how much did your wedding cost? (wearing, band, beach, daughter)

[simplesouthernman]

$10 for the license
$20 and a promise to the Justice of the Peace that we would buy our pet food from his farm supply store.
$20 worth of gas to drive from Hickory Valley, Tennessee to Vicksburg, Mississippi and back for the honeymoon.
$54 for 3 nights at a bed and breakfast on the Mississippi River.
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$104!!

[fallingwater]

About 700 dollars. My original plan was to get married in a historic village by my hometown. The place is amazing but costly. It would have run about 10k for only 80 people. Servers would wear period clothing, guests would be escorted to the reception by man with a lighted lantern, my husband and I would arrive by horse and carriage. It was going to be very beautiful. We started planning the wedding around Christmas. At a family gathering with my future in-laws I started discussing some of the details. I was shocked by the contempt! My SIL who is a bit of a roughneck started complaining she wouldn't want to come cuz it sounds like a place she can't wear jeans.

After the gathering I started doing a lot of thinking. My future hubby was pretty disgusted by his family's attitude and so was I. Did I really want to spend 10k on something that no one would have a good time? I know it would be my wedding but that is a lot of money to spend only to hear a lot of bitching and moaning. So future hubby and I started discussing the possibility of buying a house instead. We decided to just look at some real estate to get an idea of what was out there and found a house we loved. The dream wedding didn't seem as important to me then. So we flew to Vegas. Funny how that pissed off the in-laws also. My cheap wedding in Vegas was pretty cheezy and it was a disappointment. I should have planned better and chose another place.

I have been married 15 yrs now and have attended some extremely beautiful weddings with costs up to 200k. At every single wedding there was always at least 5-10 people bitching about something. I know you can't make everyone happy but I never saw so many ungrateful people in one setting as I do at weddings. I'm glad I bought a house instead.

[HokieFan]

Mine was less than $3,000.

At the time, we were living in a state different than our parents. We chose to get married in Gatlinburg, TN which was a half-way point between them and us. So I guess you could call it a 'destination wedding'.

The $3000 included lodging for all of our guests for three nights (about 20 people - we rented an 8 bedroom, 6 bathroom house). Since we were asking them to drive 6 hours for the wedding, we didn't want to ask them to have to pay for a hotel. The Smokey Mountains made a beautiful background for our wedding photos.

[himain]

My friend spent $30k and was divorced a year later..I'm sure her dad was "thrilled"

[fallingwater]

Originally Posted by himain

My friend spent $30k and was divorced a year later..I'm sure her dad was "thrilled"

Oh I bet. The most expensive wedding I went to was 200k. This woman went nuts on everything. She ended up divorced 6 months later when she discovered her husband was having an affair and gave her warts.

[FrmlyBklyn]

Somewhere between 40 - 60K, still married.

[intluser]

Aside from the standard required fees, I think it's a big mistake spending all this cheddar on a wedding. Especially when the divorce rate is hovering around 60%. In addition, do you know why most marriages fail? Yep, you got it. It's the cheddar.

[kronenborg]

..or you could enter into marriage with a positive attitude.

i did, and i dont regret it for one second.

[redjan1225]

We spent about $11K - $12K including the honeymoon. We had 39 guests that included immediate friends and family only. That was what I compromised on because my husband's mother threatened suicide if we did what I wanted which was to elope. It was my lifelong dream.

Anyway, I wanted a venue where the ceremony, reception, and lodging were all on one site and I found it at a Tucson dude ranch. Since most of our guests didn't live in the same state, we figured it didn't matter where in the state they traveled and we like Tucson's scenery much better than Phoenix's.

The venue was about $2400 and guests paid for their own overnight accomodations. The food was catered and we bought alcohol. The cake was catered as well.

My dress was only $200 but I spent $300 to alter it. The photographer was a friend who did it for $500; the flowers were $500. I felt like I cut as many corners as possible, but still spent more than I'd planned.

Only one person complained about anything and that was my mother who is just a miserable soul. She was mad that I'd invited an aunt that she was having a feud with. She was also mad that she had to share space with my dad and his wife. I would say she's gotten over it, but she really hasn't. We were married in 08.

Now my little sister is planning her wedding and getting to go through all the fun I did with all the suggestions about who to invite, etc. My mom doesn't understand that not everyone that knew my sister existed needs to be included including the old lady down the street who knitted her beanie cap after she was born 33 years ago and we've never seen her since. My dad is confused as to why my sister wouldn't have a singer at her wedding (which I didn't so I don't understand where the confusion is coming from). My parents hosted an open-door wedding at their church and had over 400 guests. And why? Because they served free cake and punch, not because they knew any of them. Times have changed and the folks have a hard time adapting when it comes to their kids' weddings.

[miyu]

I had one with 90 guests for about 21k which included rings, dresses, tux rentals, tons of wine/champagne, favors. It's the cheapest I could do without compromising asthetics, location, and food quality.

Here is the breakdown:
Rings 700
Makeup for everyone: 350
2 Dresses + Veil + shoes: 500
Alterations: 700 (W*T*F stupid ripoff lady!)
Tuxes: 100
Flowers for everything - 1200
Food/catering/heat lamps/utensils/tables/cake - 8k - best food I've ever had at a wedding.
Lighting for reception area - 2k
Rentals - church/organist - 1300, reception area 2400
Vino - 300?
DJ - friend
Photographer / photo albums / engagement photos - 4000 (why chance letting it all go to waste without capturing it professionally)

As you can see, the photographer and lighting were things I could not compromise on.