Paying for Wedding talk

We paid $25k for our wedding. Not going into debt was crucial for us, which is why we had a 20 month engagement. I would cut your guest list and see where else you can scale back to avoid going into debt over a party.

Are you sure $15k is an accurate estimate? I suppose it depends on the type of wedding you’re having, but we spent about $17k on our 100 person wedding, and we were pretty frugal in most places.

Our wedding was on the more expensive side, but my father paid for most of it and my mother & stepfather paid for the rest. We paid for our honeymoon and that's it. To us, it wasn't worth adding additional debt (we own a home and have student debt too) so if my parent's didn't contribute we would have done something VERY casual and VERY cheap.

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So far im doing good budgeting pretty tightly. My venue/ ceremony same location for $500. I am doing BBQ and havent booked a cater yet but found 2 for under 5k. I am doing babys breath and 100 steams are $69 costco. Family friend is DJing for us and he told us whatever we want to give since we are like family... Dads old friend is a photographer 2k... Cake $200-400.

I agree with other people - is 15k an accurate estimate for that many people? We aren’t going crazy with anything either and we are at 25k for 150 people.

Disregard my comment - I didn’t see you replied! Haha

View Quoted Comment Oh ok, sounds pretty reasonable! Just wanted to make sure you had actually budgeted out your expenses and weren’t just estimating $15k lol.


I would just try to be really frugal in every way you can. Stuff like decor and centerpieces aren’t really “necessities.” And try not to spend too much on your dress. What about an officiant?

We each took money from savings and put it in a new account used solely for wedding expenses. We did come close to going over budget, though, and added another $150 each close to the wedding to make sure we had enough. I wasn’t happy but really, $300 over budget wasn’t too bad.

We’re doing a 10k budget. We’ve created a savings plan that allows us to save a certain amount each pay check for the wedding and still have money for personal savings, bills, rent, Groceries and transportation. But in order for us to do this we had to do a longer engagement (17 months). I also have student loan debt too much to count but I don’t want any more debt so a slow and steady savings plan is our mission. Also a smaller guest list helps to save a lot of money, ours will be 80.

My husband got overtime at work and I got a side job for a short period. Those together saved up for the wedding without touching our savings.

We were engaged since 2018, except we saved a little bit for the wedding and mostly paid off our debt. That was a big thing for us. lol 2019 is when we started saving larger. I will say we did not really have a budget until we picked our venue. Our budget with 220 in our guest list right now is about $35k. That includes the little things too though like decor and stuff. We started getting quotes early from vendors so we would know how much to save and put away each month.

My grandfather paid for my venue. My mother bought my dress. Uncle is buying my cake. We are currently making monthly payments for our decorator and photographer. We'll be done paying them both by July. Then we will tackle food cost (my mother said she will help). His aunt has also help us with payments towards the decorator.

It’s looking to be near 25k... for guest count of possibly 150. I would’ve liked it smaller but we have large families and fiancé has large number of friends. Luckily we are having help from our parents but had we not, we would’ve definitely settled for a much smaller wedding for $10-15k. I would avoid loans just because I don’t want to pay interest on anything....

I'm a nurse which helps so much lol and my FH has a good job at a bank. He has his student loans and we have our car payments, rent, bills, etc. We have just been putting money in a separate bank account that we don't touch. Our budget is $30k. In the end, we'll probably have to use a credit card on something small, but we're trying to save as much as we can. I don't get how some people do it though, I have a coworker who's also getting married this year, is in school, and just bought a house. But then I guess in the end everyone's situation is different.

I had already had some $$ saved before we got engaged, so that helped. We have family that probably will contribute to our wedding but as of right now we are planning as if we are paying for the entire thing ourselves. Ours will probably cost $20-22k for everything (including boarding our dogs while we’re gone, hotel, etc). I wouldn’t suggest paying for a wedding with a credit card or loan because interest rates are INSANE. Make a detailed budget on a spreadsheet, keep the guest list small. Set a goal amount of $$ to put into a designated wedding savings account each month so that way it’ll feel more manageable.

I think the last line of your post, "where am I going to save that much in 16 months" is CRITICAL.... A wedding budget (really any budget...) should be based on knowing where the money is going to come from (e.g., "we bring home $5000 a month and our expenses are $3500, therefore each month $1500 goes into savings for the wedding"). If it's not clear in your current budget where the $15,000 is going to come from, I'd stop planning immediately until the two of you go through your income and expenses line-by-line and figure out exactly how much you can reasonably save per month, then figure out how many months it will take to get to $15,000 and set your wedding date based on that. Otherwise, the options are to make more money (so getting second jobs, working overtime, whatever), cut expenses (but it sounds like you've already done that), or change your wedding plans (cut the guest list, push out the date, etc.). Especially if you have a mortgage and student loan debt, I would do everything possible to avoid taking on more debt. It's just too easy for an intended "short-term" loan/credit card purchases to get out of control. It sounds like you already have a fair amount of financial pressure in your lives, I definitely would not take on any more for an optional party, regardless of how long you've been together. You can get married for the cost of a marriage license, but having a party you'll be paying off for years wouldn't be a good option for most people.. If you aren't familiar, check out any of the Dave Ramsey stuff on budgeting and finance. Good luck!

View Quoted Comment Same. I’m not even doing anything elaborate lol and it’s still expensive....

We are paying for our wedding by ourselves, with maybe a little help from my mom (like a few hundred bucks). We are primarily putting the major expenses on a cashback credit card and paying that off as the bills come due. We'll cash out our cashback for expenses on the honeymoon, probably. We are planning on having very little to pay off after the wedding, hopefully, nothing!

The best way to cut back on expenses is by cutting back your guest list; fewer people = less money spent. A lot of birdes will also say to cut back by using artificial flowers and not adding extra stationary & favors.

I personally think student loan debt and a mortgage is different than having thousands of dollars in credit cards or a personal loan for a wedding. You should do what you feel is best for you! Good luck!

View Quoted Comment I actually found fake flowers to be more expensive than a grocery floral shop.


I would opt for non floral simple and pretty centerpieces. Plenty of inspiration on these boards and Pinterest.

View Quoted Comment Yes! I heard local shops could be more cost effective. We opted to use a florist for our needs and are happy to spend the extra money for piece of mind and not DIYing or worrying how to transport centerpieces!