Big Budget Brides- BBB

We paid the majority ourselves. My mom gave me a gift of 5k and my MIL gave us 3k. DH is a project manager and I'm in sales. I had a very good year last year in commissions so I was okay spending as much as we did.

I definitely don't have a 50-100k budget, but I believe ours will be in the 20k range with literally everything except honeymoon. My family is paying 100% of it, so I'm hoping FH's family will help with honeymoon stuff.

I actually made the mistake of talking to my BIG boss's assistant about my budget because her daughter just got engaged and she was just like "Ugh! For ONE DAY?! $60k?! For ONE DAY!??" I told her "Yup! I saved up $25k of my own because I knew I wanted a big wedding when I grew up. I was lucky enough that my parents gifted us $10k and my FMIL gifted us $20k. My FH is paying for the honeymoon himself so that's how it got to be so large. It's what we wanted." She kind of backed away after that, but YES for ONE DAY I'm planning to spend that much. It's the only day I'll ever get a huge-ass party for myself since I never got to have a quinceniera and everything after this will be for our future children, I'm sure, so yes and I don't regret it.

@Andrea, we are very fortunate that both sides of our parents are helping out. We are both graduate students but our tuition is waived and we get paid as a Research Assistant or Teaching Assistant which is enough to live off of (even in Hawaii) and also save a bit. If we were paying for our own wedding, our budget would be much much smaller. My dad gave me the same amount as my sister, and FH's parents wanted to treat us well plus his mom tends to have expensive taste haha! I was very surprised and very grateful that both parents are helping us have our dream wedding!

Our budget was $75K not including honeymoon or our personal items like clothing, shoes etc.

@Andrea, We're paying for our wedding 100% on our own. Wouldn't have it any other way. And we have pretty great careers lol.

I think we are going to come in around $55k if you don't include my engagement ring and our honeymoon. E ring at $27k and honeymoon at expected $13k would put us at 95k.

Both of my sets of parents are paying about $10k (this amount was set by them, we didn't ask or expect anything!). Past that FH and I are paying for it.

@Andrea FH holds an executive position at Hewlett Packard, we own 2 franchises through Anytime Fitness, and all 4 of our parents have passed away - unfortunately leaving both of us large amounts of life insurance.

We're struggling to keep it at 40k (which is technically our budget, excluding wedding bands) but it looks like we'll be closer to 45-50k. It's insane how fast the money adds up! Our catering is going to be 15-16k, and we splurged on our photographer, she's about 4k, our band is about 5k (and the list goes on and on...)

Our budget is $25-30k... I felt that was "reasonable" and we have the money saved. Our biggest expense? Umm venue and food, I think. Our venue is costing way more than I would have liked it to, but it has us (and so many other people) so excited. I think we would have had no problem staying under $25k if I hadn't come up with the super awesome venue (we're both science people, and FH getting his PhD in Physics - venue? Local Science centre, with ceremony in the star theatre).

We are going to be close to $30K for 220 guests. That doesn't include mine or my fiance's attire or the personal gifts etc. Our biggest "splurge" was our band at $5,000. Our venue will be about $12,000 for butlered apps, meal choice and premium bar.

Edited to add: our parents were VERY generous so we are only paying maybe $2,000 ourselves

I actually don't know our budget, or what some parts cost. But I can make an educated guess that puts me into the BBB category.

Tbh I don't want to know what the figures are, it would probably kill me

We ended up at about $55,000, not including honeymoon or wedding rings. The venue was a splurge, we paid $8000 just for exclusive use of an English stately home. Then food and some beverages was $180pp on top of that (120 people), not including the open bar in the evening.

We spent $8000 on flowers and decor. I guess that's pretty crazy in some peoples' opinions but I wanted drama and I was prepared to pay $550 per centrepiece for it. We haven't told anybody what we spent - we paid for it ourselves and it's not really something I think is anybody's business. And it certainly wasn't at the expense of hosting our guests.

Also spent $4000 on videographer and same again on photographer. Definitely worth it IMO.

According to the ww budget tool, I spent almost 78k. I'm sure there are things I didn't put in there. Definitely no rings or honeymoon included, those would push it well over 100k.

We paid for it ourselves. My husband works in finance. I am a sahm now. When I did work, I was in finance as well.

I think most of us don't bother to talk about budget because it ends up making us feel bad. People tells us that we are bragging, are wasteful and stupid for spending that on one day. It was one day. It was also my money. I earned it. I get to spend it how I like.

That's exactly right Mrs C. My MIL significantly added to our guest list so she made a generous contribution to our catering costs, but everything else we paid for ourselves. We both have well paying jobs and we saved and budgeted to make our dream day happen.

I was planning from overseas so for most aspects of the day I needed a vendor I could trust to manage it - DIY wasn't an option! I was fortunate to be in a situation where I could 'throw money at it', so to speak!

Although even so called 'big budget' brides still compare themselves against 'bigger budget' brides - I really wanted Highclere House (aka Downton Abbey) but the venue hire alone starts at $30,000, no way we could justify that. Then my MUA did a wedding there and posted pictures of the day - well jealous!

Realistically, we're probably going to spend about 45k when all is said and done - IF the FH wasn't so good at negotiations and we didn't work hard at getting up-and-coming vendors rather than the established, expensive one's we could have EASILY doubled the budget. We live in an area where other couples spend money for the sake of spending money, and while we are fortunate to have it to spend, we both feel re-building our dream fixer upper is far more important.

Aside from our venue (where, I'm happy to brag we're getting $300/a plate meals for $165/plate!) and NOT including my stone for my ring, our biggest splurge will be our honeymoon. Once, if we're lucky enough to have kids, we're not going to have a chance to do an alone time trip like it again, so we're going all out.

@MrsC I agree. We work our butts off to afford the wedding we're having. We built our lives(house, cars, savings etc) first, didn't wait until after the wedding to do that. And imo, something is only wasteful if it's done just because with no real thought which i see on here alot and/or if you become broke after doing it. It's one thing to spend $50k-$100+ and not put yourself in the poorhouse. And another to spend that amount and now you're struggling the first couple years of your marriage.

I love this thread

I super excited that we just booked the venue!

This has been a reassuring thread to read! Good luck to everyone!