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Monday, March 02, 2009

How much did your wedding cost?

As Josh and I start making plans for our wedding, there has been a main theme - the cost. We have put together a budget last night, which completely blew us away. This was after attending our first Wedding Expo. It was a small event, but was enough for us to deal with. But Josh LOVED the liquor luge, which might be a part of the party.

Josh and I are beginning to think we overestimated our budget. Josh asked his co-workers had a lower budget for the same size wedding we are planning. We also have been watching TiVo'ed Wedding related shows to get ideas and learn what NOT to do. Platnium Wedding is our favorite so far and has given us a fun perspective compared to our realistic budget.

With that, we ask for your assistance in this area from our married blogging couples. We would like to know how much you spent on your wedding, how your divided your costs, and the most expensive item on your budget. Any information will help us out.

13 comments:

Runner Susan said...

Michael and I eloped for less than $2,000.

brent said...

yo. what's your email address? we just got married oct '08 in the twin cities...for some reason i don't feel comfy posting the $. we invited 225 and about 185-190 showed up (avg attrition)....

Wes said...

Wow! 20 years ago... I didn't pay for a thing. I never even discussed money with anybody... LOL... Those were the good ole days.

Alison said...

We had about 100 people at our wedding in 2006. We did everything we could to keep costs low (had the ceremony/reception in the same location, brought in our own beer and wine (no liquor), and had a friend DJ. We still ended up spending about $12-14,000. That's not a lot as far as weddings go, but it was way more than we hoped to spend. The wedding industry is such a racket. We split the costs three ways (my parents, his parents, and us).

Anne said...

My husband and I had a small wedding -- family only, which amounted to 35 people -- and spent under $2,000, which is likely about $4,000 today. The biggest expense was the reception. Because the group was so small, we held it in a quaint restaurant and instead of open bar we had wine and champagne continually poured into everyone's glasses (huge $$ savings). Then, to fully celebrate with family AND friends, everyone met after the meal for a post-reception party at a friend's nearby cabin in in the woods. We just bought booze and "bar food," put on some music and let everyone just have a good time. That, I think, was the best part because everyone by then was relaxed and out of "wedding day mode." And it wasn't expected, despite serving a crowd of about 70 people by then.

Anne said...

Eeks..

I meant in my comment to say "And it wasn't expensive, despite serving a crowd of about 70 people by then."

Danielle said...

Do any of the places for the reception let you do your own booze? I have friends that did that and bought their wine and champagne at Trader Joe's and booze at Costco...and they had a ton left!

Don't forget to watch Bridezilla too...it's so amazing how freaky some of them can be! I expect you to get at least half as freaky as some of them though! :)

MNFirefly said...

Thanks, Danielle! And this is coming from the Maid of Honor. I plan to TRY to remain calm during this process.

Dori said...

It was the second wedding for both of us, so we kept it low-key. I don't remember what it cost, but we paid for it ourselves, without going into debt. I paid for my dress and my husband's wedding ring; he picked up the rest because I didn't make much money. What's important is that you have the wedding that is meaningful to the two of you. I had a street-length dress made, we kept the guest list low, and had a sit down dinner. No band at the reception because that wasn't important to us. But we had a guitarist play before, during, and after the ceremony, which was at a park on the beach.

Rae said...

I think we spent about $10K 10 years ago. About 250 ppl, no alcohol. That stuff gets insanely expensive. We spent the most on photog services because that was #1 for us (shocking, right???). To be honest, I hardly remember the day now and wish we had done something smaller and just had our parents give us that $$$!!

Neese said...

being the 2nd marriage for each of us we felt we wanted it low key and we got married in our backyard with immediate family in attendance. We followed it up with a nice dinner. Cost was probably less than $1,000 (which was basically our new clothes, and food for the dinner and whatever other expense prepping for the day)

Neese said...

oh, forgot about rings -- that was about another 1k

Stace said...

Hi! Linked to you through a friend. Got married in 2001 for $15K in the Twin Cities. 12.5 was from working a second job during the engagement, 2.5 was from the future in-laws. Biggest challenge, not being able to go small without excluding hubby's very large family, and meeting social obligations of future in-laws. Saved a ton of money buying flowers from the farmer's market. Accepted that it wasn't really my day, and that I couldn't try to skimp on things like booze after all our friends had open bar. It was worth it, we were glad we didn't go into debt to get married, we didn't leave anyone out, and we didn't offend our guests by skimping where we shouldn't have. Food and booze were most expensive. Food will never be great if you are cooking/catering for that many people (we had nearly 300 guests) so go for something that can't be done poorly, like pasta, if you go with many guests. I could go on but I've said too much already - sorry! Congratulations on your engagement and best of luck at your wedding! Your ring is beautiful!