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Copyright 2008 WE: Women's Entertainment LLC. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2008 WE: Women's Entertainment LLC. All rights reserved.
As of today it has been 18 years that I've been married. My parents spent about $18000.00 for my wedding. We chose a function hall that took care of the entire reception (flowers for the hall, corsages, bouquets, meal, cake, & the DJ of our choice) so the only stress that I had was to make sure that the rehearsal dinner went off well, which my husband's parents took care of and to make sure that the church was decorated and we all made it to our fittings. So I had it pretty good.
I am planning a December wedding and already, I've found that limiting the guest list is key. We don't plan to have over 100 guests and that's really stretching it. I've already found my dress for 399.00 that my parents graciously paid for. We're using silk flowers instead of real, and since the wedding is close to Christmas, we're using Christmas decor for the ceremony and reception. We're getting my invitations from either Wal-mart or Target (not sure which one, but 21.96 for 40 invitations doesn't sound too bad). I do have a certified wedding planner, but she's my friend and has offered her services for free although my fiance' and I do intend to pay her for her services. We've found a wedding cake that serves 100-120 for $250.00. My goal is to spend no more than $7000.00. So far, so good!
oh...and they ate those burgers from AMPM on the way home.
my sister got married on a full tank of gas, which was $60.00, and the church only take donations and she donated $5.00, so a grand total of $65.00, and she has been married for 12 years.
I just got married four months ago it was a long road but I am glad it is over. I spent about 13000 on my wedding, I did hire a coordinator(Amen) but the good thing about this coordinator she did everything. She did the catering, she did the decorations, she did the entire bridal party flowers and she also did the guys flowers, I had a bridal party of 25, she even did my bouquet. Her husband was my photograher and he provided the transportation, which we had SUV's. I had the wedding and the reception all in one place so that cut my cost to I had 257 guests so beside the package deal that i got I mostly just paid for the DJ, and the venue and of course my dress which was absolutely beautiful. I think that for all that is getting married please hire a coordinator it is the best thing that happened to me. I forgot my invitations was only 211 and I did my own favors, which i spent less than 100 dollars because I surf the internet so I got great deals on things! Most improtantly do your research to make sure that you are getting the best deals!
Anyone that is getting married from NJ and looking for a coordinator mines was the best and I could refer you!
Forgot to say we saved a fortune by doing making our centerpieces and favors the same thing. I think the site was wanderfuls and it's like tubes of candy with ribbons on the end stuck in a holder. Very festive and practical. We also only did fancy personalized napkins for the cake table.
ive been married for 20 yrs and i paid 365.00 to get married and that included my reception wasnt fancy wasnt frilly but it was paid for and im still married how many of these peeps will spend 20k and over and be divorced in 5 years. so ya need a dress a cake some food a minister and a man tada your married
Awsome Topic Brandi!!!
I am getting married in 10 days and we just tallied up all the expenses...big money pits...Dress (1200) Invites and place cards (900) and the little things like matches, napkins, favor boxes, ribbon, table glitter. I also somehow managed to spend yes a grnd total of 1000 on new makeup, lotions and potions, jewlery and hair accesiories because i kept buying everything i liked. Stay off the internet..it will suck your wallet dry!!
If i could jump in a time machine and hit myself in the head with a metal bat i would.
The quickest and easiest way to save money on a wedding is also the one way most bride's refuse to consider - limit your guest list. Seriously, if you're like the average person and going over 150, you're going into the outer circles and many of those people won't come, and worse, will RSVP and not show. Limit your guest list. You can have your dream wedding, if you make your guest list small enough. You might find that in the end it boils down to one word - ELOPE. Nothing wrong with that, if that's what you want.
(How many of you thought I was going to say "hire a wedding planner"? ha, ha - We can save you money, but seriously, the guest list, the guest list, THE GUEST LIST - that's the key, and totally in your control, in spite of what your pushy relatives think.)
We spent under $8,000 a little over 3 years ago and had around 120 guests and a 15 person bridal party which was all family and mainly siblings. If I had to do it over again I would have had a mini-destination wedding like Mackinaw Island instead. Anyhow the smartest thing I did was have the reception at a hall that did all the set up and take down. To me it's worth whatever extra they charged. I ended my reception at 10pm to save on DJ and alcohol. We had a small 10' cake and 100 cupcakes with fillings that cost $125 including chocolate hearts wrapped in foil on top of the cupcakes. Instead of the BMs carrying flowers they carried cedar fans (the ones with little cut outs in them). My flower girls were a last minute replacement and I found their dresses at Target for $20 and you couldn't tell they didn't match. We did go a bit crazy with thank you gifts for the girls (jewelry, gloves and hair), the guys got engraved coozies and hunting knives. We also got married on a Friday which probably helped with some of the cost. We didn't rent a limo as the reception site was 3 miles away. Hotel picked us up at the reception site along with some guests.
We did our pictures beforehand and that saved alot of stress and didn't take away anything from the ceremony. Oh my aunt did our programs at a minimal cost and we got cute invites for about $350 professionally done with color ink. We didn't have any planner, I did it all on my own and I was early for everything!
My sister did alot on her own and after doing her wedding last summer I caution anyone doing everything themselves. We were decorating the alter at the time we were supposed to be getting dressed and pictures taken. I did more running around for her wedding weekend than I did the whole time I planned mine.
When I got married over 25yrs ago, I shopped at wearhouses, discount stores and outlets for everything I needed, "this was before the internet computer age." I had a couple of people help. They were dependable and great. Unlike BZs I let these people know I appreciated them. Also, my husband was very responsible to help when needed.
We had almost 400 guest invited (family /friends). We planned a lite dinner (more that appetizers but less than dinner) it was catered. I had friend who specialized in confectionary make my wedding cakes to feed 600 (incase we needed extra). I negotiated a steep discount by bartering with him. I bought my dress at JC Penny's Birdal Shop - Outlet and only paid $35.00 as it was a popular style that was discontinued.We had one limo for the bride and (party) to the church and both bride/ groom from the chruch to the reception. the bridal party arranged their transportation from the chruch to reception. Our photographer was a family friend we paid, he did a great job. We got jewlery for the wedding party as thank you gifts. My entire wedding cost less that 2,800. I look at the weddnig photos and it still amazes me how beautiful everything was. It all came together perfectly. What a Blessed Day!
I had my wedding at the Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas. 29 people including me and my husband. They provided a wedding planner but my sister did a lot. The wedding package covered a lot of stuff (dvd, pictures, flowers, marriage license, justice of the peace, location, reception etc). The destination wedding was way cheaper then having in in Mass (wher ei live). Since it may be a hardship for some and it is an intimate wedding, you have a reason on why you do not have to invite every tom, dick, and harry. It wa sa mini-vacation for everyone that came. I wouldn't have changed it for anything.
Elope or go very intimate!
I wished we would have after spending $23,000 on a wedding ceremony and reception one year ago for 70 guests, most of whom I will never see again in my life. I felt like we had a big party just to appease my immediate family members that were too uptight to travel out of state to the small destination wedding my spouse and I originally wanted to have. I was very indifferent on my actual wedding day because of this, not overly happy or excited like I should have been. But it's all about what works best for you. Stick with it!
I would like to see WE do an update program on how many of these women actually are still married to the groom.
First and foremost, do what you want. Don't listen to so and so about how this one did their wedding and how all weddings should be like that.
To start, you could first cut the cost by having an afternoon wedding. It cost me almost half of what it would have cost me at night and still offered the same exact menu. Second, you do not need to invite everyone. I had a very small intimate wedding of 115 people, my sisters was 260 just to give an idea of what I think big is, and it was lovely. The less people, the less money. I also had very beautiful flowers but nothing big. I live my life with KISS-Keep it simple stupid. Why would I spend $150 for a centerpiece that I'm not even going to use. I also did my own invitations. When I receive invitations, I put the info on my calendar and throw it out. Someone told me that invitations set the tone of how your wedding will be but I've been to weddings that had beautiful invitations and the party itself wasn't great. Hope I helped a little.
I never had the fortune to hire a wedding planner. But I was BLESSED with a wonderful family. I was very young when I married my first (Abusive JackAss) husband, but my mother, grandmother and my aunts stepped right in and helped me with everything, from invitations to location, food and music. I even bought my wedding dress at a thrift store for $5.30 and had it cleaned for $65.00 (this was back in 1985) The groom's aunt even made our wedding cake. (it really was beautiful). My second wedding (to the love of my life) 13 years ago. I was more established in my life and I could afford a little bit of luxury. To save money we got married at one of the wedding hot spots in Kansas City... Loose Park Rose Garden. Because it was a public park it only cost us around $350.00 to reserve the rose garden for the wedding and the main Pavillion for the reception. My church donated all the tables chairs that were needed for the wedding. and because we were married in a rose garden we didn't need to purchase any floral arrangements. I have an awesome friend and church member who is an amateur DJ (He is really good) so $300 (paid for by my family as a gift) took care of him for the evening. I went to Lane Bryant's for my wedding dress and since I had a very small wedding party (but I have a VERY large family) I bought the MOH and my 3 BM's dresses from our local JCPenny outlet. I didn't register anywhere, I didn't ask for any gifts, I just asked my guests to show up. (But I didn't say I didn't GET anything) I was just happy and blessed that after suffering for so long with my first (Abusive) husband that God has blessed me with a REAL MAN who really loves me.
Always work a deal. Never agree right away.