How much did you spend on your wedding?

Question

Our wedding is in 2 months and we have already spent $24,000. We owe about $12,000 still. I don't feel like we are having an extremely elaborate wedding or anything but I just can't believe how the cost has gone so high. I am feeling really ridiculous about blowing so much money on one day. Too late now.

How much did you spend? Is this average?

I actually live right outside Manhattan but we are having the wedding in our hometown Pittsburgh, PA

Answer 1

$350 on the celebrant... wasnt even the cheapest one! few hundred on bbq food, and drinks. Few hudred on the rings. Most expensive thing was my dress ... about $800. Got married at home in the backyard, and still happily married today. Best decision I think Ive ever made. Im not too big on being the center of attention, or spending money on things that are all pomp and grandeur. Someone asked me if I was worried that I didnt get married in a church - no, the world is a house of god ... and how to be closer to mother earth, than by standing on it??? But dont be too down on yourself, I think what you have spent is about average. Dont forget its your day, and as long as you love it, and your brand new hubby (! AHHHH), then fair play too you. Whats money besides silly looking paper, if its not spent on a happy life anyway?

Darlin, I wish you every happiness with your man!

Answer 2

You didn't say where you are? NY or Iowa??

Our wedding- not including rings or honeymoon was $9000. This was for a church wedding, 100 people, buffet dinner at a really awesome ballroom type reception.

But everyone makes choices. In the end I had to choose between 2 wonderful dresses. One was llike $700 and would have required a change in the wedding colors..the other was clearance at 250.00 and didn't even need altered- it was like it was made to fit me.

I chose the clearance dress that needed no alterations. so you know money was saved there.

If you feel like you are spending too much- look at your budget. Where have you gone over? Once you have answered those questions- then you can decide on if there's anything that you really 'don't need' or 'don't care about'.

DON'T skimp on the photos though. My one bit of advice.

Answer 3

I agree with Emmy. NY weddings are notoriously expensive. You are actually getting away cheap by getting married in Pittsburg. You probably would have paid at least double if you got married there. Enjoy the wedding. You'll recoup some of the costs in gifts (sounds greedy but it isn't - it's just a fact.) Many people give money as a gift and it all goes toward the wedding bill. I wouldn't go into debt to have a wedding but if you have it and spend a lot its ok.

Answer 4

$10,000 and this included our honeymoon. It doesnt matter how much you spend though it will all be worth it. I wish we spent probably another $5000 but i still had a great day. This is (fingers crossed) your one and only wedding day so make it everything you have dreamed off so that you have no regreats whatsoever.

best of luck and dont stress about little details on the day as thats what make up the day for stories in the future. I.e my wedding day was outside on a 35 degree day but everyone had a blast even with the air conditioner broke down at our reception.

Answer 5

I've spent not even close to $3000 for my wedding. The only biggest item we spent was getting a photographer, and a wedding dress. Here's some listed below that I've spent on my wedding

Church- free cuz we were a member
Dress -$400 at David's Bridal
Photographer- $600
Cake with water fountain $200 enough for 300 people
Decorations- Free A friend of mine gave me theirs since it's the same color for the wedding
Food- Free My mom prepared the meals
Recepition Hall- $50
DJ- $150

My husband and I decided to plan just a simple unique wedding since we're paying for it ourselves. You wouldn't believe with our lowest wedding costs was so unbelieveable! May I make a simple suggestion. If you're having kids at your wedding, here's my idea and the kids loves it. Make up goodies bags, you know like for party favors or something like that. What I did was I went to Walmart and bought like those little party games and choose a theme for boys and girls. Try that! It'll keep the kids busy.

Answer 6

Everything is booked and deposited and the cost is standing at about $14000. I'm hoping it doesn't go over $15000... However, we are having it on a Friday, in January in Colorado, so not exactly prime time. The same wedding in summer on Saturday would be like $24000, easily.

If you are feeling bad, maybe there are some things you can cut. Still owing $12000 is a lot of money!!!

You'll have a really good day and I'm sure you'll get a lot of presents and cash!

Answer 7

The cost for an "average" wedding these days is $25-30K. Obviously lots goes in to calculating what is 'average' so it isn't always comparable to what your weddding is actually like. I'm getting married in two months in Salt Lake City. We are planning on 250 guests. We've spent $3,500 on the ceremony/reception site. $1,500 for a photographer for the day and just a CD of the proofs. $8,300 for catering at the reception (just various fancy appetizers and salads, specialty lemonades, gelato and dessert). Our cake is three tiered fondant with a fondant floral design for $450. My dress is being custom made for $1,700. We are still working on pricing with our florist and our printer for invitations. I'm a designer so I am doing all our centerpieces and they'll be about $40 per table. Cause we're in October, I'm monogramming pumpkins for some centerpieces and using lots of amazing candles, quirky vases, and few flowers.
I don't know if any of that is helpful, but I figured you could see how it compares to your budget. Ours doesn't include rings or honeymoon yet.
Good luck!

Answer 8

Julie we married on May 20 of this year. We spent about 10k including the rings. A lot of stuff my wife did and this saved us a lot, like making centrepieces and bouquets. Also we downloaded all out own music on the laptap and just rented some speakers and paid a friends young son to play DJ which was another big saving. I know how you feel when you say how high the cost goes without realizing it as it seems everyday your getting 100 dollared to death. Have a great and happy wedding and married life and congrats.

Answer 9

Each to his/her own. It would give me hives to spend that much money on what is essentially a party, particularly if I had to go deeply into debt to do it.

My wedding cost less than $50. We got married at the courthouse. Stopped at a florist on the way there and got a corsage and boutonniere. My mother made my dress. Hubby wore a suit. We took my best friend, my sister and her husband. They threw rice afterwards, and my BIL took a total of 4 pictures. (One of them is good.) Hubby and I left for the honeymoon straight from the ceremony.

I may plan a party for our 34th anniversary, next year. We may do a vow renewal. I certainly will have a wedding/anniversary cake. The cake is the one thing I wish I hadn't missed on our wedding day! I think we might have as many as 75-100 guests. I certainly will spend under $1000, hopefully quite a bit less!

The average price is somewhere around $26,000 nationally, so I guess you are about average in spending. In my area, I don't believe the average is anywhere around that (rural western NC) Ten years ago, we spent about $2000 on our daughter's wedding. Last summer i coordinated my best friend's daughter's wedding. She was on a serious budget, and we had a lot of DIY, but spent about $800 not including the rings. We fed 75 people, had two live bands, friend did cake at cost, I did photography as wedding present, borrowed lots of decor from family and friends and put in lots of work ourselves. I thought it was beautiful, and meant just as much as a $25,000 wedding would have.

Your wedding is your special day, so enjoy it to the fullest! Good luck in your wedding and your future.

Answer 10

Seven years ago, we spent about $25,000 - we had our wedding and reception (~200 people) at the same place. It was a beautiful Victorian mansion that had gorgeous gardens (we were married in the garden) and a nice sized reception hall attached to the side of the mansion.

The $25K didn't include the cost of the open bar (my father-in-law paid for that for us) or the jazz trio we had for the cocktail hour (my dad paid for that) or the photographer (brother-in-law did the photography for us) or the videographer (family friend...).

It was alot of money - I worked so many double shifts to help get money together for the wedding. We didn't want to end up owing money so we busted our butts and got it all paid for before the day.

It was great! We loved every minute and it was the most wonderful day of my life (other than the birth of our daughter)! We have great photos, videos, and memories of the day.

We could have spent the money on a house, or something. We talked about it and realized that we could always make more money for a house, we could always save up for a big vacation but we could never go back and have that day again. It was so nice to be surrounded by our family and friends on our own very special day.

Don't get me wrong, we were stressed before the wedding every time we had to pay another bill. But in the end we felt it was worth it.

Try to enjoy your wedding day - make sure you take some time that day to stand back and take a deep breath and just revel in the wonderful party that you and your husband have put on for everyone. The day goes by so quickly - enjoy every minute of it!

Congrats and best wishes for a wonderful wedding day!