have experience planning a wedding?

50 divorces.

I used to work for a Bridal Gown Designer and assisted in Wedding Planning, you can hit me up after work hours if you have any questions.

I got married a month ago and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. We spent a year engaged for saving up ourselves and planning. Our budget looked like...


50/head x 90 ppl, +tax, service fee's (included cake, centerpeices, 4 hour open bar, buffet dinner) - about 5500$

Ceremony on boardwalk overlooking beach - 1200$ (Included photographer for ceremony only)

Limo- 200
Flowers - 220
Dresses, Tux's, all that crap - 2000
Invitation - 250
Favors - 400
DJ - 500
Taiko Performance Group (reception) - Bartered for website 0$
Honeymoon - Hedo III in Jamaica 5 days plus airfare - 2000

About 12,000K - since we paid for 80% of it ourselves we could not afford to go crazy. You can easily cut corners if you plan for a budget. Our wedding was beautiful, and most importantly - everyone had a GREAT time and the weather was perfect.

<img src="http://nookiebandits.com/pics/wed1.jpg">

Unfortunatly there is more to it.

You'll need:

Her dress
Your Tux
Bridesmaid Dress'sMaid of Honor Dresses
Best man tux
Groomsmen tux's
A caterer
An open bar for about an hour (during the reception)
Receptrion Hall
Church
Justice of the peace if you choose not to get married in a church
Photographer
Videographer
Florist
Limo service
Hair/Makeup at the salon for your woman and her bridesmaides
Champaigne for your toast
A wedding cake and groomscake
Gifts for your bridal party and both of your parents (and hers)
An outfit for both of you to wear to the reception
a DJ or live band
Place cards for the tables at the reception
invitations
etc....

It can be very pricey, but there are ways to get great quality without spending an assload. You both want this to be an event to remember, but at the same time, its only a few hours long. Id say spend a little less on the wedding and more on the honeymoon. Just my 2 cents though.

WOW! When I got married we spent $2500.00. Now that we have more money and 8 years later, we are renewing our vows in Vegas before the convention. No need for a reception and we are spending about $6000.00. (and NO Elvis will not be there)

I could probably help you with trimming expenses.

email me- cindy21 at charter.net

and what is this talk of bridesmaids dresses and the tuxes. They pay for their own dresses and tuxes.

hey l2r4u

email me... laura at shawinternet.com

I will show you a few pictures from our wedding ;)))

Not at any wedding I have ever been to. I have a HUGE italian family. There's a wedding like every few weeks lol.

We always purchase the dressed and tux's. T be honest its rude not to. Think about this for a sec.. "Hey will you be my Maid of Honor?....................GREAT! You only have to spend $200 on a dress you'll never wear again"

Come to scotland and save money

More budget shortcuts

Open seating - avoids placecards and seating hassles. we had 2 reserved tables for immediate family and bridal party.
Find a reception hall or hotel that handels catering, flowers, decorations, champagne toast, and cake - make sure they do not charge a cake cutting fee, bartender fee, toast fee, etc... they'll really scalp ya.
Use return postcards rather than resonse envelopes to save on stamps
Rings - we got bands when we got engaged and they are now our 'wedding rings'
Skip the church fee and do it on the beach or park. An officating service will handle chairs, arch, flowers, etc Park or beach permit is usually less than 25$, do it in a nice time of year where you can be cool outdoors. Makes for very pretty pictures too

I've never heard of the bride having to buy all of the brides maid's dresses and what not. As a matter of fact, I have heard many from bridal parties complain about having to spend so much money on dresses they will only wear once etc. The bride usually buys them all a gift, but not the dress itself. I guess everyone does things differently.

By the way, you're Italian and Jewish? wow!

Everyone does things differently. I just think its easier to buy/rent the dresses for them.

And yes I am italian and jewish. Im a mut lol. Ive got irish, german, italian, and romanian in me. Cant complain though.

As far as weddings go, I am engaged to be married, and we originally wanted to get married at Disney (infront of the castle) but to my surprise they want wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy tp much money. Now I figured it would be a lot but not THAT much. They wanted $20,000 just to say "I DO" in front of the castle and thatours. They dont do it during the day. You cant even rent that part of the park. Can we say...RIP OFF??

That's cool. Must be an Italian tradition cause every wedding I have been in I had to pay for the bridesmaid dress myself.

That probably what it is. When you have such a large family, its easier to afford things. We also do whats called a "receiving line". During the reception the bride stands in the front of the room and everyone forms a line in front of her. Each person holds an envelope that has no less then $100 in it (usually wayyy more). This money is used to pay for a down payment on a house. By the time you're through the line, you've landed yourself about $10,000

One of my favorite traditions lol.

Geesh I'm italian and no one in my family would ever spring for everyone's dresses/tuxes Of course when I get married, most of my family will be lucky to even be invited, much less me put money out for them!

Anyway, back to the original thread here. I would definitely discuss living arrangements (your uncle etc) before you say I do. You need to have a serious discussion about things like that and finances, how you will do your bank accounts, spending and how you will discipline children, if you plan on having them. I'd say the majority of arguments in marriages stem from money. Before you worry about the glamorous fancy wedding and the cost of it, you need to plan for what happens after the wedding and work your way backwards. People change when it comes to money. Not even knowing your living arrangements before hand, will be even more stress on a new marriage. You need to communicate and reach an agreement before you even so much as pick out one dish in a china pattern.

Too many people focus on their dream wedding and forget all about the real life marriage after they say I do. I'd rather have a $500 wedding and plans for the future, rather than an extravagent wedding, that only puts us in debt or sets a high standard for that type of living, after all the Cinderella syndrome wears off.

I agreee with Furious Female, ppl forget to consider the "after" wedding....

I'm Thai and the traditions are not to be broken, my family is still very traditional. My b/f and I are already starting to plan for our wedding in 05 as well. He hasn't proposed yet but we know it's inevitable...just finalizing our own debts b4 we take a step in that direction. I come from a HUGE family, and so does my bf, so we'll end up having about 300 ppl at the wedding.

To cut back on costs, we decided that only immediate family and close friends will be at the dinner. Everyone else will only be invited to the reception. My parents have 12 brothers and sisters each, and my b/f has 7 aunts and uncles... and as far as booze goes, we'll have wine w/ dinner, and booze and beer after dinner.. it also helps keep ppl from over drinking...

as i said she has a huge family, and we have been to several weddings for them. both my family and theirs are italian and we always had to pay for our own outfits even when she was in the party! One time the dress was near $500 and she only wore it once!!

I havent had the balls to ask what any of them made off the wedding, but one of them came out and told us he made near $30k from envelopes.

The wedding costed $45k or something, so they came out $15k short of paying for itself.

Since the parents havent got money to burn, they always had to pay for weddings for themselves, or else they could have used the money for a house i guess.


I spoke to my hair stylist and she had a $70k wedding, made $50k off envelopes but her parents paid every dime of expenses INCLUDING down payment on house ... the $50k was pocketted for future!!

how fucking cool would that be!! lol

just not gonna happen though ....

just talked with a friend who had a HUGE wedding. He is portugese so there were tons of family there, they couldnt fit into any of these halls.

He ended up renting the portugese club for a night, said it costed $500 for the hall and like $8k for everything else including food and DJ and shit

a $10k wedding isnt half bad if you ask me! lol