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I was watching Whose Wedding Is It Anyway, and Donnie the wedding planner is groaning over a bride's "tiny" $40,000 budget. Am I missing something? I thought $40,000 was at least mid-range if not large for an 'average' wedding. Ok, I mean, if it's at the Plaza, maybe not, but for your typical hotel ballroom affair?
The girl was having over 300 people and it was in Houston so maybe that's why, but the comment made me nervous! If that is 'tiny' then I'm not going to able to afford a cake, ha ha!
I think it totally depends on where you live. 40K is exhorbantly high here. Ridiculous for this region! i mean, really! But in NYC that probably IS a "budget" wedding.
40K for 300 people....well, mine's just shy of 20K for 125 people. I guess if you more than doubled the people our food costs would get us close to 40K, if at least 35. Wow! Glad I don't know that many people =]
Heh. "Tiny" is relative in wedding terms. For some people, that's waaaay too much to spend on a wedding; for others, it's not even enough to make the deposit on their venue.
You can find some statistics on average wedding costs - they're "usually" around $20-25k. But those are averages, meaning that weddings cost anything from <$1k to who knows how much. My sister pulled off a gorgeous wedding for less than 3 grand, but ours will be a lot more expensive (and probably not nearly as much fun, heh!).
The money you spend doesn't necessarily correlate to a good time. Pick a budget that's right for you - there are gorgeous venues for all budgets.
yeah 40,000 for 300 people is not bad actually
usual cost is 25-30,000 for 150 people, so it's usually about double thta
in nyc. it's very hard to have a limited budget; mine started at 15,000 for NYC for 50 people; now it's up to 20,000 for 60 people; mine is more expensive for just 60 because we're flying in a lot of family and friends from all over the world (that's what happens when your fiance is worldly); so I could have saved if it weren't for that- and my venue is pricey; everything is deeply discounted and on sale and very budget friendly--I bargained my little heart off
I've heard that 28k is average...28k to me would be an extravagant dream wedding! I'm spending about 3k, although we also won this "nearly free wedding", which is worth about 4k, so in reality, we're saving a lot of money and it will cost about 7k!
But seriously, there's a lot of factors that go into this wedding crap. i say crap cause it's frustrating! lol. We are paying for our wedding 100% all by ourselves, no help from family or friends or anyone. Well, I take that back, my mother is buying my dress, which is great because it's my dream dress, and there's no way I can afford it! It's half my budget pretty much. But other than that, it's all coming from our pockets. Now there's people out there who have mommy and daddy to pay for everything, which is great and hell yea I'm jealous that they have help. But I'm sure that they have larger budgets of course.
And like someone else says it depends on where you live. I'm having my wedding in Denver, and I think average for weddings here is probably like 28k or so. I just dont see how people spend that much! I can barely fathom how anyone can spend 10k, lol.
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LOVE Who's Wedding! It's freakin addicting. But don't look at how much those people spend, they obviously have extra if they can afford a planner!
P.S. I've decided the easiest way to have everything you want at your wedding for a low price is to not invite anyone :P
We are trying to stay under 20K for 160 (invited) people. We are outside of Boston, and doing pretty well with the budget. We did have to pass on the open bar though.
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I was under the impression that the average wedding costs $27K...but that's for the whole of the United States. Obviously, it's going to range. A wedding in New York City is going to (usually) cost more than a wedding in small-town Kentucky, for example. Personally, I do NOT want to go any higher than $10K, but that's just me. =)
Wow $40,000 seems like a lot, but like everyone else said it does depend on where you are. For my Ohio wedding my budget is $8500 for 110 people. FI and I just couldn't fathom spending a small fortune (and putting ourselves in debt) for a wedding. I couldn't imagine if we had that much money to plan our big day.
Donnie doesn't exactly have the cheapest wedding planning services in town. And it is a big wedding with 300 people.
It is all relative. $40,000 in NYC for 300 ppl, that is tough to work with. $40,000 in *fill in the blank*, Wyoming for 100 people would be VERY flexible.
I'd say that weddings likely average to about $28,000 (total guess) but it really depends on where it is, how many people are invited and how big your wedding dreams are!
We were married at the end of March in NY - 165 people - nearly $50,000 paid for by my mother, father and us. And, this was not extravagant by any means. We did not hire transportation - used cabs. The videographer was free; the photgrapher was a friend trying to build up his wedding portfolio; no favors; invitations that were not super expensive and I purchased all the vases/votives online and provided them to the florist. Our biggest splurge was the band and my dad paid for that. So, in another part of the country, this could be considered a lot but not in NY.
I read somewhere the national average was around 30K. NYC is ridiculously expensive - prohibitively so for me. FI and I live in NYC but just can't afford to do it here, so we are going to CT closer to my parents. Still, that area isn't cheap either. It really I think depends on head count (mine is 150 max) and region. My friends from Toledo had an absolutely gorgeous, fairly large wedding for like 10K.
Wow, I could have the absolute wedding of my DREAMS for 40K!!! We are doing ours for about 4K (including dress, rings, and one of the GMs attire), and we have about 65 guests. I just can't imagine spending that much on ONE DAY... I could put a nice down payment on a house, or buy a brand-new car for that! Yikes!
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I think it depends on how extravagant you want your wedding to be and what details matter to you. I had 300 people at my wedding, and it was about $40K including our honeymoon. We were extremely fortunate and had my parents give us $20K, and we paid for the rest. Certain things I just wasn't expecting to cost so much...the flowers for 300 people are really pricey, but you can absolutely DIY for much cheaper than I did it. I saved a ton on my wedding dress since I wore my mom's, and we totally splurged on the photographer since that was the only thing we would have left from the day.
That said, I did have the wedding of my dreams. If I could have calmed my mother down for most of it, I would have had a better time, but that's for another post 
Yeah, we dont have rich moms or dads, so we're doing our wedding entirely on our own, the only way we could afford a wedding in NYC was to severely limit the guest list to 50; it'll be at the waldorf, but the only way I could afford that was to have a small guestlist; only immediate family and closest friends thats all; so for 60 people --some got added :( we are spending $18,000 not including honeymoon; I have savings and he has an inheritance and we could have easily spent more; but we dont want to blow everything in just one day and want to buy a house too
our biggest splurge was venue; then extra costs are flying family and best friends into town and housing them, other that I've bargained well, well below market value for everything else; i figured, this is my wedding I want to feed the most special people to me really well and its once in a lifetime; but no help from mommy or daddy--this is all on our own, so our guestlist is severely reduced--I'm getting mostly rsvps--I wouldnt mind if people dropped out hehehe, but becaus ethey are the most special people in our lives, thats why the rsvp rate is so high
i think about average should be around 25K but as of late, most ppl i kno their weddings are costing well over 50K
I don't think $40k is tiny at all. No matter who you are, that's serious money! But 300 people is a huge guest list. I grew up in Houston and wouldn't expect to pull off a wedding that size for that budget without some major cutbacks.
Our budget has doubled since we got engaged. We're hovering right around $40k right now not including a week long honeymoon at the Ritz Carlton in Grand Cayman. And we are only having about 65 people at a winery in Temecula, California (not even Napa!). I'm not sure how it got that high!
I'm trying to break it down but the big ticket items are:
our photographer = $8000 (including engagement and day after session and some prints)
my dress, veil, shoes, alterations, accessories, etc. = $7500
reception food and drink = $13000
flowers = $3800
wedding coordinator = $2200
So, that's $34,500 right there. Yikes!
Wow, 8K for the photog, that better be someone you are flying in or Jose Villa or Jasmine Star with all the fixings.
Where is that website that will tell you the average wedding cost based on your zip code
What is this show? Next time it's on I will have to check it out.
I was just flipping through some wedding books, like fantasy wedding ones, wonder what those budgets are? Very, very, very high I assume!
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You've got to consider than in a big city costs are significantly higher for equivalent services than outside a city. Our wedding at this point is around 30K... for about 200 guests. The wedding is basically in Chicago, but not downtown.
Invitations - $1,000 (whoops totally went overboard)
Officiant - $600
Reception - $16,000 for open bar, passed hors d'oeuvres, salad, entrees, free cake, chocolate fountain
My attire & beauty prep - $1,500 for dress, shoes, jewelry, veil, day of spa, etc
Photog - $6500 (she's one of the best in Chicago, and we're getting all kinds of engagement sessions and awesome albums as well as rights to our pics)
Videographer - $1050
DJ - $600
Florist - $3000
Plus of course all the details like our wedding bands, favors, programs, out of town bags, wedding party and parents gifts, seating cards, and some other DIY type things we might do to make things more eclectic.
My extremely generous parents are covering everything but the officiant and the details.
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my wedding budget for around 350 guest is about 35, 000 for a wedding in New Orleans, Louisiana. The food itself is about 45- 50 dollars a head considering it is a Vietnamese wedding where it is a sit down family style dinner. I think your budget just depends on the number of guest you are having.
I'm from Houston and I can see why the guy was shocked at her 40,000 budget with 300 guests. I just looked at venues last month and most of them charge you a rental fee starting at around 8,000. Then the lowest food per person cost was 30.00 and then the cheapest bar package was around 22.00 per person for 3 hours of wine and beer. Then they add on the 18% tip and 8% tax. Just in the venue and food/drinks I was looking at 22,000. And these weren't your upscale places they were mid of the road.
We are going to Fredericksburg, TX which cuts my venue, food and bar costs to half. Everything else is comparable to Houston prices. Plus it is 5 hours away so that will lower the number of guests.
I'm trying to keep my budget at 30,000. But I don't think this will hold.
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yeah the budgets on Tv are horrendous, although one couple did do it on 3000 for 100 people it was beautiful, these wedding planners may know something even without the money
The average in the city where I now live is about 35K. I'm not even spending 1/3 of that. My mom happened to give us the majority of our budget, otherwise we'd be having a small wedding with a BBQ after.
We didn't really have a budget when we started planning - but just kept in mind the fact that we are poor lol. We don't have everything booked/ purchased yet - but I estimate we'll probably spend about $12-14,000 for a guest list of just under 100. I am in Southwestern Ontario. My sister is getting married in October and I think her budget is about $9,000 for 200 guests - Don't ask me how she's doing it!!
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I don't mind being open with our budget, and we are spending 15k on 150 ppl. This seems small to some and large to others I suppose.
My brother pulled off a super awesome backyard wedding for 5 grand, and it was great!
I'm planning a wedding and reception for around 60 people and am hoping to bring it in for around $2,500. So far I am on budget, with a little help from family and friends donating their time, various family memebers keep helping out too by picking up the tab for stuff when we least expect it.
I am originally from Australia now living in the US so went wedding dress shopping with my FMIL. When I found the perfect dress I wanted she was as happy as I was, I went to arrange payment and found that while I was getting changed out of the dress my FMIL had gone and paid for the dress for me as a wedding present. It wasn't an overly expensive dress only $160.00 and I thought that was a wonderful present.
A lot of his family and friends are helping to, supplying food etc at cost that sort of thing. I used to work at a hotel that did weddings and conventions back in Australia, so I have an idea of the real cost of things (as opposed to what they try and charge us poor brides for) which helps in the organising too.
in NC, I'd say 30k.
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W/ todays economy- lots of people can not afford huge expensive weddings.
I'm getting everything I want w/ about 100 guest for around $5,000 or less. Can not imagine spending more than that on a wedding. But then again we already own our home. I talked to a few girls that are married and some of them are still paying for their weddings and they've been married for years- they said if they could do it again, they wouldn't have spent so much.
To each their own I guess..
$3000 for everything, honey moon included, about 120 people are on our guest list.
We're marrying in Vegas and I got our wedding package for $525, limo service included. The plane tickets were dirt cheap too. Our photographer is my fiance's stepdad (he is a professional photog) and will be free. We're having a potluck reception. And I found a really nice but little known banquet hall next to a lake for $500 for the whole day.
If my time could be calculated out it'd be way over $3K--I've spent hours and hours and hours trying to find deals, discounts, and DIY's. It's a bit exhausting but it's fun when you've finally scored a good deal :)
I live in Cleveland, Ohio and our wedding will be about 25,000. I am hoping that it will be closer to 20,000, but we have budgeted for a bit more if necessary. Our wedding will have no more than 150 in attendance, I am hoping for a bit smaller. The wedding will paid for by my parents and us...my IL's will help if they can, but I in no way expect a cent from them because my MIL was laid off in May:(
Our wedding will not be extravagent, but we are spending more on things such as food, photography and are hiring a band. I would say that our budget is about average for a nice wedding (not extravagent) in my area.
A nice wedding is important to us, but very much our parents. My fiance is an only child and I am one of three, but the only child who will probably ever get married.
$40,000 would be a very fancy wedding here in Cleveland, but understand it would not be a huge budget in other parts of the country!
Whoa! I should have my FI read this board! He complains about our meager $5500 budget....psst...but don't tell him how much my dress costs! I'd have to kill you if I told you. ha ha.
We're getting married in Denver, at a church, w/hotel reception, and doing a cocktail reception a month later in my hometown. our budget is $25,000 from my family. His family has no money to contribute, so he and I are paying for the rehearsal dinner (likely $2k) and Sun brunch (not sure how much--my mom and I are trying to do it ourselves--think Costco) plus I'm going to buy my veil/accessories and some other stuff. We have about 170 guests (originally wanted to invite 100, but things happen). So far my costs have been:
church $850
reception estimated $12,000-13,000
hometown cocktail reception for about 65 $5000 (estimate)
dress $2400 (not counting alterations)-I paid $1000 of my own money
veil/accessories est. $400
photog $3000
dj $650
flowers $1500-2000
reh dinner (our money) $2000
our wedding rings (our money) $2000
invitations $700 + stamps/etc $200 (I love wedding paper divas, regardless of other posts)
Sorry, can't think of any other stuff right now...clearly we'll be going over $25k
Our wedding budget is $65K. My parents, his parents and both he and I are paying for it. We're expecting around 450- 500 guests and the location is La Antigua, Guatemala. Most weddings over there cost that much because it's normally a 3 day event, so if you think about it, it's not that bad. We'll have a welcoming party for those who traveled, a rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and a brunch the day after the wedding. His tux and my dress are not included in the budget.
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I am having a heck of time with planning for wedding for 100 people with budget of $20k. I am in the Boston area and we picked a venue we love, trying to make it work by picking a Friday, skip the tent, stock our own alcohol, etc., but what is getting to us is the catering.. All the caterers on the preferred vendor list were high end caterers and we might not be able to afford it. It's so discouraging and I am so torn.
I really don't like Donnie. He's based in Dallas, where my wedding was, and $40k there is no small chunk of change. I just feel like he makes brides feel bad. If you don't like a bride's budget, maybe you should make it clear that you only work with budgets of $100k and up. You know? I saw him once tell a bride at her fitting that she'd better lay off the junk food if she wanted the dress to fit, and then by the day-of (a week later) she'd eaten so little that she was at risk of fainting. Just insensitive. Granted, that just could be how he's portrayed on the show, but still.
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