How much did YOUR wedding cost?

[mrbraly]

My wife and I were blessed big time. Her parents are on staff at their church part time and they are both prominent business people in their community so they had a lot of people that wanted to help out. We got a photographer, videographer, the church, a professionally made cake, a string quartet and two coordinators all for free. The only thing that had to paid for was the reception hall and dinner. We ended up keeping it pretty small (50 people at the reception) and the total cost was right under $3,000. If it hadn't have been for all those amazing people, it would have easily been triple the cost. I don't know how anyone can afford to get married these days...

[nanamom]

My grandson is getting married this month and he works at a fast food place. They have a baby and no money. They felt they could afford 2 hundred. We decided to help a bit. I bought a thrift store dress that my DIL is going to alter for 135.00. I paid 60 for a wedding cake and 250 for flowers. They are getting married at his house outdoors. I also got a flower girl dress for my GD for 35.0, and various extras like a cake topper, a serving knife (tradition in ur family), ring bearer tux (15.00) and pillow, favors, and garter. All told paid around 500 and made her very very happy. Figure while some of it is a splurge (ok most of it) it is an investment in my relationship with them as they start out. Her mother will be paying for a manicure for the bridal party (I get to go along too but will pay for my and my 5 year olds myself). They plan on sandwiches (egg salad, tuna salad etc) so reception will be the biggest bite of their funds. I would have been willing to pay for some of that but figured they need to take some of the responsibility themselves. I will be taking pictures there. It is costing more than my wedding, which cost around 75.00 or so.

[littleroc02us]

we got married in 2006 and my wife who is quite frugal did it all for around 6k. That includes the wedding rental, the reception for cheap, the wedding dress for almost nothing. The DJ was $400, the photographer was free.. The only thing we sprung for was the meal. We paid about 2500 for that. It was worth it. Don't ever let the media tell you that the average wedding is around 28k, they are all in debt anyway.

[LaVicky]

We got married in a high cost of living city at a beautiful courthouse clock tower, spanish style over looking the city and the ocean, and the location is FREE to use, also beautiful for photographs as it has beautiful scenery. We did it just the two of us though but could have also had a small party come to the tower with us if we had wanted to.

We hired a wedding officiant for about $450, she did the wedding, and took the photos and mailed us a CD of all the pictures afterwards.

I bought a simple white Calvin Klein dress at Burlington Coat Factory for under $75.

We pretty much used our money for our honeymoon, the bed and breakfast, fancy restaraunt and wine tasting. It was all paid for in cash, we came home owing nothing.

Our costs

Officiant/Photographer $450
Dress & Shoes $100
Husband wore dress pants, white shirt and a new tie for about $12
Bed & Breakfast $400 for 2 nites
Wine Tasting $200 for a day out with transportation and pick up and drop off at our choice of place

We bought some wine, various other meals.

We just splurged on our outing. But as many say it varies as to what you want and whats important to you. We ran off and did it ourselves. Our biggest expense was probably my ring, which my husband cashed out some stock of his to buy, and later thanked me cause his stock took a dive majorly but he bought my ring when it was on the upswing so at least said he got something great out of it.

[Breton Wench]

We did Ok , but then DH and I are not into BIG stuff.

The biggest saving was on the dress; my dad SO wanted mother and I to go to the shops and buy The Dress.*He gave us the credit card and his blessings. But hey! I'm a Wench! And we did not like anything we saw in the shops, it was all too princess-y- so my wonderful mother bought a load of raw and chiffon silk in (in green ) for about 100 euros and ran me up the dress I wanted, herself.
- My bridal attendants - 1 male, 1 female brought their own outfits. Husband to be borrowed his suit from a brother and BGF (Best Gay Friend)
- The venue was in their back yard/field.
- I made the cake;
- the photographer was from the local Art college, as I had been down to see what talent could be had and looked a some portfolios and picked this guy who did amazing work in black and white .We paid for his films and gave him a place at the meal, and he took great pictures of us in the woods behind the church.
- Band - local traditional group from the village, and a friend did the DJ ing later.
- Flowers were potted up from the garden and donated by friends; church decorated by us on the morning with ivy, wheat and barley tied together into bundles.
Actual costs; Church - 100 euros; Marquee - 2000 euros; buffet - 50 per head, with 80 guests; wedding car - 200 ; drinks must have been about 1000 and hire of tables chairs and heaters about 500.
It came to about 5500 euros all told, I remember that.

[cjscully]

Hmmm. My wife and I paid all the costs for our wedding. It was 1986 and I simply can't remember what it cost though. We did a lot of things on the cheap - Friend did our pics for free, another friend DJ'ed for free.

[Jeff78703]

Honestly a destination wedding can be pretty cheap (if your guests can afford it). We had 30 guest join us for 7 days (family) and 5 days (friends) at Iberostar Lindo in Riveria Maya, Mexico. It was about $1,000 per person with all food and drink included. The key part is that the guests paid for their vacation. We paid for a wedding and reception at the resort, but it was only another $2,000 or so. So with airfare we got a 7 day vacation and a wedding for around $6,000.

[cptacek]

Our wedding was quite inexpensive when you breakdown how much we spent on each individual item. We chose a destination wedding, but did not tell our family. The trip costs $2500 for both of us.(All inclusive) Our ceremony was $300, pictures $400, and we were already on the honeymoon. Simple and sweet. My wife is now helping her college friend plan a wedding and I am seeing the costs that are incurring and they are seeing where they can save. Has anyone made or know of anyone who has made DIY wedding invitations? The girls think that they will save several hundreds of dollars by doing this. However, I disagree. I do not think they will be able to devote the time to put together roughly 350 invites. Any success stories out there?

I made mine. I could get two invitations out of every sheet of heavy paper. I just used card stock for the base and then printed the invitation on vellum, had Office Max cut the stack for me (they cut it for $1 per cut per ream) then punched two holes in the top and tied it together. I spent $62 and sent out ~ 300 invitations.

My sister did something similar, but with black and white and a wide red ribbon, and it turned out great. But both of us had family come over and help...it is not something I would tackle on my own, but with family helping it turned out not too bad.

[dawnwes]

$5K including the dress.

The photographer was the most expensive. I think we paid $2K for that alone.

We had a church hall reception luncheon buffet. No alcohol.

[Frugal]

Mine cost about $1500. Dress was on clearance at Davids Bridal for only$ 99. Facility rental was cheaper than a church...chose a local community center.

[Frugal]

Also, we saved money by renting flatware and dishes from a local rental company. One splurge was catering, because my family was not willing to do the cooking.

[massivefx]

We all know whats the important of wedding in everyone’s life…..we can’t a buy love with the help of money or any other thing…..Nowadays, more and more guys love saying, "girls nowadays are so money hungry" and "they will go gaga over guys with luxury cars." Somehow, some men love saying this instead of finding the root of this problem.Trust me, it's not that some of the girls aren't believers in love; we just cannot put 100% of faith and guarantee that the love will last forever. So you can't blame them for choosing a comfortable life with a financially-stable guy over love.
Now a days in every people get first preference to money. That’s why we all are getting crazy to know about …how much money he or she expend in his or her wedding or any other ceremony…

[dawnwes]

Duplicate

[Frugal]

My parents paid about $2,000 for my wedding. I didn't have much to contribute, since we were buying a house, but maybe put a few hundred of my own money towards it, as well. Here is the breakdown:

1. Dress- $100 bargain at David's Bridal summer or late summer sale
2. Hate to say this , but staging the wedding at the local community center was about half the price or LESS of most of the the churches I contacted. We also rented the smaller room to save money (unfortunately, the larger one was booked anyway!).
3. Catering - our one minor splurge. Parents wanted some catered food, even though I insisted on homemade food being fine. Not sure what they spent, but around $500-$1,000.
4. Bouquets - I picked out less pricey bouquets myself, and spent around $200 total for all flowers at wedding.
5. Sisters used hand-picked roses and made their own floral/fabric/candle displays to go at the front of the ceremony. Saved money over buying everything already made, and using expensive store-bought flowers.
6. Did not give out favors, except for maybe small ones on the tables (like bubbles).
7. Did not rent a DJ- used an IPod and had brother run it. Did not really have dancing, no room.

[krantcents]

I was married 43+ years ago. We had a garden wedding at a country club, I think the cost was around $10K and we had 150 guests. I think that included everything.