What did your wedding cost?

[Chicago526]

Just the wedding and reception, about $12k in 2005. The honeymoon was another $3,000. It wasn't budget at all, even though it was $10k less than the area average. Part of that was due to a smaller guest list, total was about 80, including me and DH. You can do a lot more for less money when it's for fewer people, I found!

Even though we are still paying it off (we bought a house too, so money's been tight with that) I don't regret a minute of it. It's the best $12k I've ever spent. The only think I would have done different is the honeymoon. We went to WDW but we were so exhausted from the wedding that we didn't really enjoy it. I should have picked a resort with a nice beach we could lay on for a week instead. It would have been cheaper and we would have had a better time. Oh well, live and learn!

 

[ead79]

Our wedding was around $35,000. My parents gave us a very generous amount of that, then I saved for 18 months for the remaining amount. It was the wedding I had always dreamed of, and I don't regret all the saving for a second. Of course, I have been to a bunch of lovely weddings that were quite inexpensive, so I don't think it matters a bit how much you spend. DH and I just recently celebrated our 5th anniversary, and I totally agree that the marriage is much more important than the wedding itself.

 

[luvmy3]

My father paid for my entire wedding and honeymoon, it was about $5000. The only thing dh and I bought ourselves were our rings and they were about $1000.
I can honestly say I didn't care too much about it, I was young and in love. I just wanted to be married to dh and have all my friends and family there to celebrate with us.

I have been to very lavish weddings and they didn't seem any better than the ones at the local elks club. Sure, the food and decor may have been better, but the music, the dancing, the drinks were all the same. In the end, the guests all have a blast and a couple leaves married no matter where it is. I could never spend 37 Grand (budget or not) on one, I would rather save that money for a house or the future.

 

[shortbun]

Ours totalled about $1,300 including everything. The honeymoon was over twice that but still a great deal for two weeks including a luxury suite on an Alaskan cruise ship. I have such wonderful memories of our wedding day. Our cat was there and about five of our best friends showed up un-invited, lol!!! We were glad they crashed; it was an act of love. We got great family photos that day from our photographer who agreed to do that and call it 'the wedding party.'

 

[POOHDRMR]

Mine came in at about 40,000 ten years ago.I live on Long Island and had 130 people.My flowers and band was almost 10 grand.If only I knew then what I do now I would have skipped the wedding and put it down on a house.My parents paid for the wedding and I only paid for the honeymoon( which I spent 6000 on but it was worth it!)My parents say they got their moneys worth at least since we are still together almost 11 years later-we have gone to cousins weddings recently that are split up before the 2nd anniversary!!

 

[Camicar]

I think your results are going to be skewed because the price I paid in 1983 is much higher today, but I don't know what today's price would be.

In 1983, we had 100 people and paid about $1500 outside NYC for
-wedding attire for bride and two attendants
-FULL appetizers (seriously you could have made a meal out of them)
-full sit down dinner
-traditional wedding cake
-open bar
-wine on the tables
-two drink fountains
-four piece band
-flowers
-photographer who took approx 150 pictures, 2 'parent' albums and one 'couple' album, plus assorted 'loose' pictures
-church fee (which we drastically reduced bec the night before at rehearsal the priest with whom we'd been working announced he was not going to marry us bec he'd decided to go on a Boy Scout camping trip and Father EVERYONEHATESHISGUTSWITHAPASSION would 'show up and do it' the next day and no, we couldn't meet him beforehand.)

Now, to give a comparison, my SIL got married a few weeks before in New England. She spent $10K for:
-weddng attire for herself
-sit down dinner
-cake
-flowers
-four piece band

Where was the difference? My SIL and MIL were/are convinced that the more money you spend the better 'it' is. So, they were suckers. They spent approx $80 a piece on bridesmaid flowers (8 of them) and my SIL's wedding bouquet was $450. In contrast, my bridesmaid flowers (3) cost about $25 per and my wedding bouquet cost $80. My cake cost $85 and my SIL's cost $575. My SIL's gown cost three times what mine did. Her meal cost so much that they couldn't 'afford' ANY free drinks -- you had to pay $5 for a Diet Coke (in 1983). The difference? I didn't get ripped off. The other difference -- my SIL and MIL were so concerned about having a 'perfect' wedding that it was perfectly boring -- guests were actually falling asleep at the dinner tables. People still talk about that -- and the $5 Diet Cokes and how they left hungry. My wedding was a big party and everyone had a good time, ate, drank and was merry. People still talk about that and how it was the best food they ever ate, how the cake was amazing, and how it was the best time they ever had.

 

[Aisling]

Mine came in at about 40,000 ten years ago.I live on Long Island and had 130 people.My flowers and band was almost 10 grand.If only I knew then what I do now I would have skipped the wedding and put it down on a house.My parents paid for the wedding and I only paid for the honeymoon( which I spent 6000 on but it was worth it!)My parents say they got their moneys worth at least since we are still together almost 11 years later-we have gone to cousins weddings recently that are split up before the 2nd anniversary!!

My wedding 26 years ago cost a little over $25,000. It was beautiful, with all the bells and whistles, but in hindsight, it was a waste of money. We could have had a less expensive wedding and used the money for a downpayment on a home.

I recently went to a wedding that cost $87,000, and this seems to be the average here in NYC where I live. Crazy.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Well....ummm....at something around $50,000 my wedding was among the cheapest of my parents' friends' children.

Come on! There needs to be some more poll options above and beyond that number...I mean, my parents still talk about the really expensive wedding they attended. I wouldn't hazard a guess as to how much was spent, but I know the bride and all her maids (whose dresses were paid for by the bride's family) wore Vera Wang. That was probably the base cost of my wedding right there.

 

[puffkin]

I wonder if some of the wedding budget figures are skewed by geographic location. I just got back today from a friend's wedding. Both the bride and groom are from Long Island, middle class families, not wealthy at all. It was easily the most expensive event I've ever attended- 35 different kinds of hors douvres (sp?), premium open bar the whole night, 10 piece band for the dinner (plus a jazz combo for the cocktail hour- they're both musicians), 150 guests, amazing plated dinner, dessert trays in addition to the cake. I can't even fathom how much that cost, especially when you consider that everything is more expensive in the NYC metro area.

My cousin's wedding was like that except it was held at a place in a marina and they arrived by boat! They had an afternoon reception to keep costs down but it still had pretty much everything you mentioned above. The bride was from Long Island but my cousin is from PA and we don't do receptions quite that fancy around here! My family actually thought the hor dourve room was the meal and I had to warn them not to eat too much as we had a 5 course meal following It was the best open bar reception I have ever been too (and we had chartered a bus from PA so we didn't have to drive) but I couldn't partake because I was 4 1/2 months pregnant at the time

My wedding/reception for 300 people was about $15k in 2004 (my mom has a HUGE family). That included church expenses, flowers, rings, dress, tux rental, hair/makeup, trolley rental, photography, DJ, cake, favors, reception hall, butlered and stationary hor dourves, and sit down meal with beer/wine/soda. My husband and I spent about another $4500 for our FABULOUS DCL/Universal/WDW honeymoon. We also paid for the dress, hair/makeup, tux, rings and photographer.

 

[rie'smom]

Our wedding in 1981 cost about $5000.

2 Of my DSIL's have had weddings for their daughters and the costs have been
between 30,000 and 60,000.
We've been to a few that were between $100,000 and $350,000!

 

[SundancePass]

My DDs wedding and recption cost $7300 in 2005 and that included everything and a dinner dance for 92. We gave them a budget of $10K and told them we would write them a check for what wasn't spent. They got a check when they got back from their honeymoon (paid for by the SILs Dad).

It was a wonderful wedding and they invited only the people they wanted there.

 

[NY Disney fan]

My wedding cost: $18,000
My divorce cost: $5,000

I don't regret a thing.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Long Island bride here. 8 years ago, 135 people, $40,000. Worth every penny!
We paid for it ourselves (cash, not credit) but to be honest that is the average cost of a wedding here. We did not go crazy with anything and were pretty reasonable.
As for Vera Wang dresses, that seems to be the common trend here now. They aren't any more expensive than a nice bridesmaid dress though.
We had a ball at our wedding!

 

[Quiksilvr]

I think ours ran between $20K-$25K, and we were very careful on all of the costs. We had about 115 guests. We actually came out quite well considering that we had the reception at a 4-star hotel.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

I'd say between $15-$20k, including honeymoon and that was in 1992! My honeymoon alone was about $2500 and that was to Sandals in Jamaica. I think it's definitely a geographical thing, considering I have a coworker that just spent $15k on a Sweet 16! I'm just so glad Sweet 16's are not a big deal where I am!

 

[Uuaww]

I went to one wedding while in college and the bride and groom (also college students) emailed all of us and asked if we would rather have a nice dinner at the reception or an open bar. As college students 95% chose open bar. We decided to pot luck the wedding so their was a ton of food and free booze... best. wedding. ever.

 

[mrs_hower726]

We spent around $3,000 on our wedding in 2004.

That includes rings (that was about $1,000 by itself), honeymoon, everything. We were married by the JP and had a small dinner reception for about 30 guests. We then spent a long weekend in Baltimore.

Worked out well for us and we're going to be celebrating our 5th anniversary in July!

 

[aprilgail2]

i had a co-worker who spent close to $100,000 on her dd's wedding the very sad and scary thing was her husband had no idea. he had put a stop to her draining all their savings early on in the planning so without him knowing she took advantage of a change that was going on with our retirement system. the employer had added a realy crappy additional tier that paid a fraction of the pension to employees in the other tier and severly cut back on med benefits-and made an offer to cash out a large portion of existing employee's contributions if they opted into it. she opted in and cashed out. when i left she had already worked 3 years beyond the age she and her dh had planned for decades for her to retire at (and he had retired a few months prior to that to coincide with hers). her plan was to 'just keep working as long as i can so he won't find out'

Oh wow that sucks! I will have a set amount (5,000-10,000) I will give her for a wedding and in NO way will it cover the whole thing. The choice was save and pay for her whole college or pay for a wedding and I would pay for college anyday but as far as a wedding goes, I think the two people that want to get married should be the ones picking up the tab for it. So she will have college paid for-wedding is on her.

 

[ntsammy5]

About $2,000 36 years ago! My kids weddings, however are a different story.

The results of the poll confirms my suspicion that there's a lot of money on the DIS.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

Ours was about $12,000 including the honeymoon in 1984.
While the catering halls were charging $50-$60 per person we had ours at restaurant for $35.00 per person.

I remember my hat cost $275.00 while the dress was $500.00.
I thought that was insane until 9 years ago my 2 DD were in a weddingg and wreath of flowers in the hair cost $100!!


Don't get married in New York.