Keeping A Wedding Affordable.... How Much Did Yours Cost?

A friend of mine got married at a local park which has a nice garden area. I think it cost under $200 to reserve it. They then held the reception in their back yard. This was a very small wedding though.

The slickest deal of all would be to skip the wedding and elope.

courthouse... Why spend so much money on a single day in your life? Your reception is where everyone goes to for the free music and alcohol. Save your money and pay off a house/car/something.

my girl likes the idea of a casual beach wedding with only immediate family <15 people. seems ok with me and it shouldnt cost much more than $1500 if that. i hate huge formal weddings that cost ton of money...i wouldn't want one for free

3K for the wedding and honeymoon. Wedding 1.2K, honeymoon the rest. This also includes the dress, etc.

We rented a local senior center on the waterfront, bought cakes at Costco, had rootbeer floats to drink. Ours is the wedding everyone remembers, not the fancy 20K money wasters.

About 4.5k all-in for a 6 hour catered wedding and reception in a nice church for about 100 people -- so not 'cheap', but not extravagant. It was actually a great price considering what we got for it. The church had been converted into a restaurant, which was great, because we just cut the restaurant a check and they handled almost everything themselves -- space, chairs/tables, food, staff, sound system, cleanup, etc. Didn't have to hire anyone else and the wedding definitely didn't 'look' cheap with the cathedral ceilings everywhere. Our scenario was probably unusual, but it definitely saved us a boatload over the traditional piecemeal approach of renting the venue, then hiring a caterer, etc etc.

Oh, and the dress was also a great deal at $100, marked down from $600, not that you could tell. No need to spend thousands to get a nice one.

If you have friend or family in the businesses like photgrhy, food, music and such you can ask if they would be willing to help or get you a discount from their boss in lue of a gift. We did that and my wife's best friend gave her a dress, because she ended up with two, so we managed to get through it for about $600 for over 100 people. Used the church we grew up in for the ceremony, and the town hall/vfw hall for reception. Her folks paid but we still wanted them to get a kick ass deal. YMMV depending on what skills your friends and family had, we were lucky enough to have a cake maker in the church and one of my buddy's owns a blimpies so we had subs and a solid bar for the reception.

Quote from wolfking84 : If you have friend or family in the businesses like photgrhy, food, music and such you can ask if they would be willing to help or get you a discount from their boss in lue of a gift. We did that and my wife's best friend gave her a dress, because she ended up with two, so we managed to get through it for about $600 for over 100 people. Used the church we grew up in for the ceremony, and the town hall/vfw hall for reception. Her folks paid but we still wanted them to get a kick ass deal. YMMV depending on what skills your friends and family had, we were lucky enough to have a cake maker in the church and one of my buddy's owns a blimpies so we had subs and a solid bar for the reception.

You had sandwiches at your wedding?

My wife and I rented a meeting room at Holiday Inn Express. We kept it pretty small, about 30-40 friends and family. My sister was a florist so she did the flowers for free, my mom is retired and stays at home, so she make the decorations and food (everything bought at walmart/sams club/kroger), my wife's wedding dress was found in the cocktail dress department at a department store at the mall, but it looked more like a wedding dress than a cocktail dress and was $110, the cakes came from Kroger bakery.

This is making me feel so superficial.

Quote from Dem Bums : This is making me feel so superficial.

Agreed. I spent too much but I've grown wiser. I would set your budget first and keep it firm. I would consider having a smaller ceremony with close friends and family and then have a party for the 150. This will give you more flexibility on where to get married.

I would also look at local, state, and national parks near you - they have indoor and outdoor settings that might work well for you. 7 months out is not a great deal of time. I would focus on what makes you and your fiance happy. What about a local VFW or Moose Lodge? Some are located in older buildings with a party room.

BTW, Disney has some awesome deals for military families. Great rates, your own resort, Shades of Green, and cheap tickets.

I would sit down and talk to your fiance about where he imagined getting married. Could you have an outdoor ceremony? Can you get a location with the military? Is there a military chapel available near you? What about a local university? Sometimes they rent out a chapel or a party room? What about a boat? Is there a lake or larger body of water near you? Would you consider having your ceremony and party on the boat?

Spent way too much.

Don't regret it.

Quote from tennis8363 : 3K for the wedding and honeymoon. Wedding 1.2K, honeymoon the rest. This also includes the dress, etc. We rented a local senior center on the waterfront, bought cakes at Costco, had rootbeer floats to drink. Ours is the wedding everyone remembers, not the fancy 20K money wasters.

Spent 20k for a 40k wedding. No regrets. And still talked about and praised to this day.

To each their own

Quote from MoonAssassin : My fiance and I are getting married in roughly 7 months. We're getting married it right before he deploys. Anyways, I've talked with various people I know and done research and I know wedding costs can vary per area, based on size, etc. I'm curious though (for Slick Dealers that is), how much did yours cost and what was the basic break down (what did you spend the most/least on?) We're trying to get an idea of our budget right now and thankfully Slickdeals has helped a lot so far for getting gift cards to purchase items and discounts and such. Unfortunately, the biggest cost it seems will not be the reception (food, decorations, etc) but rather the church itself. I've called over two dozen churches (three of which family were members of) and they are all quoting me prices of $1,000 to $2,000 just to use the church for an hour or two. We're currently trying to think outside the box but not having much luck as the local historic houses, rental houses, museums, plantations, farms, country club, bed and breakfast, etc are all charging just as much. Also, any advice on budgeting, planning, etc is always appreciated. We're looking like a 100 to 150 person wedding with just our family and close friends invited.

If you want to cut costs, the single best thing you can do is not pay for other people's booze. However, the social ramifications of that might not allow it.

Ways to cut costs (without looking like it):
- have the wedding on an off-day. Either mid-week or Sunday.
- get dresses on a discount by looking secondhand, for "demo models," etc. In some places, they have a "running of the brides" where they have designer dresses at huge discounts. My wife got her 5000 dress for 750 at one of those.
- make your own invitations, save the dates, etc. It's really easy to do well, actually. Buy a kit and download the templates for MS word. If you have a decent printer, they'll come out great.
- make your own centerpieces. fresh flowers are a HUGE cost. If you're creative, you can make simple, cheap decos that look awesome. If you're not creative, look on google
- don't have the wedding in a big city.
- play DJs/bands/etc against each other. OR, rent/borrow a nice sound system and put together a playlist on an iPod (just don't forget it!). People remember the dancing and the good times the music CREATED, not so much the faces or names or whatever.

I'll probably come up with a few more later.

Congrats and good luck!