They say the avg cost of a wedding in the US is about $27K (not including honeymoon), and in NY, the amount is over $65K!! (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/23/us-wedding-costs-idUSBRE82M11O20120323)
We spent $30K (not including honeymoon), which I thought was a lot but I guess it's just average.
101 votes
cantaloupe / 6800 posts
Our wedding was about 13k. Honeymoon made it to 15k.
My parents paid for it 100% and I am SO grateful.
eggplant / 11287 posts
our wedding was $15k. We paid for it ourselves. I wish we had a cheaper wedding. Now that it is all over I would rather have that money than the fancy wedding that lasted one night.
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
Ours was a little over $6K. We had an intimate destination wedding on the beach in Key West. My dress and the photographer made up over half of our budget!
clementine / 957 posts
We had a small backyard wedding and splurged on the honeymoon. Most of our budget for the wedding was photography and food!
We could either put money towards a home or a wedding. We chose the home 
pineapple / 12802 posts
Our goal was $10,000 but we ended up spending about $16,000. Still had no debt but it would have been nice to stay on budget. 
pineapple / 12234 posts
Ours was about 38k including rings and honeymoon. We saved for a year and a half though and paid for it ourselves.
hostess / wonderful watermelon / 39513 posts
Ours was 38k without rings. We paid for everything but received generous cash gifts from our family. In a few weeks, I'm going to a $100k + wedding!
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
With our honeymoon it was about $22K. My parents gave us $6K and his parents gave us $2K and paid for the rehearsal dinner and some of the flowers. The rest we paid for. While I would love to have more of that money, I don't regret spending it on the wedding one bit.
cantaloupe / 6751 posts
@Rainbow Sprinkles: I totally agree w/you on wishing we had a cheaper wedding. I would rather have put the money towards the house or something.
watermelon / 14467 posts
Our wedding was less than $5k. I designed our invites myself, my dress was a budget dress from DB, and we were given a lot of things, such as the use of our reception/rehearsal venue (a friends farm). We were just out of college (actually, DH was still in grad school) and I'm so glad we didn't blow everything on the wedding. We also didn't go on a honeymoon.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
It was about $20k. My parents paid for everything except the rehearsal dinner (we paid for most of that) and our honeymoon (we covered that, as well). I wouldn't change a thing.
pineapple / 12802 posts
@MungBean: @Rainbow Sprinkles: we ended up buying our house a few days before our wedding, if everything hadn't of already been paid for I would have reconsidered where to put our $16k. lol
cantaloupe / 6885 posts
Ours was around 12000. Weddings are much less expensive in my small Canadian town. DH and My parents both helped out tremendously - I would say it was split evenly 3 ways between us and them. We were fortunate to have the day of our dreams within our budget!
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
Ours was so expensive. (Almost $30k including honeymoon). My parents threw in about $3k. My grandma gave $5k. We used about $5k of our own money. And DH's generous, lovely parents paid for the rest, so, like $17k.
grapefruit / 4187 posts
My wedding was over $100K but my parents paid for and planned the majority of it. I was the fourth and last child to get married so my older siblings set the bar for what my wedding was going to be like!
persimmon / 1165 posts
We spent less than $5k. We were younger and I was just out of college, so our budget was much smaller. Looking back, our wedding was exactly how we wanted it and if we were to get married now, we agreed we'd still spend about the same amount. I care more about the marriage, not just a wedding that lasted one day.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
we had it in nyc. it was expensive and i would have spent less if i could do it again. but it was worth it since i started weddingbee.
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
@Mrs. Bee: I think your wedding counts as a business investment also! 
cantaloupe / 6751 posts
@Mrs. Bee: I agree w/@highwire... you should have been able to deduct the cost as business expenses
coconut / 8854 posts
Ours was about 12k without rings and honeymoon. Our honeymoon I still don't even know the cost of, DH paid for it all himself (it was his wedding gift to me) I'm guessing 5-6k at least though. Our rings total were probably around 4k so....20k total?
We paid for it all ourselves, and we didn't go into debt at all.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
We budgeted 35k, but actual was closer to 40k without rings and honeymoon. We paid for it all ourselves, but received generous gifts during the reception from family so that helped out some.
pear / 1895 posts
Ours was less than $5k. My dad gave me $20k to spend on a new vehicle and my wedding. I spent $18k on the car, and I don't regret it! My mom gave us $1k and in-laws rented the beach house at which we had the wedding and reception. There are a couple things I would change (like spend a bit more on a better photographer), but overall, I'm SO glad we didn't spend more than we did. All of our friends tell us we had the best reception ever, too!
clementine / 780 posts
Our focus was on our vows ( marriage) not the "wedding" ( the cake , flowers, music, colors, day ordeal).
It was definitely around $ 1000 , and we paid for it ourselves. However, we did make sacrifices and we had some very gracious guests.
I knew in advance that I could spend money better elsewhere- which I know isn't a popular mantra these days in regard to a girl and her big day. And now we have a house paid for with cash, so no mortgage= stay at home mom which is a billion times more important to me than one day.
pear / 1672 posts
I had a NYC wedding, and it was far from $65K with about 100 guests. Granted it wasn't cheap either. It's all about what items and how you decide to spend resources. Either way, it was good time, and DH remembers it fondly. That alone makes it worth it to me.
pomegranate / 3452 posts
We had a big wedding, but were able to keep the reception costs for 175 people under $10k.
pineapple / 12526 posts
Our budget was $10k and we came in very close, a little under. We had an evening wedding with a plated dinner and open bar for 65 people. Between me and my mom, we managed to haggle a lot of good deals.
pomegranate / 3244 posts
We just got married at the courthouse with the two of us, which was $30 (for the marriage license). Next year sometime we are having a reception/celebration thingamajig with close friends & family, and I can't imagine that costing more than $5000.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
We eloped so it cost us less than $100.
6 months later my parents threw us a wedding celebration! We had a "renewal" ceremony at a church and a reception at a hotel.
Parents paid for it and it probably cost ~$20k total
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
Our wedding was under $5k, though I don't know the exact cost because my parents paid for a lot of it. We decided to go with a very intimate backyard wedding to save money because we wanted to put more money towards the honeymoon (and we had just bought our house, so we didn't feel like we had a lot to spend).
My parents paid for the tent, tables, chairs, etc and Hubs mom bought and made all the food. My parents also bought the cake, my $200 wedding dress, etc. We paid for the invitations (which I made myself), Hubs suit, and the flowers. I had a friend who was just starting in photography take our pictures as a gift to us, and another friend downloaded all the music and played on his ipod (with our speakers). We had ~35 people in attendance.
eggplant / 11824 posts
Our wedding (not including honeymoon, but including rings) was just under $30k. It would be nice to have 30k more in my savings; but I don't regret spending what we did either. We saved for it for about a year and a half, and we paid for it ourselves in cash.
bananas / 9357 posts
About 15k. My parents helped us with 5k and we paid for the rest ourselves.
honeydew / 7589 posts
3k. We paid for it ourselves and we didn't want any debt, so we chose to make it work on 3k. It was beautiful, and I wouldn't change anything. I spent an entire THIRD of my budget on my dress though... heh.
kiwi / 629 posts
Our budget was $10,000 but I think we went a little bit over, not much though.
We paid for it all ourselves
pomelo / 5791 posts
We originally budgeted for $50k, and it was $65k. We paid for it ourselves, with the exception that my parents threw in for the photography as a gift. We didn't go on a honeymoon, as I was 3 months pregnant at the time, and we didn't want to spend more money!
pineapple / 12793 posts
We spent $28k and I'd totally do it again. I loved our wedding. We had it in RI on the water.
pomelo / 5331 posts
Our was around $17,000 if you didn't count the honeymoon. But that includes every little thing like bridemaids/groomsmen gifts, rings, etc. I did a detailed breakdown for my blog which was the only reason I even know lol.
We had only about 50 people and wasn't at all extravagant, but everything added up quickly. DIY was not always cheapest! We also sprung at the last minute for open bar, flowers, extra time with the photographer -- stuff we didn't initially budget for.
| Today | Monthly Record | |
|---|---|---|
| Topics | 0 | 0 |
| Posts | 1 | 0 |
Ask for Help
Make a Suggestion
Frequently Asked Questions
Bee Levels
Acronyms
Most Viewed Posts
Hellobee Gold
Hellobee Recipes
Hellobee Features
Hellobee Contests
Baby-led Weaning
Bento Boxes
Breastfeeding
Newborn Essentials
Parties
Postpartum Care Essentials
Sensory Play Activities
Sleep Training
Starting Solids Gear
Transitioning to Toddler Bed
All Series
Who We Are
About the Bloggers
About the Hostesses
Contributing Bloggers
Apply to Blog
Apply to Hostess
Submit a Guest Blog
Hellobee Buttons
How We Make Money
Community Policies
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
46 comments