Comments on: How much did you spend on your wedding or are planning to spend? How many guests did you have?

By: cheap_wedding_solutions

cheap_wedding_solutions — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:20:20 +0000

If you do a lot of the wedding planning yourself then you can keep the costs down.
Make your own invites.
Hold your wedding party in a local park/beach or friends house.
Hold your reception outside of normal eating times this way you will be able to serve a fun afternoon tea party, or an evening bbq, or increasingly popular cocktails and canapes. A new trend is to have food stations – noodle bars, mexican bar.
http://www.cheap-wedding-solutions.com/cheap-wedding-reception-menu.html
For everything else shop around, sales, internet, and borrow! Get as much help as possible – you will be amazed at how clever your friends and family are.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:14:57 +0000

I was married in 2005 with 98 guests – total budget stayed around $ 7000 – we allowed a photographer who was trying to build a portfolio to attend, so we cut costs there, and we had a seated dinner with London Broil and chicken, plus a wine bar. My gown was $ 1000, chair covers were a pretty penny but made up for lack of extravagant centerpieces, and we stayed clear of roses, and opted for a more affordable flower for beautiful bouquets for the entire bridal party. Only regret? Rented our arbor for outdoor wedding – should have purchased one. My sister just bought her vinyl arbor http://www.yardenvy.com/vinyl-arbor.asp model 16491 and now they plan to use it in their garden after the wedding day. I found her a coupon for another 10% off – SSHH10OFF Oh – and cut your fiance’s family in half, or make it an adult only wedding – that saves a lot of money.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:54:27 +0000

You can spend as much or as little as you like (within reason) there are so many options avaiable to save money (especially in this economy).

The average wedding costs about $ 15K-$ 30K in my area.

Good Luck with everything!

http://www.centerpieceinabox.com

By: April

April — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:20:25 +0000

I am getting married in May and I am very happy with the way things are turning out. I consider myself to have pretty good taste adn we have only spent 1500 so far. After everything is over I would say the overall cost is 2500. I have a very creative family and have a lot of help. My guest list is about 175

By: kvsbpv

kvsbpv — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:18:21 +0000

I got married in July 2008. We had a destination wedding in Hawaii. 40 guests. Spent about $ 5000. It was perfect, I would not have had it any other way.

By: Princess W

Princess W — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:32:47 +0000

My wedding cost $ 5000. There were about 500 people there. I don’t know how formal you’re wanting, but I would think you could have a wedding for 100 for less than that! It will help alot that it’s an outdoor wedding. Mine was too. That cut down alot of the cost on trying to find a venue.

By: nova_queen_28

nova_queen_28 — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:08:59 +0000

We are inviting 195 guests and we know today that 15 are definitely not going to be able to make it so we are confident our final number will come down from where it is now.
Our budget is based on all 195 and it is sitting at just under $ 20k for the wedding and rehearsal dinner (no honeymoon in that budget).

We are not in the most expensive area (like Los Angeles or New York) but we are not in the most affordable area either. We have nowhere that could accomodate 100+ wedding guests so we had to shop around for a banquet hall. We are having a buffet dinner, full open bar for 6 hours, typical multi-tiered cake, a DJ, photographer, and the pretty usual stuff.
We are cutting back on flowers, bargain hunted for attire and are skipping limos (scary that with a $ 20k budget we have to cut back, but that is the nature of where we live).

By: Tippy's Mom

Tippy's Mom — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:54:41 +0000

Well, mine was back in 1979 and it was HUGE! We had a DJ, an open bar, and enough food to choke 50 elephants! We ate and drank and danced till 2 am! I sent out 300 hand colored invitations, and had 150 attending. the cost with invitations, parties, flowers, dress, photographer, entertainment, food and liquor came to less than $ 5000. We planned well, my parents helped out immensely between the planning, the finances and sitting and coloring the invitations ourselves (that was a lot of fun!) and just getting ready for it was a lot of fun! Stressful, but fun. No one says you have to entertain them at the Ritz, if you cannot afford it, don’t do it! I would rather have people I know and love at a picnic wedding reception, than a huge, lavish party with a bunch of people I don’t know or my groom didn’t know. Of course, this is also a time to be introduced to all those far flung cousins, and aunts and uncles. But if they are family members that you didn’t know as a kid, why should they be there to be introduced to your husband? I prefer much more intimate family members and friends, such as my cousin Dennis, whom I spent vacations in Michigan with, my Grams who I spent my summers with, my grooms childhood friends, and family he is close to, but may not have seen in recent years. That is what is special. Having your Dad’s second cousin of his best friend that he hasn’t seen since the second coming, well, probably shouldn’t be on your list, unless you or your family has deep pockets. This day and age, people like to invite the office, not me! I would have a small shower maybe, but nothing says they need be invited, unless you are especially close to them. Myself, I like getting the announcements to friends childrens weddings, but I don’t expect to be invited. Others get totally bent out of shape if they are not on the guest list. But at some point, you need to be realistic, and WHAT you want and WHAT your budget is, MEET REALITY! Plan according to that for happiness! Going over a budget is a sure fire recipe for starting your life on the wrong foot. You can have a lovely, well planned wedding that doesn’t involve inviting the Pope, that will leave lasting memories of those that attend, family, yourself and your beloved! Make it count for something, not just a blanket invitation for the world, because they are connected by some happenstance! Good luck and congratulations!

By: Blushing Bride

Blushing Bride — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:15:52 +0000

For 100 people your budget can range from $ 3,000 to $ 20,000. It all just depends on how extravagant you go. If you are looking for a reasonable budget and are being careful with your investments you could pull off a great wedding for about $ 5,000 or $ 6,000. The big thing that adds up the cost is food and flowers. They will be the majority of your budget. Rentals will most likely be the other majority.

We are having about 90 ppl at the most and our budget is around $ 5,000 to $ 6,000. I am having my wedding outdoors too. Remember to have a back up plan incase it rains. Even though your back up plan may not be what you are wanting, you still have to have one.

Start calling around and looking at prices on rentals and food. Check with florist and get an estimate on what the total will be. That is basically what we did, just check the prices and go from there. Good luck!

By: {B2B 9.5.09} {MOH 10.10.09}

{B2B 9.5.09} {MOH 10.10.09} — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:01:14 +0000

We are spending about $ 7,000 for about 80 people. We are doing a lot of it ourselves (flowers, invitations, decorations, etc.) and using all the contacts we have to get the best deals. I found a photographer on Craigslist who is just starting out, so they are only charging $ 500. My fiance works for a linen company, so we are getting nice linens for free, and my mom’s friend has a dj business, so we are getting a good deal. My fiance’s mom makes bakery quality cakes, so all we have to pay for are the ingredients!

See what kind of connections you two have and see what you can work out! And do as much as you can yourselves. Good luck!