Wedding Cost what was yours?!?!?

Question

What was the most expensive part of your wedding? How big was your wedding? Looking back on it do you think you could of done it at a lower cost? What was your cheapest part? What did you over spend on that you would recommend doing diffrent or not doing at all?

Answer 1

the most expensive will be the reception. we'll be paying more than 5thou for our reception. the cheapest so far will be our favors (we call it wedding souvenirs - from the philippines).

Answer 2

I had an intimate wedding of about 35 people. I had it out of state in a beautiful chapel. The most expensive part was the photographer at $1800. Otherwise we kept everything simple and elegant. Do lots of research when planning your wedding there are so many ideas out there that will save you money.

A big hit at my wedding was the fact that I made all the bouquets, boutineers, and corsages useing artificial flowers and everyone thought they were real. They were even more excited because it was a special keepsake that won't die like regular flowers.

My cheapest item was the invitations I only spent about $10 for all the supplies, that's including ribbon, paper, and mini wallet sized pictures I put in all the invites as a keepsake.

I personally don't think I overspent in any area. Everything inlcuding food, dress, chruch, decorations, gifts etc. came to roughly $2500. I still have people commenting on how much fun they had because it was unique and they got a mini vacation also.

My best tip: spend the most on the photographer, it is the only thing that you have to remember your special day after everything is said and done.

Answer 3

I just got married this past Saturday. The budget breakdown:

Hall rental and linens: $420 ($75 will come back to us)
Caterer: Three tier cake and hour dors - $670 (+$100 tip)
Florists: Cake flowers, 3 bouquets, 7 boutonnieres, 3 coursages - $350
Dress and accessories including wedding night outfit and alterations: $600
My daughters and son dress and tux: $100
Hair and makeup: $60 (+$15 tip)
Decorations including favors and centerpeices: $300
DJ: $425
Officiant: $50

I wouldnt change a thing. I had a perfect evening. I did my research and didnt gooverboard with things I didnt need. Im glad that we did it the way we did. It was beautiful but not over done. The day was about me, my new husband, and having a good time not that I had the most expensive of everything. We spent a total of about $3000 and had just as good of a wedding as someone who paid $10,000)
(Note: My now husband and I paid for everything and only had 2 months to plan and pay for it)

I should probably add that we only planned for 75 people at our wedding. Im sure that we had lived in the same town as the majority of our families live that their might have been more people their. 75 people was a great number though. We had a 4 hour reception and had a hard time making time to see everyone and say thank you... I couldnt imagine having more people there.

Answer 4

I haven't had my wedding yet but I'm almost done with the planning. I'm having 100 - 110 people and the most expensive thing hands down is the catering/reception. That cost me $3400 alone and my budget (which I'm sticking to like glue) is $6000. The cheapest part will be the flowers since I'm not having any other than the bouquets and boutonnieres - which I bought silk calla lillies online and are making myself. As for recommendations, I would skip "traditions" that mean nothing to you, your fiance or your families. Just because "someone" said have a wedding shower with the pull out charms for the bridesmaids (for example and it's such a silly tradition) doesn't mean you HAVE to do it. Take a piece of each of your heritage and try to incorporate that and usually that's free or very inexpensive to do. Finally, I guess yes, I could do it at a lower cost, I could invite only family and no friends or co-workers or have a less formal affair, but you only get married once (hopefully) and so I didn't want to skimp on the things and people I really want for our special day.

Answer 5

Each wedding is different. Depending on how much you do yourself. I had around 140 people come, we invited around 170. The most expensive part was definitely the reception, buffet with open bar. Also it was a 5 hour reception. I'm not sure what the cheapest part would have been. Maybe the toasting glasses or something like that. If your wondering for yourself- look online you can find just about anything. If you have the time and patience to surf around there's always a website that is cheaper than the others.

Answer 6

Ours will come in around $15,000 without the honeymoon (another $5000). We are paying for $10, 000 of it on our own. No Credit cards!!!! Yeah us! (lots of scrimping and saving). We are having about 150 guests and the most expensive is the reception. Food + Drinks+wine=$8, 000. That is something we couldn't seem to get at a lower price no matter what hotel we went to. I guess we could spend less on extras, bridal party gifts, et but I have come in under budget for other things it works out OK. The next expensive was our Photographer $3, 000. The cheapest was our flowers and cake, both from a supermarket (both still beautiful) $300 each. There are things you can do to make it cheaper. You can splurge on the things that are important to yo and scrimp on those you don't really care about. Congratulations and happy planning!

Answer 7

We spent about 18-20 thousand not including honeymoon about another $700. My parents paid for the bulk of it and we paid the rest.
The most expensive part was the catering hall for the reception. Our wedding was about 175 ppl. yes I could have probably done it cheaper . The cheapest part was the wedding bands. overspent on the dresses for the girls--they looked good that day but I am sure we could have gotten something less expensive. (But this was 18 years ago)
And yes we are still happily married! Thank you, Lord!

Answer 8

My wedding was 27K 12 years ago! We had 250 guests with 16 in our wedding party.. The most expensive was the receoption by far!! Then with an open bar it was even more... Heck ya I could have done it cheaper! I would have flown to Las Vegas and got married... My cheapest part of the wedding was my dress $678 (handmade)

My sister is getting married on St Patty's day and hers has been 34K and hers is smaller than mine...

Answer 9

The most expensive, I think, was the reception. It was a dessert & punch one only; but Mom wanted to make sure there was enough. We were giving whole tortes & cakes away by the evening's end.

I did have an arch decorated with real flowers & greenery but I don't remember exactly what it cost. The only other flowers were the corsages & boutonniers & what was attached to the muff I carried. My girls did not carry flowers, but fur muffs I'd made for them. I made my wedding dress when there were like only 3 patterns on the market.; slim, empire waist l-o-n-g train. The white velvet fabric & faux fur for the dress cost me $60.

Answer 10

Our wedding is coming out to about $20k that's incluiding the honeymoon. (which cost about 6500) the most expensive is obviously the reception. I'm sure we could have cut more corners, but since we're speniding the money anyways we figured we would go all out for the honeymoon. Our wedding is in 2 months. One thing we did that saved us a lot of money is we're renting a hummer instead of getting a limo, it's a savings of over 1,000.

Answer 11

the most for ours was the reception hall. The least was the DJ he was a friends cousin. We had 124 pple RSVP back and had 227 show up Turned out to be a very pricy wedding out of our pockets. So we made sure that we had fun cost $38,000. And we still did not get everything we wanted