Holy Moly! Anyone else surprised at how much weddings cost?

Yuuuup. I cried venue shopping. Yes, we looked in Napa but I was all “$10K-$15K JUST FOR THE SITE FEEE????” 😭 😭

Yes definitely. It's largely due to media (films and tv shows with extravagant weddings) and vendors have grabbed hold of the idea that if your wedding is not super expensive with minimum required aspects (prepoured champagne no one drinks, outlandish dj announcements on par with a sporting event commentator, 7 attendants per side, etc and costing more than you both make in a year, etc then your wedding will be a disaster and everyone you know embarrassed for you as a result. It's gaslighting in a nutshell

Yessssss! I always said people who spends tens of thousands of dollars on weddings were crazy.... then I started planning a wedding LOL
I had NO idea how expensive everything was!

Also as long as you have some tiny demographic willing to pay those prices without batting an eye, the price gouging unfortunately is not going anywhere. But you can have a beautiful wedding that is properly hosted on a budget if you are creative and think outside the box by avoiding using the word "wedding" whenever possible

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Oh My! I live in Central Valley California and the venues here run from about $5k-$10k. I was like oh well.

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Same! My budget went from $10k to $15k. Thankfully everything shouldn't cost more than that. I already wrote down all the final costs.

Absolutely! I think what shocked me was that some stuff cost way more than I thought it would.

And don't forget to budget for vendor meals and tips for all of them...that's another $1,000 most people forget about until the end.

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Thankfully the venue I chose already had catering in the package without breaking the budget. The venue I chose has so many perks as well as overnight accommodations for the bride and groom on their wedding night, wedding planner, staff, drapery, table placings, everything. I love it!

View Quoted Comment You’re still doing great then, girl! We are more than $15k over our budget! 🤦🏼‍♀️ Make sure you read everything closely- we had over $3,000 just in “administrative fees”, plus thousands in taxes. Then I realized I had to factor in vendor tips as well- another $1200. It adds up so quickly and sneakily!

Yes! I was so surprised too! My fiance at the time was not happy by how much it costs, haha. But I was able to find deals, DIY, and look at different types of venues. I'm in Northern CA and we were able to stick to our $5,000 budget.

When I start planning an intimate destination wedding, I was like... maybe $5k-7k in total? LOL, nope. I am looking at above $33k now. I mean from ring, dress, flights, hotel rooms for 10 days (honeymoon right after), and NO guests.

Sure is! Especially for decor!

Yes!!!! And alterations man David’s bridal will get ya 🤦🏼‍♀️ We have blessed tremendously. Our venue offered HALF off if we did our wedding in Feb so we said yes! That will be only 4 months of planning (got engaged in Oct) I’m so surprised we have done what most people do in 2 years in 3 months so far 😂 couple things I did to save money - hired a chef instead of catering company (she’s very personal, and sticks to budget), hired a florist for only bouquets that grows her plants in her backyard (I’m her first wedding) & went to hobby lobby to get flowers & decor on the weekends they were half off. Good luck to you 💜💜💜

Plus! My venue has 90% of the decor we need. She buys stuff along and along or people will allow her to keep decor so she has almost anything you could think of. Table runners, flowers, signs, centerpieces you name it. That was included in package deal for venue.

My FH suggested a $15k budget and I naively laughed. Soon I realized he was just being realistic.
I ended up finding an all inclusive venue that was quite a bit under that. Most would have had us at the top of the budget.
He told me when I wanted to go to the venue we picked he was only humoring me because he didn’t think he would like it but it turned out to be just what we needed.

Yeh, i am in sticker shock of the price of photography!! i wanted to use a family friend who does it professionally with his wife, they were $4k+ and our TOTAL budget is $5k !!!! yeh no... that's insane!!

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My goodness! Over $4k??? I hired a family member who is a photographer and she's charging a very decent price.

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Yeah I love how my venue is all inclusive too. They do a lot of the decorations too. The only decorations they don't provide is the centerpieces and flowers.

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Yeh, i found another friend just starting out charging around $1k so we will most likely go with her instead.... sadly my first choice pick husband/wife team is very well sought after in my area, so he can charge more...