So im spending a lazy Sunday watching four weddings us. Whilst most brides are spening 20-30grand, some are spending ove $80 000. An 'intimate' wedding is 80people....seriously! My budget is 9000and whilst there are things I would have loved to have, Im being sensible. What are your budgets, and if you had all the money in the world, would you spend $80 000 on one day??
CommentAuthorKatya
no way would i spend that much! not in a million years! Dont get me wrong if i had a euro win or something, i would bring the wedding forward a year as atm im just waiting on the finances, i would also buy a house or three (1 to live in, 2 to rent out), i would also advertise my business more, but my wedding would be exactly the same just maybe next year rather than in 2 years...... my budget at a push is... £4500 which includes £1000 honeymoon/spending money/food etc
Find out who you are & do it on purpose!
CommentAuthorValentinaK
Hard to say budget as parents paying for most but they have a budget in mind of around £6000 for food and drink. We got the venue for free, dress was £1400 cars £550 and I have to buy own flowers, decorations and photograpy which we paid £1350 for. Still got to get BM dresses... up to £200 each x 4, and entertainment. I've bought loads of fake flowers(£100) and spent £110.10 so far on my centre pieces... which are jars filled with glass pepples, pearl garland led lights and decorated with a crotchet lace ribbon and plastic diamond crystals.
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And we lived happily ever after!
CommentAuthorLauraJo87
Hiya
I love four weddings US...but I can't believe how much some of them spend!! They do seem to have much larger weddings than us though (although that's probably a massive generalisation, sorry!)
Our budget is 7.5k including honeymoon, looks like we will be coming in about 6k...realistically we could have spent more, this was the amount we could save without seriously changing our lifestyle...
I don't feel like we have compromised on anything in our wedding so far, so I don't know whether or not I would have spent more if I had a larger budget...however I do think it's a personal choice and people should be free to spend there money however they want to.
A friend of ours had a budget of 30k, and it was a lovely day, however she had three times as many guests as we have (and an open bar) so that made up for a lot of the difference. I can see why, if they have 300-400 guests that the budget can get so big!
Also, they seem to have a shed load more food than most uk weddings I've been too! Xx
This is a hard one, because in someways it would be great to splash out. however if im honest with savings we are fine to afford our wedding its more the fact that i begrudge spending so much money on one day.i think if i had 80k i would rather spend it on an actual investment. X
CommentAuthorLauraM9144
we have a budget of around £3000 without a honeymoon as we are aving donations at the wedding towards one so that will happen if we can afford it later. If i was unlimited there are a few adjustments i would make like inviting a few more people maybe have a better drinks package but other than that i think it would all be as it is now i have loved making bits and bobs and negotiating prices and the venue couldnt be more perfect for me my dress £56! i love . One thing i would definitely have imporoved is our wedding rings as the ones we have we both dont like but they were £40 for both so they will do for now we have agreed to buy special ones when we can afford it . oh and i would have gone to a clinic somewhere and had a full body overhaul and have my teeth fixed would love to smile properly :/ if i can sae an extra £450 in the next couple of months then im going to buy a snap on smile but its not looking very likely ;( . But that said there is no way i could justify spending anything more than £5000 on one day and a small part of me still thinks we could have done x with that money lol
One BIG day will lead to lots of little happy days !!
CommentAuthorKirsty
Yes my venue was 6500 but was the onky one of the 20 we voewed we even liked, we are calling in alot of favors, won our photographer and am making lots to bring it in on budget. I am marrying a groomzilla who was very specific on venues, and we needed disabled access so that rulled out quite a few! Wedding party attire is especially expensive!
I dont know if I would even invite more people, we have everyone we want! And woukd you realistically get to speak to everyone if you had 200 guests??
CommentAuthorLauraJo87
Lol I don't think I know 200 people! Xx
My Beating Heart Belongs To You
30 August 2013
The First Day Of My Happily Ever After
CommentAuthorsarah
lol... An important thing to remember is that generally in the US there are only all day guests only. No day guest/evening guest distinction. That will add to numbers. Plus they're not going to show average/small weddings on a show like that, no one would watch it if it was 4 backyard/church pot luck/courthouse/cake & punch reception weddings.
CommentAuthorbarbie86
Honestly, if money were no object, I'd quite easily spend $80k lol; with that we'd pay for accommodation for all our guests, either at our venue or another 5* hotel across the road, we'd have a fully open bar all evening, we'd upgrade the wines with the meal, we'd have something like fillet mignon/chateaubriand as one of the options for the main course, we'd buy an album (having to wait a year as they cost £1k), OH would have a platinum ring rather than palladium, just because, we'd pay for the bridesmaids shoes/accessories, etc.
Oh, and I'd have had someone make the blimming stationery, I had no idea how long it would take! Finally finished 70 save the dates which took HOURS, and still have the invites to do, plus the name cards, plus the OOS/OOD/table plan, urgh! However, the save the dates do look pretty darn good (from the front at any rate lol), so, all is not lost!
Also agree with sarah: weddings are very different over there eg all guests are invited to the entire event, it would be considered rude to do what is the norm here and have some people to the day and additional people to the evening. They also consider it horrendously rude (in general) not to give EVERYONE a plus 1; whereas here, it would be perfectly fine to, say, invite a group of work colleagues to the evening do, over there you would also have to invite their partners.
From what I've seen they also provide a CRAZY amount of food. I mean, we're providing 4 canapes pp during the drinks reception, followed by a 3 course meal, followed by the buffet and wedding cake in the evening. For their cocktail hour alone (and seriously, it is like an hour, or 2 max), they sometimes provide a whole host of 'stations' eg a 'past station', and then on top of that, they serve a 3-4 course meal!!
It is also the norm in most states to provide a full open, or open, bar, for at least several hours. Cash bars are very much frowned upon in some areas (some people feel so strongly that they believe that if you can't provide unlimited free alcohol, you should not provide alcohol as an option at all; imagine how that would go down over here!!)
Ironically though, their per head costs tend to be much lower than ours; eg they can provide a fully open bar, with top-shelf liquor (eg Grey Goose), for as little as like £15 pp for 4 hours!! But, because their weddings tend to be bigger, and because they provide so much food, costs will quickly mount up.
