- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
Photography. I stressed over finding a good enough photographer who would fly out to Cancun for us. Also stressed over our engagement photos and I personally stressed over my boudoir photos. I'm very sentimental so photos are a big thing for me~
Hands down, food and drink. That's going to be at least 2/3 of our wedding cost, more if the fee to reserve the restaurant is included.
A poll might be fun here! :)
For us the biggest splurge is the Venue including food and drink (it's all one package)
Financially, photography. But time/effort, definitely decor. My Mom and I are DIYing the Bouts/Corsages and we DIY'ed the centerpieces and mantle decorations (we have a giant 18 foot long mantle at our venue.)
Food & drink were my biggest priorities and also what we spent the most money on. In my opinion, if the food is crappy it brings down the whole event. No-one wants to eat gross wedding food. Of our $13k budget, roughly $5k of it went to food and beverage. That doesn’t seem like a lot but we only had 65 guests so the price per person was up there.
ETA: Our venue included everything from our food and drink down to the linens and silverware. In total we spent about $5,500 for our venue but that’s also factoring in the cost of our ceremony location that was a couple hundred.
Our venue and food/drink were combined, so, yeah, that was about 80% of the wedding cost! lol
I never saw a venue with food/drink included. Are you having the ceremony/reception at a restaurant or am I totally out of the loop?
reception venue, which included food, alcohol, tables/chairs/linens/flatware/plates was about half of our total cost, so definitely that! photography was probably the next most pricey component, but that was less than 10% of our budget.
@aliavenue: our reception was at a hotel, so that's why food, etc was included. we chose it actually because we loved the restaurant/food, but the space itself was gorgeous as well
definitly our venue, at a country club. includes the wedding by the lake, the food, drink and reception.
Well I kind of splurged on a dress and the rest was fairly cheap
photography has been our single biggest purchase with my dress/alt/preparedness coming in 2nd.
We got a GREAT deal on venue, reception, caterer, decor.... so we are feeling good about our budget!
@aliavenue: Same as @finnaroo. We were married at a resort so it was a one stop shop. Our ceremony, cocktail hour and reception were all held at the same venue (though in seperate spaces). We stayed right there too (as did a lot of our guests) so it really simplified the whole thing.
While decor is my highest priority it will be about even with food and drink spending wise. Both of course are very important.
Definitely our venue/ food & drink. Our ceremony and reception venue includes dinner, appetizers, a late night snack, and a premium open bar as well as all our tables, chair, linens, etc. It's going to make up 60%-70% of our total budget, but it's definitely worth it.
@aliavenue: Most venues in our area include food and drink, even if they aren't restaurants or hotels. Very few allow outside catering, and those that do usually have a list of 1-3 caterers who you can use.
Photography, hands down. Our team was about 35% of our budget. Worth every penny.
Food and alcohol are what we are spending the most on.
@MissBananaBread: Wow! I only looked at 2 venues before choosing mine, but it allows catering or none - your choice. In fact, all of the vendors are renter-preference. Why do they limit your potential vendors?
I selected "venue," but in reality that also encompasses food & beverage for us, because in order to have our venue we have to meet their food & beverage minimums. So, basically 90% of our budget will be on the venue, which includes, food, alcohol, cake, favors, tables, chairs, linens, china, servers, and valet.
That leaves me with a super strict budget for photographer, flowers, dress, music, etc.
Photography and Venue were exactly equal, money wise. And photographer was just barely above venue in importance. We had to be sure we had the prefect one that was going to give us the best memories.
Definitely food and drink. This is going to be about 1/3 of our budget. It's amazing how much it costs to wine and dine 100 people.
For sure food/drink, which was 70% of our budget if you include cake/dessert under the food/drink heading.
Like others have mentioned, food/drink was part of the venue price, so it's sort of both (the venue had no additional charge with a food minimum, which we handily met).
I want to include my budget pie chart but I can't get it to save as an image! Boo...
35% of our budget is on venue. 50% is on food and drinks. The rest we are doing very minimal (i.e. no flowers, ipod wedding, spending as little as possible on decour since our venue is an antique store, etc.).
@aliavenue: When a place wants you to internally cater it's usually because they want the business for their kitchen, they don't want people to have a "bad" food experience and have that taint their perception of the venue.
My understanding is that venues which have a list of "preferred" caterers have that concern as well, plus they want to limit the vendors coming in and making a mess of their facilities. But probably the biggest reason would be that they get a "commission" type of payment for the sales to those caterers. Kind of sucky, but it helps keep YOUR costs down too.
Food/drink (but that included the reception venue)
Honeymoon
E-ring
Photography
Rings (not including e-ring)
Flowers
Clothing (my dress/shoes/veils/alterations, BM's dress, MOB/MOG dresses, groom's tux/shirt/tie/vest, ties for dads/4 ushers, suits for 2 ushers, vest/ties for BM/ring bearer, shirt for BM, dress for FG)--I did amazingly well on this!
Rehersal Dinner
Church
Invitation/paper goods (not including postage)
Cake
Favors (if you don't count the 200 I still have left)
Ceremony musicians
Food & drink was the biggest chunk of the budget.
Photography was second and we splurged here.
Food and drink is also at least 2/3 of our budget. Add our $600 cake and it doesn't even make the number look that much more obscene. We picked our venue partially for the gorgeous facilities and central location, but also partially because we wanted them to cater our event. Good food is a high priority and it sure does cost to get it. Thankfully, if we meet minimum guest numbers then we don't have to pay to rent the facilities.
Our photography does cost more than my dress did, even after accessories and alterations. That makes me feel very responsible! :D
I just went back to visit this thread and, to be honest, I'm kind of shocked about the food and drink! I was totally expecting the venue to be the most costly - but, I'm a bit biased.
1. dress
2. honeymoon
3. food
These are actually the only things that cost a ton everything else was pretty decently priced. The dress with alterations and the shoes/ veil/ jewelry/ ect was by far the most... The honeymoon is pretty pricey too just over $3000 and the food came in right under $2600.
Photography and videography, We have a 10k budget and i'm quiet content to spend half of it on Photography and Videography.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| rachgirl82 | 38 |
| pengoala | 20 |
| kate02121 | 12 |
| ndreighton | 11 |
| Indecisivebride2012 | 10 |
| louiseW | 10 |
| Lyndzo | 9 |
| msdragon | 9 |
| ozpeony | 8 |
| Miss Mochaccino | 7 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| Rivendeler | 1 |
| rivierabridal | 1 |
Financially, what element did you spend the most on? I don't mean "ceremony" or "honeymoon" but what *specific element* cost you the most? If not financially, what element did you spend the most time stressing about/preparing?
For FI and I, we are spending the most on the venue. We really wanted a place that felt intimate and appropriate for our wedding. We also wanted a place that we could have for the whole day/night/next morning. We didn't want anyone to have to stress about logistics.
How about you?