k probably
Shuttle for Guests: Not sure if we will do this, it seems like ppl aren''t staying all in one place

So that''s about all I can think of for our costs.

 

[DMBFiredancer]

i am in the LA area (family is in NJ) and i found that either place is expensive so we are leaning towards the west coast. the main reason is i want a beach ceremony and i wouldnt have to worry as much about the weather here.

i have been through many "phases of attitude" about wedding planning - mostly because i had no idea how much things really cost!
at first i thought i wanted it all, then i moved to a phase of "this is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a party - i''d rather just use this money for a downpayment on a house -let''s just go to the justice of the peace!"

i became very anti-wedding for a bit, but now after talking more with my FI, we are trying to figure out a way to do something nice on a limited budget.

we are trying to spend $10,000 on everything, but as we start to REALLY sit down and talk about everything that is involved (including the cost for us to have fun the weekend of our wedding) it starts to creep more towards $15,000, which still seems like a crazy amount to me.

i have learned that everyone is different when it comes to wedding planning. i respect my friends who flipped over 30-50k for a party as much as they respect me for cringing at spending even 5k!

i just try to keep in mind that if the end of the day i am married to the person i love and i am happy, then the mission is accomplished, no matter how little or how much we spend

 

[LaurenThePartier]

I was also another Las Vegas bride - I ended up getting married at The Bellagio, and because Vegas is my hometown, I was able to have the reception at a family friend's home on a golf course. There were only 25 people present, and we later on had a larger reception for the rest of my enormous family in my aunt's backyard in Reno over looking the Sierra Nevadas.

Invitations - $20 for a box of paper at Michael's, and my husband custom designed the actual invitation + envelope.
Bellagio wedding, including chapel and photography - $2,200
Dress - $500
Tuxes - $300
Hair/Makeup - $250
Wedding bands - Mine $169, his $775
Cake - $100
Catering - $1,000
Limo - $400
Cost of travel, and 4 nights at the Bellagio - $1,000
BM Dress - $120
Family gifts - $1,000

 

[tberube]

Date: 1/13/2008 11:58:10 AM
Author: DMBFiredancer
i am in the LA area (family is in NJ) and i found that either place is expensive so we are leaning towards the west coast. the main reason is i want a beach ceremony and i wouldnt have to worry as much about the weather here.

i have been through many ''phases of attitude'' about wedding planning - mostly because i had no idea how much things really cost!
at first i thought i wanted it all, then i moved to a phase of ''this is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a party - i''d rather just use this money for a downpayment on a house -let''s just go to the justice of the peace!''

i became very anti-wedding for a bit, but now after talking more with my FI, we are trying to figure out a way to do something nice on a limited budget.

we are trying to spend $10,000 on everything, but as we start to REALLY sit down and talk about everything that is involved (including the cost for us to have fun the weekend of our wedding) it starts to creep more towards $15,000, which still seems like a crazy amount to me.

i have learned that everyone is different when it comes to wedding planning. i respect my friends who flipped over 30-50k for a party as much as they respect me for cringing at spending even 5k!

i just try to keep in mind that if the end of the day i am married to the person i love and i am happy, then the mission is accomplished, no matter how little or how much we spend

DMB - that''s an excellent perspective. Thanks for bringing me back to earth!!