How much was your wedding?

[Crawlin]

No i'm not getting married right now.

Putting together project for school for a finance/marketing class.

Just general roundabout number if you don't mind talking about it.
How many people
Where the ceremony was
Where the reception was
what day? (friday night, saturday, sunday)

Again, don't have to be specific.

Thanks for your assistance

[PB86MCSS]

In the middle of planning ours, this should be interesting to follow.

[Prince Valiant]

just around 5,300. Did most everything ourselves.

About 35-50 attended the ceremony. Fed just around 100 or so (catered by boston market...very well I might add). Had about 120-130 at the reception. Open bar (liquor of all sorts and beer). DJ'd. Price included the dress.

Ceremony was held at the dog park we met at. Reception at the club house in her subdivision.

[1320PNY]

All included, wedding, pictures, hotel, activities, was about $5800. Her dress $800, my tux rental $300. Reception was in Colorado to follow $2000. Figure $9K total. Small wedding with just immediate family at a remote location on Maui, HI on a Monday afternoon. Stayed on the island for 8 more days (honeymoon).

[03Seville]

In the middle of planning ours, this should be interesting to follow.

me too, def would like to here some more input on this

[Want_Notch]

Mine was in the 18k area. 350 plus people. Divorced 10 years later....go small

[tommyt5078]

$2,500, a little over 100 at the reception, about 25 at the ceremony which was at the loft and chapel on bluemound road in waukesha.



Reception was at malone park in New Berlin, Silver spur did the food, got two barrels and lots of margarita mix, also went to vegas, got most of the $2500 back from cards with cash in them! Our wedding was during the day and we didn't have a DJ, by 9pm everyone was gone, and we left Milwaukee around 6am the next morning!

[Crawlin]

added another item, sorry... what day it was on....

thanks guys!

[DerangedPony]

We were around $8k for everything including dress, tuxedos, etc. It was on a Sat. night. Had both the ceremony and reception at her parents house where her mom has a mini farm with gazebo and we rented a tent. Around 30-50 at ceremony and 130 ish at the reception.

[Ricky Bobby]

12k(inc all) 150people on a sat night recp at a place called mannings no longer around

[jbiscuit]

Our was probably around $10k....$130 people, Friday wedding

[Prince Valiant]

mine was a sat wedding

[05caddyext]

So much money. All wasted. For one day? Come on guys. And then, to make things more interesting, how much more did you spend on your honeymoon?

[WickedSix]

planning ours now..budget is 7k so far we have shaved about 2k off... so far so good lol..... i know in our planning they said the average is 22k which is fucking insane if u ask me...and ours is planned for a sunday with 110 people

[nismodave]

Mine will be around 7k.

Thats for a Wedding and Reception for 35+ people in Las Vegas.......And a full reception here in Milwaukee. Saturday both days......70 people for dinner in Milwaukee.

Not including our hotel and air for Vegas.

[tommyt5078]

Saturday.................

[Exitspeed]

Our wedding was on a Fri because it was slightly less expensive. Our wedding including our honeymoon was about $30,000. It was a lot of money, but even for one day it such a fantastic time. People were telling us it was the best wedding they had ever been to. People still talk about our wedding and how great it was. Not even just to us, but someone will say "me and so and so were just talking about your wedding the other day". We ended up paying for an extra 2 hours because people were still dancing and partying. Eventually we had to just turn the lights on and tell people to leave or join us downstairs in the old as bar that's in the lower part of the building and we had like 10 pizzas delivered.

We went all out though. Had it at the Grain Exchange, white glove service with our meal, harpist playing during the ceremony, open bar all night, Suzy's cheescake. We the guest list down to 200 and that was a task. We could have easily invited 300+ and we would have known every one of them.

Then Sunday we left for Jamaica for 7 days and stayed at the newest resort Sandals (Whitehouse) had at the time.

Best part is, we paid cash for everything. That was important to us. We didn't want to be paying for the wedding for years and years.

Even as a dude, I don't feel the money was wasted even a little. But I'm weird/creative guy. I picked out our wedding colors, and designed our cake (in 3D in Studio Max).

Damn, that was a good time.

[michelle]

How many people - ~70 people.
Where the ceremony was - park in Mequon (under huge gazebo).
Where the reception was - same park in Mequon under open pavilion.
what day? (friday night, saturday, sunday) - Saturday during the day.

We were under $5k for sure.

[pnad]

Wedding total including her dress was $1200ish.
On a Saturday, St. Johns Chapel Racine, Reception at Hiawatha Hall in Sturtevant
About 50 guests self catered (mom and wife were in food service)

HoneyMoon was also cheap in Gatlinburg, TN. $350/week rental cabin in the mountains with whirlpool inside and a nice hot tub on the deck.

[Crawlin]

again, thank you guys....

Exitspeed, thanks for the honest answer about how you feel about the money spent.

[jbiscuit]

It is a lot of fun in the end and you only do it once (in theory). So why not give your bride a nice wedding? We paid cash for everything also. Probably spent another $6000 cash going to L.A. for 8 days. Again, worth every penny. Wouldn't change a thing.

[Prince Valiant]

So much money. All wasted. For one day? Come on guys. And then, to make things more interesting, how much more did you spend on your honeymoon?My wife and I received over 8,000 dollars in cash gifts from family/firends, and probably 3-4 thousand in gifts from the registry. :durr


And to answer the honeymoon part: ~ 1,000 for 10 days in FL (did the priceline/budget thing...worked great).

[CATNHAT]

Ours was about 20K all in. We had the ceremony at Gezu (sp) the Marquette church, limo, photographer (mortensen), reception at The Womens Club, Honeymoon was to Playa del Carmen all inclusive deal. 300 people. On a Saturday.

People still compliment us on ours as well and it was worth it. We got lucky and were able to have the irish band "180 and the Letter G" playing behind the main table at dinner, then a DJ after dinner. We got some cash for gifts and used all of it on our honeymoon.

I say fuckit--I planned on getting married once--so spend the money. Shit if you dont the Gubmint going to take it somehow someway someday...

[jamestown478]

shit we are in the planning stage right now. Lookin at 20k with everything at geneva national :(

[DynoTom]

I was at DerangedPony's wedding and it was done REAL NICE !

[PonyKiller87]

I'm getting married in a few weeks, Having it all at the domes on a Sat. 200-250ish people, photographer, video, DJ, dress, tuxes.... Honeymoon is a all inclusive week in Jamaica. All said and done it will be around $18k

I forgot to mention, both of our parents are kickin in a fair amount, otherwise there is no way I would spend that kind of money, lol.

[Cleveland Dave]

my wedding is coming up in june on a saturday
park in cottage grove, wi
reception in madison, wi
guest list is at 260

were estimating about $13k for expenses.

[pOrk]

Lisa and - got married on the beach in florida just the two of us the photographer and the one that married us and we had a reception for 90 ppl at Joey Buonas downtown Milwaukee. With airfare and my suit we spent around 4 grand, and we had an absolute blast. Lisas mom made her dress, married on a wednnesday and reception was on a saturday night. 4 grand was money well spent imo, would never be able to spend the average of 22k. I paid cash for everything as well

[TheRX7Project]

In the middle of planning ours, this should be interesting to follow.

This. Our budget is 15k.

[wrath]

How many people:
Ceremony: My Mother and Father, her Mother and Father, our dog, and the person to marry us (who was 20 minutes late).
Reception: 23 people from my side and roughly 86 people from her side. I'm not sure how many actually showed up from her side but all of mine did.

Where the ceremony was
A little shithole called "The Loft at Cedar Ridge" at Bluemound and Pewaukee Road (technically in Pewaukee but has a Waukesha address). Cost about $450 plus the marriage license. Couldn't find a non-jaded judge so we could get married somewhere besides indoors (none of the judges would do it without a rain location) and in Waukesha none of the douchecanoes would do it in a courtroom. After the place was late opening up and all the plastic chairs and flowers had been blown over and rained I asked if we could remember it as "The Loft at Cedar Ridge Trailer Park".

Where the reception was:
A place called DeCarlo's Banquet Hall in Warren, Michigan by 10 mile and Mound.

what day? (friday night, saturday, sunday)
Married on a Friday, had the reception two weeks later on a Saturday.

She wore a spring dress to the ceremony and I wore my work clothes. I think we spent ~$175 on flowers for it.

To the reception she wore a different spring dress and I wore one of my suits. I think we spent ~$350 on flowers for it and the centerpieces we made. I think we had about $400 into clothes for both "events".

We also spent roughly $300 on party favors. They were little clay flower pots we hand painted with some Morley candies (pretty well-known candymaker in Detroit) and a package of flower seeds inside.

The reception cost ~$3k but it was open bar and lasted from 6pm until 2am. I think the cake was ~$400.

[Exitspeed]

I'm getting married in a few weeks, Having it all at the domes on a Sat. 200-250ish people, photographer, video, DJ, dress, tuxes.... Honeymoon is a all inclusive week in Jamaica. All said and done it will be around $18k

I forgot to mention, both of our parents are kickin in a fair amount, otherwise there is no way I would spend that kind of money, lol.

What resort/area in Jamaica are you going to? We loved Jamaica so much we went the following year after our wedding again. We can't wait to go again.

[PonyKiller87]

I don't remember the name of it but its in Runaway Bay

[Exitspeed]

Sweet. Have fun and have a couple Red Stripes for me. They taste much better there. ;)

[michelle]

I'm looking forward to going on a honeymoon at some point. Hopefully for our 5th year. Our "honeymoon" was our house that we purchased after getting married.

Jamaica sounds fun!

[WhatsADSM]

I don't know the exact total of my wedding (doesn't really matter since each is different anyways) but it wasn't cheap.

Weddings don't make any kind of financial sense so really there is no justifying it by saying "but I got x amount in gifts" or whatever. You pay a lot to host weddings and you pay a lot to attend weddings.

That's not the point. IMHO just do whatever you can in terms of money and don't go beyond your means. Just have fun with the day and make sure you invite the people you want ;)

FWIW, things that I thought were expensive but worth in the end I found were worth every penny:
Sweet table
Photographer

[Exitspeed]

Our photographer and DJ were the only things that were were even remotely not happy with. And in all fairness they did a good enough job, but compared to how great everything else was they were just eh.

Like the DJ, we gave them only a few specific instructions, 1) No chicken dance, polka, or country music, and 2) play as much Michael Jackson as you can fit in. The followed the first part, but didn't do the second part at all and that bummed me out.

Our photographer was SUPER pushy. We'd be int he middle of talking and he would say, "I need you over here right now.". As a photographer myself (who doesn't do weddings) I understand you need to get the wedding party away from time to time so you can get certain pics, but dude would not leave us alone. People kept making comments about his too. lol. It didn't ruin it, but we certainly wouldn't recommend him. The other thing is he didn't get any spectacular shots of the venue. We got married in one of the most beautiful, historic buildings in the city and I would have liked some nicer shots of the interior and exterior. They were just ok, nothing creative.

The most important things to us from the beginning were:

Location (we had both the ceremony and reception at the same place)
Food/ Cake
Honeymoon

[Moparjim]

Just an FYI, I have been DJing again as a side venture, and can do 6 hour weddings for $400. Everything included - lights, travel anywhere in the Milwaukee-ish area, setup, teardown, etc.

[EvolvedRegal]

^^^thats a great price


About 25K, 160 people

The wife wanted the best food, venue, music. I would have been happy at the courthouse.

We went through 1 band, 1 DJ, 1 photographer a week before the wedding. Stay far away from Whitedog and Blackdog studios for photos. Whitedog was just shitty, and blackdog left our wedding around 9pm, weird. He didn't get his last payment.

[Lash]

Married 7 years ago on Saturday July 5th at Holy Apostles Church in New Berlin.
Reception was 150-200 people at the Venice club in Brookfield.
$10k

[twicks69]

We did ours in 2008 for ~$5000. Honeymoon was a month-long trip in Spain for another $2K-3K.

We did everything on the "cheap" by doing everything ourselves.
Ceremony was at Carroll College Chapel - 125 people.
Reception was at Delafield Brewhaus - 200 people.
Done on a Saturday.

Cake was done by friends, Photos/Videography was free (family photographer), DJ was free (DJ friend needed DSM transmission rebuild in exchange), Flowers were less than $200 from Waukesha Flowers, Cards were done at place next to Waukesha Sports Arena at a killer price, Had hookups for cars from friends (BMW 760Li and Caddy CTS-V from dealerships), Chapel was essentially free, pastor was family friend, photos were done on Carrol College campus and also at Waukesha Rotary Gardens/Frame Park just before the floods occurred (paid for park photo permit), table arrangements were made by us.

Bar bill was less than $700 for full-bar/wine/champagne/house brewed beer/soda, etc. Food was spectacular and they supplied way more than we paid for. Unbelievable service.

[SSLEVO]

Just got married this past May. Spent about 18k, another 2k for the honeymoon in the Dominican Republic. Had it on a sat, ceremony in a church and reception for about 300 at Stony Creek inn, La Crosse. We had an issue with finding a place big enough over there. Ended up paying $2300 for just the hall rental... damn big families from small towns, lol. Over all everyone had a damn good time, glad the expense and planning is over though.

[PB86MCSS]

Our budget is 5-7k, trying to do as much as we can ourselves. Neither one will have much help from the parent's and I don't expect them too given their circumstances. We'd rather use money towards another home so hopefully we stick in that range. Date and venue is set, which seemed like the biggest challenge, for 9/4/11 (Sunday) but we have been slacking and have some work left to finish. Guest list will be about 150. DJ is a friend of ours, still looking to finalize the photographer. It's a huge day but also just one day of your life. Watching friends go big for their weddings then getting divorced taught me a lesson :D, plus we're frugile enough already.

Looking for someone trying to build their portfolio and we don't need albums and prints, just all the pictures on a drive or CD and we'll do the rest. If anyone knows someone who fits this criteria feel free to PM me ;) .

[penji04]

I was married aug 2010 and definetly spent over 20k on everything except honeymoon. It was on a saturday with 200 guests cerimony at St. James Menomonee Falls reception at davians in the falls. Best day of my life by far and wouldnt change a thing. Everyone loved the photobooth we had there. We where together for 9 years solid before we where married so I went big! In-laws helped out a ton.

[SlowMotion]

We were married in August of last year in Delafield, at St. John's Military Academy. The reception was at the Delafield Hotel and had roughly 160-175 guests. Including a 10 day honeymoon in Mexico everthing was roughly 35k. We wouldn't change a thing. It went off without any problems, no headaches, everything very professional and everyone in attendance couldn't give us enough compliments on how well it was carried out. It is a one time thing that will leave lasting memories thoughout the rest of your life together. We can spend the rest of our lives spending money on other "important" things like houses, cars, etc.

[Crawlin]

My buddy Justin had his at St. John's Military Ac. and it was INCREDIBLE! I envy you being able to have it there.

[b4mytm]

Total of about $11,000. 400 people total,maybe 325 for dinner. Ceremony was at the United Methodist Church in Oak Creek,the reception was at Texx's Victory Hall in Cudahy and it was on a Sat.

[Dr.Buick]

less than 100.00. went to court house and got married. bought a house instead. been married 14 years now, and she still to this day says she does not miss having a big wedding

[Dasred]

We're getting married this September, the 17th on a Saturday.
It's on our property, the ceremony will be up on one of the hills and the reception down between the pond and the barn. We're estimating 150 people. We've got tent rental, DJ, Photographers, food / beverages, Port-o-potty rental, dress and a few other random things.
We are renting a small island in Republic, MI for a week for our honeymoon, $700 for a 3 bedroom cabin with a large deck, dock and use of multiple boats.
We budgeted about $10k, right now we're at about $6500, so we're doing alright.
We lucked out and won a gift cert for $500 for decorations at a bridal show, and we were able to keep decoration costs under that, so we didn't have to spend any money there.
I talked to the owner of a local micro-brewery (Black Husky out of Pembine, WI) and he's actually going to make us a special batch and then bartend at the reception.
Pretty freakin' excited.
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