Rookies learning

Back when I was planning my wedding I think what I had most was sticker shock of wedding cakes. I knew obviously weddings are expensive but I didn’t think a cake could cost so much!!

Prior to planning my own wedding, I had no idea how important RSVPing is!!

View Quoted Comment I’m hoping with, what my fiancé calls, the naked cake it won’t be to bad price wise. But it all just blows my mind when it comes to sticker price. My older brother told me his cost $3k in total and I’m just sitting here like HOW? Haha I was over that just booking the venue!

View Quoted Comment The RSVP’s have been a pain I’ll tell you what. With COVID and making other couples move there dates from this year to next hurting couples like me and my gal we have had to redo them 3 times. I feel ya

Tack on the word "wedding" and the price skyrockets and vendors do not budge, saying your day will be a disaster otherwise.
Restaurant catering is just as good if not better for half the price without wasting money and food on extras your guests don't care about.
Stock up on clear Christmas lights for under $1/box for 100+ instead of 50 lights for $20 because they're marketed for weddings. And so one.
Don't feel obligated to invite everyone you've ever met. It is your (you and your fiance) day. Everyone else has either already gotten married or waiting their turn so outside relatives' personal preferences are moot as long as their overall comfort is considered.
Only have the wedding you can afford without asking for financial assistance.
Etiquette exists for a reason and does not stop for a pandemic or because someone feels it's "outdated" neither of which are true. People will never tell you to your face when you offend them but they will talk behind your back to others.
Make your own traditions. Skip optional parts that don't apply to you. You can skip a garter toss but having a B-list for your guests is rude.

Honestly my sticker shock was the price of my venue. It was a lot more than I thought it would be, but we ended up adjusting the budget to make it work. You're right that food and cake is a lot of money too!


Luckily my venue includes insurance... Are you having your wedding outside?
As a rookie, my largest surprises have been the outspoken needs/requests by my normally chill family. Weddings honestly do bring out a different side of people.

Yea definitely underestimated cost of things especially all the vendors- thousands for photographer, thousands for hair and makeup its crazy

My sticker shock was the add-on fees! It's unbelievable. We have an all-inclusive venue, but I wasn't aware how much they add on. It's another thousand for this and another few hundred for that and then my whole budget is gone!

As this is also our first wedding (I'd never been involved in anything else before this), we were both determined to keep the costs low, but got major sticker shock especially with the venues & catering. The pandemic didn't help as we couldn't go with our original plan & ended up booking a place that went well over what we initially wanted to spend. Not to mention gathering a guest list, it makes you really think about who you'd want there & since our venue charges per person (we're actually only paying for the food, no fees to use the space), I'm over here trimming the list down as much as possible lol Everything costs so much more than what I would have thought.