How much did your wedding cost? How did you save?

Question

I just got engaged and i want to start savin money. i know how much time i have to save so i wanna plan how much to put away per week. so i just want to hear from other people who have done it already. please only answer of ur serious, im trying to do things right.

Answer 1

My wedding cost less than 3000. I did a lot of things myself, and had family help with a lot also. My dress was custom made, that was the one thing I splurged on. But there are sales at David's Bridal all the time. Best thing to do is shop around. There was one flower place that wanted to charge me 300 for my flowers alone; but I kept looking and found a place to do all the flowers for less than 300. We really didn't save, my mom paid 100 a week toward my dress till it was paid for. And we paid for everything else out of my hubby's re-enlistment bonus. Also if you get don't get married in the peak wedding season (spring or early summer) things will be cheaper as well.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

Biggest way to save is have the wedding not on a peak day. For instance, if you can do it during a vacation time (holidays, spring, etc.) hold it on a weeknight. You'll pay top dollar on Saturdays and Sundays because the "main" vendors (venue, photographer, caterer, band) have only 52 weekends a year to make money, and they have no incentive to negotiate with a client who wants a Saturday night wedding. But do it on a Thursday, and the booking is gravy and you have a lot more negotiating strength.

Avoid hiring a coordinator except for day-of execution. You have the time (and since you're asking the right questions) obviously the ability to research and negotiate with vendors to ensure you'll get people that will do a good job at a fair price. However, it's worth paying someone to run things on the big day so you (or a family member) don't have to think about it -- you want to be able to be a guest at your own wedding!

Think about the "typical" expenses that you are comfortable cutting out. Do you really need a limo to move you from point A to point B before, during and after the ceremony? Why not ask a friend to do that, or have people carpool and move themselves. If you want to be whisked away after the reception, hire a sedan -- and not a stretch limo. You'll pay a much more reasonable rate -- usually just a two-hour minimum for a transfer from the reception to your wedding night hotel -- than an hourly all-day rate for a limo.

Make sure you negotiate with photographer to get the original images as part of the deal. You'll usually pay about $500 extra for this, and end up with either negs (not common) or a DVD of the hi-res images. (Be certain you are getting retouched hi-res images and not 72-dpi proof images!). That will save you and your family THOUSANDS of dollars because you can upload the images to Shutterfly or some other online photo service and get prints as low as 12¢ instead of paying $5.00+ for a 4x6!

When dealing with the caterer, explore all the options regarding the bar. If you must have a full bar, think long and hard about the options you're presented -- fixed price per guest, consumption pricing, etc. And if you know anything about wine, consider buying wine and paying a corkage fee instead of having the caterer provide the wine.

Along the same lines... skip the champagne toast! I don't mean skip the toast, but there's no need to burn through a dozen bottles of bubbly handing out glasses that most people will take one sip from and put down before going back to their "regular" drink. Ask the band/DJ to alert people in advance that the toasts are coming up and to be sure they have a drink in hand.

Let's see, what else... oh, invites. Shop around at the fancy stationery stores, make note of what you like, then look for an online discounter. You will be able to find people -- home-based online businesses -- who offer a discount of 15% or more on all the major stationery lines. That's Checkerboard, Crane's, etc., etc. If you get all of your invite/stationery stuff from them, negotiate for more than the standard discount. They pay something like 30% below retail, so have some flexibility -- especially with a large order.

Besides that, just use common sense. Skip the stuff you think is frilly. Don't invest a lot of time or money on favors. If you're not into it, don't do a video. (You can make a great video from the still photos, after all: http://www.bigmomentfilms.com).

There are a lot of wedding traditions that it seems were started by people selling the products and services to fulfill them. Make your own tradition that fits your desires and your budget. Having been through it, I promise you that you won't wake up the next day thinking "Gosh, I wish I'd spent another $10/person to have 2 more passed appetizers!"

Congrats, and enjoy!

Answer 3

Well my best friend is getting married in just a couple weeks, and she said the wedding will cost around $50,000. But it's a huge wedding, the groom is Italian . . . big family, and half of them are flying into New York, then Atlanta from Italy (the wedding is in Atlanta). I think my friends husband to be's parents kicked in a lot of money becaise Italians always have big weddings . . .and the parents usually like it that way. But for the rest, they just saved as much as they could. They opened a seperate savings account, and took about half to a quarter of each weeks pay check.

So plan ahead, it's best (snice you just got engaged) to wait about a year and a half untill the big day, that way you can save up a good amount of money, and take time to find reliable/affordable vendors, reception places ect.

- Hope this helps :-)
Congratulations on the engagment :-)

Answer 4

A wedding can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want. Be smart about it though only you know what is "right" for you. Yes it is the best day of your life and you will never forget. It really doesn't matter how much or how little you spend - what matters most is at the end of the day you will be next to the person you love the most. I would first figure out how much you can afford to spend. What type of wedding you want. Fun, elegant, shabby chic, if you want it at a hall, if you want to get creative. I just married a wonderful man that adores me as much as I adore him 3 years ago. I wanted to be smart and not go overboard or have debt resulting from our wedding (money issues off the bat does not make for a happy union!) We had a beautiful wedding. I am a very creative person though and pretty artistic. I made our invitations for $150 (card stock from Cranes w/envelopes with a piece of beautiful vellum over the top attached with a satin ribbon) I originally picked out invitations that were over $500. I brought them home and thought.....what are you doing!!! So I saved there. I make cakes so I made a nice wedding cake and grooms cake. I found a wedding dress at Nieman Marcus that was on sale for $150 and had it redesigned a bit for $80 - There is a great website - Romanticheadlines.com - the bridal salon that re-cut my dress wanted to charge me $350 for a cathedral length veil with a blusher - I found the same thing on the website for $75!!! I found a swavorski tiara orig $325 for $40!!!We had our reception at a boat club. It was outside under a tent. I had purchased tulle and twinkle lights and did the whole inside of the tent (not totally like father of the bride but it was beautiful). We had a strolling dinner (I don't enjoy where everyone sits at a big table, you are packed in like sardines and really don't know the person you are sitting across from - think about some of the weddings you have been to) So we thought it would be fun to do more of a cocktail party setting with great food. We had a station with Cesar salad and different things you could put on it - a station with a guy that carved beef tenderloin - a smoked salmon with all the fixings - a pasta area with different sauces and things to put in your pasta with someone cooking it for you. 2 bars a band and dancing. It was great and I could go on and on to tell you all the other things we did but I think you get the idea=) We spent under 10k for 175 people (less than $60 per person and that is everything). We were smart about it though - I still think that is a lot of money but most halls will charge you $50 for an OK dinner. That doesn't include dress, tux and everything else!!! You can find good deals but you have to look. It just depends on what you are looking for. Looking back now....it would have been OK to spend $10 because we love each other and when the wedding is done that is the most important part - your love for each other. Things are just things. Make it your own, have fun, be creative and really don't go overboard. There are people that spend millions and I am SURE they aren't anymore in love than you are! The price is all relative - someone may only spend $500 because that is in line with what they can afford, someone spending a million I am sure makes over that to be able to afford that price tag. Congratulations on your engagement! Have fun and remember....on your wedding day it is about the 2 of you - dance with each other.....EAT your dinner and enjoy what you will work so hard to prepare for!

Answer 5

My wedding cost about 10,000. Our wedding was beautiful and I don't think we scrimped on anything we absolutely needed. That being said, my mother's friend is a wedding photographer so we got a huge discount. We also had a family friend do the catering, which was buffet style (except the head table & parent's tables). And in addition to that we had our ceremony in my uncle's yard and rented a hall for the reception which we decorated ourselves. It might have been a lot of extra work, but it was lots of fun too and exactly what I wanted. What we did to save is opened up a joint savings account at a bank and didn't get cards for it. Every paycheck we would put a pre-determined amount of $ in the account to get our savings where we wanted it to be by a certain date. Then we went to the bank, and got cheques and debit cards to pay for our wedding. Find the way that is going to work best for you then stick with it! Best wishes!

Answer 6

My wedding cost a little over $20,000. It really can be whatever you want it to, though. You can go scout out resorts/hotels and get packaged pricing... so let's say you want to spend $5,000-- you'll get two hours of photography plus music, the ceremony and reception sights and a cake, with blah blah blah allotted towards dinner. Then you can look at a $10,000 plan.... My reccomendations would be first, decide WHEN you want to have your wedding by season... Spring, summer, winter... I say "by season" because hotels/wedding sights book WAY in advance. Discuss with your fiance how many people you want at the wedding. If you are having a wedding locally then you will be more obligated to invite coworkers and ALL family members and neighbors/acquaintances which can really rack up the dollars when it comes to dinner/reception. If you have your wedding out of state, you will more likely have a small wedding with only necessary family members and friends. Next pick where you want to have the ceremony and then the reception. Think about if you will be having a lot of out of town guests, so stay near airports and/or hotels. Once this is done, decide on EVERYTHING ELSE! If you can budget it, get a wedding planner or a REALLY organized friend/mother/aunt to help you keep track of everything. Have a binder with EVERYTHING in it. If you see color combos you like, flowers, centerpieces, cakes, take pictures or cut out of magazines and put in your binder. That way you'll feel prepared and like you have a lot of options you like to choose from. To cut costs, you can totally nix the videographer... that's my opinion though...I only look at my wedding album and as far as I know, my sister never watches her video, and it's a HUGE extra cost. So, since I sacrificed that, I chose to do a sit down/ full service dinner which is more costly, but more classy. To keep costs low, again, you can do a buffet. Or, my cousin did a buffet, but had service stations... so you go to one place and it's a turkey carving station, you go to another and they're making personal flaans and crepe suzettes. Just more ideas... have bridesmaids, flowergirls pay for their own dresses and just make sure they stick to a similar color palette. Or, if you can afford to pay, a lot of bridal boutiques give a discount if you buy your whole bridal parties' gowns at their store exclusively. DJ's can be expensive, I had a really small, but very nice wedding... I had a piano and cello player at my reception play music, which was less expensive and more original than music at most weddings! You can find local concert players through orchestras and Universities. But, since I saved there, I splurged and had a five-peice string set play at my ceremony instead of the wedding march playing on a stereo! It's all about give and take. If one thing is more important to you than others, go with what will make you happy on your special day! I hope I gave you some good ideas! I highly suggest purchasing Martha Stewart Weddings and InStyle Special Eddition Weddings Magazines... I lived by these while planning my wedding. Good luck!

Answer 7

My wedding cost me $20,000. And we didn't do anything over the top. Start saving ALL of your money, because you will need it. You can save money on favors by making chocolate bars by hersheys and making your own wrapper with fun facts of you as a couple on the back as nutrition facts. Word of advice tho, when you are checking your reception site, and if you have to go with a certain caterer, be sure you check the caterer first no matter how much you love the site. Because the caterer can be a deal breaker. We learned that one too late. I made my own invitations, which saved me a lot of money. And if you know anyone in the wedding industry that can save you money too. We knew a videographer and a dj. So that cut costs too!

Answer 8

My parents had saved for 20 years to pay for my wedding, the first wedding cost around £8000. I paid for my second wedding, which was around £300. I am now divorced from both husbands, so it goes to show whether you do it cheap or do it expensive, it can still go horribly wrong! I would spend as little as possible and save the rest of it to go on an amazing honeymoon.

Answer 9

My husband and I contributed about 15K to our wedding. We had 16 months to plan; we opened a joint checking account and immediately began putting aside money into the account (which we named "the wedding fund.")

We booked our vendors over the 16 months - one at a time - so the money in our wedding fund was never depleted. For each vendor - we did extensive research and comparisons to ensure that we got the most for our money.

Through our research, we learned that there are countless tips and methods to save money on wedding services (without sacrificing style). There are too many to list here...I actually started a blog detailing these $ saving tips that we used - in hopes that other brides and grooms to be would find this information useful: http://elegalaweddings.blogspot.com/ I have posts on saving on wedding music, wedding transportation, catering, cakes, the dress, etc. etc.

Answer 10

We spent about 6000.00 on the wedding--about 250 people were there. We had the rehersal dinner at my Aunt's house with just finger foods. We limited the flowers at the church---they are really not that noticed. We had an individual do the wedding cake--no fondat icing it was too expensive. Photographer was a photographer on the side--so his prices were good. The honeymoon was about 2500.00 and we went snow skiing. Remember this day is for you and your finance--don't worry about anyone else and what they think!