[MonkeyMama]

Good point - hehe.

Well, it was the year 2000. About $7500 for 75 people. Probably around $60/head for dinner and appetizers. Venue was free for dinner (because it was Sunday. IT cost more Saturday). Ceremony was around $700 to reserve the place, and the officiant. Public golf course BTW, pennies compared to anything else we looked at. But just a gorgeous venue - almost everything provided. We had the ceremony and dinner there.

My mom spent $1k on flowers (which I thought was a bit much) and the dress cost like twice as much as the dress itself to alter. (My warning to wedding gown shoppers - get something easy to alter. I was proud how little I paid until the altering stage. Bought the dress at a discount warehouse).

I bought the bridesmaid dress (1 - kept it simple) and we rented tuxedos. We had a nice rehearsal dinner at the same place.

We hired a DJ and bought a cake.

That is really about it. We have a lot of photographers and musicians in the family. So we didn't pay for anything else. Even the florist and DJ were friends so we got decent discounts. They all did a GREAT job. My best advie is hire GOOD people so you don't have to stress.

Oh, just some simple favors.

We didn't do the limo thing at all. I just don't get that. The best man drove us home in his crappy car. LOL. But it was fun! (Reminds me, we didn't pay for makeup and hair dos and all that jazz).

ETA: We did the invitations ourselves, had a "free" honeymoon (used relative's miles and timeshare) - 10 days in Florida, and we did spent about $1k on the rings, which I did not include in the $7500. (Remembered these details after reading other posts).

Our parents paid for reception (food), flowers, rehearsal dinner and tuxes. So the portion we paid for literally did just about pay for itself with gifts.