JediMindTricks

For those of you that are/were married, how much did your wedding (not including honeymoon) cost you? And how did you pay for it?

I understand this may be a personal question so if you don't feel like answering, that's ok.

I've been to a few weddings over the past few weeks and am amazed at the amount of money that is spent for one. One that I went to a few months ago cost over $100k.

How the heck did you guys pay for that? Save up all your lives and pay in cash? Credit? Parents?

Ken1997TL

Well ours is in September, right now its looking close to $20,000

There will be close to 300 people.

And quite a few things we're doing ourselves. My fiancee has all the decorations planned and made (already), she and her mom are doing most of the legwork. Otherwise I could see this whole thing costing closer to 30k.

My mother insists on paying for the half the wedding. Her family (and all the extended relatives) are chipping in for the rest I guess.


And yeah, I've been to some absurdly expensive weddings. And quite frankly for the amount of money they cost they REALLY were not all that nice.

spdy0001

I am in the process of planning mine now. Getting married Oct 17th

Im going to say that by the time everything is done we will have paid out about 8-9K. Luckily the brides mom has covered a large chunk of that ive been making payments on some of the things. It sucks because you want your bride to have the wedding she has hoped for but at the same time it sucks putting out so much money for a 5hr party.

spdy0001

The best wedding I ever attended was put on for less than 1K
Outdoor reception under a tent with about 10 grills cooking food. Its was a great time.

afjock21

Screw expensive weddings. Unless I'm a overpaid athelete or famous actor then I don't think so! Besides, plenty of girls out there who don't care about some expensive fancy wedding or even getting married in general.

100k?? No, I'm sorry, no, no way.

sho_nuff1997

iTrader: (2)

That's how mine was. Maybe that's why we got divorced

spdy0001

Its was my cousin's wedding and they are now split and she is pregnant by some other dude.

Less you spend on the wedding the more likely you are to get divorced?

alexSU

iTrader: (3)

Good thread! I might need this info sooner then I thought

JediMindTricks

note to self: spend more than $1k.

EDIT: and make more money.

alexSU

iTrader: (3)

everyone who posted, are you including the price of the engagement ring? or is that another $$$$ expense

JediMindTricks

when i asked, i was not including the price of the ring.

i was asking about the ceremony, food, reception, cake, dj/band, church/hotel, etc.

Ken1997TL

Separate in my case. I of course paid that. I'd contribute to the wedding but I've been told no.

Will Y.

:ibwhiskerssayswemarriedguysarestillpayingforthewe dding:

Oh, ours was a little over $20K, IIRC, and our parents paid for most of it.

spdy0001

My figure didn't include the rings. The engagement ring and wedding band will almost equal the cost of the rest of the wedding

SG81

iTrader: (1)

do people make money on weddings?

using Ken's example, he has about 300 people coming and it's costing $20k. If every guest gives a $100 as a gift, that's a $10k profit

JediMindTricks

well, not everyone will give cash as a gift. but maybe you do get the cost of the wedding back in terms of cash and gifts.

JediMindTricks

agean

I'm surprised at the numbers. Average wedding here in Jersey, 200 or so people I've heard 20k+ at a decent wedding hall. 30k+ is normal. This is for the hall, cocktail hour, dinner, dj, and full open bar throughout.

Of course, if you do it at say a VFW hall, you can save a ton.

I was at one wedding for 500 people or so, cost upwards of 400k. That was ridiculous.

$75 - $100 per plate is about ballpark what I'd expect to pay.

Thank God i'm single.

pmptx

Rehearsal dinner-50 people, ceremony, reception-130 people
About 18K
Parents FTW

bonknhead

Our wedding was in 1992 (yeah, we're old). Wedding chapel decorated (ribbons, candles), reception hall, DJ, catered menu, professional photographer, videographer, Pastor, etc., for 130 people, in Southern California - $5500.

We paid for it ourselves. We celebrate 17 years of wedded bliss in September

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

In-laws and parents paid a bulk of it.
We paid for the band $7500 http://www.exceptions.com/
Flowers $$$$
Rehearsal dinner $$$$

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Fiancee and I are budgeting for $15k but putting away $20k to pay for it ourselves. Money is all our personal savings.

EuRTSX

The lady already told me she doesn't want anything flashy.

10k is probably the most.

JediMindTricks

congratulations.

kudos to you for 1) knowing that fiancee is not the same as fiance, and 2) saving yourselves to pay for the wedding.

and glad to know that weddings don't typically cost $100k ballpark.

EuRTSX

I'm invited right Kevin?

afjock21

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Thanks. We actually had both of our parents offer to help us with the cost (her parents were especially adamant about helping so that we could afford this really nice place in the hills overlooking the ocean), but in a combination of defiance and foolishness, we insisted on covering the entire cost ourselves.

It helps that we are generally pretty simple in our tastes and while we have very specific requirements for the location (i.e. near the ocean in LA where we both grew up), we are flexible on the specifics and have found some great deals by looking at using public parks as the setting for the ceremony. We're also not going to hire a wedding planner (one of her cousins has volunteered to help us with that since she retired from i-banking just before the crash so has a lot of free time), and our mothers happen to be very into decorating so they will be doing the labor assembling all of the flowers and decorations for the ceremony and reception.

Having family willing to help out definitely is a great way to help control costs.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Friend just dropped 30K on his wedding, and my gf wants to know why i don't want to get married

'06 Arctic

Getting married at the end of May. For the church, reception, dj, limo, photographer, gifts for wedding party, her dress, flowers, invitations, and cake, current cost is $26,530. I have everything in a spreadsheet as I am curious to see the total cost when everything is said and done. We are fortunate as her parents insisted on paying for the majority of it and my parents wedding gift to us should cover the rest. God bless them. So hopefully we get off cash free.

indoMFP

One family member got married in February and another is planning to get married in March, both wedding look to be costing around $30k.

I think that is the norm as it will be hard to keep a wedding under $15k, I mean the photographer, video, decorations, and cakes are gonna run around $10k, and then comes the hotel and/or reception hall, church which can run you another $10k to $15k.

I think a normal wedding would cost around $25k to $30k, especially in the big cities. Some cities like New York, Chicago, LA, etc. it will be considerably more.

Jedi, if you are looking to get married, let me know... i was personally involved in a few weddings and also was able to find some decent connections/discounts when it came to cake, decorations, limos, dj's, etc. Holla....

JediMindTricks

thanks, but it won't be for a few years. i was just curious.

EuRTSX

yohan81718

good thread. also interested to learn about wedding.

Whiskers

We did it on the cheap...We was poo back then....

darksom1

I got married in my work clothes at the J.O.P., caught the train to work from there, and made overtime that day...I did smash her for the honeymoon that night...true story...

Is it surprising to say we divorced 3 years later on the exact same date (May 9th)? Meh...that was my birthday present!

Oh, I forgot how much court costs were...I think $50...so there's your answer...

BubbaMarkTL

7500 for a cheesy wedding band?!?!!? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH what a joke. that band is not even good, they all look like jersey guido trash too. you got ROLLED on that one budday

Ken1997TL

Get the hell out of this thread, you never add anything to any discussion you're part of.

Back on topic..

svtmike

I don't even remember how much ours cost. Year was 1988, so keep that in mind.

We split the cost with my wife's parents. They paid the hall, we paid the band, our clothes, the photographer, probably something else. My parents picked up the rehearsal dinner and I think the cake. All in all I think our share was about $3000 and we had 200 guests.

There were some tense negotiations along the way because my FIL () was a notorious cheapskate. We were going to have a cash bar, he said we couldn't do that we had to have an open bar. I said "If you want an open bar, you can pay for it. This is what I can afford." He paid for the open bar.

Then I was going to skip on the appetizer trays before the meal, he said we couldn't do that we had to have hors-de-oeurves. I said "if you want h-d-o, you can pay for them. I can't afford it." He paid for the h-d-o platters.

In the end after gifts we came out a couple thousand dollars ahead, a nice start back then.

Our dinner was $18 a plate to give an idea of how the dollars scale to today for the food.

bud760

Great price!

My gf's sister spent 3k on her wedding with 200 guests. Church wedding and catered menu at an outside restaurant. This is in another country so I don't think the budget is comparable to US. I plan on getting married in another country as well

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

This is not counting wedding bands/engagement ring, or honeymoon. Our wedding ceremony was attended by 700+ people, and we had two separate receptions. I used to work in the banquet department of the hotel we had our main reception at, so I got a mad crazy good deal on it, otherwise the reception itself would have been $20K more than we paid.

The folks from both sides wanted the big wedding, so I couldn't argue, and they footed the majority of bill.