What was/is your total budget for elopement/ couthouse wedding and short honeymoon?

Most of my small weddings with a nice meal, alcohol, music and me cost 5000.00 or less. Add a honeymoon to it, which could be any amount of money.,,,

We are thinking of a 5,000.00 buget. Courthouse marriage, restaurant reservations and a 3 day honeymoon. Would that be reasonable?

FH and I are eloping later this month. We are planning a one night stay, and dinner/drinks for 11 people total. The hotel for all guests plus the elopement package is about 2500. Dinner is around 1000. Add in drinks (back at the hotel after dinner), small bridal bouquet, my dress and accessories, FH attire, and FSD attire we are clocking in right under 5000. We are not having a honeymoon, or even a "mini-moon" as the reason for us eloping is we didn't have the budget to host a grand wedding, or a grand honeymoon for that matter. I am located in NYS.

Well my husband and I went to the courthouse in April and just had a nice dinner. We paid $30 for the license, $50 for the judge, and $150 for a nice dinner, including tip. We didn't do a honeymoon, that will come after our ceremony in Oct 2018.

We did a rental house for 3 days for my family to stay at and its also the location of our ceremony and reception. Total for everything is around $8000? Give and take a little bit

We just moved out of NYC. Did you pick a bridal dress or did you just pick something elegant and white?

Wow, perhaps I'm cheap then. I was thinking of 2 options:

1. Have the courthouse wedding ($60 for license and $20 for CHW) and treat attendees to dinner which would come out to about $250 (I'm in NC and their is a really elegant buffet with good soul food there). Photographer $375....Go on honeymoon for 4 days in Orlando, fl for $1,500-$2,000 (includes flight, rental house with private pool (we can skinny dip) and spending money for food and activities.

2. Have backyard elopement but I have a feeling that my plans for 15 guests would shoot up to about 50 (which is why I am leaning towards CH). With 15 ppl (which is more ppl than what would be at the CHW) would equate to about $2,000 and the honeymoon would remain the same.

I already have my dress. It was 40 bucks

We are hosting 40 guests at a restaurant/hotel in Newport, RI. Honeymoon not included, were at $12,000, with about half of that going to food and an open bar.

Future VC WHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa??? That's a lot! I know it's going to be beautiful. My thing is, however, that I never really cared for the glitz and glam for a wedding that is only for 1 day. My sister paid close to $30,000 for her wedding and she was miserable throughout the entire day. I just want to have a short honeymoon and hang out with my closest family members for the day. I could pay several mortgage payments with that kind of money.

Kristin...Yeah...I know that is the original meaning but these days, people interchangeably say elopement or intimate wedding. I guess what I am talking about is actually an intimate wedding.

Richard....Absolutely. I am leaning towards that direction anyway because I just want it short and simple. I can almost guarantee that it would turn into way more than 15. His family will get word and then additions will take place. We have a mortgage to pay and a toddler to spend on. Some people are insensitive when it comes to wedding invites and how much money and resources it takes to conduct such a venue. So, the safer way to do it would be the courthouse route.

Kristin Most of the people attending the courthouse wedding does not drink. The only people who drink is my FH, his uncle and I. So, it's just going to be food We'll do the drinking for our honeymoon

We're thinking $4000. Now that I'm working, I may bump it up to $5000 to keep us safe. We're doing a minimoon at a hotel where we'll likely just enjoy the time away/being alone without any activities out on the town unless it's to go out for a nice dinner.

This is what we've committed to so far and what we've roughly budgeted for which will be marked as *:

Photographer: $800 (two hours of coverage)

Officiant: $100

Hair/Make Up: $175

Alterations/Accessories: $500*

Suit/Suit Accessories: $300*

Bouquet: $150*

Back up plan for rain: $80* (this includes the pavilion rental and two clear or white umbrellas.)

Restaurant (night of): $150* (includes tip)

Marriage License: $60

Dress: $975 (bought it when we were thinking of doing a bigger thing.)

Hotel for Honeymoon: $630 (four nights)

Food/Gas: $200-$400*

Rings: $500* (altogether)

Tips: $185 (altogether)

Give or take a few things, I think that about covers it. At least, according to my dry erase board I've been using to keep track of everything.

One of my BMs did a courthouse then party last year. Cost here $2500 in total and we had an amazing time.

I'm just going to make a list; hope this helps. We are located in rural Virginia.

We're doing our wedding at an elopement venue, but with 22 guests in attendance, plus us. It is $430 for the venue, which comes with an officiant and chairs for the ceremony. Our marriage license is $30.

I'm not sure how much I will spend on my dress; you could wear one you already have to keep costs down even, you don't have to wear white and many don't for elopements.

We spent $350 on my engagement ring (Black Friday at Sears), $50 on his wedding band (90 percent off at Kohls), and $40 on mine (local consignment shop).

My bouquet will be $12 from Costco.

Hair and makeup is $100 including a tip because I love my HMU; she's done my hair for every event since prom.

Food will be our biggest cost. We are looking at around $500 for everyone, but our wedding is afternoon (2pm) so we don't really need to serve a meal, we just are getting cheap catering from a local BBQ place in case people get hungry. We're also budgeting a lot for alcohol because our family loves to drink -- probably $200-300 worth. We're hosting at my parents' house, so it's a real small family-gathering feel. We have the catering company delivering the food but not staying to serve it.

Our photographer quoted $300-400, but it will probably be on the lower end of that. We're having her (just one photographer) for 1.5 hours.

Our honeymoon, which we aren't including in our wedding budget but instead as our yearly vacation, will be a 7 day cruise from Baltimore. We are driving there, so without plane tickets our cost comes out to $2,192.50 for a balcony room (I just put the deposit down today). We used Costco travel to get a deal. This doesn't include what we'll spend on the trip, which I'm sure will be several hundred dollars.

In total, for the wedding, we’ll be at around $2000, plus the dress. Together with the honeymoon it’s closer to $4000.

Hope this helped!

OP, hosting alcohol is an important part of hosting a wedding well.

^Jacks is right. That's not a disputable part of the wedding.

If no one that I am inviting drinks, their is no need to serve drinks. The only people that drink is his uncle and us. Since I am leaning towards the CHW, I will only have 6-7 people in attendance. If I change my mind, however, and do the backyard intimate wedding, then I would serve liquor.

But it's not no one? You said your FH's uncle? Plus, a lot of people drink at weddings that don't normally drink.

Why deprive one person of drinks then, Tracey?