What's your overall budget?

[neebelung]

I read last night that the "average" wedding in the U.S. costs about $20,000. WOWZA... I mean, I know it adds up quick, but that's just a staggering amount of money, especially in light of the fact that we'll be paying for everything ourselves (I'm sure the parents will all help with parts of it, but we're going into it expecting to pay for it all ourselves, so any assistance we get is just icing on the proverbial cake ).

So what is/was your overall budget... I mean, the whole kit and caboodle (dress, locations, flowers, food, rehersal dinner... but not rings and/or honeymoon). (if you don't want to post it up, just vote to give us an idea of where you fall).

And more importantly, who paid for the bulk of everything? Your parents, his parents, or did you pay for it all yourselves?

[feb-bride]

Excluding the rings and the honeymoon, we ended up spending really close to $10,000. I paid approximately 70%, my dad/step-mom paid approximately 25%, and my husband/his parents paid approximately 5% (probably less than 5%).

[BJC777SRL]

Excluding the Honeymoon, it'll end up being between $8,000 to $10,000. We're paying for most of it, FH's Aunt is putting $2,000 toward photography, and his Grandma put $500 toward ceremony flowers.

[imstilldreaming]

I voted under $5000.

Ceremony/reception site: $1500
Food: (depending on how many people show) approx $1000
Dress/shoes/accesories: $250
Flowers: $175
Decor: $50 (borrowed centerpieces from a friend)
Invitations: $150 (hand made, including stamps)
Cupcakes/cupcake stand: $100 (instead of a cake)
String musicians for ceremony: $415
Gifts for ushers/bridal party: $300
Gifts for person doing photos: $150
Tips: $200
Hair/makeup: $230

No tux, FH is wearing a brand new suit he has
Photography was free
Dress alterations were free

[imstilldreaming]

Oh, and forgot to say that we are paying for all of it except for $200 my mom gave us.

[birdie]

Ours should be between 6,000 and 7,000. Adding things up now, I'm at around 5,500 and I know I've forgotten goodwill decorations and things like that. But I think I'm doing pretty well so far!

All the parents are helping pretty evenly (each giving about 1,000) and we appreciate every penny of it! The honeymoon should add another 1,000 or so on and our rings won't be too expensive - both of us want a simple ring.

[Heather]

I had to choose Sky's the Limit but that wasn't the case. Our wedding from beginning to end was $30K. Aside from $4K, we paid everything ourselves.

[Cirig]

I put the sky's the limit- even though it wasn't. It cost somewhere between 30 & 35 almost 40 including the honeymoon

ETA: My parents gave us $30k, we paid for the remaining bit

[ladedah]

Our Budget Originally was $10,000 not including the dress....I knew we spent less...but I had never broke it down until now....

Reception Rental: $250
Food: $2000
Alcohol: $1200
Photographer: $2500
Linens: $250
Decorations: $500
Cake (& extras): $250
Thank you gifts: $300
DJ: $500
Flowers: $600
Stationary & Postage: $267
Church/Pastor/Musicians: $500


Dress: $500
Tiara & Veil: $150
Shoes & Lingerie: $150

I also paid for shoes and accessories of BM & Hair/Make-up & Lunch on wedding day: $450

My parents paid for about 75% we paid for the rest, our rings and our honeymoon.

[neebelung]

Originally Posted by Heather

I had to choose Sky's the Limit but that wasn't the case. Our wedding from beginning to end was $30K. Aside from $4K, we paid everything ourselves.

Originally Posted by Cirig

I put the sky's the limit- even though it wasn't. It cost somewhere between 30 & 35 almost 40 including the honeymoon

Sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate that anything over $20K was 'excessive' or anything like that... I merely chose that as the highest bracket since that was the "average" cost listed in the article.

Sorry ladies!!

[Cirig]

Don't be sorry! I wasn't bothered by that at all. It is a lot of money for anyone. I'm not insulted at all. Things are done differently everywhere & they don't always cost the same! I have a cousin who spent more than double what I did. Actually I believe we spent about average for my area.

[neebelung]

Originally Posted by Cirig

Things are done differently everywhere & they don't always cost the same!

SOOOO true (and I see both you and Heather are in NY, which I'm sure DRASTICALLY affects the cost of things)... I think things are probably relatively inexpensive here in FL.

[NovemberGal]

Like Heather, without an over-$20K option I chose sky's the limit, but that wasn't the case for us either. Ours was about $23 or $24K (we didn't set a strong budget, but had the $24K number as our goal from the start), not including honeymoon or rehearsal dinner. I don't know how much the rehearsal dinner was--my in laws managed it completely (BEAUTIFULLY--mmm....sushi!), but it was probably about $1000 considering it was at a sushi restaurant with 28 people.

Keep in mind that where you live will HUGELY impact your costs. For the Wash DC area, we did pretty well. We were also EXTREMELY fortunate that our families split costs evenly with us, so we paid 1/3 (plus rings), my folks 1/3 (plus my dress), and his folks 1/3 (plus rehearsal dinner).

[Julz518]

I think ours will be between $13K-$16K for 250-300 ppl in SW Pennsylvania.
I had the budget all written down at one time, but now I can't find it So I guess I'll have to re-do it...

Anyway, mom is chipping in $10K - it is my "wedding fund" that she established years ago, and even though I begged her to let me elope & give me the money towards our house, she wants a wedding

Dad is chipping in $3500 (we hope - he has verbally agreed to this much).

I am chipping in another $3500+.

I'm sure Rick will still pay for his attendant gifts, and his family will pay for the RD... and they will probably end up paying for the alcohol (his dad's buddy owns a local distributor). I'm also thinking *we* will probably pay for the photographer (just don't tell him that ).

Yes - it all adds up to more than I expect to spend. If that happens, mom will get the "leftovers" and hopefully take a vacation

[Sh@ks18]

My brother spent about 30-40k. Thats about average around here.

[feb-bride]

Originally Posted by Shaks18

My brother spent about 30-40k. Thats about average around here.

I'd have a heart attack!

[Heather]

I didn't take it in a bad way either, not at all. I just wanted to be sure I quantified it, lol.

For us, Mike and I come from different worlds. I'm a small-town upstate NY girl. Most weddings there are less than 10K. Mike is from Long Island where the minimum is around 50-60K. We got married right in the middle of our two families, in our town, and everything we did ended up being a nice compromise for everyone.

[maroki13]

Our original budget was around $12,000, but we probably ended up spending $15-$16,000 on the wedding. My in-laws contributed $1000 and the RD, and my parents contributed $5000. We paid for the rest and any unexpected expenses.

[Marksbride]

Definatley under 5,000 !!!!!! We are paying for everything on our own. Plus begining to build our house.

Everything is going great!

[soulsearcher1968]

With the invitations/stationary and postage, the ceremony site fee, my dress, my MOH's dress, FH's outfit, BM's outfit, both son's outfits, the officiant, the ceremony flowers, the rings, the custom certificate, the reception site decorations, the cocktail hour appetizers, the full sit down dinner, the limited bar tab, the 7hotel rooms for 4 nights, the band, .....did I leave anything out?

I have about $6000 in a savings stock option that I am trading in. (it keeps loosing $ - so what better way to blow it ) The rest is coming out of our regular income. Everything is paid for by us.
We haven't even told anybody about the wedding plans. We want to have it all done and ready to go. Just send out invitations to everybody as a suprise. The only people besides FH and MOH that I talk to about it are all of you guys.
And I thank you for all your paitence with my indecisive little mind.

[Kim&Bob2004]

I had budgeted under 5k, was hoping for around 3-4K and I think we came in closer to 6K (more pricey to rent the church, etc then what was quoted). Not counting honeymoon or rings. Bob paid for those and they were gifts so I really have no idea and wouldn't expect to know. But he found out real quick even when we were dating that his wife generally kept a running budget in her head and didn't like to go overboard on things (it's my Scottish blood I guess ).

[Emily]

I put the skys the limit because it was over $20k - I think it was about $26k. We were lucky enough that my Mum and Dad footed the bill.

The $26k didnt include the Honeymoon or rings or Damons Suit which we paid for ourselves. Because we didnt have to pay for the wedding we really splashed out with our rings, they came to $4.5k and our Honeymoon was about $7k

[justnmary]

We really didn't have a budget. We just started planning and paid for things as we went. In the end I think it came to just under 10k. Not too bad. His parents paid for the flowers, the rehearsal dinner, dinner and reception, and dj. We paid for the photographer, rings, attire, cake, invites, the bridal party gifts, and gifted the minister, organist.

It probably would have been much more then that but we did it in 4months time because my hubby wanted to be married in 06 and not wait for a whole year so we went as inexpensive as possible without looking 'cheap'. IF I could do it over with and have no time line, it would probably be in the 20-25k range.

But either way, my wedding was awesome and the end result was all that mattered!

[alongroadahead08]

I'm trying my darndest to stay in the 5-6K region. I can't find my whole list...but
Reception hall to rent is $500
Food i'm guessing about $1500 or so
Alcohol $500
Dj $350 (friend of FH)
Photography not sure but been quoted around $500
Dress budgeted no more than $600
Decorations right now are at about $550
Rings (he has mine already because it came as a set and his should cost around $100)
So with all that big stuff (no including the small stuff and not including invites because i'm not 100% on those yet we are already at
$4500!!!!
So to keep it around 6k just about $1500 left for odds and ends. I'd say that's not too bad!

[DavidsWife]

We will try to get our budget as close to $5000.00 as possible!!!!
With a 40 people guest list including Dave and I we should be able to do it or at least be pretty close!