How much did you spend on your wedding?

[abc123]

Hey guys! First of all congratulations to all who are married!
I am already secretly married, but planning a wedding for summer 2015. Yay! I'm having a really hard time setting a budget and deciding what I really can't live without versus unnecessary expenses. I'm just scared of regretting my choices later.
Therefore my questions: how much did your wedding cost? Do you feel like you spent too much or too little? What do you think brides should splurge on?
So far I'm thinking I definitely want an open bar, but I'm ok with a buffett for dinner, and I'd rather spend less on a dress, but invest in a really good photographer/videographer.
Geez wedding planning is harder than I thought it would be

[snow_girl]

I don't think I'd ever do open bar, people are way more likely to get trashed. Even if I did a toonie bar (That is $2 for all you non Canadians) it is still cheap enough for the guests but would drastically help reduce your own costs for alcohol. Ideally when my turn comes I plan no not spending over $5000. Small, cheap, simple. I don't really want a $1000 wedding dress. Something along these lines and prices would be perfect for me https://www.simplydresses.com/dresse.../white-dresses
I also plan on taking full advantage of all my friends and families skills. My mom makes cards (invitations) My sister sews (bm dresses?) My friend is a photographer etc. I would accept their services as a wedding present, and hopefully they'd be down for that. If it worked out, it would be sweet to have the wedding at my Aunts acreage so that would be cheap too, just a bbq after the wedding so there goes $30/dinner plate out the window! But really I'm not even engaged yet, so maybe my future husband will be loaded and be cool with me spending all his money on a massive wedding.

[TwoThree]

Translation and certification of documents + UPS shipping: 150 euros.

My husband's wedding ring: 200 euros.

Clothes: 0 because I wore things I'd owned for some time.

Venue, food and drink: 0. Intimate family party that my in-laws threw for us.

[lyonsgirl]

We splurged on the food (a bit, we had to go with one of two caterers) and the photographer. Though, our photographer ended up giving us a small discount because my MIL/FIL are friends with them. I ended up finding my dress on a sale rack - granted, it was still at a little boutique store, but it was a sample dress so it was less. We did an open bar, but with a limited selection of drinks.

I'm extremely glad we spent the money we did on the photographer. Cost will vary greatly based on where you live, so me telling you what our budget was could get you practically nothing if you plan on getting married in an expensive city.

[lucybelle]

We had two weddings. Well one wedding and a year later a party. Both together were under $5000.

The wedding people paid for their dinner at a restaurant. The party we had a buffet and each guest got 3 drinks, after that they had to pay. We had a photographer at the party, and a live band. Decorations were DIY. Both my dresses were under $150 each.

I'm glad with what we spent- not too much not too little. I do wish we'd had a photographer at the wedding (not just the party).

[Schlafmütze]

Invitations: we did them ourselves. Personalized and way cheaper.

Ceremony and reception decor: we bought some few things months before at reasonable prices and complemented them with DIY. After the wedding, I sold what was salable and kept things we could give a second use. Finding a place that doesn't need much decor is also ideal.

Alcohol: you should know your guests and their food/beverages preferences. We were against having an open bar and we stablished a limit -after checking online the average number of servings per bottles of the alcohol we offered-. We also found a shop which gave us the alcohol in consignment. We paid for a variety of alcoholic beverages and the unopened bottles could be returned, as well as the money paid for them. I don't know if this is possible where you are. We saved a lot.

Food: we went for a delicious buffet style dinner

Photography: This is where most of the money went to.

[differentcountries]

We had a wedding dinner and drinks at a restaurant for the guests at the actual ceremony, we payed for it. It cost a bit but his parents chipped in to some of it. I made the invitations, I saw the pattern in a book and I copied it.

Otherwise: my dress - something I bought cheap and retro, I bought new shoes on sale, did my own makeup and hair, we had no photographer (but we don't like being taken pics of that much anyway). He wore his suit. Our rings were the single most expensive thing. Oh, and the flowers and hotel room since we spent the night in another city. And we bought strawberries and champagne to have right after the wedding, that was a lot of fun

A couple of weeks later we had a party with about 40 guests, I made invitations for those, too, in i similar style. We rented a place with waiters and decorated it with reasonable flowers. We spent a week making dinner pies and we kept them on the veranda to keep them fresh and cold (becaue I wanted an all-gluten free wedding). I think we made 6 different types of pies, I don't remember how many of each type but lots of food For the day we just bought mineral water, salad, napkins etc. And we ordered pretty cakes from a company who did gluten free cakes. We brought a cd rack and afther the traditional Norwegian speaches (my simblings surprised me by making a photo compilation that I loved) we had lots of dancing. I wore the same dress and did my own styling for the party, too. We just had to pay a taxi to take us and all the pies to the party place The place had a bar at the 1st floor, and people bought and payed for their own drinks (and had to be sober enough to climb the stairs up to the party!).

Our wedding had to be a bit on the cheap side, I was on sick leave, he had a low income job and so that is how we did it, I am happy with how it turned out. Today when I work I don't think I would have the energy to make the food myself, though! And I would hire a photographer, but only if it was one of my newer friends who do it for a living, I would not want a stranger to do it.

[snow]

So far ~100$ for wedding bands and about 10-15$ on decorations.
The visa expenses are 340$ + 30$ + 225$ + 220$ = around 800$
My parents pay for my dress, but I want to stay below 300$ and he is going to rent a tux.
My future sister in law's husband is a photographer, so he offered to take the pictures for us. The officiant is going to be around 200$ and then location is most likely going to be 0. Food will be around 200$.
So all in all: 1500$

[abc123]

Thank you all so much for sharing! I know that was kind of a personal question.
I'm actually surprised at how little all of you spent! I just read an article saying the average wedding in the US now costs $30k. Thank you to everybody who mentioned enjoying/wishing they had had a photographer. I was debating how important pictures were and now I'm certain I want to splurge on pictures and videography! Has anyone had a videographer at their wedding?
Snowgirl, the open bar is not up for discussion, it's the one thing my husband demanded. Lol. Lucybelle, I love that you had a live band, live music is the best! Schlafmütze, where did you sell your wedding decorations? Is there a certain website or anything? Differntcountries,,kudos for doing all that cooking on your own wedding day! Snow, it sucks that your visa expenses are so high, but at least you'll have the best wedding present ever, once it's all approved

[lyonsgirl]

If you're on the fence about a videographer, then I don't think you need one. I've worked with a photographer on a few weddings and the ones that had a videographer he just got in the way.

I asked my bridesmaid's bf (also friend of mine) if he could record our vows using a normal camera. He did, and it's perfect.

[whatruckus]

I'm not married, but my brother got married last year, and my dad gave them $20k as a wedding present to help with the wedding. Then, on top of that, my brother and his wife put in a lot of extra money into it. So, I don't know exactly how much they spent, but it was definitely over $30k - $40k. The wedding was beautiful though, the food was awesome, and the photographer was amazing. They also had an open bar and it was a sit down dinner.

This is all in USD.

[whatruckus]

If you're on the fence about a videographer, then I don't think you need one. I've worked with a photographer on a few weddings and the ones that had a videographer he just got in the way.

I asked my bridesmaid's bf (also friend of mine) if he could record our vows using a normal camera. He did, and it's perfect.

Yeah, I agree. I've been to weddings with videographers and they really do get in the way. Most of the time, I couldn't see what was going on because somehow I ended up where they were! My brother didn't have one at his wedding, and it was great. The photographer did a great job capturing everything by himself. I actually felt bad for him because it was just one guy, and he didn't have an assistant. Plus, my brother is a photographer (so am I, sometimes) so he knew what he was looking for.

[vicks5721]

To me a good photographer is important as it is the most important day of our lives besides when we have kids and I love having photo memories.

I like the idea of a Videographer but they seem expensive, so we might ask a family member to film it instead.

The reason why we would like to film our wedding is so I can send copies to my family in England so they can see exactly what it was like, as we know they won't be able to come due to the fact they are mostly on low-incomes and flights etc would be expensive.

We have already booked the caters and we haven't definitely decided yet on the food but we know we will have a buffet style thing and the venue for our reception has a bar but our guests will pay for their own drinks.

We have already booked the reception venue and was able to get a very good price because his Dad is a member there. His grandma said she will pay for the reception venue and the catering, as our wedding gift so that will be $0

His aunt who is a florist is doing our flowers as a wedding gift so that will cost $0

We decided a low budget for my wedding dress as we both feel it is silly to spend thousands of dollars of one, we decided below $300

I know I would love to have a veil and tiara as it just would make me feel special and almost like a princess, but we will buy those online, like etsy or ebay to keep the cost low.

Neither of us are the kind of people who like to buy expensive things or spend massive amounts of money, so we are not going to on our wedding day either.

I have decided I will borrow heels from his family if possible or buy much cheaper ones. My make-up I will ask his sisters to do it and the same for my hair, so that will cost $0

Then our decorations and invitations and save the dates and so on we are going to make ourselves with help from his sisters and parents.

Our ceremony venue is going to be outdoors by the local lake so that will cost $0

The pastor you give a donation, we will probably give $100-200

As you can tell I have thought of everything lol.

[Petals]

Our budget is $10,000-15000. This seems a lot compared to what others have said here! wow! It's not a big wedding, but my fiancé has a certain taste and everything in Australia is expensive anyways. lol

I agree that a good photographer is very important. You do want your photographs to look flawless and to capture your memories with some kind of purpose and direction.

[TaraMarie]

We are getting married on a cruise, so it will be about $500 pp. we will pay for ouselves and four kids, so 3000 is about it! Sounds good to me. My first wedding was 10,000 just for the reception! Add another thousand for that dress, 1500 for the photos, 500 for flowers and 2000 for the honeymoon.....I am getting off cheap!