How much will your wedding cost?

To be honest, I was the one that was trying to low-ball everything at first and FH was the one that had a more realistic idea of price tags, which I think is interesting since I'm the one that handles all our finances.
When we first started, I was thinking we'd spend about $3k. Then I realized some of the things I worked out the $3k budget for just wasn't what I wanted/worth the stress (self catering, not-good-at-all venue, etc) so it bumped up to $5k. Now I'm coming to terms with how much alcohol is and what a truly fair price for photography would be, and we've jumped up to $6k. I'm hoping we don't get any higher than that, bc we're not made of money, but we've got the venue and catering numbers much more concrete so there shouldn't be any huge surprises after this.

I hear you. And That sounds similar to our situation. I handle finances too and our initial budget was $5k. Then after doing a few main things -dress, flowers, venue, linens, dj, photography, without food/drink it was already up to $7k. Then boom. Food & drink & were magically pushing 15k eek lol but it’s a once in a lifetime celebration of our love.

Same for you guys. And like you said, no more big expenses that you can forsee.

View Quoted Comment This is us. I handle everything normally. I also wanted to stay super low. Originally I wanted about $4k. We were going to have some family and friendors though until we thankfully decided against it. All told now we're in about $12k. Still will be a small, simple affair-- about 80 guests. But it'll be done right.

I didn’t want a wedding to begin with. My fiancé wanted it though so I set a budget of $5k. Realized that was totally unrealistic so I adjusted to $12k. Then my fiancé kept wanting to add things and make it nicer so after everything will be about $20k. I just can’t wait for it to all be over so I can think about something else!

It dose not cost nothing

I had a realistic expectation of the inflated prices of a wedding and estimated about $15k for a small, intimate no fuss destination wedding which includes our RT flights and week hotel stay while we are there and for the one week we’re going as a “planning” week (so two weeks of hotels and 4 RT flights) My rabbi was the only holy cow expense - $1k for the temple honorarium.

Fiancés expectation was only $10k and had hoped to even be around the $5k range and still doesn’t “get” wedding costs. He’s basically asked to stay out of it and he’ll pay up to his budget of $11k and I’m on my own from there. Based off initial esptimates I’ll be under my $15k estimate. Jewish ceremony, cocktail hour, open bar, buffet BBQ, dessert and a DJ for dancing.

I think we will be in our budget of 10k. We have saved so much by doing our own flowers and making wedding decor. But we have spent the money where it counts theDJ, food, and bar. Our venue.

I just sat down an updated our budget since we are 9 weeks out and needed to see what kind of money we’d need to come up with in the near future. We started at around 30k (with help from both sides of our family. Ideally wanted a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 scenario) as we started planning we bumped up to 35k, and now are sitting closer to 38k. Not including honeymoon. Part of it makes me feel sick, but the other part says truly you only do this once so why not make it what you want. We both make decent amounts, and have owned a home for 3 years so in the end know it will be fine.

By the end of it all we will be somewhere between 30-35k. Our overall budget starting out was about 45k but we just don’t need it all. We are having our dream wedding and not skipping out of anything we wanted and coming in 10-15k under that so I’m not complaining!

We didn’t have a budget and we thought we were going to spend about 15K in our backyard wedding. We have 150 guests and we are at $21000 right now , that’s not including my dress 4600 and my FH Tux 1000 and honeymoon about 5500.

We started out at 80k, now we are closer to 120-140k. The floral and events designer I like is pretty pricey, but I've loved her work forever! Food is a lot more expensive than I thought as well. It is nice to decompress at this forum because FH is tired of hearing of it haha!

Our Cancun wedding is costing us $22k and that's not including my dress or our flights and accommodation. We are hosting 60 people.

I agree with Peggy! I will be so glad once it's over. FH and I both would have eloped in a heartbeat. However, I realized that would just make my life hell lol. And instead of just having one event we would end up having multiple parties. I actually never set a budget. We are probably going to come out just under 20k when all is said and done. It worked in our favor that the venue I wanted only had 2 Saturdays available in the summer. The Saturdays happened to be the day his sister gets married and the following Saturday. So we had no choice but to pick a Friday saving us 15 dollars a person lol. I mean we had a choice but it wouldn't have reflected kindly on us.

Thought 3k would work at the beginning. Looks. 6k will be the final for 107 guess. We decided go a head and have more people, that's what increased the cost.

Ours will be abt 1500 to 2k when all is sd and done.

When we got engaged, we agreed $5k was a good number. Small wedding, about 30 guests friends & immediately family only, unconventional reception at a rental house or restaurant, etc.

Then my dad surprised us and offered to contribute $10k towards the wedding, and pushed the idea of inviting extended family as well - totally fair. But now it's almost like we're unable to keep the budget under $15k, because every decent venue that's all inclusive for about 80 guests costs MORE than $10k after tax and gratuity. Also, having a real photographer is suddenly a thing, so instead of paying my friends son who's a photography student $300, we're looking at $1500+.

It's crazy, but the more money, the harder it seems to stay under budget. I'm still exploring the idea of doing an unconventional reception catered by a restaurant and hiring a bartender for a BYOB bar.

We will be at about 30k without the honeymoon, but we've been extremely lucky and my parents are giving us close to 20 and his parents 5k. He did begin the process thinking it would be cheaper, bit has gone and promised people things we don't have a budget for so I think he's realized.

We're originally had $30k planned, but pushed it to $38k since we decided to go with a different venue. That will be for 300 people.

This was also an issue for us. FH was soo convinced we could plan a full wedding (NY State, summer, 130 guests) for $5,000 max. Once we started researching, well, it's more like $18,000 ish for us, and I reallyyyyy budget shopped for a lot. It varies so much by region and wedding size.



Here's our price breakdown: $5,500 for catering: food/ service/ setup/ cleanup/ tax/ tip, $1,000 for all reception rentals, $3,000 for indoor/ outdoor venue with tables and chairs, $1,000 photography, $1,000 dj, $650 brides attire, $200 grooms attire, $350 cake, $500 bartenders thru caterer, $1,000 alcohol and beverages (this figure is a high estimate), $400 DIY flowers and decor, $150 favors, $160 invites/ postage, $850 wedding rings, $400 for bridal suite/ hotel during wedding weekend, $250 wedding party gifts, $1,600 airfare to honeymoon. Add $ for some other things I'm sure I'm forgetting to add.. it does add up quick!

Oh yeah add $200 for brides hair/makeup