Lovelyish

That’s insane. I’m sorry, if you spend 26k on a wedding, you are a dumbass.

Screw that. My wife and I just paid for the paperwork and simple wedding bands. Weddings are wasteful.

If I was to have a wedding (which I will), it would be under a budget and not that much at all.

wow, that’s a lot of money..

I know a lot of ways to make a wedding and reception beautiful and fun without that pricetag.

Unless your indian like me, and you hold a 5 day wedding, bumping the average up to about 70,000$ ish.  hehe

$300. And I wouldn’t change a thing about it, married over 2 years now. Even if we had that kind of money to blow on one day, there’s no way in hell I would have been okay with it, sheesh. That could be a down payment on a house, or college tuition, or a million other better more important things.

That’s definitely a tough number to swallow but I’ve been to a lot of weddings that easily cost $50K or more because of the number of attendees and the area where the wedding was held. In NYC, weddings with 250 attendees easily start at $25K because most venues charge $100/person.

If I could do my wedding over again I would have cut my guest list down to 150 ppl and done a fun, party by the lake. Because my conservative (Asian) parents wanted to invite 150 of their own friends and relatives we had more than 300 ppl attend.

Even with careful budgeting, couponing, bargain shopping (I bought my wedding dress online for 50% off retail price) and lots of DIY decor and flowers, our wedding (including wedding bands and honeymoon) cost $25K, which we paid for 3 ways (my parents, his parents and our own money).

The number of folks you invite definitely will quickly inflate the cost of your wedding.

@ShimmerBodyCream@xanga - Agreed!

That money would be more useful going towards the honeymoon…or a new house.

@SuGaBaYbiEx69@xanga - Indian weddings look amazing and like so much fun! One of my old coworkers said her parents spent over $100K on her sister’s wedding but much of the money is returned through cash wedding presents.

@radicalsounds@xanga - Wow! Sounds like my kind of wedding!  

That’s actually a lot cheaper than I was expecting for the average. I know a lot of wedding photographers so maybe that’s why. They charge a grip just for that, then there’s the catering, renting out places for rehearsal/ceremony/reception/honey moon, hotels for distant family, dress, tux, bridesmaids dresses, groomsmen tuxes, flowers, decorations, videographers, dj/band, rings, court paperwork, horses, ducks, doves, child labor, etc.

I’d believe it. It took me hours on end to find a venue that would let me have the place for about 6 hours, that would cater, got my cake linens and table/chair rental for about 150 people..We also provided wine, beer and softdrinks with the meal.  Made my invitations, got my dress – my hubby’s suit and 3 of my bridesmaids dresses;  had a DJ & dancefloor amoung many things for about $5,000 bucks. 4 hours of photo coverage too. It was a fun wedding and l still love the cake <3.

Funny enough though – we got a couple of thousand back in wedding gifts – so it kind of evened out but by a thousand or two.

I don’t want my wedding to be too cheap, but I definitely don’t want it that much. That’s craaazy. Maybe people should stop complaining about the price of sending their kid to college when they threw away a whole semester/year on one day.

I’m getting married in about a year. However, within that time, I’m starting college, moving out of my parents house and into an pretty expensive apartment, buying a new car, and ,according to the pregnancy test I took the other day, having a baby. There’s no way in hell I’m going to have a wedding that costs more than 8,000 dollars.
We’ve planned to have the wedding and reception on my dad’s land, simply because there’s not a church in my area that holds between 200 and 250 people. My invitations and other stationary stuff costs, in total, about 700 dollars. My goodie bags for my guest will be about 1000 dollars. I’m going to have a cater do some of the food and my family will do the rest with a buffet style reception I’ll spend maybe 2,000 dollars on food. The wedding dress, that I fell in love with is only $500 dollars. My bridesmaid dresses are only 75 dollars a piece. My decorations will cost about 1,500 dollars, including chairs and stuff. And everything else will be spent of my our wedding rings which can be about 1,000 dollars a piece.

I’m getting married in November and my wedding budget is $5,000.  Shoot, I’ve got a down payment to get, can’t be worrying about being extravagant for a wedding!  So far I’ve got:

Dress:  $140.00
Alterations: $230.00
Invitations: $300.00
Photographer: $100.00/hr
Reception Hall: $300.00
Dinner for 200 guests: around $2000.00
Misc Decorations: $75.00

It’s gonna be close…

Spending that amount of money on one friggin day is just…ugh. I’d much rather use that kind of money to buy a nice place to live in for the rest of our lives. Thankfully I am chosing to elope if we ever get married. I just want a pretty white sundress and flowers in my hair =)

I understand why it gets to costing so much, but I’m going to be trying my best to work it out on a budget. I cannot even think of 100 people I would even want to invite, so less guests already makes things a lot simpler. 

I don’t get WHY a lavish wedding is desirable for most people (probably women), though..? Like, is it not more about what the wedding means/is itself and not how happy or impressed people are with the food and decor? I don’t give a fuck what other people think because it’s going to be OUR wedding. 

“Love don’t cost a thing.”

@WhenHateIsTheOnlyOption@xanga - That was full of win.

I think that people spend way too much on weddings.  It’s one day.  What, some of these people wouldn’t be happy with a cheaper wedding?  YOU’RE MARRYING THE SUPPOSED LOVE OF YOUR LIFE.  Why the fuck would you spend a semester’s tuition or a down payment on a house on oneeeeeeeeeee dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

@JusticeCho@xanga - child labor. LOL 

I will not be spending that much on my wedding. Ugh.

I think the only reason our wedding is going to cost so much is because of the photographer. Gosh they’re so expensive. But it will be no where even near $26,000+.

My friend’s mom is a caterer, and she only charges $1.50-$3.50 per plate. And her food is amazing!She’s also a wedding decorator and has agreed to let me use some of the decorations (the ones in my colors) for free.

The ring I want is $1,200. It looks similar to my moms which my dad bought while working on a part time salary. I wouldn’t want one more expensive because the one I want is gorgeous.  :)

Oh, I’m also going to use my crafty side to make my centerpieces and stuff like that

what planet are the people from?

please… i’m getting married in 6 months. small ceremony, immediate family and a couple of friends. not spending more than 300 bucks on a dress ill only wear once. asked my fiance not to spend a fortune on my ring. i’m hoping to get out of it for under a thousand or two. i’m not putting myself or my parents into debt for a lavish wedding. simplicity.

@lilblucherrygrl@xanga -  I know right! I’d even rather spend more on a honeymoon.. Atleast its a nice vacation!

I cant believe its that much… My boyfriend wants to buy me an engagment ring and I dont him just get the cheap fake diamond ones because I really dont care.. I dont want him to even get me a ring.. And I told him our wedding will not be expensive really.. We dont have too much family or friends so less money on food and such.. My wedding will probably be $2000 tops… No fancy wedding dress (although I will go out and buy a new one lol) and no giant $100 cake.. I’ll just get a regular one thank you very much!

This statistic is pretty skewed, it seems to me that people who read, subscribe to, and visit the magazine Brides would be people more likely to spend more on a wedding.

loving kingsley’s face at the end. hahaha

my oldest sister spent about 30-35,000$ on her wedding.
it was a two day wedding ( Laos wedding one day, Vietnamese the next)

I think the reason why she spent so much is mainly the venue that they picked for the Vietnamese wedding cause our parents were pretty much demanding that she had it there…

but they gott a lot of the money back from our side of the family so they pretty much only spent like 5k.

* the decorations were cheap since we pretty much created a lot of it.

every wedding will obviously be different based off location, venue, available wedding services in the area and most importantly for those of us who don’t have time to handle nuances, a wedding planner…we set a budget to meet and the most expensive thing was a good photographer, good food, the wedding planner, and surprisingly the thing we underestimated…cost of decorations. 

other than that, we really wanted to focus on our guests being comfortable, have a good meal, and most of all, have fun since they traveled across the country to celebrate with us. 

I can’t imagine spending $26K on one day. But while I’d be sticking to whatever budget we’d have (and I’m not getting married any time soon), I’m hoping that whatever wedding is planned that it comes out as classy. But I think that $26K MAY make a little sense. You have to take into account invitiations, food, the dresses/tuxs, reception, the location where you’re getting married, photographer, if you’re doing open bar, etc. (I know I’m doing an open bar. It’s more expensive but worth it. And it’s the norm for the area I live in to have an open bar.)

I went to a wedding last year and it was on the cheap side. It was so obvious. There were barely any decorations with no theme. Yes, there was a color theme but the tables had a LITTLE color on it and the bridesmaid dresses were no where near it. I do have to say that the invitations were prettier than the dresses.

But I think that in the end, all that matters is if the whole experience is filled with love and the people who matter the most. And that’s what I want.

My boyfriend and I aren’t going to have a ceremony. He’s already looking for engagement rings but I’m not asking him how much he’s budgeting for that. We’ll get the wedding rings after that and I’ll probably buy or make a sundress since he’s already said that’s what he wants me to wear, and we’ll just go to the courthouse and get married. No big deal. We’d both rather have money for things we actually need.

weddings are way too expensive these days! I’m scared I won’t be able to afford to have a nice wedding. I think Im more afraid that there won’t be any type of wedding in my future.

I got married in Vegas. I’m sure our total for the wedding and my dress was under 2k. No way would I pay 26k for a wedding.

This is insane. I just found out not too long ago that the bride’s family is expected to pay for the wedding and the groom’s family is expected to pay for the honeymoon?! I told my sister about it and she said, “yea. a lot of girls now and days have to save up and pay for their own wedding”. I can’t imagine what I’m gonna do when it’s my time to get married, there’s no way my parents can afford a wedding…at all most likely. I’m gonna have to get 309234 jobs probably! haa

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yup, that sounds about right. i’m not getting married any time soon but, coming from a paki family, i need to get started on everything now. i dont mind having my wedding at a huge park, skimping a bit on the dresses, etc. i also plan to cut costs by doing my own makeup and buying my shoes early. but the biggest budget breaker will be for food for all the people. there can be 400 people at my wedding easily, which means the real cost will be for food and tables and chairs, and the little favors that go to each guest at the end. 

it all sounds ridiculous for that ticket price, but considering how many people have been looking forward to my wedding and how much my parents have been dreaming about it, well we’ll make it worth the expense. 

@ShimmerBodyCream@xanga - That’s not such a nice thing to say o.O Because that can apply to so many things. Why do people buy cars that are 20-30k when they can just buy a car for like 5k? Why do people buy houses for 200-300k when they can just live in an apartment? Comfort, right? So what’s wrong with wanting a nice wedding?

It only cost that much if you make it cost that much

Who the hell would pay over $300 for a dress they are only going to wear once? I get the whole, it’s-the-only-wedding-you’ll-(hopefully)-ever-have idea, but still, $1200 average for a freaking dress? That’s excessive.

@eugenia@xanga - EXACTLY. When it’s really broken down, $26,000 is pretty normal. Also, as you were sort of saying, this is not the median, it’s the average. A lot of people end up spending less, but there are so many that spend so much, it pulls the average number up. I’m glad your families helped you; ours didn’t and we are getting remarried to do it the way WE want it.

Ours was $2,000, but only because no one would help us fund for it and we had to make way too many cut corners. So we had about 17 people attending, it was on the beach, and we had our reception at a gorgeous, fun seafood restaurant on the waterfront. Our wedding was a disaster, and a lot of people there were assholes to us, so we are getting remarried for our fifth wedding anniversary (today is our 2nd wedding anniversary!). We live in NYC and are in real estate, finally earning decent income. We fully anticipate spending about $10,000 because we have a lot of friends and have been saving up for it. I’ve already put in a lot of effort into my marriage and I love being married. It’s time to put in some serious fun into the wedding.

I’m going to go all out on my dress, but when I’m done with it, I’ll be donating it to someone who really needs a dress but can’t afford it. 

@chicbananas@xanga - I plan on spending a whole lot more than 10 grand.  At $100 a head, it’s going to cost a lot to feed the 500 people who are going to be attending our wedding.  And the skywriters and fireworks are going to cost a lot, too, and the diamond strings running through your train are not going to be cheap.

@Lost_Muse@xanga - You’re killin’ me here I want to sew diamonds into your neck-tie. OMG can I wear Alexander McQueen? 

@chicbananas@xanga - De rigueur, milady.  We saw a couple of his gowns the other day that would be great for your wedding dress.  Can I wear a suit of armor?

@Lost_Muse@xanga - Only if I can easily access the lower panel

@chicbananas@xanga - I’ll hire a metalworker with a cutting torch if need be.

I would prefer a small wedding,..and blow all my money on the honeymoon

I spent $65.00 going to City Hall..Then went out to dinner at an Italian Restaurant and a wedding cake at home with family. It’s a waste of money. All you are doing is paying a high price for a show and paying for others to eat. I used my hard earned money on property which has doubled in price. A wedding will not make you money. Anyway I do not like fancy ceremonies, it’s not me. 

I just want a dress and a cake with thee layers. Milk tea. Pistachio. Vanilla. That is all.

If I had 26K or more, I would use it for my wedding. My future husband can pay for the rings.

It has been my dream for a lavish wedding. I never asked for a sweet 16 or an elegant. I never did big, expensive parties because I wanted my wedding to be that. 
I already have a house, so I don’t need a new one and the honeymoon doesn’t need to be some island no one’s ever heard of. 

Wow. 26k is way too much for a wedding, in my opinion. I understand – if you have the money to spend on something extravagant then do what you want, but I personally think it sounds like a huge waste of money. I’m not ONLY about just going to the courthouse and not spending any more than the $95 for a marriage license (though TRUST ME we seriously considered doing this so I’m not at all against it), I just don’t see the need in going overboard, either.

I just got married 2 1/2 weeks ago and my wedding cost $4,000. The ceremony, license, flowers, food, and minor decorations were about $2,500. The extra $1,500 was tacked on because my wedding was out of state so that includes the house + hotel we rented for the weekend and the gas to get there and back. We could have done it for way cheaper had we planned it closer to home. – My dress came from Macy’s and it was only $75. It was perfect. The most expensive thing was buying all the food for the reception but EVEN SO, we did it cheaply by picking up BBQ, buns, and side dishes from a local BBQ Restaurant instead of having everything catered with fancy food. I’m very glad we did it this way as it was way more relaxed, it was small (only 40 some people), and I didn’t feel so overwhelmed with everything.

I think a lot of people don’t take into consideration that the extravagance of your wedding doesn’t mean anything to the rest of your marriage. I know people who went to the courthouse without anyone and have been married for 12 years. I know people (specifically one of my SIL’s) who have spent 20k+ on their wedding, only to be divorced 6 months later.

An Indie wedding should be pretty cheap. 

I’m getting married in just over two weeks, and our budget was set at $15k. My parents have graciously offered to pay for the wedding (I’m their only daughter, so they knew it would happen eventually), but I still had the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach when I thought about spending all that money. We’ve gone DIY on so many things, but the biggest cost has been the food and drink. Mostly because my mom is really big into catering, so she wanted things “just so”, and I guess since it’s her money, I can’t really argue with her if she wants to spend it on great food and invite a couple dozen more of her friends. I used to fight her more about it (I hated the idea of spending money that could go towards something more useful) but it’s her and my dad’s gift to me and my fiance. Shrug. I wish I could convince them to spend the money on, oh, I don’t know, some trust fund or something for my future kids’ educations…

:S This puts me off

Um… have you never watched Rich Bride/Poor Bride? o.o

@ELIZerson@xanga - congrats!!! hope all goes well, best wishes~!