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NICE!
I never did the exact break down but our wedding was somewhere between 5k-7k.
It totally worked! =)
Really hoping for $5K, but we want to have a nice honeymoon (read-- at least 2 weeks) so it will probably be more like $7K
You have just made my day! I am forever worrying about money and always wanted a beautiful wedding.
My fiance and I wanted to have our cermoney and reception at the same venue as well :)
Not engaged yet, but SO and I have talked a lot about this and agreed we want to keep it at 8k or less.
Here's my breakdown for 120 people:
venue/ceremony site: 2300 for a venue on the sea
food: 4k for a buffet brunch
officiant: 150 (including tip)
photography: cost of travel approx. 600
DJ: Free- friend is doing it for exchange of services provided by FI & I
tablecloths: 200
dress & veil: 540, purchased from oncewed.com
accesories: 80
gifts: 200
favors: 150 (candy bar with jars for take home treats)
Rings: 230
Espresso bar: 675
Flowers: 500 (friend is purchasing them at wholesale and arranging them all)
Ceremony musicians: Free (FI's quartet is performing for free)
Honeymoon: Parents timeshare: a week in Playa Del Carmen- paying for plane tickets (800)
Misc. decorations: 75
total: $10,500
I don't have the exact breakdown but our wedding will come in around $8k. Our budget WAS $5k, and we wouldn't have been able to get a professional photographer, but then his parents offered to pay for photography :) So that's how we ended up at $8k. Otherwise we'd still be under $5k, lol. Photogs are expensive!
I wish I could have done this, my food/drink alone was about 12k for 150 people... and that was arleady the cheapest I could find in the area for a venue that was decent. I tired to rent out space and cateer hoping for a cheaper option, but even then it wasnt cheaper since venues I looked at for just rentals were anywhere from 5-8k to just have space for 6 hrs.
Ours is under $10K but that's not including the honeymoon which is $3500 so far.
Thanks everyone for sharing your breakdowns! We don't have everything separated like that but I think it would really help us if we did. So far so good at staying under 10!
@danicalifornia: that's awesome, nice breakdown!
How did you get rings so affordable, where did/will you purchase them?
and an officiant for only $150?
I can't find anyone here in Vancouver that will meet beforehand and create the ceremony with you for less than $500. I guess if you just have someone show up and do the usual thing, make it legal, it's $200.
nice work, budget bees! let's not get sucked into the idea that huge wedding debt is necessary!
@mtnhoney: Thanks!
The officiant is my pastor who I have known for over 10 years. He does weddings as part of his pastoral duties but my parents will tip him well.
My FI wants a tungsten ring- you can get them for around $20 on amazon or overstock. I tried on rings and since I have a very simple solitaire I wanted a band that would compliment and not outshine my ering. I loved this ring I tried on at Kales because it was small and delicate looking. I found it on Overstock for 209- more than $100 cheaper than a namebrand jeweler. It's real diamonds and I love it :)
@pinkshoes: I've got to say- caterers in MA are SO pricey! If you still are looking for an affordable venue let me know and I can suggest some things. I thought I would save a ton on catering by booking a venue not married to a caterer but it's not saving me much, just getting me out of food minimums. I think it's so ridiculous that caterers are charging me as much for staffing as they are for food! My quotes include labor charges that are almost 2K! And I'm not trying to do anything fancy here, just a brunch buffet....
I'm sure planning on it! Here's what I'm working with for a 25-guest, Chicago (in the city, not in the burbs) May 2012 wedding. That's under $10k right now and I think some things will end up less that guessed (like shoes for instance) and it gives me room for more things i dont have on there like some sort of centerpieces.
invites/save the date/table cards 200
Dress 432
Cake/cupcakes 100
Alteration 150
Shoes 50
ring 200
ring 400
Suit 450
photo (flexible) 1800
license 60
meal 2700
hair 65
mani/pedi 35
makeup 50
flowers 220
Brunch (high end) 1100
Rehearsal (Guesstimate) 700
Total - $8712
That's awesome! I'm very jealous. In my area you can't get nice venues for under $4000, then there's food for another $4000...so we are taking the $20,000 challenge, which apparently is also very hard. FI keeps saying we should get a car instead.
Our wedding will come in right around the 5k mark. However, we are spending more on the honeymoond than on the wedding so that puts us over the 10k mark when you include it in the cost of the wedding.
We are having 125 guests and doing it in the community center in Mission Viejo, California. EVERYONE I know said a wedding in Orange County could never be done for under 10k, but it turns out they were WRONG! We did have to cut a few things out that I really wanted, like a professional photographer and a photobooth but I found other creative solutions that are practically free. I am having 3 of my families friends who have shot weddings before do our photography as our weddding gift. Instead of a photobooth I decided to print up cards to include with the invitations inviting everyone to be our unofficial photographers and then post all their pictures to photobucket to share with everyone. I am also leaving some of the cards on the guestbook table incase anyone lost theirs. Our venue lets us bring in our own caterer and alcohol, so that saved us a TON of money. For all food and alcohol the total comes in at under $2k. There are definately ways to make a wedding beautiful and classy without spending a ton of money!
We are taking the 5k and under challenge! Our plan is to keep it under 3k, though my parents may end up chipping in for a few things.
We super lucked out on our venue $125 + a $50 refundable deposit. We will be having the ceremony outside and the reception in the barn (see that's why it's so cheap lol). I'm getting married in Missouri where the whole "barn wedding" hasn't caught on.
Our DIY invitations were $30 for 100 invites
Centerpieces - I'd say we've spent about $10 and that includes everything except for the wooden flowers we're getting. Old books were on sale for 10 cents each and we got a few dozen mason jars from FI dad.
That's as far as we've gotten but so far so good!
I'm trying to do under 5k...but my dress is already 1k so that may not work out, lol. Definitely won't be doing close to 10k, especially with a baby on the way.
Omg this is exactly what I need! I swear if you guys say this can be done I'm trying it!
Our wedding started off at 3k havent told FI but its going to be closer to 5k which would be fine we got our ceremony at a beautiful place called phipps conservatory broderie room for $500 it is gorg and because its a conservatory there are tons of lush plants photo ops... Our recept is about $1225 but may go down by $300 if I drop it to 100 guests... food will be homemade so im guestimating about $500 cupcakes $300 if that. bm paying for their dresses. bm gifts about $200 my dress $500.. dj free becaue my fi and him great friends photo my friend is photographer$ 600. FI& my rings $200 candy buffet/favor $250 alcohol $300 invitw $150 and still have a lil room oh and also fans since ceremony will be in august
We have just started planning, but we are definitely in the as-low-as-possible-without-sacrificing-quality-and-what-we-want club!!
Budget update. Managed to shave one thousand dollars off our catering bill by nixing the buffet dinner. Ceremony will now be at 7:30, and reception from 8 - midnight.
We are doing 'first look' and family/attendant photos in the late pm, in a nearby park, then taking care of our own dinners (i'll be too excited to eat much anyway!)
We are buying some drink tickets to take care of our nearest and dearest, and it's cash bar for everyone else.
so now our catering bill is at $3200. This is good news, because last week I made a list of everything miscellaneous that we hadn't accounted for, and that's going to run us another $500 or so! yikes!
Rings are going to come under (approx. $550 and they're gorgeous!) and decor is going up (haha... oh me and vases and paper lanterns...)
we've also decided not to spend $200 on a hotel room for the wedding night, we'll just come home. We'd rather spend that on our mini-moon weekend anyway...
in the end it's still looking good that we'll come under 10k. :)
I havent broken my wedding down yet, but our budget is under 4k. And i'm gunna make it work. Thinking about of DIY projects....
We are doing the 10000 wedding too....right now we are at about 8100 and that's with most expenses accounted for....hopefully it will stay that way!
I tried and failed. We're each the oldest child and the first to get married and our parents are very excited and now I'm trying the keep it under $15,000 game. I really hope I can keep it lower, but it's really hard when FFIL hijacks the guestlist and Dad wants and open bar...
We are doing ours with a $3,000 (OR LESS!) budget. Flowers and cake=DIY, but I do know people experienced in those areas professionally. Save the dates and invitations will also be DIY. It is really hard! Makes me hate weddings when I realize how much money I could spend!
Im trying to stay in between 3-5K. Im looking for all inclusive venues in Dallas, TX. Ive found two but they do not come with minister, photography, and flowers, but I can make all 3 of those combined work for me under $500.
I don't have exact amounts but it is going to end up being around $4000 for 15 guests. Unfortunatly my dress and accessories and the photographer take most of the budget.
I'm very impressed, well done you :-) I'm not at any kind of stage to say how much mine would cost - not even engaged yet! lol but will keep your ideas in mind :-) SO would be over the moon if we managed that :-)
We've set it at 6k. It was a 4k and then I nixed the fam. photographer (holy bad photos batman) and hired a professional photographer. So far we're good.
So for 150 people max....
Dress- $230, have to get it altered yet
Rings- Both of my rings are heirlooms (therefore free) and gorgeous. His will be titanium around $300.
Venue-$125 (Yay for getting married in a small town and having a great FMIL do some digging for us!)
Food- ($2100, this an estimate of mine with, what I hope will be tax & grat.)
Alcohol- $500 maybe, I have no idea tbh. Honestly our family are beer drinkers, that's pretty much it. I'm toying with the idea of making apple pie as a 'special' drink, because, seriously it's delicious. I would like to get kegs Miller and Lienenkugels I think, but I have no idea how many to get lol.
Centerpieces- My budget is $300, gonna get there by DIYing some branch centerpieces, single flower vases, and rummage saling it up! Otherwise mason jar wildflowers will abound. And my ladies will be carrying a single sunflower (I think, we'll see how it looks lol) up the aisle.
Photog= $1700
Invites- $150
Wedding Gifts/Favor and such (and anything I'm forgetting)- rest of the budget (approx $600)
Hmmm this is the first time I've actually typed it out....interesting lol.
Really trying to keep it under $10,0000
So far:
Reception site $3000
Church $700
D& $300
Ceremony music $250
Dress $900
Photographer $1000
Food $500 we are only paying for appetizers, his parents are paying for caterers.
Drinks $600
Decor $500
Linens $200
Flowers $350 ordering some real flowers, making fabric bouquets as well
wedding party gifts $200
Tux rental $ 200
paper goods $400
Ours is also going to be under 10K or atleast right at 10K. We found the best way to do that was to have a destination wedding, believe it or not. We are getting married in Vegas and we have an awesome venue. The reason it's cheaper is that, especially in Vegas, everything is all inclusive. So, our venue is not only renting the space out for us but providing us with dinner, open bar, DJ, wedding cake, flowers, decorations, photographer, wait staff and transportation. It's also making my planning so much easier!
excellent work, bees!!
I'm SO impressed with you gals under 5K- holy! I wish I could say the same.
Some things I am still researching, but here is basically what I have forecasted. Food price will depend on who all shows up! I think this is under $9000.
$ 4,615.45 Reception - venue 1250, food, alcohol, tax/tips
$ 613.19 Attire - dress 428, slip 20, accessories, FI's outfit
$ 197.79 Invites - STDs, invitations (design from friend and we print), stamps - no insert, post card RSVP
$ 1,550.00 Photographer - engagements, bridals, 8 hours wedding day, album, large prints; plus her $250 travel fee (10 hours round trip driving and 2 nights' hotel - a deal!)
$ 580.00 Ceremony - marriage license, officiant 200, music (cello player friend), bench and aisle set up, FI's ring (I won't have a wedding band)
$ 510.00 Reception Details - cake, flowers, DIY projects, personal touches
$ 567.00 Lodging - 3 nights at cabin
$ 361.67 Welcome Dinner - park pavilion rental, pizzas, drinks
Ceremony, Officiant, Photographer (time), two tier cake, Flowers, Champagne toast, cocktail hour with hor d'oeuvres comes to $735
Our gowns and accessories with alterations come in at $1200
Photographer (product) $200
Gifts--$150
Our actual wedding costs are coming in at under $2500
However, we are taking our families (12 people, including us) on a seven day cruise with us so it's an additional $6,000, but we are still coming in under 9K.
So we came in at just over $6,000 and had a $7,000 budget :) Here's the breakdown with some notes below:
Wedding was 150 person morning ceremony & brunch reception.
Notes:
Accessories includes: shoes (stunt shoes for photography & ceremony shoes), white faux fur shawl, and a repair to a silver heirloom tiara/headpiece that I wore.
Hair & Makeup: I did both myself but had a cut/color a couple weeks before the wedding and bought some new makeup, these are both purchases I might have made anyway, but also planned them specifically because of the wedding, so I officially have "$0" but put the cost in parantheses.
Flowers were purchased from the grocery store for: two bouquets, three nosegays, three corsages, four boutineres.
"Paper Products" includes paper & supplies for: programs, escort cards, I Spy game, photosharing cards, table numbers. Tissue paper for centerpieces is included in "decorations"
Musicians: Use of the string trio for the ceremony was provided as a gift by a generous friend. We extended for an additional hour during brunch. They were fantastic. I loved having them.
I am certainly trying to shoot for 10k... Good luck everyone!
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So this has been around for a couple years I think, but I only recently got engaged so I found out about it. Can you have a fabulous wedding for under $10,000? Yes, absolutely!
Here's how our budget breaks down:
Venue Rental : $1400 (we are having both ceremony and reception here)
Catering: $4500 (buffet style, cocktail seating, includes wine)
Dress: $500 (David's Bridal, woo hoo!)
My partner's attire: $250
Attendant gifts: $250
Flowers: $300 (some silk, some wild and free, and some bouquets from Whole Foods)
Rings: $1000
Honeymoon: $500 (just two night at Whistler)
Officiant: $400
DJ: $500
Invitations and favours: $400
Total: $10K!
You may notice photography is missing, that's because I am lucky and my brother and Dad will be taking the photos. I am also lucky in that I have two trained estheticians as my BMs who will be doing my makeup and hair day of.
I laugh now when I think back to the beginning of our engagement when we thought we could have a wedding for $3000. We didn't know what we were getting into, that's for sure, but it's a happy and exciting time nonetheless!
Anyone else trying to do their wedding on a budget like this?