What did your wedding cost?

[mom2aredhead]

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

Based on the approximately 80% of people that spent $10K or less??

 

[ntsammy5]

The 20% wo spent more!

 

[disneynutt1225]

Long Island bride here. Suffice to say, I'm in the "other" category. We didn't have an extravagant wedding - it was simple, yet classy, and my DH and I had the time of our lives and so did our guests. It was worth every penny.

 

[PigletsPal2]

It was 43 years ago, but we had a wedding with about 200 guests for about $500. My cousin (a superb seamstress) made my gown as her gift, my 4 bridesmaids made their own dresses, my flowergirl's mother made her dress, my cousin is a professional photographer and the wedding photos were his gift, the florist, printer, and baker were all friends of the family who gave us terrific deals, and if the bride and groom were both members of our church (we were), the ladies' group provided the reception food and punch (no alcohol, Baptist Church). The party at my parents' house after the formal reception, however...$$$$$! My dad said he used to be a rich man before I got married, but DH and I paid most of the wedding expenses. And we never asked for the party, but my family couldn't understand a wedding reception w/o booze!

Queen Colleen

 

[Piecey]

I paid $510..

I got married in Las Vegas

 

[denisenh]

el cheapo here.....paid for the cost of the required paperwork... less than $50.
After twelve years of unhitched togetherness, we have had 16 years of marriage, so far.

i think big weddings and all funerals are a waste of money.

 

[pixiegoose]

I think ours was in the $20-25K range. I'm not sure because my parents paid for it (except our rings, our gifts to bridal party and I'm sure a few other random things that we paid for). We had about 200 guests, plated dinner, cocktail hour, open and cash bar (open soda, lemonade and keg, 2 bottles of wine per table, everything else was cash bar), DJ, and the reception was at the zoo. My mom did most of the planning- she was living vicariously through me planning the wedding she and my dad couldn't afford when they got married. We could have done it cheaper but as I said, my mom was planning the wedding she didn't get to have and since she and my dad were paying, I didn't say much. I loved our wedding and everyone remembers what a good party the reception was!

 

[Vexorg]

Since I'm still single (and starting to suspect I might be staying that way for quite a while yet whether I like it or not) I couldn't really answer that for certain, but based on the weddings I've seen in my immediate and extended family, I would consider $3,000 to be pushing it on the high end. Me and my family are LDS, so the actual weddings take place inside the temple. Generally the receptions will be held in the gym of the local church meetinghouse, and my Mom and her sisters will be doing pretty much all the decorating and food themselves (some of my aunts are big into arts and crafts, and love doing this type of thing,) and the music comes from whoever happens to have their iPod handy. A few things do get farmed out (like the cake and photographer) and there are some other expenses like the dresses and tuxes, but there's no alcohol involved, no catering and no need to pay for renting venues. Usually this also means that most of us pitch in to help clean up after the reception, but I figure that just comes with the territory. The weddings always turn out quite nice, even if they aren't big-budget productions (and quite frankly, I do not think I'd be comfortable if someone was spending $25,000 on my wedding anyway.)

The last wedding in my family was my sister's wedding about a year and a half ago, and that one was quite nice, although it did have the extra expense of everyone needing to travel down to Portland, since the Seattle Temple was closed for remodeling at the time. My brother works as a groundskeeper for the Sixty Acres soccer complex in Redmond, and the reception was held on one of the fields, which worked out quite nicely.