Please share your experience with fellow kindred spirits over here at 2000 Dollar Wedding! You can anonymously share your wedding budget with a simple click in the poll below. Then head over to the comments to explain the process you used to decide what your wedding budget would be.
25 comments:
we originally budgeted $6,000 based on what friends our age who were also still students had spent (and luckily they got married in the same city).
However we honestly went over on a lot of small things that we hadn't realized would cost so much (do your research ahead of time people! that's what I learned).
I still don't feel comfortable with the fact that we almost doubled our budget (we spent just over $10,000 in the end), but we did forgive ourselves a bit once my in-laws generously paid for our honeymoon, so we felt we were a little more 'entitled' to spend our honeymoon money on the rest of the wedding.
Our budget was about $4500, and it was a fairly arbitrary number. We just figured it was a good amount of money for the type of party we were thinking on throwing. In the end, we stayed very close to that budget-- within $100 or so.
We first had a conversation about what was important to us for our wedding and what our goals were. And then we really tried to figure out what was the minimal amount we could spend to meet those goals. We spent just under $3,000.
Spending that amount was the right decision for us. We feel good about all of the purchases we made because we prioritized what was meaningful to us -- which leaves us with wonderful memories.
Our goal was $5000. I think we ended up spending closer to $6000, and we didn't include our honeymoon in that amount. It was quite cheap compared to most of what you read about, I'd estimate between $750 and $1000 for a week.
We picked the number by thinking about what we felt comfortable with, then priced out a few of the larger items to see if it was reasonable. When a parent offered to pay half, we decided to loosen up on how strictly we were going to stick to the budget. There were also some surprises, like when we asked a sibling to pick up the fruit tray we'd ordered, and they paid for it.
We managed to stay just under $5,000, which was more than we had originally wanted to spend. We did also have financial help from our parents, which was a huge help. All we knew was that we didn't want to be be in any kind of debt when the wedding was over with, and we didn't feel comfortable spending any more than that.
We're in the UK, so the price is obviously in pounds! Saying that, our budget was approximately £3000.
This was what we were comfortable paying, and also what we could afford to save that year so we could pay for it ourselves with no contributions from parents. Also, we're saving for a house deposit and didn't want to derail that goal too much.
We got married in a small, private ceremony in Italy with just 10 guests. We also had a cheap and cheerful barn style party for 100 people when we got back. We catered this ourselves and hired a band, but it was brilliant.
The £3000 includes everything for both, including our honeymoon (1 week in Rome after wedding). It was 100% what we wanted. Our only focus was to get married in an amazing location. We wanted a great day, but didn't want to waste money on traditions we thought were unecessary!
My Mom helped us with the cost, giving us about $2K. We then added an additional $1K of our own money, here and there.
My husband and I figured we could only spend about $2,000, but then my parents graciously gave us $5,000. Somehow, even with this extra money, we only ended up spending about $3,500. We saved a lot by getting lots of help, making our own food, and picking a venue (local multipurpose center) that was free.
The food. Gosh darn it, the food is what kills a wedding a budget. People queue up to be invited, Mom and mom-in-law can't say no to anyone, and suddenly you're looking at feeding dozens of extra people. Food doesn't cost what it did ten years ago! It doesn't cost what it did FOUR years ago. So a $5,000 budget is steadily racing on to be just under $10,000.
Our original budget was $3,000, but I have a feeling it's going to be closer to $4-5,000
--courtney
We originally budgeted $5000, as that's what our parents offered to contribute. We inched our way closer to $8000-$9000, due to getting more time at the venue for set-up, extra food (at request of parents), and unexpected items like hiring an officiant (we were going to ordain a friend), renting extra chairs, etc.
We have large families and each parents' side generously threw in $8500. We wanted to spend 12k but spent closer to 14k due to cold weather and heavy rain the week of and needing to rent a tent, heater etc last minute. We also live in a VERY expensive city so this did got us a nice, meaningful but not extravagant wedding. 85% of our budget was food and venue which we rented for the whole weekend and got to spend quality time with family (also very important to us). We spent the remaining money on our honeymoon. We felt ok spending all the money given to us on wedding + honeymoon because it was important to include our extended families and he just started a well-paying but very demanding job that allows little to no vacation time.
We decided to try to stick to the $2000 mark. Neither one of us felt comfortable spending a lot on one day. We ended up at about $2200. Granted, we gave up a lot of traditional wedding stuff...we got married under the tree in a park where we had our first date, and the reception was a picnic. It was simple, and inexpensive, but it also represented exactly who we are.
My mom originally wanted to put $5000 toward our wedding and then asked my dad to do the same, but he needed to see estimates and spreadsheets first to see how much we thought a wedding could cost. He was okay with pitching in $4000, and my mom did the same. We literally felt as if we'd hit the wedding jackpot. My spouse's parents probably spent close to $1000, as they contributed to our cupcake fund, attire, and other odds and ends. In the end, we had enough to throw a big party for our family and friends with a lot of DIY touches (all food, invitations, and decorations).
We gave ourselves less than 3 months to plan and execute our wedding. That didn't give us a lot of time for saving, so we had to do it on what we already had. We're a single income family, since my husband is a student. We originally wanted to have a potluck but my dad had a bridezilla moment and insisted we at least have a catered like all the other weddings our families/friends had. We stuck to our vision. We rented out a facility at a conservation area for $265/day. We found a local caterer who did a fabulous lunch buffet for $2900 (for 110 guests). They did the main entrees - we did the drinks, salads,cheese,desserts ourselves and saved about $1000 off the original quote. I made tablecloths out of a $64 bolt of cotton fabric vs renting tablecloths for $200 + tax. We made our invites. Our favours were books that we got from thrift/used book stores and from our own collection. I crafted. We upcycled where we could. We thrifted where we couldn't. We cut out a lot of things that weren't important to us and in the end, we had the best day of OUR life. The awesome thing is, at the end of the day - everybody came around to seeing it OUR way too!
we didn't have an actual "budget". we just decided which things were more important to us (rings, dress, photography vs food, for example), and paid as we went. It definitely helped having a long engagement, and both of us being employed!
Since we got married at a summer camp with cabins, we paid for the lodging in the same way you did, Sara! We paid in advance, and the guests paid us back (it came out to something like $30 a night, so it was still better than a hotel room).
When all was said and done, I think we netted something like $12k for the wedding.
Our budget is $7500, and with the wedding 3 weeks away, it looks like we'll stay within budget. That includes the rehearsal dinner and everything at the wedding, but not our rings or honeymoon.
We developed the number by looking at a lot of budget blogs (like this one), contacting local vendors to get pricing, doing internet searches for prices, and talking with family about what they would be comfortable with (my dad, for instance, only wanted us to have nondisposable dishes rather than disposable ones). Basically, we wanted to be frugal but still make everyone happy. We'll see how it goes!
We didn't so much have a specific budget in mind, as much as we knew we wanted to spend as little money as possible, becasue we don't have much money. All told, our wedding ended up being about $2000 total - it was $200 for my dress, $150 for the officiant, $130 for the marriage license, about $600 for dinner (which our guests helped us pay for), and our rings were just under $1000 for both. Mainly, we just tried to do everything in an inexpensive way because we've been under financial hardship for the last year or so and knew that we couldn't afford to go more into debt for our wedding.
Our budget is $10k, but we're aiming for between $4-5k, there's just no reason to spend every dollar in the budget (in our case, at least). It's awesome reading everyone else's budgets as well, definitely telling me that we could do ours for less than $5k even.
We ended up spending about $3k. We went over the cost of the big ticket things (food and drinks, venue, photography) and the smaller things that we could price ahead of time (tuxes, officiant, rentals, hotel). We didn't really set a budget per say, but just made decisions as we went on whether or not we thought the item/service was worth the cost. Floral centerpieces weren't worth the cost. Our day of coordinator was worth double what we paid her. My mother paid for the food that was catered (didn't include apps, sides, or beverages) and in-laws paid for the rehearsal dinner and bouquets. My husband and I paid for everything else ourselves. We had a lot of help from family and friends that made our day come together though, and that was a wonderful feeling to have leading up to and on our wedding day.
My partner and I came up with a few must-haves in the beginning (food, guests, etc.) and came up with a budget based on those and what we thought it would take to get that. We budgeted about $10,000 ($5,000 from our own personal savings each, before we starting blending our accounts), but we probably actually spent about $9,000. Almost all of the money went to: food, tables, chairs, tent (our rain plan!), and drink for 150 (I have a big family!).
Our budget jumped around. We started with an arbitrary number that seemed reasonable ($10K), then increased it after researching what our priorities actually cost (~$18K). We focused our money on things we cared about (food and wine, fun reception DJ and location, photographer) and scrimped on things that weren't so important to us (flowers, cake, etc.). We budgeted and saved for a high-number-of-guests scenario, and actually came in quite a bit under because not everyone we invited could travel to the state park where we had the wedding.
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