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How much did you guys spend on your wedding?

I think around $35,000 including honeymoon but not including the ring. I'm pretty sure I got $20,000 in gifts back. Good thing Chinese like giving cash instead of a gift.

I'm going to a couple weddings this year, I'm sure the one in May, they are spending close to $100,000 and one in August over $50,000.

We both said if we had a choice, we would rather spend $15,000 on a destination wedding/vacation instead of a wedding.
 
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We went to the court house and it cost $75

When we got divorced did the do it your self deal and it cost $150ish
 
I forget at this point but we didn't spend much, it was a second wedding for both of us. We got married on a boat and then to the local yacht club for the reception. I think it was a probably under 5k for everything including food and photographer. The honeymoon in Hawaii was a bit pricey but that was worth it.
 
I probably spent ~1400 ring, wedding, and reception. I was stationed in Hawaii at the time so we got married on the beach and did not honeymoon.
 
I have to say that the very idea of large, incredibly expensive weddings just fills me with undiluted horror.

Indeed, I find myself thinking of so much else - stuff that is useful, stuff that you may like which may not be useful but which will give you pleasure over a number of years - that this vast sum of money could have been spent on instead.
 
I got married in 1980, while in the USNavy and my wedding was low cost. It included a church (on base), a reception at the enlisted club, low cost rings cause we needed the money for furniture, and a modest honeymoon as I was being transferred from Texas to California, so our honeymoon was mostly a road trip to my new station paid mostly with moving expenses. However over the years, my wife has not remained the fiscal bargain she started out as. 😛

Regarding expensive modern weddings, I'm with Scepticalscribe on this. What excess and a monumental waste of finances that could be used instead towards securing the average couple's future. i realize divorse is supposed to not part of the equation, but I wonder how many former couples kick themselves when they look at their $20k loan or more and wonder what were they thinking? It's just a ceremony, a happy time. I hate it when they live Locally but ask you to jump on a plane and fly to Vegas or Hawaii. No thanks. Get married at home, and do the exotic local as your honeymoon.

Ideally a nice ceremony elevated above Justice of the Peace level, in a nice setting, with a nicely dressed bride, groom, and wedding party (rented attire 😉), modest reception, a full meal is not required, and a decent vacation as can be afforded by the couple. I really don't see a need to project how affluent you are unless you really are that affluent. 😉 Otherwise use the $xxk loan to put a down payment on a house instead. 🙂
 
We went casual, laid back and small by design. Only invited close family and friends, kept it under 20 or so people - got married on the beach, at a beautiful sunrise ceremony, had a local musician on an acoustic playing some great music - we even wrote our own vows.

For the reception, we walked back over to our house - the cake and food were provided by some of the best in the area, also used a highly respected pro photographer. We spent money where it counted 🙂

After we ate, drank, ate some more, drank a lot more 😀 we simply invited everyone to make themselves at home, grab a board and hit the waves, a chair and chill at the beach, relax on our deck, take a nap ... whatever. It was about celebrating an amazing moment in our lives with people we loved and not putting any pressure on anyone.

No idea about the final tally, we did exactly what _we_ wanted, which was totally in sync - my wife is/was not into the big giant, overblown wedding with 300 people you don't know 😀
 
Scepticalscribe said:
I have to say that the very idea of large, incredibly expensive weddings just fills me with undiluted horror.

Indeed, I find myself thinking of so much else - stuff that is useful, stuff that you may like which may not be useful but which will give you pleasure over a number of years - that this vast sum of money could have been spent on instead.
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I find myself in full agreement with you.

D.T. said:
We went casual, laid back and small by design. Only invited close family and friends, kept it under 20 or so people - got married on the beach, at a beautiful sunrise ceremony, had a local musician on an acoustic playing some great music - we even wrote our own vows.

For the reception, we walked back over to our house - the cake and food were provided by some of the best in the area, also used a highly respected pro photographer. We spent money where it counted 🙂

After we ate, drank, ate some more, drank a lot more 😀 we simply invited everyone to make themselves at home, grab a board and hit the waves, a chair and chill at the beach, relax on our deck, take a nap ... whatever. It was about celebrating an amazing moment in our lives with people we loved and not putting any pressure on anyone.

No idea about the final tally, we did exactly what _we_ wanted, which was totally in sync - my wife is/was not into the big giant, overblown wedding with 300 people you don't know 😀
Click to expand...

That sounds quite excellent. 😀
 
tzhu07 said:
I just did a Google search, and it turns out in 2012 the median cost was around ~$18,000 according to a Slate article:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/...rs_on_the_price_of_a_wedding_are_totally.html

WAT 😱

I hope many of those couples are recouping their costs in the form of gifts from the guests.
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Very easily. All depends on how big or little you spend. $100 at the courthouse... or over 100k with some elaborate party.

Wedding cost me 5k for ring, and ~6k for honeymoon. Costa Rica plane tickets were cheap on Spirit, but we stayed in a swank jungle resort.

Her parents... spent big. 4 days of open bar, private chartered large ship with 3 dance halls.
 
Huntn said:
I got married in 1980, while in the USNavy and my wedding was low cost. It included a church (on base), a reception at the enlisted club, low cost rings cause we needed the money for furniture, and a modest honeymoon as I was being transferred from Texas to California, so our honeymoon was mostly a road trip to my new station paid mostly with moving expenses. However over the years, my wife has not remained the fiscal bargain she started out as. 😛

Regarding expensive modern weddings, I'm with Scepticalscribe on this. What excess and a monumental waste of finances that could be used instead towards securing the average couple's future. i realize divorse is supposed to not part of the equation, but I wonder how many former couples kick themselves when they look at their $20k loan or more and wonder what were they thinking? It's just a ceremony, a happy time. I hate it when they live Locally but ask you to jump on a plane and fly to Vegas or Hawaii. No thanks. Get married at home, and do the exotic local as your honeymoon.

Ideally a nice ceremony elevated above Justice of the Peace level, in a nice setting, with a nicely dressed bride, groom, and wedding party (rented attire 😉), modest reception, a full meal is not required, and a decent vacation as can be afforded by the couple. I really don't see a need to project how affluent you are unless you really are that affluent. 😉 Otherwise use the $xxk loan to put a down payment on a house instead. 🙂
Click to expand...


D.T. said:
We went casual, laid back and small by design. Only invited close family and friends, kept it under 20 or so people - got married on the beach, at a beautiful sunrise ceremony, had a local musician on an acoustic playing some great music - we even wrote our own vows.

For the reception, we walked back over to our house - the cake and food were provided by some of the best in the area, also used a highly respected pro photographer. We spent money where it counted 🙂

After we ate, drank, ate some more, drank a lot more 😀 we simply invited everyone to make themselves at home, grab a board and hit the waves, a chair and chill at the beach, relax on our deck, take a nap ... whatever. It was about celebrating an amazing moment in our lives with people we loved and not putting any pressure on anyone.

No idea about the final tally, we did exactly what _we_ wanted, which was totally in sync - my wife is/was not into the big giant, overblown wedding with 300 people you don't know 😀
Click to expand...

Sounds excellent, both of you.

Some of my close friends married in a registry office, with just a very few close friends and small number of family and had a nice meal afterwards.

Some years ago, - this was the late 80s - one of my colleagues at the university, a left wing leaning professor in the English Dept, one of those handsome charming characters who was in a position to take full advantage of the new world opened up by Sixties liberalism and consequent changing mores, - and did - possibly inevitably, married quite late in life. Not only did he have a rather extravagant wedding (full of appropriate left wing symbolism) but he proceeded to invite most of his left wing drinking buddies to accompany him on his honeymoon to Cuba.

mobilehaathi said:
I find myself in full agreement with you.



That sounds quite excellent. 😀
Click to expand...

I thought we'd be of a similar mind on this.
 
Married in the back yard of our own house by the county clerk and witnessed by two friends.

18 years years later and we're still going strong ... proof that you don't have to spend a lot to get a good one.
 
I'm not married but when I do I do not want a big wedding.

My close family and friends, that's it. Not everyone in the world. Actually, I probably wouldn't even want a ceremony even though it's culturally and religiously expected... And the fact my girlfriend would want one. I hate ceremonies more than anything.
 
mobilehaathi said:
That sounds quite excellent. 😀
Click to expand...

It was pretty amazing, maybe I'll post up a few photos to totally bore everyone 😀

I guess one thing to point out: I think younger, less "established" folks are probably more prone to capitalizing on large invites, that yield large volumes of wedding gifts. We were both a bit older, were in a nice financial situation (coming off an acquisition), so we even requested no gifts 🙂
 
$25,000. Ceremony at a chapel in Novato and reception Sausalito at the Casa Madrona.

Wedding date: September 9, 2001.
 
Got married for about £3000 in 1998. Church Wedding and reception for about 120 guests. Honeymoon was a gift from some friends. It was a loverly cottage in the Cotswolds.
Around the same time a friend got married for £25000. He hadn't finished paying for it when they got divorced.
 
About $3,000 in 2014. Used a public park for the ceremony, a banquet room at a restaurant for the reception dinner and then stayed in a suite in downtown. It's all we could afford without going into debt or our parents taking loans out.
 
About $12 in Japan to sign papers at city hall. Had an omelette for lunch in the same building afterwards. Wouldn't do it any other way.

Most people I know who wasted a boatload of money on $30k weddings weren't paying for it. These are not surprisingly also the same people who didn't pay for their own school and didn't buy their own house within just months of getting married either, so it is what it is. At least IME, those with spendy weddings aren't paying for them.

Weddings are a colossal waste of money IMO. Just putting large sums of money into someone else's pocket unnecessarily.
 
Just under $30k in 1990, about $53k adjusted for inflation, including rings and honeymoon. But I did print the invitations myself. 🙂
 
puma1552 said:
About $12 in Japan to sign papers at city hall. Had an omelette for lunch in the same building afterwards. Wouldn't do it any other way.

Most people I know who wasted a boatload of money on $30k weddings weren't paying for it. These are not surprisingly also the same people who didn't pay for their own school and didn't buy their own house within just months of getting married either, so it is what it is. At least IME, those with spendy weddings aren't paying for them.

Weddings are a colossal waste of money IMO. Just putting large sums of money into someone else's pocket unnecessarily.
Click to expand...

I paid about the same in Okinawa, paid $15,000 for my daughter's wedding they were divorced in 6 months, go figure!
 
We did it on the cheap.

$10k including the 7 day disney world honey moon.

Didn't want to finance anything.
 
My next wedding (if it ever happen) will be a small one.
Maybe same budget 10K-ish, but spent differently.

With all the things I have experienced later on shooting weddings I can say that less is absolutely more.

The happiest couples I´ve shoot are the ones with just a few guests whom they really like and have time to talk and enjoy the day with.

The bigger the wedding, the bigger the stress and it´s more fun to give your 20? favorite people a really nice dinner than giving 200 people a cheaper version just so that you can afford having them all.

It takes some balls to don´t invite anybody beyond your best friends and -favorite- family members, but from what I can tell It seems worth it.
(At least that day 😎 )

Most people seem to be more concerned about what the uninvited will say behind their back than what their own wedding experience will be.
 
Our wedding probably cost more than I think, but we held the line on a lot of things. There were a lot of flowers - purchased wholesale and arranged by family. (It's nice to have florists in the family.)

We did buffet style for dinner - that saved us a heap. The funny thing was when we got the the reception, the photographer, DJ, and caterer were waiting at the door for us. They had already come up with a plan to keep things on schedule (the food was running a bit late). If you are going to have a "traditional" wedding reception, being surrounded by professionals is a good thing.

I had started a new job just months before so I had no vacation to use. That in mind, we were married on the Sunday before Labor Day. We both had family traveling in so a day on either side really helped travel plans. No honeymoon for us until a year later. And you know, that was alright. We were so exhausted after the wedding that an expensive trip would have been a total waste of money.
 
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