How expensive weddings can be!!

***How expencive weddings can be!!***

Kaaaayup. Based on your location, type of year/ day of week and # of people, it's hella-expensive. We did initial budget of $20k, which I think would work for the 100 minimum we need for the venue, but could end up as high as $25k. Ooof. But we prioritized our anniversary date, an open bar and hassle free/ all inclusive - so that's what it is.

Figure out what your key things are - dress, photographer, bar, 200 guests, w/e the two or three things are. Budget what you can do there, and then really cut/ let go of the rest.

My cuts: <$1,000 dress, no flowers, cut anything paper (programs/ invites, etc.) and we're trying to keep the count right at the 100 minimum.

You'll get through it!

I totally understand! I always wondered why people thought weddings were so expensive and stressful. Then I started planning my own and understood why

View Quoted Comment Thanks!! I'm keeping my guest count at 100, the DJ, Caterer, open bar, and ceremony/reception are all inclusive even a magic mirror photo booth!! For $6,200 total. I feel like we saved alot there!!

View Quoted Comment Right!?! They say the US average is $32,000. Luckily I live in less expencive part of the country, I guess. It were anything close to that much, we couldn't have a "big" wedding!!

Weddings are super expensive! I definitely thought we could keep it to 15k, but that was unrealistic for our guest count/vision.

Cutting the guest list is the easiest way to cut the budget. More mouths to feed = more $$$. We wanted good food/booze so that was about 50% of the budget. We are saving by not having a videographer, fancy tiered cake, or large bridal party (MOH and BM only).

Skip things that aren't necessary (favors, large bridal party, etc.). Don't skip on guest comfort (not enough food, cash bar etc.).

Good luck!

It's all about the venue And guest list. I've really kicked myself that I'm paying per person and others did not. That's what's killed me. Tons of money on the guest. Then I wanted to invite everyone.. then no one.. then everyone. Lol I was all over the place. Just follow the guest invite suggestions onb here to help you really decide who needs to be there. I did everything else on the cheap. Used others decorations. Brought my dress as a sample sell.. didn't even know what that was at first..had my friend make my veil..Sam's club for cupcakes and cake.. first look to cut out cocktail hour..beer and wine only to cut cost [boxed wine Walmart $12 a box]..resale shop for bridesmaids dresses. Vrbo 3600 sq foot house for honeymoon $168 a night..8 nights. Booking buddy for $400 flights to costa Rica. The whole thing plus honeymoon is going to be 15k and I hired 4 actors for our murder mystery.

What didn't I do? Transportation. Hotel the night before..bridal or bachelorette party..engagement photos.. the bridal hangers... real flowers... long list of things I cut to make it affordable

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You're a champ - love all the creativity! I'll look into making my own veil - it seems very doable and one of those where it's $5 in materials vs. $150 purchased for some styles. Jeeeeezzzz.

View Quoted Comment Exactly. I also made my own invites..no favors..no rehearsal dinner which I'm unsure how that will go😳 and no engagement party. All that stuff makes me wonder how anyone could afford weddings. But usually they have someone that's throwing these parties for them. Biggest thing is the guest list or venue. If I could start over I would have done the whole vrbo or Airbnb mansion rental for the weekend And just had it catered . Would have saved a bundle

Our 15k budget for our Sunday morning brunch wedding has ballooned to about 20k. I'm astounded at the cost of everything. I'm gonna start a chair rental company after all of this!

Weddings are only expensive if you let them be. We’re sitting at just over $4k including honeymoon for around 30 guests. We passed on a traditional venue, traditional catering in favor of bbq, no favors, no programs, no to a lot of things. (And fortunately, my Dad paying for the rehearsal dinner.)
It can be done. But you have to trade off a lot of the traditional trappings of even the most budget of budget weddings.

I didn’t realize how expensive it was until I start planning my wedding. I was thinking we could do it for under $15000 but with where the wedding is since it is out of town. It’s costing almost triple that. My mother in law didn’t really give us a budget but I have been trying to find things cheaper but still get us what we want. If I could redo it then I would have cut the paper invitations and just do online invitations and try to find a better event planner.
I didn’t realize how expensive photography and videography, flowers and food are. The only things that I got on a great price was desserts, and event planner. I know that I’m getting married in a town that are expensive but if I did it in my town it was still going to be expensive but without cost of lodging.

DIY or buy things pre made
shorter weddings less money
smaller guest list less money
a lot of us are not getting a Florists.

Our wedding budget was supposed to be cheap. I hoped for $8000, but $10000 was supposed to be max. We are at about $11000 now. We have 80 people, DYI centerpieces, my dress was supposedly “cheap” lol. We are lucky we can bring our own alcohol and don’t have to pay a catering service. There’s ways to make stuff happen, so just have to compromise a bit, but you can do it. And yes the little things add up fast!

I had an idea because I helped my friend with hers. But I forgot to account for different regions having different prices so it's higher than I'd like.

I had a good idea going into it how expensive they could be and why since I used to do wedding photography. I also knew how stressful they can be esp with all day photography and all the pieces needing to fall into place like decorating and making a million decisions. That's why we did ours in Vegas lol. It was all inclusive and all we had to do was pick the food, cake and which spot on the location for our venue to have the ceremony. I didn't really care about all the little details like center pieces and chairs and all that so it worked really well for us. They venue had complete control over all of those details and it was so stress free for us and way cheaper since we didn't have to buy/rent things just for one day. With the hotels and flights and spending money for the 5 days we were out there we spent about $7,500 and that includes our attire, 2 hour reception, dj, photography, food, cake, flowers, limo transport. If I had to redo the wedding I'd do it all exactly the same.

That being said you've got 2 years to plan so if you are doing the decorating and all that yourselves start buying things a bit at a time so it's not all at once which will make it easier to do. Put away extra money whenever you can and put it aside for just in case the budget goes over and then if it doesn't you have a nice little travel fund started.

Silly me thought that I could get away with a wedding under $4000 until I started pricing out food and venues. Now I believe everything is going to be under $9000. I'm keeping a strict budget. I want a nice wedding, but it doesn't need to be fancy. As long as people have fun and get good food and alcohol, I'm happy.

Ours is even more than that and yes, I was shocked. I mean I understand there are different levels of price points. But many of the venues in our area and surrounding are just up there in price. Even shopping for the most affordable vendors, the budget quickly rose higher. FH said I wanted a fancy wedding. I said stop right there no I didn't want a "fancy" wedding I wanted a middle of the road type deal, but certainly not some run down smelly barn. I told him I wanted a small amount of guests but he screwed us with his side of the guest list. I would say definitely be on the same page about guest size. Now I am just praying for declines to save a little!

There are also helpful websites, Wedding Recycle, Bridal Garage Sale, Budget Bride for silk flowers, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, the list goes on!! I'm getting my dress from Dorris Wedding Dresses. Its absolutely gorgeous!! Looks like a $1,500 dress for $375 and you send in your measurements and they customize it to your exact size!! Even with all that the budget is still going a little over but it definitely helps!!

I knew it was expensive but some things blew my mind! We're looking at spending between $20,000 and $22,000 when all is said and done. We even cut out a lot of things and have family and friends that will do stuff cheaply or free for us. My sister is making our cupcakes so all we need to do is buy the ingredients and decorations, my FH's cousin is a minister and is officiating for free, and a family friend is doing our florals at a discount too. I also spent less than $500 on my wedding dress and our ceremony and reception are in the same place so we only have to pay for 1 venue. Yet it's still basically costing us a brand new vehicle! Lol I was lucky enough to sell my house quickly when I moved in with my FH so we were able to acquire about half of it right there but still. Ugh