How much did YOUR wedding cost?

[glmattox]

Oh man, my wedding was not very expensive at all! My Dad is a minister, so he performed our ceremony. The church let us use the sanctuary for the ceremony and their hall for the reception for a total of $500. My dress was a David’s Bridal sale- $550 off the rack. I bought very realistic looking silk hydrangeas at a 90% off sale, and we made our own bouquets, boutonniere’s, and corsages. We made all the centerpieces, aisle decorations, and flowers to drape over the arch from those blue, purple, white and green silk hydrangeas. Those cost probably $300. I bought all vases and glass bowls needed for centerpieces at an Albertsons that was going out of business- Also 90% off. Tuxedo rentals for the guys, I didn’t pay for so I’m not sure about that cost. Hubby took care of that. We made our own invitations and favors, and they all turned out absolutely lovely. My Mom, Mother in-law, and some other ladies made the food for our reception. A friend who is a cake maker made the wedding cake for us at cost. My brother who dabbles in photography took our pictures. =) All in all, we were very blessed to find the steals that we did find, and to have the very talented help to pull the whole thing together. It was sooo inexpensive, but it turned out quite lovely..

[marcusfond171]

hey, my whole wedding arranged in 10k$

[phantom]

I got married in 2009, so I don't remember the cost breakdown, but I do know that the total was around $7,000. My parents paid for about $6,000 of that. The hardest thing for us to get the price down on was the reception hall/food. Most places we looked at wanted $35-50 per person, and with 100 guests that would have taken most of our budget. Eventually, we found a new hall in a converted pool house next to a go kart track that offered a special Friday package. The Friday package was $23 per person and included an ice sculpture. We had our wedding on the Friday before a holiday, so most people had the day off work. Some people might say that a wedding reception next to a go kart track sounds tacky, but I have several male cousins who assured me that getting to ride go karts was the highlight of their night. Everyone else was impressed that once you were inside the place, you would never guess the go kart track was out there.

My mother-in-law attended a $50,000 wedding this past weekend, and reported back that she and her mother both agreed that our wedding was much better, especially food-wise. I know they're biased, but it's still nice to hear.

[DebtFree&Broke]

Our wedding was under $500. My mom made my wedding dress for $30 (although if I could go back in time I would have "splurged" on a dress for $200-$300 like my sister-in-laws do). I would have had my hair done fancy too. We were too frugal with our wedding, I thing that I would have spend almost $1,000 instead.

[Fishindude77]

Ours was under $2,000. Church wedding, then reception at the Elks lodge with a couple kegs of beer, DJ and bunch of good munchies.

Paid for the daughters wedding a few years ago, it was $35,000.

My daughter is a professional wedding planner as her line of work. They do very high end fancy weddings. Average cost is around $150,000 and they've had a couple that approached the $1 mil mark.

[FLA]

1994 120 guests, church wedding, planned a party in my parents yard, no fancy dress or anything. made mistake of trying on wedding dresses, changed whole reception plan. Dress $700, $200 to alter. My memory of cost of flowers, photos and many other things is just gone, but we knew people in each area and got great deals. Ex in a band, one of his bands played for a free meal. $2000 reception at the Elks, food turned out surprisingly well, surroundings were ugly. Cake was $1 a slice. Kept bridesmaids gowns very simple and inexpensive. After party at parents' home, wedding was at 10am, people stayed til 3 am after we had left. The plan was to use my purple Impreza to the ceremony and for the hour drive to the reception, my dad splurged and rented us a Cadillac. It was just a really fun party. If only I had known he was a jackass and what it would cost me to leave that jackass.......

[msomnipotent]

I tried to do most things cheaply, but I wanted things done a certain way. We still paid about $25,000 including the rings and honeymoon, in 1999. I was fine with just going to the courthouse and taking a nice vacation. My husband insisted on the big church wedding, even after I warned him that weddings are completely different in my area. His family is used to having cake and punch at the VFW hall on a Sunday afternoon. My family has the Saturday night formal gala.

We splurged on an excellent photographer, which was about $2,000, not including anything other than a completed wedding album. The reception was about $11,000 for 150 people, which was one of the cheaper options in the area, especially considering it was at a nicer Hilton. We didn't need a limo because the church was right next door. The gifts for the wedding party was their choice of either a bottle of Dom Perignon or a hotel room. Since most were married to each other, they got a bottle and a room. I actually couldn't care less about the dress and wanted something plain, so I paid $199 at David's and the shoes were $20 at Payless. The alterations were about $100, and the cheapest veil I could find was a mind-blowing $400. I didn't care about the invitations either, so I let my husband pick them out. He had to get super-deluxe invites that were $400, and they were so heavy that postage was almost as much as the invites. Next time, everyone is getting an email! I used a coupon for a DJ, but it still came out to about $600. My family loves to dance at weddings, so it was worth it. Our stupid cake cost $800. We had to pay extra because they had to figure out a way to support two large Swarovski crystal swans on a mirrored lake instead of just the regular cake toppers. The swans were $200. I hate cake and didn't even eat any, so I felt the money was a waste. The swans turned out to be good investments. We had to pay for 2 pastors because my husband wanted his pastor at our wedding, which I can understand. His pastor charged $300, got in a tiff with the pastor of the church, and stormed off without doing the prayer at the reception. I wouldn't say he kicked my husband out of the church after, but he made things so uncomfortable that my husband left. Still, I feel it was another good investment because he was a diva that did not like me one bit, for no reason.

I tried to make things inexpensive for the wedding party, too. I picked the cheapest dresses that looked decent, in a color and shape that flattered everyone. I picked a beautiful red color with rhinestone straps so no one had to buy jewelry. Most ladies reused the dresses for New Years Eve and other weddings, so it wasn't a complete waste. We skipped the bachelor and bachelorette parties and had a combined party at Dave & Busters for everyone. As already mentioned, we paid for their rooms so no one had to drink and drive. We compared prices for the tux rentals and found coupons.

All in all, it was more than we expected, but people still talk about it to this day. I'm just glad I only have to do it once.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Ours was under $2,000. Church wedding, then reception at the Elks lodge with a couple kegs of beer, DJ and bunch of good munchies.

Paid for the daughters wedding a few years ago, it was $35,000.

My daughter is a professional wedding planner as her line of work. They do very high end fancy weddings. Average cost is around $150,000 and they've had a couple that approached the $1 mil mark.

OMG I've been to some of those $150k wedding, average of most of our friends I would guess is $50k at least. Considering I found a friend whose engagement ring was $40k, well I have to save a $100k+ wedding appears to be the norm now for MANY couples. It's crazy. Fishin I bet your daughter would say many who are having such spectacular weddings can't afford it but the parents are having the wedding of their dreams.

Oh I forgot to add one wedding a really good friend/coworker went to be a bridesmaid in NYC (Manhattan), probably a million dollar wedding, by the time she came back 2 weeks of vacation the couple was already separated.

My wedding planner also planned a $100k+ wedding of her best friend who married the son of a good friend of my mom. The wedding was at the Kahala Mandarin in honolulu, my parents attended. Well they were separated in less than 30 days according to wedding planner because turns out the groom was cheating the entire engagement and it came out right after the wedding. My mom never asked his mom what happened, but oh boy.

I will say I spent $15k all in, but it was the Wedding of my MOM's dream. Oh well. it is for your parents. Why else would I have a hexagonal cake?

[Singuy]

$16,500

Total Guest: 90
Location: Walt Disney Swan And Dolphin
Reception: Seafood buffet with Pluto and Goofy

We used every trick in the book to get a "Disney Wedding" for under 20k. Going through Disney would of been 35k easy. We totally went backdoor on Disney and secretly bought out a character dining restaurant

[FLA]

color me impressed!

[yupstrips]

How Much Did You Spend on Your Wedding?

My wedding costed about $6000. I had approximately 200 guests. The wedding was formal, began at 4:30 pm. My guests were friends, church family, and mostly my husband's HUGE family. (They really did fly in from all over the country o.o) I held it at my church, which cut down the costs a LOT. They rented out the formal hall for $100 for 5 hours. I had a whimsical woodland theme, so I purchased lots of tulle online for cheap and the decor was essentially lots of trees and flowers. My best friend is a wholesale florist so I was able to get the flowers for $300. (huge order!) My mother works at a local hospital, and we had the head chef at the hospital which caters all of the galas, balls, and fundraising events. We had a chocolate fountain, fruit and cheese bar, seafood, steak, chicken, the works. (only $2,000) I had to rent chairs, the venue provided tables. I bought the chaircovers and tablecloths and resold them for the same price I bought them, so I did earn that money back. ($1,000). Another friend is a photographer and I paid him $800, which was again a steal. The two largest purchases I made were my dress ($1500) and the food. But I thought I did the wedding super cheap considering how many guests I had.

[dawnwes]

$5,000 in 1995.

Church wedding
Roughly 200 people
Buffet lunch, around $10 per person including cake
No alcohol, by our choice
Used/second hand wedding dress

Most of our $$ was spent on the photography. In retrospect, we paid too much, but what is done is done.

We are still married, 21 years later.

I think the breakdown was:

$1500 photography
$500 flowers
$400 church and reception hall rental
$2000 food, cake
$500 or so on minister, piano player, vocals

It was a long time ago, but I think those are somewhat accurate.

[97guns]

around $3 in gas to get to the county clerk office and $80 for the express marriage option. i hope to spend less on my funeral and take my frugalness to the grave with me

[AngieBeechan]

We got married in 2013. The total cost is $2000.
It's a simple but happy wedding.
As we just bought a house, we have limited budget.
I bought my wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses online, cheap but amazing from a China website.
It was a romantice memory.

[annibe11e]

I just got married Saturday. We haven't done final tally yet (lots of little odds and ends the day before), but it will fall between $3500 and $4000. We had less people show up than expected, so the cost per guest is not great...

We got about $1800 in cash gifts and a bunch more in gift cards.

We used $500 of that to finance our honeymoon. We just took an extended weekend in a town about 4 hours from us.