Money spent on wedding

Newspaper this morning reported US national avg $20,000 for dress, food, liquor , photography, etc.
New York City avg is reported to be $40,000. And these are the just averages!

Just wondering how much people spent on their weddings -- the whole sha-bang/cat-n-caboodle?

Originally Posted by whiskerynature

Newspaper this morning reported US national avg $20,000 for dress, food, liquor

, photography, etc.
New York City avg is reported to be $40,000. And these are the just averages!

Just wondering how much people spent on their weddings -- the whole sha-bang/cat-n-caboodle?

Click to expand...

Less than a thousand. That includes the rings.

We eloped because we thought we could use the money for something better. I also didn't have the little girl fantasy of a big white wedding.

I think mine was about $12000 Cdn and that was almost 11 years ago. We had about 125 people at the reception and an open bar. The reception was the most expensive and my parents paid for it (and my dress). I ended up spending more then I wanted to for my dress, but it was the one I loved and my mom offered to foot the bill. DJ, limo, photographer and photos, location for photos, church/clergy fee, tux rentals, flowers (for wedding party and for centrepieces), shoes, wedding jewellery, gifts for wedding party, bombomieris (gifts for guests), invitations, etc...it does add up. If we were to do it again, we would have a destination wedding. We weren't able to have a honeymoon because I couldn't get the time off work (I just started a month earlier).

The one thing that many people are telling me right now (as I'm beginning the planning stages - we still have another 14-15 mos) is:

1. Don't take a loan out for the wedding. One guy has been married for 5 years and he and his wife are STILL paying it off.

2. It's just one day out of your life.

There are many things that I would love to do for my wedding, but realistically (a)fiance and I may be moving out of state at the end of the year, (b)his job could be in jeopardy because the state is offering anymore in grants for the social services he works at and (c) the wedding will probably be coming out of our pocket, including travel expense since our family is in MI.

So we're going to limit ourselves and NOT go over budget.

Ours cost £1,100 - and that included all expenses such as clothes, rings, legal costs, and the bar tab.

I'm not married, and I can't justify spending 10's of thousands of dollars on a wedding. I'd rather spend the money elsewhere such as paying off debt, investing, starting a child education fund, or even giving it to a much needed charity instead.

You don't have to go nuts when planning a wedding, and you don't have to spend $10,000, $20,000, $30,000......to do it. I think expensive weddings are silly and self indulgent.

When my brother got married, he and his wife married on a Thursday in a candlight ceremony at a church. Close friends and close family only. The ceremony guests were about 50 people. They each had one friend stand up with them as witnesses.

They had a party at the house on the Friday evening. Everyone brought a dish of food and something to drink and it was probably the best wedding I had ever attended.

They used the money they saved towards a honeymoon on Jekyl Island in Georgia. Her parents were paying for the honeymoon, but the money they saved allowed them to do extra things that weren't part of the honeymoon package, such as go down to Florida to Disney World. They had a great time and while they divorced 15 years later they still both agree that they did their wedding the "right" way.

Back in the mid 1980's I went to work with Tan Jan International. I was working in the back entering invoices for items being shipped. A girl working in the "Returns Cage" where items are returned because of faults had a daughter that was getting married. I had never met her daughter. In fact I only talked to the woman about 3 times because I had only been at the job 4 or 5 days.

One day she presented me with an invitiation to a wedding shower for her daughter. I thought that was totally bizzar seeing I hardly knew her and didn't know her daughter at all. I told her that I wouldn't feel comfortable going, but I did with her daughter well. The woman was quite put off by that.

Apparently she was inviting everyone and anyone that she could, even just mear aquaintances. She didn't have a problem with that because she said she herself had been invited to weddings and showers where she didn't know the bride or groom but went anyway so that when her turn came those people would reciprocate.

It seems it was all about the money and the gifts.

I found out later when it was all done, that this woman's daughter had TWO "Hall Showers." Meaning the showers were so huge that they could only be held inside a rented hall. One shower that was out of town had almost 600 people attend. The other that was in the city had more than 800 people attend. Some people went to both!!

Gifts consisted of standard fair such as dishes, serving wear, tupperware all the way to large appliances such as fridges, stoves, dishwasher and furniture such as whole bedroom and living room suites. They even got $15,000 in cash which they planned on using to buy a mobile home to live in a trailor park.

The wedding was equally spectacular. 1500 guests. They had presentation, so the raked in the bucks there too.

How long did the wedding last? Eight months! Actually 7 months. They split and then filed for separation a month later.

I bet none of the gifts were ever returned.

I think it cost around 1000.. I got the dress rented my hubbys suit, my family did the rest, sigh.. sometimes I wish I had a say in my own wedding..

OMG, I can't wait to have a big fluffy wedding!!

I'm thinkin 10k..Thats not too bad I don't think

I would never spent that kind of money on a wedding. Yes it is an important day, one that should only happen once in a lifetime, so yes it should be nice and special. But its only one day in your life, it's possible to make it special and have a good time without spending $20,000+. There are so many other things that I would rather spend that excess money on.

I spent about 2,000 on my wedding. I had a beautiful dress and it was in a church. Those were the most important things to me. My only regret was I wish I hired a professional photographer because I really do not have any nice pictures of my wedding, which imo turned out beautifully. I also only invited close family and friends about 50 people. Oh and I had a nice cake. So I really do not think you need to spend a fortune to have a nice beautiful wedding.

I was lucky that my parents paid for most of mine - if not, then our wedding would have been smaller. Mostly we had a big wedding because that is what my parents wanted. I would have been happier with smaller, but they kept increasing the guest list. My dad did say that it was the best money he ever spend...I don't know if I should be insulted by that as he was happy to get rid of me. No honestly, he said that everything was lovely, well planned and overall wonderful. He did nothing but complain about my sisters wedding however.

I have no idea what was spent on the 1st one (think my parent's paid for most of it or gave me a set amount to use).

And the 2nd (and last one ) we didn't spend hardly anything No need for another "gown", etc. And the reception was at a local restaurant where the family members paid for their own meals. We paid for ourselves and our kids, but the rest paid their own.

However, we did save our money for a delayed honeymoon in Hawaii

I think mine total was about 8,000, and my parents footed the bill for it, we, oh sorry I bought our rings and paid for the rehearsal dinner as well as some extra photos not included in the package and I paid for our honeymoon also, which cost just about as much as the wedding we had a great wedding and the honeymoon was fabulous, although the marriage only last about 2.5 years if I ever get married again, not really likely, but I'm doing a JOP

WooHoo! I can tell my parents we're below average! LOL

We're speniding something like 16K for the whole thing. Of course, we're going to a location (Mackinak Island, MI) and that also includes out suite for 5 nights.

i think even including the car accident we had pulling out of the chapel, ours was under $1500. definitely under $2k.

we eloped in vegas (we lived in southern california, so we drove). rented a tux for mike, i bought a formal dress at one of the malls (i've since seen that style for wedding dresses for many times what i paid), we bought our rings, stayed in a jacuzzi suite in the luxor, even ate at the steakhouse in the luxor our wedding night.

i'm glad to chime in here.....

anthony and my wedding package cost 10,000 and we paid for it ourselves AND had it in under a year AND did not put any on a credit card. we had a budget and stuck to it:

oh and did i mention that that 10,000 was for actually: all gifts, dress, flowers, HONEYMOON, rings, rental church, banquet hall AND band??????

we honeymooned in las vegas

it's doable just about on ANY budget. I'm glad at what we had and wouldn't change it for the world....DH's brother though, boy he was in for a shocker.....their wedding (in july) will probably cost 75,000 and that' in MAINE......glad mommy and daddy (bride's side) are footing the bill

Ours was about $10,000, which is incredibly inexpensive for the Chicago area. We had 125 people and a full dinner/dance reception. I thought it turned out perfectly. I wasn't looking for it to be overly fancy, I just wanted people to have a good time. It worked...people are still telling me (four years later) that it was the most fun they ever had at a wedding.

I think that a wedding will expand or contract to the size of the buget. The most important thing is the bride and groom and the tone they set. I've been to $50,000 weddings that weren't that great, and to $1,000 weddings that were perfectly lovely.

Ours was $3500 for rings, clothes, etc. We had the reception in the church basement and everyone had a good time. If one budgets and plans, the costs can be contained. The one thing I think should not happen is to burden a marriage with a large debt for a wedding at the very beginning. Money is a major stressor in a marriage and to start out with this kind of debt is just plain stupid.

Dave and I have been engaged for almost two yrs. And we both finally agreed that we arent going to get married till we can finally afford our dream trip to vegas. When that happens we are going to get married in Vegas. Hes wants to be Elvis and I wanna be Dolly Parton..Boobs and all..LOL...It fits us perfectly since we both wanna go to play poker plus we wont have either family up our butts irritating us. We will however be throwing a huge party at the hunting club we belong to since Daves parents manage it and are on the trustee board it will mostly be free except getting better food than the crap they serve there.