What's your budget?

The best deal we got was finding a venue that included everything but the video/photo. Have 80-100 people possibly coming and at 80 people venue is 16k but with my dress ($3400) and all the other extras we will probably be spending around $24k total. This includes our travel expenses as well as the gifts and accessories.

I have a $2,000 budget for everything. I am confident i can pull it off and i have done all calculations. We are two years away from the date, so sale hunting and getting the best deals wont be a problem since we have two years to plan and get everything together. It helps that our guest count is 25 dollars and our venue will be my sisters house, we are also doing a Courthouse Ceremony and that is only around $60 on fees!

Our Budget be around $20K. Hopefully it be around we can go below that but we will see. We already have our venue. It is a matter of planning everything within a reasonable price. We are checking into quite a few things just to get an idea of how much everything cost.

Im probably around the $20k budget but I honestly know that this will end up being $25-$30k. I was not paying attention to a max budget, lol. After I added everything up what we added I was like Sh*!. I told FH and Im like "lets try to watch who we pick who are vendors are." We have really expensive tastes that are hard to fight

I have a budget around $14,000 for the wedding, but am planning as if it's $12,500 (I don't want to go over!). We've gotten some unexpected deals:

- Using the same florist that my sister used last year (10% "second daughter" discount)
- Booked a DJ that offers $150 off for receptions at our venue
- The hotel we booked a courtesy block at is giving us a free shuttle to the reception
- Using coupon codes on all paper goods (save the dates, invites, etc)
- Reception venue package includes 1 free "upgrade", so we are getting our cake for free!
- Photographer gave us 2018 pricing because she did my sister's wedding as well (saved $300)

WOW! I wish my wedding was $4,000! I have little to NO patience to seek sales (my biggest downfall) when my FH and I decided on a budget right off the top of our heads we said $10,000. Of course, we are going to end up spending a tad bit more. My dad bought my dress (with under garments and preservative kit it came out to $1,400). My future in laws paid for the church ($250) & everything else we are paying for. Kudos to you because you have the patience. Makes me sad I could have probably saved tons of money Haha.

Awesome! Look at you! Our venue is 10k alone but handles all of the decorating and servers and bartenders. We are able to bring our own vendors. Our total budget is $30,000. I want to try to do my florals myself like for the bouquets and boutinieers and My best friends owns a bakery so she is making our cake free of charge
I got my dress at a trunk show in atlanta so my gown was $3595 but on sale got it for $2100

My dad is gifting us $11k for our wedding so that was originally our budget. The more planning we do the more we realize how quickly things add up (and expensive). So rather than increasing our budget, we're slashing it in half and exploring other days/times when receptions are significantly less.

I just got married this weekend! It was around $6000 but that price includes a place for all our guests to stay. We got married at a beautiful lake Airbnb with just immediate family as guests. We splurge on the dress (1000), music (1200) - amazing singer that also plays guitar and piano, and photographer (1200). Everything else we got for a decent price!

Fellow Northern VA bride here!

The cost of weddings around here are crazy expensive, especially if you are looking at peak season like we were. It blew our minds when we found out that the average cost of a wedding in our area was $30,000.

FH and I decided that we wouldn't feel comfortable spending more than 10k on our wedding (not including Honeymoon). We expect to pay for most or all of the expenses ourselves, are trying to buy a townhouse simultaneously, and are both pretty young (22 & 25). However we (me) still wanted everything to look like it came straight off of Pinterest.

I've shared our top six expenses below:

Venue ($3,500): We saved a huge amount of money (about half-off) on our venue. It's still the gorgeous waterfront venue that we dreamed of, except instead of being your run-of-the-mill night time event we will be hosting a morning wedding followed by a mimosa hour and brunch.

Catering and Alcohol ($1,900): This also helps with the cost of catering as brunch is far less expensive than traditional dinner. We were able to pick whichever licensed caterer we wanted for food delivery as well as buy our own alcohol (again, our venue is seriously awesome about this stuff)! Also planning on ditching the cake in favor of donuts or cupcakes for $150ish.

Rentals & Service ($1,800): We had to use the servicing company that worked with our venue. This cost includes all the serveware, china, silverware, bar set-up, and actual servers. However, this number is based on the amount of guests so the price could go down if we have less people rsvp.

Photographer ($1,000): We found a fantastic up-and-coming photographer who is amazingly talented and affordable. That includes 4 hours of coverage, all digital rights, and a second shooter.

Dress and Tux ($715): My dress is a Mori Lee look alike from David's Bridal, except I snagged it in a sample sale for $150 when it was originally being sold for over $600! Still not sure about alterations but hoping to spend under $200. Estimating $200 for FH tux rental and a little extra for my bridal accessories.

Floral and Decor ($500): I'm pretty crafty so we'll be doing most decor ourselves, and my budget should cover all centerpieces (wine bottle bud vases) and all florals for the wedding party! Granted, we will be buying wholesale and DIYing all florals ourselves.

At the end of the day we are projected to be 1.5k over budget. Still, for a champagne taste wedding in the NoVa area I think we've done a fantastic job!

Please keep in mind that we did nix a few things that others may find necessary on their big day. Some of these things include: an official DJ/Band, really expensive makeup for my whole bridal party, a limo/transportation, hotel rooms for guests, a giant wedding guest list (there will be a max of 75 people).

We budgeted for $15000 but saving $20000 (just in case/left over goes to honeymoon)

So far we are saving a ton just by moving our wedding from NYC to Savannah, GA.
Our venue for ceremony and reception also doubles as our accommodations for four days. We rented a mansion that can fit all of our bridal party if we choose to have them stay with us. They offered to pay for their rooms if we do that. (Don't worry the master bedroom is completely separate from other rooms lol)
The venue also has an amazing manager who doubles as our day of coordinator and is the chef. The price for the venue also includes all the set up and breakdown, tables, chairs, linens, flatware , glassware, clean up and etc. We are not ordering any decorations because its a beautiful Victorian Mansion and already has perfect decorations as is. Total is : $4050

The wedding attire is what really going to hit our pockets, as I am a fashion designer and therefore am as picky as it gets. However, I did set a more realistic budget of $1500 for the dress. Same for my FH, I cannot have him wear a $90 suit so we are trying to see what discount we can get from my job. Budgeted $700(with alterations but with discount will probably cost $390).

A family friend (who is a catholic priest) offered to officiate our wedding for free! So we got lucky with that, we are also looking into pre- marital counseling which will get us a 50% discount for marriage licence in GA.

So far we spoke to two photographers that fall in our budget of $2000, we are hoping to finalize one soon.

We spoke to many friends and family members and everyone hated their DJ , so we decided on not having one. Unless, we find one that can also play Russian music ( I'm Russian), then the price tag will be justifiable. FH has a couple of DJ friends that offered helping "watch over" the playlist throughout the night.

That's as far as we've gotten! Since our wedding is relatively small for an average American wedding ( only 80 will be invited, probably 70 will actually show up), we are not going crazy on flowers. I'm not tossing my bouquet, so I will only need one for ceremony.

Our budget is around the 10,000-12,000 mark, but that includes our Honeymoon. I thought for sure I was going to stick specifically to my budget of 10,000 or below when I got engaged, but I've splurged on things like an awesome photographer, my dress, and not having to worry about doing the dinner ourselves.

Here's what we've scored deals on:

Videographer- We're having family members videotape the day, and then my fiancé will be able to edit it into our own personalized video!

Officiant- My childhood pastor who baptized me is marrying us, and she won't accept payment, so we'll be giving a donation to the church and getting her a nice gift instead.

Church- They don't have a specific fee, so we'll be giving them a good donation.

Food- a local restaurant is charging us 7.25 a person for a roast beef dinner for 300, and we're having a local school group watch the buffet line and fill it (they do that at a lot of weddings around here), and we'll be giving them a $400 donation for their time (which I've been told is actually very high for what they normally get).

Cake- We're ordering a small cake to cut and the Groom's cake, and then our family is pitching in to help make and decorate the cupcakes for everyone.

Decorations- My Mom and I are DIYing a lot of the decorations, and I try to buy everything on sale. My FH's sister got married two years ago, so we're repurposing some of her decorations. We've had a long engagement, so people have gotten me a lot of Hobby Lobby gift cards for Holidays which have been put to great use. We also have family friends that decorate for a lot of local weddings who are helping us with some of the big things like ceiling draping, backdrops, etc. We'll be getting them a nice gift for sure!

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I'm originally from the DMV where in Annapolis are you getting married? I thought about getting married back home but we are getting married in NC where we have been living

Lucky girl!! I'm lucky in the fact my venue includes so much its crazy. Table clothes.. seat covers..center pieces..silver charges.. card box..cake cutting utensils..lanterns. you name it. So I'm very happy. I got my dress for $440 as a sample sell. My friend is making my veil. Brother in law is officiating so that's free. My friends sister is a photograph for the tigers and she's only charging me $500. So lots of breaks. All in all 9k. Hoping for less somehow but doubt it. Oh best deal is the $70 3 tier cake from Sam's club

My original budget was 8k but we're way past that now. I did get a 10%discount when I paid for the venue in full. Also when I paid for the catering in full on the day of the tasting I received 10% off and free signature drinks.

Also the venue comes with basic linens and they have centerpieces that they charge for. They wanted to charge $35 per table to use their lanterns with candles. But they also said they do trades. Depending on what decor you bring in, if you let them Have it, not hold it but Have it they will let you use nit have just use some of their decor at no additional cost. I found the lanterns on sale at AC more 2 for $10 and I had a 15% off coupon so I got 22 lanterns for $99 and some change and that was with the tax. So I'll give the venue 10 of the lanterns to use their gold charger plates and 10 more to use the sashes for the chair covers. They way I don't have to spend almost $800 to decorate the table and $400 on chargers and chair sashes. And I'll keep the other two for myself #winning

10k. My friend is officiating, we have two DJ friends, and a photographer friend coming on board for next to nothing. So, most will be spent on venue and food, my dress, his outfit, and plane tickets...we're flying to Tucson. Abt 60 ppl.

My budget was $10k. We ended up spending closer to $9k when all was said an done. I'm in Philadelphia for a reference point. Our breakdown was: All food: $2500; Dress: $350; DJ: $900; Photographer: $1500; Venue: $900 Rentals: $900; Ceremony space & officiant: $450; Alcohol: $500; Incidentals (menus, favors, DIY centerpieces, etc.) $1000

I am MOB and I offered 20,000 as a gift or for a wedding, anything above that is on them.

They chose a wedding. They will probably end up adding 10,000 of their own when DJ, photo booth, up lighting, photographer and videographer, up grades to venue are all said and done. Crazy

We're only spending around $3,000. We got really lucky though.

I am so frugal and cheap in my every day life and I thought I would be the same way with my wedding, but nope!

I'm throwing money at things left and right just to get them done and taken care of. I'm absolutely not a DIY bride and this is the one time in my life that I'm allowing myself to spend freely. The amount we are spending has almost doubled from the amount I originally thought I would spend. When the planning became a reality (instead of me just hypothetically planning in my head) I realized that I wasn't willing to negotiate and that I was going to get exactly what I wanted. Let's just say our wedding, all in, is going to be about half of what I paid for my first house! If you had told me that 10 years ago, I would've called you a liar. Hah