How much did your wedding cost?

[Doublebase]

We're currently looking at places for the reception. The one her and I really like is about 200$ a head. Ridiculous. Her parents are giving us 10k. Which is really generous considering they still have 2 kids in college. The rest is up to me. I want to do it for under 20k. I was thinking more like 70$ a head. What did you spend? I'm asking about everything. Down to the flowers and the DJ. Anyways you found to cut corners?

[DontStop]

That is pretty generous! Your parents aren't chipping in?

[Doublebase]

That is pretty generous! Your parents aren't chipping in?

Traditionally the grooms parents take care of the rehearsal dinner. My parents will do that and probably help with the wedding some.

[largepkg]

Dude, you're in for an awakening if you think $70 a head is possible. Actually, if you take alcohol out of the reception and cocktail hour then it might be.

My wedding was 3/18 and for the cocktail hour and reception we were at $145 a head. That was for a 1/2 hour outdoor ceremony, 1 hour cocktail hour(included 6 passed Horsd’ouvres, and 4 stations), and a 5 hour reception. The dinner was 6 courses, and we had open bar with top shelf liquor and full table service.

It's easy to quantify a per head charge but wait until you add all the other expenses in. It'll be enough to choke someone.

[Doublebase]

Dude, you're in for an awakening if you think $70 a head is possible. Actually, if you take alcohol out of the reception and cocktail hour then it might be.

My wedding was 3/18 and for the cocktail hour and reception we were at $145 a head. That was for a 1/2 hour outdoor ceremony, 1 hour cocktail hour(included 6 passed Horsd’ouvres, and 4 stations), and a 5 hour reception. The dinner was 6 courses, and we had open bar with top shelf liquor and full table service.

It's easy to quantify a per head charge but wait until you add all the other expenses in. It'll be enough to choke someone.

6 course meal is a lot. I was thinking more along the lines of a buffet. My sister's reception was 66$ head and it was very nice.

[Jodi]

When I got married we spent as little as possible on the wedding but still made it nice. I had the full blown traditional marriage but no way in hell was I spending my entire savings. Including honeymoon........9K was all I spent. I see no reason why I should be paying tons of money for a person to come to my wedding for them to eat and drink. I still had the full meal thing with the cake etc.. but I did not do open bar. I had limo's a beautiful gown, photographer the whole works. I can't even fathom the idea why anyone would spend so much money on a wedding. You have to live afterwards. What's the point of dumping everything you own into a single day? Makes absolutely no sense to me. It goes by so fast you won't even remember it and after a few years you even forget all about it. Stupid spending IMO.

[MeatZatk]

we made a few CD's and skipped the dj thing. Had more of a buffet style meal buying stuff from Costco. We also had the reception in her parents backyard (big yard). I think we kept it to about $4000.

[Doublebase]

When I got married we spent as little as possible on the wedding but still made it nice. I had the full blown traditional marriage but no way in hell was I spending my entire savings. Including honeymoon........9K was all I spent. I see no reason why I should be paying tons of money for a person to come to my wedding for them to eat and drink. I still had the full meal thing with the cake etc.. but I did not do open bar. I had limo's a beautiful gown, photographer the whole works. I can't even fathom the idea why anyone would spend so much money on a wedding. You have to live afterwards. What's the point of dumping everything you own into a single day? Makes absolutely no sense to me. It goes by so fast you won't even remember it and after a few years you even forget all about it. Stupid spending IMO.

In order to get what you had I have to spend that much. Open bar is only 2k. Wedding with around 130guests is very expensive here. The halls we looked at are around 3 thousand just to rent. Not including anything.

[MeatZatk]

oh, and we had a friend who works for Bud donate 3 kegs as the wedding gift.

[Jodi]

In order to get what you had I have to spend that much. Open bar is only 2k. Wedding with around 130guests is very expensive here. The halls we looked at are around 3 thousand just to rent. Not including anything.

PA is probably a HELL of a lot cheaper than Boston so I don't think you are looking hard enough My sister is getting married and she's having 200 guest and has kept it to 14K and this is at Endicott College in Beverly MA. NOT CHEAP! It took me several months of shopping around to find the best deals. Why waste your entire savings on one single day is beyond me. If I had to do it all over again..........Vegas

[largepkg]

When I got married we spent as little as possible on the wedding but still made it nice. I had the full blown traditional marriage but no way in hell was I spending my entire savings. Including honeymoon........9K was all I spent. I see no reason why I should be paying tons of money for a person to come to my wedding for them to eat and drink. I still had the full meal thing with the cake etc.. but I did not do open bar. I had limo's a beautiful gown, photographer the whole works. I can't even fathom the idea why anyone would spend so much money on a wedding. You have to live afterwards. What's the point of dumping everything you own into a single day? Makes absolutely no sense to me. It goes by so fast you won't even remember it and after a few years you even forget all about it. Stupid spending IMO.

I couldn't agree more. I was in an uncomfortable situation. Her side of the family comes from money and my side doesn't. Her parents agreed to pay the majority (and when I say the majority I mean 90-95%) of the cost so I couldn't argue. I did say to them that it would make a hell of an engagement gift for us rather than giving it to some country club but to no avail.

Her family would've been extremely embarrassed for her family to come to anything less than what we had. I know it sounds awful but that's the kind of people most of them are.

I will say I'm extremely glad they are that way because we took it to the bank on gifts! I nearly shit myself when I read the spread sheet total!

[Doublebase]

I will probably end up in debt after my wedding.

[largepkg]

I will probably end up in debt after my wedding.

No offense but if you do then you're a dumbass!

[NeilPearson]

No offense but if you do then you're a dumbass!

I agree... that is a dumb way to start out.

My wedding was about $5k (we only invited about 25 people)

My divorce is going to be much more expensive

[Doublebase]

No offense but if you do then you're a dumbass!

I've would never go into debt over something like that. I will probably only make out with a couple of grand. My sister said some of our family members only gave like 25$ a couple.