Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Florida > Sarasota - Bradenton - Venice area
 [Register]
Sarasota - Bradenton - Venice area Manatee and Sarasota Counties
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 08-19-2014, 06:48 PM
 
Location: Sarasota, FL
1,713 posts, read 2,347,725 times
Reputation: 1046

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by macrodome2 View Post
How does one spend $55K on a wedding? No, really, what did you do?
$6000 for a dress, $1500 wedding planner, $500 cakes, $2500 ca'da'zan whatever it is called rental, dj, mattisons city grill catered it with filets and lobster, $3500 photographer/videographer, invitations, chair rentals, table rentals, etc etc etc.......

You'd be shocked how much that silly bull**** adds up.

Second wife didnt even want a real diamond ring (although she did get one. )

Note to self: When wife wants a wedding that costs more than a Corvette -- RUN.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 08-19-2014, 06:51 PM
 
Location: Sarasota, FL
1,713 posts, read 2,347,725 times
Reputation: 1046
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cardiff by the Sea View Post
Ben, I can't top your first wedding but I can the second. My second wedding was about $75 ($15 for license and $60 for minister). The date and the location were planned but that was about it. We got up, went to the closet. Pulled out a $15 white mexican dress I already owned and picked something for hubby.

We got married in a meditation garden over looking the Pacific ocean. It was just us, the rent-a-minister, the koi, and the gardeners who kindly paused their leaf blowers. No other guests. Hubby's daughter from first marriage was really unhappy she was not invited, but she would have made it all about her.

Didn't have to coordinate date with the religious fellowship that owned the garden, because they didn't allow weddings anyway. Their reason was the guests always trampled the flowers. We weren't a wedding, just a couple of meditators.

We feel like the zero stress wedding was one of the best things we ever did. and we have been married 24 years now.

Not trying to discourage the original poster. Just trying to one up my buddy Ben.

I get wanting to do it big the first time around, and hope you find the perfect spot.
License was a bit more, and the minister was $150, but yep, that was about it. All the rest of the cash for the second wedding was for dinner for everyone at a nice restaurant after. $700 total after taxes and tips for the whole she-bang!

I wish someone would have discouraged me at the first wedding.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2014, 06:31 AM
 
5 posts, read 4,204 times
Reputation: 10
Thanks for your replies and congrats everyone, our budget is about £13K but we can stretch to £15K. I wish we had £55K .
I think our families, especially mine, would be so upset if we had a simple ceremony (although it sounds lovely and stress free,) as I won't see them for a very long time when I move over to the US.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2014, 07:07 AM
 
2,076 posts, read 3,105,339 times
Reputation: 1021
Origianal poster

Is your budget figure in pounds or dollars?


The best wedding I ever attended was planned by the step daughter we didn't invite to ours. Her total budget was $15,000. We she got married we agreed to give her the amount that the average wedding cost at the time which I think was about $12,000. She scraped up the rest.

She reserved an entire bed and breakfast in Sonoma (wine country California). It was a 12 room charming and old two story thing with big porches and lots of places to sit outside. It had been both a stage coach stop and a bordello during its life. It was sort of in the country and had great gardens and trees. Family and close friends got there 2 days early. Hung out. Played croquet and and chatted. Went to the spa. Visited wineries. Nice rehearsal dinner in town. The totally relaxed time to interact with people was one of the best things about the wedding.

The rest of the guests outside of the family and close friends showed up on the wedding day. Wedding outside in garden under the trees. Dinner outside with huge U shaped table decorated with branches from peach trees that had real peaches on the. Nice band and dance floor later. Several of us took all the candles off the dinner table to the wedding suite so when they went to bed the room was filled with candles.

Step daughter is a real pain in the ___ but she threw the best wedding by far of any I have ever been to.

So essentially her wedding budget had no venue expense for either the wedding or reception. Guests paid for their own rooms. She just had to pay for the food and flowers. Booking all the rooms in the bed and breakfast gave them the run of the place for 3 days.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-24-2014, 02:36 PM
 
37,315 posts, read 59,862,293 times
Reputation: 25341
Our daughter and SIL were married at what used to the Hilton in Reddington Beach--on the beach--by a sea captain no less--neither one is religious...we gave our daughter a price and told her what she didn't spend we would give her in cash (that was an incentive)
She bought the groomsmen's shirts at Target (solid linen Tommy Bahama type and they wore khaki slacks) The 3 bridesmaids had dresses on sale from Macy's in tropical print they could wear (and did) afterwards...She got flowers from Publix (should have gotten cake there as well since hotel's was not good)...

The Hilton was small reception space for all her guests who mainly flew in--they anticipated a much smaller number when they reserved it and were surprised that so many people actually accepted since it was destination wedding...but they managed to seat us all inside...
we offered to comp the rooms for the wedding party since most of them were married to each other and got a decent room rate--in June 9 years ago...

It went off pretty well except the dance floor was mega crowded--but just meant lot of positive crowd vibes-
since most every other guest was staying at hotel too it was very intimate--people hung around the beach and the pool that weekend vs doing lot of traveling to bars....they even did their bachelor parties together there because the party van never showed up--
His mom and dad has the rehearsal dinner there as well--and we ate outside on the deck facing Gulf...

the hotel catering manager told us that night that the full bar we paid for at flat rate had the highest total liquor bill of any wedding they had hosted--so they lost money on that--but we didn't have to worry about drunk driving since people just rode the elevator up after reception/party closed.

The hotel has changed brand but we were very happy with what they did for us--
and our daughter managed to save money on top of it...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-24-2014, 02:53 PM
 
2,076 posts, read 3,105,339 times
Reputation: 1021
Quote:
Originally Posted by loves2read View Post
Our daughter and SIL were married at what used to the Hilton in Reddington Beach--on the beach--by a sea captain no less--neither one is religious...we gave our daughter a price and told her what she didn't spend we would give her in cash (that was an incentive)
She bought the groomsmen's shirts at Target (solid linen Tommy Bahama type and they wore khaki slacks) The 3 bridesmaids had dresses on sale from Macy's in tropical print they could wear (and did) afterwards...She got flowers from Publix (should have gotten cake there as well since hotel's was not good)...

The Hilton was small reception space for all her guests who mainly flew in--they anticipated a much smaller number when they reserved it and were surprised that so many people actually accepted since it was destination wedding...but they managed to seat us all inside...
we offered to comp the rooms for the wedding party since most of them were married to each other and got a decent room rate--in June 9 years ago...

It went off pretty well except the dance floor was mega crowded--but just meant lot of positive crowd vibes-
since most every other guest was staying at hotel too it was very intimate--people hung around the beach and the pool that weekend vs doing lot of traveling to bars....they even did their bachelor parties together there because the party van never showed up--
His mom and dad has the rehearsal dinner there as well--and we ate outside on the deck facing Gulf...

the hotel catering manager told us that night that the full bar we paid for at flat rate had the highest total liquor bill of any wedding they had hosted--so they lost money on that--but we didn't have to worry about drunk driving since people just rode the elevator up after reception/party closed.

The hotel has changed brand but we were very happy with what they did for us--
and our daughter managed to save money on top of it...

Well done!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-24-2014, 02:55 PM
 
37,315 posts, read 59,862,293 times
Reputation: 25341
A wedding lasts a day (at most)--a marriage lasts a lifetime if the couple is right for each other... and a big, glam wedding or a small private one never predicts the outcome...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-24-2014, 03:00 PM
 
37,315 posts, read 59,862,293 times
Reputation: 25341
@Cardiff--
thanks--we thought she and her groom did good job of making sure the guests (mainly his fraternity brothers and college friends/spouses) didn't become dangerously drunk--
they just had a very, very good time---

Having almost all the wedding party and guests stay at the hotel make it so much simpler--
don't think larger resort would have been as successful because the smallness worked as intimacy factor--
and they had nice personnel working the bar and other areas---
no red tide either--which was just luck...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-24-2014, 03:02 PM
 
418 posts, read 559,643 times
Reputation: 306
I assume you are already working on the fiancée visa? getting married in the USA is much different than the UK. Not the same rules with venues having to have a license.

Do you have other wedding vendors who can help out a little?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-25-2014, 07:25 PM
 
152 posts, read 180,070 times
Reputation: 161
Longboat Key Club is a great venue for a wedding, and not too far from Anna Maria (even though it's at the far end of Longboat from AMI).

My daughter was married there and it was a great experience. The Hilton on Longboat may be another option, but I'm not sure of their construction status right now.

Good luck!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Florida > Sarasota - Bradenton - Venice area
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:03 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top