Comments | ask_me_anything: Wedding budget?

hahahabye in ask_me_anything

Wedding budget?

Mar 31, 2012 15:06

For those of you who had or are planning a 'traditional' wedding, (ceremony, reception, bridesmaids, frilly dress, tuxedos, etc) what was your budget? How much did you ACTUALLY spend?

Because our budget was like 5k and we're slowly creeping towards 15k lololololol

weddings

Comments 39

cindyanne1 March 31 2012, 22:14:14 UTC

Our budget was "As little as possible."

I think we came in at about $6000 or so. But I got my dress at JC Penney Outlet, I only had one bridesmaid and I told her to pick out an old prom dress to wear... that type of thing. Very low-key. We had the reception in a banquet room at a restaurant.

violentviolet09 March 31 2012, 22:21:07 UTC

$50 for the officiant.

ngl.

1_2_suckerpunch March 31 2012, 22:27:09 UTC

I don't know where the exact line for "traditional" is being drawn; mine is ceremony, reception, single attendants, ncie clothes but not 'frilly dress', etc. The original budget was $5000+honeymoon. We had to get a different venue, and I got a new job, so we amped it up to about $9000 including rings and honeymoon.

kuhori_rei March 31 2012, 22:34:17 UTC

I will be watching this thread verrrrrrry carefully, haha! Fiance and I are starting our wedding planning in September (we're having a long engagement so we spent this year just relaxing), and I need to know what to expect.

hahahabye March 31 2012, 22:38:15 UTC

It's weird. For us, we initially wanted to just have a simple no-frills wedding, but my mom and my fiance's mom weren't having it, so they kind of... just started buying stuff. It's nice cuz we aren't paying for EVERYTHING, but the things we have paid for weren't exactly cheap. (Reception area, ceremony fees, officiant, etc.)

kuhori_rei March 31 2012, 22:43:48 UTC

The budget Fiance and I proposed to my parents (who are somewhat old-fashioned and think it's their responsibility to pay for the majority, and far be it from me to say no) was in the $15,000 range, for a ~100 person, mostly-DIY wedding. I was thinking that it was reasonable, but now I'm getting nervous!

hahahabye March 31 2012, 23:04:08 UTC

It's totally reasonable! A lot of the stuff we are doing is completely DIY. I did the invites entirely by hand - nothing was sent to the printer.

We are doing our favor packages entirely by hand. We're doing chocolate moustaches, VIP passes and CD's burned on Verbatim's Vinyl CD.

My wedding dress was one of the more expensive things.. it was about 700. The accessories totaled about 500 but my MIL took care of that since I didn't really want them, and she insisted.

Our entertainment is just under 900, a friend of ours is a DJ.

Our venue/food/etc is just under 5k.

Photography is just under 900$ and we got a REALLY good deal.

There's more but I'm not sure if you want to know my entire wedding invoice haha

kimie_catclaw March 31 2012, 22:35:47 UTC

I think we ended up paying between $6K and $7K, including drinks at the reception (which ended up costing more than we'd originally thought). I had a fancy dress but my uncle paid for it as a gift, so I don't count that in the budget.

My wedding was in a church, with several attendants each (everyone picked their own dress/suit), catered picnic-style food, and a lot of DIY decorations. We left out a bunch of the extra frills like seat covers and aisle runners; my MIL did our flowers and centerpieces. We also designed and printed our own invitations and programs. We had something like 160 guests total.