How much did your wedding cost?

[Smackem]

So they say that the average wedding costs $28,000 dollars. That seems insane to me.
How do people justify spending that much money on what basically a big party?

I am getting married in September and I am amazed how much this whole deal is going to cost. (Luckily, I am not paying for it.) We wanted a simple affair for about 60 people and it is still costing around $8,000 dollars. That is like $2000 an hour! And I feel like we are doing this cheaply. This whole wedding industry seems like a racket.

I consider this to be a somewhat intelligent collection of people, so I was wondering what other people have paid for their weddings. Any regrets in spending too much? Too little?

 

[Saint Nick]

I'd like to know, too. $28,000 sounds like a lot. Does that include personal things like wedding dresses and such I wonder? I will probably spend no more than $25k on ours (of course she is buying ****** too, and our parents are making food and flowers and doing hair and all kinds of other things for free.) so we may have a lot of leftover cash.

 

[bleeb]

28K sounds about right. that's including the honeymoon, rings, clothes, location and reception.... FOOD costs a lot big dawg.

 

[Glavinsolo]

This Much

 

[mugs]

All told about $20k. I thought the average was $20k actually.

/waits for all the people to come in bragging about how much money you "make" at a Chinese wedding. Pssssst... it's not about making money!

Reception + wedding location: $10k
Flowers: $2-3k?
Dress and whatnot: $1k?
Photographer: $3k
Rings: $400
Band: $1000?
I know there are other things I'm forgetting
Her parents paid for all of the above
~90 guests

If you want to include her ring: ~$3700 total
If you want to include the honeymoon: ~$2k (11 days in Maui, did not pay for lodging or rental car)

 

[waggy]

mine was around $5k. my wife had a choice between a nice overblown wedding and a house. she wanted a house. wich was good because thatts what i wanted.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: waggy
mine was around $5k. my wife had a choice between a nice overblown wedding and a house. she wanted a house. wich was good because thatts what i wanted.

You've got a keeper.

 

[Lola]

25k for our actual hawaii wedding (that includes 2 first class tix from MI to HI but then the reception in MI was 24k...all worth it!

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: LolaWiz
25k for our actual hawaii wedding (that includes 2 first class tix from MI to HI but then the reception in MI was 24k...all worth it!

That's crazy, how'd you folks feel about pissing that money away?

 

[Lola]

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: LolaWiz
25k for our actual hawaii wedding (that includes 2 first class tix from MI to HI but then the reception in MI was 24k...all worth it!

That's crazy, how'd you folks feel about pissing that money away?

ok, well first off... to each is to own...
secondly, my hubby and i paid for the wedding in hawaii. It was amazingly tops all the way, gourmet food, 5 star accomodations, welcome bags, live hawaiian band, aisle of white orchids on the ocean at sunset at a historic location.

The reception in michigan was split between my parents, his parents and my grandmother and two great aunts. I am the only girl in the family so it was very happily paid for. Everyone still raves how incredible the reception was.

Even my husband who was against spending tons of money from the begining will tell you that it was worth every penny.

Plus, i did a LOT of work myself. there were a lot of small touches that helped make our guests really feel special.

 

[blackdogdeek]

ours was about 20K give or take a few k.

it was well worth it.

 

[Kelemvor]

$20,000 or so for ours. My wife is a Wedding Planner if you wanted to talk to her to get any ideas or general estimates and such.

Most of it depend son how many people you are inviting as the reception is the most expensive part of it.

http://www.eventartistry.net

 

[BornStar]

Including rings and everything it's going to run around $30k. It turns out to be a bit more than I really wanted to spend but it's not a big deal.

 

[FoBoT]

maybe $2000, i paid about $500 for stuff and my parents and wifes parents did some stuff

 

[spidey07]

wedding = 8K
divorce = 40K plus

works out to about a net screwage of 16k a year.

 

[engineereeyore]

Wedding was $1500, including rings, dress, and honeymoon. There was $300 for the post-wedding dinner also, but that was paid for by my family.

 

[Turkish]

A whole lot less than my divorce!

 

[Bryophyte]

Wedding, dinner afterwards, and honeymoon in Victoria BC (Empress Hotel): *might* have been as much as $500. Still married 12 years later. Got a wedding ring for Christmas last year, heh.

 

[Crucial]

just over $5000. You all are crazy or have too much money to burn.

 

[Bryophyte]

Originally posted by: Crucial
just over $5000. You all are crazy or have too much money to burn.

Heh, I'd include you in that category too.

 

[mrrman]

less than my divorce

 

[lokiju]

So basically I'm not going to be able to get away with spending less than $5k on our wedding then? SOB!

 

[DainBramaged]

I think >8 or 9k is crazy.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: jndietz
$28,000 sounds like a lot....I will probably spend no more than $25k on ours

A friend managed to pull off a very nice wedding for $3k. I found that...inspirational.

I wouldn't feel bad spending a couple k's on a wedding, but once it starts edging towards five figures...it seems a mite too expensive to me.

 

[wasssup]

I hate you guys. I kinda like the way money's coming into my bank account, and now i'm thinking about it disappearing over something like this...

The last wedding I went to cost $300k. No joke. The guy went to MIT and is some type of engineer (I don't pay attention to that because ALL my relatives are engineers/doctors, I think there's a lawyer here and there), and obviously someone like that got a smart/rich girl.

I think the average wedding cost is somewhere in the $100k range with my relatives...it's all about showmanship with these people. My wedding (hopefully) won't cost nearly that much, no way can I afford anything like that (nor would I want her/my parents to waste the money).