Wedding expense

We live in Iowa and ours will be about 12k! Our venue, food, and alcohol is around 4600. We are estimating 75-100 people tho, so small compared to most weddings around here

Have you looked at venues in cities outside of LA? We are in Boston so our venue is about an hour away from the city and our whole wedding will probably be 15-20k total for everything. We have also minimized our guest count to 50 people, getting married on a Sunday and the off season. Because we’re getting married on off season we get 20% discount entrees. Invites are coming from places like shutterfly not a professional, DIYing our centerpieces and decor, etc.

View Quoted Comment These are things I can definitely look into. A Friday would probably workout. However the wedding does need to be local since I have older grandparents attending and they can’t travel far. I also have 150 guests but even for 100 people I was still being quoted about 25k. Friends in the area are spending easily 45-50k on their weddings. Maybe I need to elope at this point!

View Quoted Comment That’s an incredibly great price. 20k is the minimum for food for some of the venues in the area. Mine will have 150 guest but for 100 people some of the venues still quoted me 25k. I will have to keep looking or maybe slim down my guest list!

Many people are quoting prices for small towns.


Also even in a major city, you can cut costs drastically if you choose but you have to be creative. Assuming that your guestlist is non-negotiable, make a list of what is most important to you and eliminate what isn't.
Have your favorite restaurant cater instead of a wedding caterer. You can find inexpensive venues on Peerspace.com . Have someone from the Flower District make your bouquet. Get a cake from the local grocery store. Skip favors. Keep your attendants to a minimum.

View Quoted Comment Holy buckets 😳 Cost of living is much lower here so that likely plays a big part!

It's definitely a cost of living thing plus guest count! LA is very expensive. I live in AZ and my entire wedding is under 15k (closer to 10.) We're having 50-75 people.

View Quoted Comment The difference in cost is nuts! Maybe it is time to slim the guest list.

Well, here in Ohio, our venue was under $3k, the food for 65 people is about $2500 which includes a bartender and all the linens, serveware, barware, and dinnerware, along with cocktail hour hors d'oeuvres...I think CA in general is a higher cost of living, so rates on things like this could be double or more. 😐 sorry, hun.

I'm coming in under 15k and we invited 200 guests but I live in Ohio lol but to break it down, my venue was $4,500 but we got a 5% discount for finding them on wedding wire, so $4,275 and our venue includes the tables, chairs, table cloths, cloth napkins, all dishes and silverware, a bartender, two extra staff members plus the two owners and they do all the set up and clean up (we only have to place the centerpieces). I got my dress for $625 at a local bridal shop (it's Morilee). Catering was $1500 (buffet). I made my own centerpieces which equaled out to be less than $5 per centerpiece. I got koozies made as gifts for $120 and we hired a caricature artist for $450. Our photographer is experienced but she's not super well known compared to some photogs and we paid $400 for our engagement pics and $1200 for our wedding pictures (full day coverage with digital copies). We're doing a limited bar with 3 beer choices, two mixed drink options, one red wine, & one white wine and our venue has you bring in your own alcohol so we used a local liquor store that often does weddings and that is going to be $1500 plus we get to return anything that isn't open/used. My grandma is amazing at making cakes, so she's going to do our cake but a medium-ish size and then we'll also get a sheet cake from Giant Eagle that we'll cut. My sister is a hair dresser so she's going to do the bridesmaids hair and then we'll pay someone to come help so she can get hers done too but she's still working on finding someone. Our honeymoon is to Gatlinburg, TN and we're driving so I paid $900 for the week for our cabin and we'll obviously still have to pay for gas to get there and then expenses. I got my wedding jewelry from Etsy (spent less than $100 on everything) and my shoes from Kohl's on sale My invitations came from VistaPrint and I actually used reception cards and customized them and did online RSVPs through wedding wire. My fiances and his guys are wearing gray dress pants from JC Penney (my grandma retired from there so she gets a discount) we got them for $21/piece. We just need to get them all white button ups. Oh, and I did my own bouquets and boutonnieres and spent a total of like $60? On those. And our wedding insurance was $122.

Definately depends where you live and what’s important to you. We live in Pittsburgh but are having the wedding a few hours north in a much smaller town. We got our venue for the whole weekend Friday through Sunday for $3,000. It’s a barn wedding with farmhouses on the property for us and our families to stay in. Our guest list is under 80 people. Our photographer is $2,200. Food will be $2,500 or under. Honestly those were my priciest things. Our total will be under $13,000

View Quoted Comment They say that's the #1 to cut costs! Fingers crossed, happy planning!

Definitely depends where you live! Big cities = way more expensive than small towns

View Quoted Comment Remember to BREATHE and not stress yourself out! We had a longer engagement (2 years or so) so we could save up and afford everything. I just add the wedding into my monthly budget for savings and it’s helped. Any extra money we earn or get goes in the savings too.

I live in Ventura county just north of LA and we spent like $7,000. Granted we only had 40 people but that’s all we wanted anyway; the people who mean the absolute most to us. I was originally going to get married in Santa Barbara and have a restaurant reception but due to COVID we moved it to Thousand Oaks and did a backyard wedding. We had a cool brickoven pizza caterer, DJ, bar tender, and photographer. It is possible to not spend an arm and a leg but you have to figure out what’s a priority and what’s not. We also want to buy a house soon, so spending much more wasn’t an option for us. Good luck!! I’m sure you’ll figure it out and have an amazing wedding!!

View Quoted Comment That sounds absolutely perfect. I would love to do something like that and rent a house with a big, beautiful backyard. I’ll have to continue to do my research.

View Quoted Comment Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Sounds about right!

Ours is a DW in Gatlinburg with about 30 guests and we are paying about $12,000. The biggest chunk of that though is the all-inclusive venue (venue, photographer with digitals, catering), and then the hotel room for us for the weekend, the air bnb cabin for our kids and moms for the weekend and then our air bnb cabin there for our honeymoon.

I’m in LA and I spent around $16k for my 250 person wedding. But I want to attribute this to 1) my friend did the photography videography which saved me thousands and 2) I had a very discounted rate for my ceremony venue because I was a member of the church I had it at.