Current Events > How much did a formal wedding ceremony cost you?

(+) Yeah! (+)

You can use a loose range or tell me privately.

I am curious.

The more modern, the better.

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I'm planning one right now, our budget is $30k, and we're already about to blow that. And we are not extravagant people, and have tried to cut costs where possible. We're probably going to spent at least 5-7k more

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Cpt_Pineapple posted...

I paid a couple hundred for the marriage licence and the justice of the peace to perform the marriage. Didn't cost me the 20k-30k all the other people spend on venues, photographers etc....

Where the hell do you live? I feel like my marriage license was maybe $35 and a justice of the peace charged us $60 or so?
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The wife and I don't like all that fancy stuff we just went to the court and wasted less $800 on everything that includes the court, rings, etc.....

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Like $22k
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Mine was around $10k for the venue, open bar, cake, food, and DJ
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We had a pretty basic one with about 100 guests. All around was about $3500 (counting the hall, catering, dress, tux, etc).

It was thrown together within a few months because my mother in law was supposed to be moving out of country and we wanted her to see her daughter get married.

So we got married and her mom was at home passed out drunk and wasn't even going out of the country

So now we're planning a vow renewal where we'll be doing a lot more of the shit we had to cut out (like a photo booth and a DJ that isn't an iPod) but we're still doing it on a budget because we're already married and just bought a big house. Probably gonna go for about $10,000.
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Oh gosh. I'm hoping to to only spend 10-15k.

What are your costs exactly?
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emblem boy posted...

Oh gosh. I'm going to only spend 10-15k.

A venue alone can cost like 5k.

What pisses me off the most is so many of them around here don't give you a price until you've been given a tour.

It's a waste of my time and a waste of their time if it's $10,000 without even adding the in-house catering
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$25k here which is a little unheard of in SoCal. I was able to cut costs by finding a couple of vendors who were up and coming and had lower costs. We chose not to have a videographer which would have been another $3-5k. We got the venue for a steal as they hadnt booked it and the next day was mothers day so not a lot of folks were getting married then. Also my dress was the same one I was going to wear for my first wedding lol

Thatt not counting my ring. Honeymoon was given to us as a present from my mother.

Tired-Insomniac posted...

emblem boy posted...

Oh gosh. I'm going to only spend 10-15k.

A venue alone can cost like 5k.

What pisses me off the most is so many of them around here don't give you a price until you've been given a tour.

It's a waste of my time and a waste of their time if it's $10,000 without even adding the in-house catering

Man, there has to be a way to get in on this wedding business. It's a fucking racket
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emblem boy posted...

Man, there has to be a way to get in on this wedding business. It's a fucking racket

I thought about being a wedding planner since its such a huge business out here with the great weather all year. But then I thought about having to work with crazy bridezillas and was like nah

emblem boy posted...

Tired-Insomniac posted...

emblem boy posted...

Oh gosh. I'm going to only spend 10-15k.

A venue alone can cost like 5k.

What pisses me off the most is so many of them around here don't give you a price until you've been given a tour.

It's a waste of my time and a waste of their time if it's $10,000 without even adding the in-house catering

Man, there has to be a way to get in on this wedding business. It's a fucking racket

Buy a $500 - $800 mirrorless or DSLR camera and some basic equipment and you'll be making bank. Just learn how to color grade.
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Ex-Kefiroth posted...

Spending that kind of money on a wedding is just a sickening waste, IMO.

That money would be so much better spent towards a down payment on a house or something.

Some people can afford both? Or have parents helping because they want to celebrate it. You do you, not sure why you care how others spend their money.

Not to mention I knew I was going to get cash gifts (its a cultural thing). Got $15k in gifts from just my half of the family.

Just to clarify are you referring to the ceremony alone with the celebrant/official/religious leader or the full thing with the reception (sit down meal)?

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emblem boy posted...

Tired-Insomniac posted...

emblem boy posted...

Oh gosh. I'm going to only spend 10-15k.

A venue alone can cost like 5k.

What pisses me off the most is so many of them around here don't give you a price until you've been given a tour.

It's a waste of my time and a waste of their time if it's $10,000 without even adding the in-house catering

Man, there has to be a way to get in on this wedding business. It's a fucking racket

It truly is

Just don't tell places it's a wedding and the price will be lower.
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Not married but my sister spent like $50K.

Brother on the other hand just went to the courthouse.
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Cleo_II posted...

I thought about being a wedding planner since its such a huge business out here with the great weather all year. But then I thought about having to work with crazy bridezillas and was like nah

My friend became a wedding planner, and out of sheer coincidence, we ended up going with him (I didn't realise he was the planner when we picked the vendor). They must make so much on commissions/kick-backs because they don't even charge for their service as long as you're using their vendors (but you can negotiate with the vendors if you wish).

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Ok heres a diff question, as a person that has never had more than maybe $6k in savings in my life, for those of you that had nice weddings- how did you pay?
Was this like a thing you saved for/took out of savings? Payment plans? Credit card? Parents?
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Definitely expect to spend at least $10K, I would say.

I'm not in favor of going super-crazy unless you want to do a destination wedding, since everyone gets something out of that.
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Daffadilio posted...

Ok heres a diff question, as a person that has never had more than maybe $6k in savings in my life, for those of you that had nice weddings- how did you pay?
Was this like a thing you saved for/took out of savings? Payment plans? Credit card? Parents?

Save save save.

It also helped that my girlfriend agreed to follow me to a new country where she would take a 10% paycut (but I basically doubled my salary after tax) and so I proposed to her before we left, and then we knew we wanted to save up for the future. It helped that we moved to Singapore where our living expenses went down significantly.

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Planning a wedding sounds very stressful but at least you only have to do it once (unless you're a serial divorcee...then maybe check yourself).
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Solid Sonic posted...

Planning a wedding sounds very stressful but at least you only have to do it once (unless you're a serial divorcee...then maybe check yourself).

Try doing it for weddings in a different country... having planners helps significantly but it's still stressful.

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When i see the letter k after a number, I laugh hysterically. Why would you spend that kind of money on a fucking wedding? It bewilders me. Why not use that money to take a bad ass honeymoon, or even better yet, a down payment on an awesome house or piece of property?

Oh, wait, I know. Mommy or daddy paid for it.
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0

Her parents paid
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Me and my wife wanted something small and nerdy with close friends. A good friend of ours got ordained so they could perform the ceremony for us, so no cost there.

Everything else, probably about 3k or so.

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Mr_E_Man posted...

When i see the letter k after a number, I laugh hysterically. Why would you spend that kind of money on a fucking wedding? It bewilders me. Why not use that money to take a bad ass honeymoon, or even better yet, a down payment on an awesome house or piece of property?

Oh, wait, I know. Mommy or daddy paid for it.

People don't like cheaping out on something that they (should) remember for a lifetime.

I can see where the costs can be incurred, even for the basics. Catering, venue rental, having a cake made, wedding dress...it's a bulky expense if you want a memorable ceremony.

Though "the father of the bride pays" is b/s. I'm fine with not loading that onto a single individual and spreading the cost around, it's an archaic practice.

These days you can even crowdsource weddings (someone on Shark Tank pitched a site that does that, it's pretty neat and IMO a better solution than a wedding registry).
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Mr_E_Man posted...

When i see the letter k after a number, I laugh hysterically. Why would you spend that kind of money on a fucking wedding? It bewilders me. Why not use that money to take a bad ass honeymoon, or even better yet, a down payment on an awesome house or piece of property?

Oh, wait, I know. Mommy or daddy paid for it.

We spent somewhere between about $67k for the 2 weddings (one in each country) including flights between the locations and some costs for accommodating the extended family (e.g. some flights, rental van) and not including the UK honeymoon. I assure you it wasn't paid by our parents, well not directly anyway. I initially wanted small/cheap but culturally this wasn't going to happen - and that's before we include the other cultural traditions which I learnt called "sanjit" (gifts to the girl's family).

Indirectly, the guests (including family) paid for some of it since we had a wishing well. It actually covered the cost of the catering/reception venues since the rule of thumb is you pay what you think it cost for you/your guest to be there. Don't get me wrong though, we didn't make money (we were still out of pocket by more than half) but in hindsight, I'm glad we did it.

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Spent about 50kPLN which is about $12k. It was incredible. 12k will get you a lot in poland. Genuinely the best day of my life.

mine cost around $30k lol

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JustMyOpinion posted...

but it'll work out because we'll combine finances and get money back from the wedding.

LOL that was my logic on a lot of things too (re combining finance).

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Mr_E_Man posted...

When i see the letter k after a number, I laugh hysterically. Why would you spend that kind of money on a fucking wedding? It bewilders me. Why not use that money to take a bad ass honeymoon, or even better yet, a down payment on an awesome house or piece of property?

Oh, wait, I know. Mommy or daddy paid for it.

Mostly because of women honestly, they want their big princess ball so to speak. We paid $10k for our reception, around 100 people, but if it were up to me we would have had a backyard barbecue for a fraction of the price. My wife wasn't having it, but of course her dad paid for more than half.
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12k
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I can't give a figure for just the ceremony, because we had the ceremony and reception in the same place. The entire wedding cost about $20k.
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$2k

El Mexicano Texano posted...

The wife and I don't like all that fancy stuff we just went to the court and wasted less $800 on everything that includes the court, rings, etc.....

I dunno how I made this mistake but somehow I read this as:

The wife and I don't like all that fancy stuff we just went to the food court and wasted less $800 on everything that includes the court, onion rings, etc.....

I ust be hungrier than I thought lol.
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Ex-Kefiroth posted...

Spending that kind of money on a wedding is just a sickening waste, IMO.

That money would be so much better spent towards a down payment on a house or something.

Exactly what I said.
Imagine paying 20k on a ceremony that just is a catalyst for the government to get involved with your love, and THEN later if it doesn't work out, you have to go through that same government to get away from that person.

Take it times ten if there are kids involved.
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I suppose that creates an incentive to get your thinking straight before committing, and the cost of the wedding introduces sufficient skin in the game? </not serious>

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I went to several weddings last year, in the 30k range, and while it was nice to go, I couldn't help but think they were all incredibly stupid for blowing that much money. Like, the one groom I was really close to, he said it was his girl's dream, so he had to. He was real fucking shakey and unsure about it while talking. He had a vague idea of how much future security he was giving up for this, but he felt like if it didn't happen, there were be no marriage at all.

If you can afford it, sure, whatever. But if 30k is a lot to you, then it's ridiculous.
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I'm of the opinion that the wedding is also for the family, especially if it's something your family values or you have a big family. I'll have family flying in from Nigeria, England, and around the US. Like, even with limiting numbers, it's still going to be 100-150.

Costs just increase

My brother did a destination wedding and family and friends still ended up being ~60 people
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emblem boy posted...

I'm of the opinion that the wedding is also for the family, especially if it's something your family values or you have a big family. I'll have family flying in from Nigeria, England, and around the US. Like, even with limiting numbers, it's still going to be 100-150.

That was the boat I found myself in. Family really valued weddings and wanted to show off/invite everyone in their village.

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AlecSkorpio posted...

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Her parents paid

Mrs. DevsBro's parents might have been able to scrounge up $30 between the two of them, lol.
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Not sure why a bunch of unemployed virgins think their opinions matter about what's "too much" to spend on a wedding, but whatever.
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My wedding had about 100 people. We spent a little over 40K for a traditional wedding which is actually below average these days. It was a blast and we managed to make it very elegant and look high class. We didn't have any help from anyone, we paid everything ourselves cash; no debt, straight cash because we are great savers.

however, this delayed our honey moon for 6 months but our guests were so generous that they pretty much paid for it. We had a dream honeymoon for 2 weeks in italy that cost about 10K.

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