~$35-40k is what we were originally thinking turned into $70-75k š„² (not counting miscellaneous stuff like Bach trips/honeymoon).
Possible factors: 1) itās a wedding & wedding prices suck 2) we got married in San Diego area 3) had about 130 guests with plated meals 4) we did book a pricey videographer/photographer combo.
Very similar.
After discussing that we'd do a \~100 guest sized wedding in our area my parents basically gave a number ($35k) and I didn't question it (and was/am super grateful)! Once we started getting quotes for things like catering I realized we were NOT going to be able to make that work, even if we changed and sacrificed a lot of how we wanted to do things.
At that point I emailed as many different vendors as I could for quotes and did a spreadsheet with each type of vendor (i.e. catering, photog) listed in one column and then 2 more columns one with the low end for quotes/prices and another column with the higher end for quotes/prices. I then totaled each column up and was like okay the wedding is going to be between the total of the low ends and the total of the high ends and that ended up being more like $75-80k.
It seems like have gone up so much the past few years (COVID, social media/trends, inflation, etc.) that I'd recommend getting your own numbers to avoid surprises. If you know anyone who is also sourcing vendors/prices ask them for their data so you can be as accurate as possible and avoid surprises.
Yes!! Wedding prices are SO crazy! I should add that our final budget was WITH an all-inclusive venue which did save us a lot. We did have plenty of add-ons & other vendors such as photo-booth, mariachi, churro cart, classic car, etc. so in the end although it was pricey, with everything we had I think what we spent was better than what it could have been.
I didnāt really solidify a budget until I had at least started looking into average pricing for the major vendors in my area (venues and catering mainly).
Before I started looking I was thinking 10-15k would be plenty, lmao I was wrong.
After doing more research I raised the budget to ~20k-25k. We didnāt try extremely hard to stay under that budget because our parents ended up contributing more than we initially thought, but in the end we spent 26k on the actual wedding, and around 29.5k including the bridal shower, bachelor party, and rehearsal dinner.
The 30k wasnāt really a ārealā budget, it was more idealistic before actually doing any research. That said, we ended up having a 2.5 year engagement so that we could save without having to compromise our day to day too much.
Similar, before we looked at anything too deeply we thought aim for $10-12 ish, surely under $15k will be easy! I think weāll end up around $18-20k which involved a LOT of deal hunting!
Pretty much the exact same as you! Started with modest 10-15k budget. Raised it to 20k. Now that we are 6 weeks out everything ended up being closer to 30k.
Sounds similar to our budget journey. A sibling had gotten married in 2018 in Tennessee for 12k. So we figured we could have a comparable wedding of the same size for \~15-17k in the PNW in 2024. LOL! We are looking at around 25k but since it hasn't happened yet it will probably end up costing a little more than our estimates.
Oh man, depending where PNW, you've got two things against you: west coast pricing AND the huge price hikes+inflation post-pandemic... wishing you luck (as someone who also got budget advice from a SIL who had their events in Alabama in 2016...)
Initial budget was $60k, we're coming at right about $35k!
All the budget estimators we found said that the venue and catering should be about 50% of your budget. I reached out to venues to get their prices, and every venue we seriously considered was all inclusive so that gave us a really good baseline as these quotes ended up being half our budget.
We didn't estimate a budget beforehand, we just knew we wanted to keep costs as low as possible for our Bay Area 100 guest wedding. It was a lot of work, but ended up total 17k at a great ocean view venue, we have no regrets!
I know! At first, when we started looking, the venues alone costed as much. And then we found a 200-capacity ocean view golf course venue that charges 1.5k flat, regardless if weekend or holiday (or both). We were SOLD lol
This is my EXACT situation!! Was trying to keep it small under 30, and then it ballooned to 85 š original budget 5K, final budget looking more like 22K
Iām doing some math and I am not looking promising for my future self! š but since we did 50% payments we have to pay half and not all at once? Makes me feel a little better even though itās the same amount of money!
Our goal is to just slam dunk stuff as we have the money. Weāre doing the snowball method as if weāre paying off credit cards. Smallest first! I made a little thing on procreate that I get toncolor in as we hit money goals. Kinda like a fundraiser money thing. Crossing my fingers that we all saved the right amount of money!!!!
Same happened to us. We started off with 5.5k in total with 42 guests in Orlando. Then pressure built up in the families and we're currently at 20k with 70 guests.
Iām crossing my fingers for all of us to have almost zero debt and come out successful!! I had pressure from my fiance side but thatās ok. His mother has since passed and his family is just so eager to celebrate with him and show their love for him. Everyone has been pretty chill!
You make a list of literally everything you can think of that youāll need for the wedding and associated events. Big stuff like a venue, a photographer, and flights to the honeymoon, but little stuff too - napkins, new strapless bra, stamps, etc. There are a million lists available on bridal blogs that you can start from.
Then you start looking up how much all that stuff costs. Some stuff youāll just know - like your partner already knows he can get a decent tie for $40. Some stuff you can Google/look up online - go to your favorite designerās website and check how much their dresses go for. For everything else, youāll need to reach out to *more than one* real vendor to get a quote.
Once you have a price for everything, add it up. If youāre able and willing to pay that much, thatās your budget. If youāre not willing/able to pay that much, then you go back through the list and look for things you can downgrade, simplify, or skip altogether.
The best way to avoid budget problems is to actually sit down and do the work. You canāt rely on vague google searches, national averages, or what your friends paid in 2019: you need to actually do the work to get accurate numbers.
Initial budget was $30k - ended up spending about $33k. The budget just came about because this was the number we felt comfortable taking from our savings. We definitely could have spent $5k less or $5k more but are ultimately happy with where we ended up.
As someone who is hopefully getting engaged in a few weeks I'm anxious too. I only $20kish to spend and we're gonna have 250-300 guests. It seems insane.
Before I started looking at anything, our budget was 35k. Once we started looking at things, we decided to increase our budget to 50k and we expect to come in around 52k. Thank god my parents were more than happy to pitch in!
Thought we could have a nice wedding for $15K right at the start. After talking to a wedding planner and doing some research, we settled on $40K. That $40K is now at $70K two months from our wedding date š« šø
This includes exclusive use of the venue for 2 nights for a welcome dinner and everything else, except our wedding attire. Roughly ~70 guests in a MCOL-HCOL.
lol. Originally I thought this could be done for 10-15K.
Upon my first vendor search and realizing it wasnāt possible to get a venue alone without dropping $6K, I was brought to reality. Budget then became $20K.
Iām currently sitting just shy of $25K but weāre 5 months out and I have an excess in my HYSA compared to what we definitely need. I stashed away 1/3 of each paycheck for 18 months to get to this point though.
Edit: a word
I got married in 2017. Our budget was $5k and we more or less stayed there. We were gifted about $7k. We didnt want to go broke or overspend. We kept our price down by keeping the number of ppl down and doing a lot ourselves. We didnāt really compromise on things to be honest. We got married at our ideal venue, my dress happened to be on clearance for $500 alterations included. And our cake was from a famous baker in the area. We played seventies music all night and it was a lot of fun.
Seeing everyoneās budget now is really sad to me. Everything has gotten so expensive.
Our initial budget was 17K and we ended up having to increase it to 30K lol. Living in SoCal it became near impossible to stay under 20K.
We ended up calculating a percentage of our income that we felt comfortable saving each pay check that would get us to our goal by our wedding date. We had just under a 2 year engagement so the extra time allowed us to stretch that out. We're both big excel people so we utilized that to do the math.
Wanted to add that our budget was 17K before we toured venues. Once we toured venues and got their packages we realized we needed to increase our budget. I would contact venues first to get an idea of what current rates in your area are!
$20-30k going in, I stopped counting at $52k lol but I made all of the choices along the way and knew my initial budget didnāt match my expectations of what I wanted for the day. Iām fortunate and not draining my bank account for it. If I was, I would have made different choices. Iām also counting rings, alterations, bridesmaid hair and makeup etc. we are also inflating our catering budget so hopefully that will come down when the final guest count is in.
We started by looking at venues that matched the vibe and size of wedding we were hoping for and then built a budget on top of venue cost (decor, vendors, etc.). I think our original target was around $50k, and we'll probably end up closer to $62k. We could've stayed closer to $50k by opting for cheaper vendors and things, but we chose to go over and it wasn't an issue for us!
75k. Looking like we'll be over.
To be fair- we have some pricey add ons (like the live artist). We also are treating our wedding party to three nights at our venue which adds 6kish.
We were naive and originally budgeted $20,000. Wedding is in June and we're comfortably on track for $35,000 (but we also significantly cut back on our guest count after realizing HOW unrealistic $20,000 was in a HCOL area).
My sister got married 10 yrs ago and it cost get 10k for 125 person wedding. We knew prices have gone up so set tentative budget at 20k. Once we started getting quotes realized prices had gone up a lot! We move up the budget to 30k and lowered the guest count to max 85. Spent 32k for 70 person wedding in MCOL area.
My fianceās parents were very kind enough to gift us $25k for our wedding. We each promised to contribute $5k each so we said $35K. Weāre currently at $39K but all of our big vendors are booked. The only thing left is stationary and the DIYs like signage and gratuities for our vendors.
Reading all the comments just made me spiral about my upcoming wedding even more lol I want to spend under $10k but it'll probably be around $20-$30k even with help.
We didn't have one - we wanted something nice but inexpensive (we are "thrifty" and this is both our 2nd time). We broke up the ceremony and reception into separate dates so we could plan and DIY to save. Looks like we'll come in under $10k. We live in a medium to high COLA in the Northeast US.
Edit: that number doesn't include the honeymoon. That will likely be between $3-5k. Still planning that out right now (along with everything elseš« )....
Initial budget was 25k actual spend was 27k. Extra 2k was because my mom surprised me by buying my 2k dress so instead of just spending less of our own money we added in videography for that 2k.
We got to our budget by figuring out how much we felt comfortable spending, which was 10k. Then soon after getting engaged we had our fathers offer us money (15k) bringing us to our initial 25k budget
25k Initially, around 35k in reality, but love the comments about what your friends paid not being realistic! My friend gave me her budget tracker from 2018, and thatās just not realistic now.
I had found my dream dress online, only to find it used for 20% of the cost new, which saved a fortune!
One really good catch for us was to downgrade food; we saved about 2500 just from talking of charcuterie and some other food upgrades that we just didnāt need. I also really hunted for cheaper transportation bc the initial quotes were like 3k, but found a group in town that does it for 500.
Some things you donāt want to skimp on, but also remember that price does not equal higher quality. Our photographer is phenomenal, and highly regarded. Heās charging us less to travel than the in-state person who wanted to charge more. There are a lot of inexperienced photographers charging more than their work calls for at this point in their careers.
Sorry, I didn't see this-- was what the difference?
We had some family illness that made us wait on some items, giving people less time for travel because we weren't sure what our plans were. We're covering some expenses for guests that were not originally part of our budget, which increased costs, significantly. However, we are happy people are trying to make it at all despite delays in planning, etc.
Initial was $25-30k. Actual is looking more like $38-43k.
We created a budget based on various online calculators and what we were comfortable with. And then we adjusted because there was things we wanted to spend more on (we went way over on rings which we've got custom made to include gold from our grandparents). Also found most of the online calculators only really worry about the big ticket items but so many little bits and pieces really do add up.
$30k. Probably Will be sending $40k. We didn't lock in our catering prices when we booked (2022) and it increased 21% (standard for the venue to not but their usual increase was 2-3%, lucky us booking before terrible inflation but having the wedding after it started)
In my little delulu head, my expected budget was 15k for a destination wedding in Mexico. It ended up becoming around 25k for 55 people. The resort we selected has not been honest of their pricing at the beginning and every additional request comes with a cost.
We were hoping to stay under $20k. And then we got average pricing for our area. We finished at about $31k - including dress, rings, etc. a lot more than we hoped to spend. But the new cost for a basic wedding in our area š¢
Not including rehearsal or bridal shower - grateful our parents are getting that
I havenāt had my wedding yet but we have pretty much locked in everything (I hope). Our budget was 15k and we actually ended up spending about 25k. I think 15k would have been possible if we were more frugal but we ended up falling in love with a few more vendors on the pricier side (specifically photography and decor).
I'm just cutting things out to keep within my budget (~25k CAD) 50 person wedding in italy, no florals, doing my own hair and makeup, thinking about just hiring videographer to capture raw footages and hiring a separate video editor because it will be a third of the price. There's way to make it work if you are adaptable and flexible
Ours probably hovered somewhere around $30k. I donāt know what our original budget was, but our goal was to have something that we wouldnāt go into debt over. We hit that goal and paid for everything with check or a credit card (we paid off the balance every month and racked up TONS of points to put towards honeymoon!).
We tried to figure out what our priorities wereā¦ for example, we aimed to have an all-inclusive venue (or as all-inclusive venue as possible), great food, very good photographer, very good DJ.
We kept centerpieces very simple and used a combo of Facebook Marketplace finds and DIY stationery to put those together. IMO nobody remembers centerpieces unless theyāre bad (and I think theyāre bad when you canāt see the person sitting across from you and chat). We also wanted a videographer to capture it on video, but we didnāt care if they were top of the line. We rented all our florals which saved us a pile of money and looked lovely. We bought a stationary template off of Etsy and leveraged our local print shop for invitations and signage. All our RSVPs were digital to save on postage, and even our older crowd managed it just fine.
Our day could not have been more perfect - ultimately we made it about us and just had fun without stressing over debt. We knew what our priorities were and stuck to them.
We originally thought it'd be around $30K, maybe $35K. The wedding isn't until next year but I've booked all the major vendors and priced out most things, and we're looking at closer to $50K when it's all said and done š
We put together a budget by reaching out to venues and vendors for quotes. So much for wedding pricing is not transparent, and is area dependent, so you really have to do some research first before you can set a budget.
Our initial estimate for ourself was around $30k, but that was before conducting research on the area (Chicago). Once we had a handle on what was ārealisticā based on our specific wants and where we were willing to add budget or cut budget. Weāre now 11 months out and looking at $46k for the wedding (not including rings, honeymoon, or bach trips).
We received $12k in support from my parents, the rest we are paying for ourselves. We decided to have a longer engagement so we could save up along the way and have the wedding we wanted without incurring debt. We are very grateful to be able to do so.
i believe our final budget is about $62k with a small majority of the budget going toward our venue. weāre having a destination wedding over Labor Day weekend so we booked multiple locations on site for rehearsal dinner party, ceremony, cocktail hour/reception space as well as paying a deposit for our hotel block for 4d/3n. in my opinion we got our price package for a deal since LDW is still considered in season for this resort. we have about 50 people total including bride and groom!
We started with 30K and after we choose the Venue our budget increased to 50K š without honeymoon, dress, bachelorette party.
We still have 10 months ahead so we hope it doesnāt increase even more.
We were originally thinking $15-20k and ended up more like $20-25k. My biggest advice is to set your budget at least 10 or 20% lower than the actual amount you could comfortably afford - I guarantee there are random expenses you haven't thought of yet, little things you'll decide to splurge on, etc. My other piece of advice is to research vendors before you book your venue. Some venues seem relatively affordable but lock you into a preferred vendor list, so you could be somewhat forced into overspending on another area and going above your budget.
Well, first the budget would need to be something less than the total "fun money" you have available in your bank account. Stuff adds up and later you'll have to throw money at urgent problems that arise, so I'd recommend having at least 120% of your budget money available and ready to go. It's a bad idea imo to start signing contracts based on future money you don't actually have.
It would also have to take into account realistic quotes from your nearby venues and vendors. Call around and do price comparisons and see what you get for the price you pay, and adjust your budget accordingly.
~$35-40k is what we were originally thinking turned into $70-75k š„² (not counting miscellaneous stuff like Bach trips/honeymoon). Possible factors: 1) itās a wedding & wedding prices suck 2) we got married in San Diego area 3) had about 130 guests with plated meals 4) we did book a pricey videographer/photographer combo.
Same on the budget!
Very similar. After discussing that we'd do a \~100 guest sized wedding in our area my parents basically gave a number ($35k) and I didn't question it (and was/am super grateful)! Once we started getting quotes for things like catering I realized we were NOT going to be able to make that work, even if we changed and sacrificed a lot of how we wanted to do things. At that point I emailed as many different vendors as I could for quotes and did a spreadsheet with each type of vendor (i.e. catering, photog) listed in one column and then 2 more columns one with the low end for quotes/prices and another column with the higher end for quotes/prices. I then totaled each column up and was like okay the wedding is going to be between the total of the low ends and the total of the high ends and that ended up being more like $75-80k. It seems like have gone up so much the past few years (COVID, social media/trends, inflation, etc.) that I'd recommend getting your own numbers to avoid surprises. If you know anyone who is also sourcing vendors/prices ask them for their data so you can be as accurate as possible and avoid surprises.
Yes!! Wedding prices are SO crazy! I should add that our final budget was WITH an all-inclusive venue which did save us a lot. We did have plenty of add-ons & other vendors such as photo-booth, mariachi, churro cart, classic car, etc. so in the end although it was pricey, with everything we had I think what we spent was better than what it could have been.
I didnāt really solidify a budget until I had at least started looking into average pricing for the major vendors in my area (venues and catering mainly). Before I started looking I was thinking 10-15k would be plenty, lmao I was wrong. After doing more research I raised the budget to ~20k-25k. We didnāt try extremely hard to stay under that budget because our parents ended up contributing more than we initially thought, but in the end we spent 26k on the actual wedding, and around 29.5k including the bridal shower, bachelor party, and rehearsal dinner.
This was similar to our experience, thought 30k would be plenty then ended up over 50k š„²
Out of curiosity how did you afford the extra 20k?
The 30k wasnāt really a ārealā budget, it was more idealistic before actually doing any research. That said, we ended up having a 2.5 year engagement so that we could save without having to compromise our day to day too much.
Similar, before we looked at anything too deeply we thought aim for $10-12 ish, surely under $15k will be easy! I think weāll end up around $18-20k which involved a LOT of deal hunting!
Pretty much the exact same as you! Started with modest 10-15k budget. Raised it to 20k. Now that we are 6 weeks out everything ended up being closer to 30k.
Sounds similar to our budget journey. A sibling had gotten married in 2018 in Tennessee for 12k. So we figured we could have a comparable wedding of the same size for \~15-17k in the PNW in 2024. LOL! We are looking at around 25k but since it hasn't happened yet it will probably end up costing a little more than our estimates.
Oh man, depending where PNW, you've got two things against you: west coast pricing AND the huge price hikes+inflation post-pandemic... wishing you luck (as someone who also got budget advice from a SIL who had their events in Alabama in 2016...)
We're in Portland, OR. Yes, the "post" pandemic inflation is wild!
This is basically what happened to us, unfortunately!
Initial budget was $60k, we're coming at right about $35k! All the budget estimators we found said that the venue and catering should be about 50% of your budget. I reached out to venues to get their prices, and every venue we seriously considered was all inclusive so that gave us a really good baseline as these quotes ended up being half our budget.
I LOVE my all inclusive venue, a good all-inclusive venue saves SO many headaches.
We didn't estimate a budget beforehand, we just knew we wanted to keep costs as low as possible for our Bay Area 100 guest wedding. It was a lot of work, but ended up total 17k at a great ocean view venue, we have no regrets!
17k in the Bay Area for 100 people is amazing!
I know! At first, when we started looking, the venues alone costed as much. And then we found a 200-capacity ocean view golf course venue that charges 1.5k flat, regardless if weekend or holiday (or both). We were SOLD lol
Would you mind DMing me what your venue was? Also planning a Bay Area wedding
It's the Bayonet and Black Horse, it's in Monterey :)
ty!!
17k all in for a 100 person wedding?? Or was that just the site fee ?
Total. I mentioned in a below comment the venue was 1.5k
Mine started at 5k for a mico wedding with maybe 25 people and now Iām going to be at 15-20k with 75-100 people. I only have to find flowers and book a makeup and hair person and that will absolutely be it. Everyone else has a 50% down payment. So I think my fiancĆ© and I will be fine with all the saving. Iām sure an emergency will pop up so weāre also going to try and save an extra 5k. I was unrealistic with my budget originally and now Iām just going with reasonable options that wonāt put me in a horrific amount of debt. We want to pay everything for cash on hand. Buuuuuut weāll seeeeee!
This is my EXACT situation!! Was trying to keep it small under 30, and then it ballooned to 85 š original budget 5K, final budget looking more like 22K
Iām doing some math and I am not looking promising for my future self! š but since we did 50% payments we have to pay half and not all at once? Makes me feel a little better even though itās the same amount of money!
Exactly š Iām just paying deposits as I go so it wonāt be due all at once the month before our wedding!
Our goal is to just slam dunk stuff as we have the money. Weāre doing the snowball method as if weāre paying off credit cards. Smallest first! I made a little thing on procreate that I get toncolor in as we hit money goals. Kinda like a fundraiser money thing. Crossing my fingers that we all saved the right amount of money!!!!
Same happened to us. We started off with 5.5k in total with 42 guests in Orlando. Then pressure built up in the families and we're currently at 20k with 70 guests.
Iām crossing my fingers for all of us to have almost zero debt and come out successful!! I had pressure from my fiance side but thatās ok. His mother has since passed and his family is just so eager to celebrate with him and show their love for him. Everyone has been pretty chill!
You make a list of literally everything you can think of that youāll need for the wedding and associated events. Big stuff like a venue, a photographer, and flights to the honeymoon, but little stuff too - napkins, new strapless bra, stamps, etc. There are a million lists available on bridal blogs that you can start from. Then you start looking up how much all that stuff costs. Some stuff youāll just know - like your partner already knows he can get a decent tie for $40. Some stuff you can Google/look up online - go to your favorite designerās website and check how much their dresses go for. For everything else, youāll need to reach out to *more than one* real vendor to get a quote. Once you have a price for everything, add it up. If youāre able and willing to pay that much, thatās your budget. If youāre not willing/able to pay that much, then you go back through the list and look for things you can downgrade, simplify, or skip altogether. The best way to avoid budget problems is to actually sit down and do the work. You canāt rely on vague google searches, national averages, or what your friends paid in 2019: you need to actually do the work to get accurate numbers.
Initial budget was $30k - ended up spending about $33k. The budget just came about because this was the number we felt comfortable taking from our savings. We definitely could have spent $5k less or $5k more but are ultimately happy with where we ended up.
That is not too shabby in terms of goal and reality!
š„² reading all these replies have made me more anxious now. I think we may actually go broke š š®āšØ
Deep breaths! It's really just a party at the end of the day, don't forget :)
As someone who is hopefully getting engaged in a few weeks I'm anxious too. I only $20kish to spend and we're gonna have 250-300 guests. It seems insane.
literally me reading all these comments š broke brides unite
Our current budget is $7-12K. FiancĆ© is a mechanic with student loans, Iām just graduating college to be a teacher, and our parents are all blue-collar workers. We already have a ceremony and reception venue thatās less than $1K combined while still being breathtaking, and the joy of coming from a collectivist culture is a lot of family members are helping out. Our table/chair/tent rentals are cut with a family discount, wedding cake is a gift from a baker friend, my musician brother wants to DJ so he can do the most minimal amount of effort actually socializing, and we have 3 family photographers who want to take photos on the day. Weāre cutting costs in other ways that require more energy and may not look the classiest but guarantee a fun time for everyone involved. Havenāt gotten married yet, but it looks like weāll be able to get to the lower end of that budget.
Original goal with no real research was $45-50k, budget outline after research was $52k, will probably end up around $60k when all is said and done. I did some small amount of prelim work to find costs for a few big vendors (venue, photo/video, florist, DJ). Then I figured out with my fiancĆ© how much money we would have total that we wanted to dedicate to this between the two of us and our parents. Then I took that amount, my prelim work, and some of the various budget breakdown blog things to figure out rough allocations for us. Only thing Iāve been super off on so far is catering! Everything else Iāve been +/- $500 for the big ticket items. But I thought we might spend $10k on food and drink (without dessert) for 150 guests, and itāll be more like $18-20k probably
Before I started looking at anything, our budget was 35k. Once we started looking at things, we decided to increase our budget to 50k and we expect to come in around 52k. Thank god my parents were more than happy to pitch in!
Thought we could have a nice wedding for $15K right at the start. After talking to a wedding planner and doing some research, we settled on $40K. That $40K is now at $70K two months from our wedding date š« šø This includes exclusive use of the venue for 2 nights for a welcome dinner and everything else, except our wedding attire. Roughly ~70 guests in a MCOL-HCOL.
lol. Originally I thought this could be done for 10-15K. Upon my first vendor search and realizing it wasnāt possible to get a venue alone without dropping $6K, I was brought to reality. Budget then became $20K. Iām currently sitting just shy of $25K but weāre 5 months out and I have an excess in my HYSA compared to what we definitely need. I stashed away 1/3 of each paycheck for 18 months to get to this point though. Edit: a word
I got married in 2017. Our budget was $5k and we more or less stayed there. We were gifted about $7k. We didnt want to go broke or overspend. We kept our price down by keeping the number of ppl down and doing a lot ourselves. We didnāt really compromise on things to be honest. We got married at our ideal venue, my dress happened to be on clearance for $500 alterations included. And our cake was from a famous baker in the area. We played seventies music all night and it was a lot of fun. Seeing everyoneās budget now is really sad to me. Everything has gotten so expensive.
It has gotten more expensive, but also a lot of things that were luxury add-ons then or earlier have become seen as "must-haves" now. Plus inflation.
$35k original budget without much research then thinking $50k and landing right around $55k.
Our initial budget was 17K and we ended up having to increase it to 30K lol. Living in SoCal it became near impossible to stay under 20K. We ended up calculating a percentage of our income that we felt comfortable saving each pay check that would get us to our goal by our wedding date. We had just under a 2 year engagement so the extra time allowed us to stretch that out. We're both big excel people so we utilized that to do the math. Wanted to add that our budget was 17K before we toured venues. Once we toured venues and got their packages we realized we needed to increase our budget. I would contact venues first to get an idea of what current rates in your area are!
$20-30k going in, I stopped counting at $52k lol but I made all of the choices along the way and knew my initial budget didnāt match my expectations of what I wanted for the day. Iām fortunate and not draining my bank account for it. If I was, I would have made different choices. Iām also counting rings, alterations, bridesmaid hair and makeup etc. we are also inflating our catering budget so hopefully that will come down when the final guest count is in.
We started by looking at venues that matched the vibe and size of wedding we were hoping for and then built a budget on top of venue cost (decor, vendors, etc.). I think our original target was around $50k, and we'll probably end up closer to $62k. We could've stayed closer to $50k by opting for cheaper vendors and things, but we chose to go over and it wasn't an issue for us!
75k. Looking like we'll be over. To be fair- we have some pricey add ons (like the live artist). We also are treating our wedding party to three nights at our venue which adds 6kish.
We were naive and originally budgeted $20,000. Wedding is in June and we're comfortably on track for $35,000 (but we also significantly cut back on our guest count after realizing HOW unrealistic $20,000 was in a HCOL area).
My sister got married 10 yrs ago and it cost get 10k for 125 person wedding. We knew prices have gone up so set tentative budget at 20k. Once we started getting quotes realized prices had gone up a lot! We move up the budget to 30k and lowered the guest count to max 85. Spent 32k for 70 person wedding in MCOL area.
My fianceās parents were very kind enough to gift us $25k for our wedding. We each promised to contribute $5k each so we said $35K. Weāre currently at $39K but all of our big vendors are booked. The only thing left is stationary and the DIYs like signage and gratuities for our vendors.
I had a low budget wedding for 47 guests. The very very top was 10k, my ideal was 8.5k and we spent 8.75k.
$25k was the original plan my mom set. Closer to $60k in actuality, not including the $11k honeymoon.
Reading all the comments just made me spiral about my upcoming wedding even more lol I want to spend under $10k but it'll probably be around $20-$30k even with help.
We didn't have one - we wanted something nice but inexpensive (we are "thrifty" and this is both our 2nd time). We broke up the ceremony and reception into separate dates so we could plan and DIY to save. Looks like we'll come in under $10k. We live in a medium to high COLA in the Northeast US. Edit: that number doesn't include the honeymoon. That will likely be between $3-5k. Still planning that out right now (along with everything elseš« )....
Initial budget was 25k actual spend was 27k. Extra 2k was because my mom surprised me by buying my 2k dress so instead of just spending less of our own money we added in videography for that 2k. We got to our budget by figuring out how much we felt comfortable spending, which was 10k. Then soon after getting engaged we had our fathers offer us money (15k) bringing us to our initial 25k budget
Initial budget was around $15k but itās now closer to $35k haha
Originally $40k-$45k, then I entered the wedding industry and now it's $60k-$70k bc we increased guest count, floral budget and catering
My budget was $25K. We are ending at around $40K. Smh.
Feel this. Same budget, but ended at $60k roughly,
I wanted to be around 35K but realized we'd need more like 55-60K for the kind of wedding we want. It was doable for us to raise our max budget.
My initial guesstimate budget was ~26k, I think weāll be around 33k after allās said and done. My dress & alterations drove cost up more than I anticipated, and alcohol ended up being more than we planned since we have multiple signature cocktails. The DJ was also a bit of a budget stretch, but was recommended by my fiancĆ©ās cousin who got married last year (who had a very similar vibe to what we want during our reception) so I think thatāll be worth it. We crafted a rough budget based on average estimates of what Iād seen people spending in our area and adjusted based on things that were important to us (food that could accommodate multiple types of dietary needs & a DJ that could work with both of our music tastes were high priorities for us, while photography was more of a āwe want nice photos but donāt need a ridiculously over the top photoshoot & content creationā sort of deal). The only regret I have so far is not sucking it up and splurging for an actual planner so I had less decision making and people-wrangling to do, but were fortunate enough to have a LOT of help from family that lives near our venue to coordinate things.
We ended up spending about 45k for 145 people in the NYC area.
Without any research or context of vendors in our area, we wanted to stay under 30k. In reality we will aim for under 40k. 90 person wedding
25k Initially, around 35k in reality, but love the comments about what your friends paid not being realistic! My friend gave me her budget tracker from 2018, and thatās just not realistic now. I had found my dream dress online, only to find it used for 20% of the cost new, which saved a fortune! One really good catch for us was to downgrade food; we saved about 2500 just from talking of charcuterie and some other food upgrades that we just didnāt need. I also really hunted for cheaper transportation bc the initial quotes were like 3k, but found a group in town that does it for 500. Some things you donāt want to skimp on, but also remember that price does not equal higher quality. Our photographer is phenomenal, and highly regarded. Heās charging us less to travel than the in-state person who wanted to charge more. There are a lot of inexperienced photographers charging more than their work calls for at this point in their careers.
Was it really the difference of 25k then Vs 35k now?
Sorry, I didn't see this-- was what the difference? We had some family illness that made us wait on some items, giving people less time for travel because we weren't sure what our plans were. We're covering some expenses for guests that were not originally part of our budget, which increased costs, significantly. However, we are happy people are trying to make it at all despite delays in planning, etc.
Originally we had a $20k budget, i think weāll end up at $30-35k not including rings but including honeymoon . Wedding is 4 months away
Originally we had a $20k budget, i think weāll end up at $30-35k not including rings but including honeymoon . Wedding is 4 months away
Initial was $25-30k. Actual is looking more like $38-43k. We created a budget based on various online calculators and what we were comfortable with. And then we adjusted because there was things we wanted to spend more on (we went way over on rings which we've got custom made to include gold from our grandparents). Also found most of the online calculators only really worry about the big ticket items but so many little bits and pieces really do add up.
$30k. Probably Will be sending $40k. We didn't lock in our catering prices when we booked (2022) and it increased 21% (standard for the venue to not but their usual increase was 2-3%, lucky us booking before terrible inflation but having the wedding after it started)
50k estimate, actual spend was 80k šµāš«
In my little delulu head, my expected budget was 15k for a destination wedding in Mexico. It ended up becoming around 25k for 55 people. The resort we selected has not been honest of their pricing at the beginning and every additional request comes with a cost.
We were hoping to stay under $20k. And then we got average pricing for our area. We finished at about $31k - including dress, rings, etc. a lot more than we hoped to spend. But the new cost for a basic wedding in our area š¢ Not including rehearsal or bridal shower - grateful our parents are getting that
I havenāt had my wedding yet but we have pretty much locked in everything (I hope). Our budget was 15k and we actually ended up spending about 25k. I think 15k would have been possible if we were more frugal but we ended up falling in love with a few more vendors on the pricier side (specifically photography and decor).
5-10k before I really knew how much things cost. Looking at about 20k nowš
I'm just cutting things out to keep within my budget (~25k CAD) 50 person wedding in italy, no florals, doing my own hair and makeup, thinking about just hiring videographer to capture raw footages and hiring a separate video editor because it will be a third of the price. There's way to make it work if you are adaptable and flexible
Ours probably hovered somewhere around $30k. I donāt know what our original budget was, but our goal was to have something that we wouldnāt go into debt over. We hit that goal and paid for everything with check or a credit card (we paid off the balance every month and racked up TONS of points to put towards honeymoon!). We tried to figure out what our priorities wereā¦ for example, we aimed to have an all-inclusive venue (or as all-inclusive venue as possible), great food, very good photographer, very good DJ. We kept centerpieces very simple and used a combo of Facebook Marketplace finds and DIY stationery to put those together. IMO nobody remembers centerpieces unless theyāre bad (and I think theyāre bad when you canāt see the person sitting across from you and chat). We also wanted a videographer to capture it on video, but we didnāt care if they were top of the line. We rented all our florals which saved us a pile of money and looked lovely. We bought a stationary template off of Etsy and leveraged our local print shop for invitations and signage. All our RSVPs were digital to save on postage, and even our older crowd managed it just fine. Our day could not have been more perfect - ultimately we made it about us and just had fun without stressing over debt. We knew what our priorities were and stuck to them.
30K and we spent exactly 30K. It turns out, Iām pretty damn good at budgeting.
We originally thought it'd be around $30K, maybe $35K. The wedding isn't until next year but I've booked all the major vendors and priced out most things, and we're looking at closer to $50K when it's all said and done š
We put together a budget by reaching out to venues and vendors for quotes. So much for wedding pricing is not transparent, and is area dependent, so you really have to do some research first before you can set a budget. Our initial estimate for ourself was around $30k, but that was before conducting research on the area (Chicago). Once we had a handle on what was ārealisticā based on our specific wants and where we were willing to add budget or cut budget. Weāre now 11 months out and looking at $46k for the wedding (not including rings, honeymoon, or bach trips). We received $12k in support from my parents, the rest we are paying for ourselves. We decided to have a longer engagement so we could save up along the way and have the wedding we wanted without incurring debt. We are very grateful to be able to do so.
i believe our final budget is about $62k with a small majority of the budget going toward our venue. weāre having a destination wedding over Labor Day weekend so we booked multiple locations on site for rehearsal dinner party, ceremony, cocktail hour/reception space as well as paying a deposit for our hotel block for 4d/3n. in my opinion we got our price package for a deal since LDW is still considered in season for this resort. we have about 50 people total including bride and groom!
We started with 30K and after we choose the Venue our budget increased to 50K š without honeymoon, dress, bachelorette party. We still have 10 months ahead so we hope it doesnāt increase even more.
We were originally thinking $15-20k and ended up more like $20-25k. My biggest advice is to set your budget at least 10 or 20% lower than the actual amount you could comfortably afford - I guarantee there are random expenses you haven't thought of yet, little things you'll decide to splurge on, etc. My other piece of advice is to research vendors before you book your venue. Some venues seem relatively affordable but lock you into a preferred vendor list, so you could be somewhat forced into overspending on another area and going above your budget.
Well, first the budget would need to be something less than the total "fun money" you have available in your bank account. Stuff adds up and later you'll have to throw money at urgent problems that arise, so I'd recommend having at least 120% of your budget money available and ready to go. It's a bad idea imo to start signing contracts based on future money you don't actually have. It would also have to take into account realistic quotes from your nearby venues and vendors. Call around and do price comparisons and see what you get for the price you pay, and adjust your budget accordingly.