Weddingbee boards

With honeymoon, our 270 person wedding cost us $37K :-/. REALLY over budget. But worth every penny..and we paid for everything cash upfront, right away. So no debt!

As determined by my parents, who are paying for everything: shooting for $35,000, but will likely stretch to over $40k (but not too far over)

ETA: including honeymoon (at least part of it), excluding rings.  Possibly including morning-after brunch.

@LGenz:  did you find it waaay too easy to start planning and think: this is f-ing ridiculous for five hours of my life.  People in the wedding business are making a killing!! I have thought of wedding details for years prior to my engagement, but when we started putting prices with things, I was like "this is insane!! let's take the $$ my dad is offering and RUN!".  It does start to add up to a dizzying and insane amount.  All for one day!!

Less than £6,000... probably about $8,000 equivalent. I would rather spend my newly wed period not stressing over how were going to pay for the day

@Lulusmom:  it's so true.  Some of the quotes we got were so astronomical I thought it was a joke.  It's a weird place to be in because even though I know the cost of this wedding is something my parents can afford and it's not like we're draining their savings or other finances, it still makes me feel bad because I know my dad would rather give us that money to start our lives.  In fact if we chose to do that, he'd probably be happy to give us twice that amount if he knew it meant we'd be able to invest, save, buy a house, pay off debts, and have something to actually show for it for longer than one day .

At the same time, he assures me that they want to do it and I'm their only daughter, so I'm trying to do my best to "keep it down".  Still, I find myself frequently sending him invoices with a sheepish look on my face.  Most recently: over $1500 to rent 160 napkins and chargers, and 10 table overlays?  WHAT?

@LGenz:  Me too.  It immedately ate up a HUGE portion of our budget.  Our venue has a "minimum" that people must meet, so in 15 minutes we learned that having the wedding their automatically meant that any way we looked at it, we'd HAVE to spend $20k to meet their minimum.  So sure, we can choose to do the cheaper buffet option, but when that bill only reaches $8k at the end of the night, my dad could have counted on an invoice for $12k more!! It's so crazy. 

ETA: I have no doubts what so ever about what we've chosen.  And as I said above, I know I'm not driving my parents into the poor house so that helps me feel less guilty.  Plus, as the wedding gets closer, my parents get more and more excited about this amazing party they get to throw, so I know it will be worth it.  I'll tell you one thing though, I'm definitely in the wrong line of wokrk!

20k, but we might be a bit over. :(

@Lulusmom:  That's a good point, I bet these vendors get such a happy feeling in the pit of their stomach when they hear "yea, my dad/mom is paying".  Not that that means they automatically have millions of dollars!! I am very lucky though.  If FI and I were paying, we'd have about a $500 budget, haha!!

Ours was $13,000 CAN and we were constantly told that our wedding was the best anyone had been to which felt good!! Didn't spend a lot, but still had a great day!

It was a morning ceremony/afternoon reception and then we had dinner/drinks at our house

We fed 100 guests (including ourselves, photog, 3 piece band)

Ceremony Room - $750Reception Room - $5000 minimum so we spend just over $5000 on a brunch buffet and 2 drinks per guest.Jazz Trio - $900 for 3 hoursHarpist for Ceremony/Cocktail Hour - $375Dress - $490Hair (myself, mom and 3 bridesmaids) $250 (friendor)Makeup - $80Shoes $80Photog - $1400 (including full day, and and album and all photos on a disk)  She wasn't the BEST photog we found but did a really good job.Marriage Commissioner - $250Tux rental - $155STDs/Invites/Stamps - Just over $100Sashes - Purchased for $90 and reselling themVases for flowers - $40Rings - $350Cake/cupcakes - $250

We had a party at our house after and invited everyone to come - catered dinner was $500 - we ordered from a local Thai restaurant and we're regular customers so we got an outstanding dealBeer/wine/alky - $350

So far that's $11,400 - I know there's a bunch of random stuff I bought that brought us up to $13,000, I'll add when I remember!

I didn't include HM which was almost $8,000.

Centerpieces - a family friend used old barnwood and made us our own brand which we put on the tables - free!Flowers - Gift from MIL - Free!Photobooth - Surprise gift from MIL, BIL, SIL and my sister - didn't know about it until we left the ceremony! - Free!