How much did your wedding cost?

[majestik101]

First marriage cost me $599. I was 25, she was 21. We both got drunk as F and got hitched in Las Vegas. Marriage lasted for about a year.

Second marriage (the one I am currently in and we'll celebrate our 10th Anniversary in April) was paid for by my in-laws. WIN

[Orangejello727]

Originally Posted by hairysasquatch

On the gifts???

yep. Paid for my wedding all myself. I was given the choice by my father to either let him pay for it all, but the deal would be that he keeps all gifts. I would have taken it if it not for my father who would have thrown it in my face for the rest of my life. Good deal to break even on weddings.

[sonnyday]

Originally Posted by mrmojorisin71

I don't believe in large parties nor does my wife...there is literally no way you can have meaningful relationships with 300 people, after 75-100 you're just begging for gifts.

Pretty arrogant assumption if you ask me. Just because you and your wife don't believe in large parties you make an stupid statement. We had 300+ people at are wedding. Family, friends and coworkers and everyone had a blast!

[CARDGUY123]

Got lucky and we paid about 3k not including her ring. My dad lives in Vegas and we had free room travel and board for a week. It was a pretty sweet deal being married infrint of bellagio while the fountains went off. Of course our story is a sappy love story. But wouldn't trade it for the world.

[CARDGUY123]

Originally Posted by sonnyday

Pretty arrogant assumption if you ask me. Just because you and your wife don't believe in large parties you make an stupid statement. We had 300+ people at are wedding. Family, friends and coworkers and everyone had a blast!

It's not the size of the party. But I am in agreement. I know and am close to probably 300 people but we didn't have a party just cuz we wanted it to be about us.

[Orangejello727]

Originally Posted by mrmojorisin71

Mine was roughly $2000 and was probably better than these joke 25k weddings. We got married in a beautiful park right next to the Rothko chapel in Houston (FREE), my dad actually married us (he is an ordained minister), we had the party/reception in the backyard of my parents house (which is in a rather elite neighborhood in Houston), my buddy is a karaoke dj so he cost me $75 and beer. My wife was a manager at the Cheesecake Factory and we had them cater it for virtually nothing. My mom used to be a florist so the cost was the flowers. We rented a couple of tents, and 12 huge round tables which was decorated by my mom.

I don't believe in large parties nor does my wife...there is literally no way you can have meaningful relationships with 300 people, after 75-100 you're just begging for gifts. Also, with the ease of getting a divorce and the rate at which its happening, I think it's a money dump. My wife had already been married before and I don't see the value in an actual "wedding" for me or anyone I know to drop that kinda coin on a party

My parents have 18 siblings between them. My inlaws have 14 siblings between them. That makes my immediate family just over 100 with 1st cousins. I assure you my wife and I personally knew all 480 guest at my wedding.

[seabass97166]

My Wedding was in the $5k range...mind you this was almost
20 years ago but we tried to cut Expenses wherever we could - and use most of the money we saved for a Down payment for a house. For the reception we rented an Elks lodge for something like $2500 and used their kitchen free of charge. My wife is Latina and her dad used to be Chef, so between her Uncles and family there was no shortage of manpower and the food was delicious. Also had an inexpensive honeymoon in Palm Springs..we used most of the cash from the dollar dances to pay for that. Things turned out well...celebrating 20 years in April, have a few properties and some Nice equity. My wife is smart. Even to this day, we shop at a Pawn Shop for high end jewelry, getting a $1000 ring for $425. Life is all about getting your hustle on, no need to overpay when you have to foot the bill and don't have wealthy parents .

Even for my son's Bar Mitzvah we had a simple reception and spent like 5k, while other families go nuts and spend 20k+. My daughter is up next, will be the same type of thing.

[NeedChapmans]

$25,207.90

Full breakdown here if you need it OP. Wrote it for a national piece ...

BRACE YOURSELF: This Is What It Really Costs To Get Married Today - Business Insider

[Boo]

With the divorce, well over 100k.






I kid, I kid...I think ours was around 15k, in-laws paid for most of it.

[JosieD]

It cost less than 1k. We were in the midst of planning a nice wedding at Raystown Lake to be followed by a reception on their party boat. The biggest problem we ran into was we could only have 60 people on the boat. We both agreed 30 people each to keep it fair. My dad and his mom started to get really weird about it all, wanting us to invite great aunts/uncles and people we really weren't close with. We kept trying to tell them both that we couldn't go above the 60 due to safety regulations. Both were being unreasonable to the point where we said f it, cancelled it, got a self-uniting license and told them we were doing it our way. Took our immediate families out to the Olive Garden, exchanged rings in our apartment and called it a day. I got married in a red sweater and black pants.

My dad still thinks we are not legally married and his mom is disappointed we never had a wedding/reception.

[dbackschamp2001]

We would just pay for things here and there over 3 years, so I'm not completely sure. I know for the venue, photographer, and dj were around $1000 combined. Everything else was probably around $500.

[asujbl]

We had a cigar tent at our wedding... and we flew to NYC, to a specific cigar shop that my Dad and I like, about 3 months before to put in our order. Had a full bar outside in the tent along with 3 other bars inside.

That was a pretty penny. Even if you don't include the actual cost of flying to, and staying in, NYC for a few days

[xavieronly1]

I made profit... So, I guess it costs us nothing from our pockets.

Large wedding party is not the problem. You just have to know which person to invite and not get yourself in financial trouble.

[TOMBB25]

Wedding cost about $4000, my wife put it altogether. We got married at a friends property near vineyards, we rented and decorated everything ourselves. Bought all the food and a friend cooked it, my brother is a professional photographer, so that was free. My wife's mom made the wedding cake. My wife is great on a budget, we saved a ton and it was absolutely awesome and a perfect night. We both knew that we didn't want to go into debt over a wedding and it would be more special if we had a small wedding and did everything ourselves. About 55 people. Our wedding looked as good, if not better than most weddings in the $20k range.

All you need is your close family and friends and have a great time. I've never heard anyone say, "I'm so happy we spent $50,000 on those 6 hours".

[Metsfan1121]

Originally Posted by mrmojorisin71

I don't believe in large parties nor does my wife...there is literally no way you can have meaningful relationships with 300 people, after 75-100 you're just begging for gifts.

That's kind of a bold statement there. With just my family and a few friends, I had ~75 people over for a backyard barbecue graduation party a few years back. For your wedding you don't traditionally invite only those people with whom you have "meaningful relationships" but rather anyone that you would like with you to enjoy the moment and celebrate. I've been to probably 3-4 weddings where I wouldn't have cracked the first 100 on the guest list, but was still glad to be invited to them. You meet an awful lot of people over an entire lifetime.

[Cactuspies]

somewhere between 3-5k. we still haven't taken a honeymoon (april will be 5 years LOL)

our dj sucked beyond sucking. food was the most expensive thing and we did buffet style. it didn't help that it was 100+ degrees out for the wedding weekend. thank goodness we were inside.

the people who did our ceremony also did pictures and my buddy did pictures in leiu of a gift.

the place we rented was great and had everything we needed.

We also had it paid all paid off before the night was over so we wouldn't have to worry about it for years.

The people who did the ceremony also used our wedding for their future clients as a prime example for the business of a budget wedding

[Trufance]

A little over 50k for me.

Luckily we don't do boxed gifts, just envelopes so we broke even.

[Bassman2014]

Got married in a little chapel in Vegas for $100-200, can't remember exactly..

[SDcardguy24]

This thread made me think of this classic:

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/o...ng-advice.html

[Kona12]

my fiancee at the time (now wife) demanded a small wedding because we could not afford what she really wanted which was a 100K plus wedding. so instead we went with immediate family only and a ceremony on the beach. overall the total cost was about 3k and that includes dress, photographer, hotel and flowers.

however, we did have an engagement party which cost 10k but our gifts luckily exceeded that.

overall i am so glad we didnt go into debt for a wedding. we both look back and dont regret a thing.

[asujbl]

The key to this thread is the breakdown of people that spent their own money compared to those that had it paid for

[dodgerfanjohn]

Somewhere around $20k.

We looked around LA and for 150 people most of the nicer settings were looking at running around $35k which made me and her both puke.

So we decided on Las Vegas. $2100 included chapel, nice suite for 4 nights, photos, minister, and decorations. I spent a little more putting up her uncle and one of the bridesmaids.

The reception was under $10k for 80 people and included open bar, DJ, and decorations. Florist and cake combined were under $1k. The people really complimented the food...its a small west coast upscale Mexican chain.

I forget wedding dress costs and I know my wife did the guest gifts herself and got some of the other things second hand. My parents paid for the ceremony, reception, and dress. Her parents are not around anymore.

I'm guessing total cost including our 5 night stay was around $18-20k. Most of our family and friends live in So Cal and Arizona so a lot attended but a lot didn't. We were happy for the size and I was super happy my first cousin made the trip as he lives in a remote part of Oregon and I don't get to see him much.

Las Vegas weather in March and October is really pretty spectacular. The dance floor and most of the reception were outside and it really was nice.

One other really good venue in Las Vegas that has good food, a great environment, and is very reasonable in cost is a chain...Maggianos aka the fancy Olive Garden. The Vegas location is on the strip and the private rooms overlook the Wynn and Encore. It looked like it would be around $45 a person with beer and wine..at least at the time(2014). Really classy looking dark wood everywhere, it looks like a much more expensive restaurant than it is. It books up way in advance though.

I've seen reviews that both places accomodate much smaller groups as well.

[mrmojorisin71]

Originally Posted by sonnyday

Pretty arrogant assumption if you ask me. Just because you and your wife don't believe in large parties you make an stupid statement. We had 300+ people at are wedding. Family, friends and coworkers and everyone had a blast!

Offended much lol, God forbid a man gives his opinion

[mrmojorisin71]

Originally Posted by asujbl

The key to this thread is the breakdown of people that spent their own money compared to those that had it paid for

Even more interesting is how people talk about how they came on top with the gives versus money spent.

[mrmojorisin71]

Originally Posted by Orangejello727

My parents have 18 siblings between them. My inlaws have 14 siblings between them. That makes my immediate family just over 100 with 1st cousins. I assure you my wife and I personally knew all 480 guest at my wedding.

Personally knowing and having impactful you relationships are two completely different things