How much did your wedding cost ??

Including honey moon, dress, reception, cake, flowers, bridal gifts. transportation, phtography/videos, make-up, hair, grooms/grooms men/brides maids outfits, ceremony, anything and everything. Howmuch was your total budget and do u think it was worth it? Im not engaged yet, but im hoping that i will be with-in a year :P and im thinking 20-25 thousand would be our budget. What are your thoughts?


Oh and how much did u spend per person in the reception?


I live in Australia (Sydney)

How much did your wedding cost ??
Hi Dee, I live in Canberra! My wedding that is going to be in November is $23500 for 87 people. I know some people will think that is a lot but you may know that for Canberra and Sydney, a cost such as this fo ra wedding is average and even on the cheap end. An average Sydney wedding can be around $40,000! I think you would be doing the right thing to stay within your suggested price range. If it helps, here is a breakdown of my wedding costs. I know my costs for individual things will be very similar to what things will cost in Sydney:





Reception: 83 adults at $90 per person, 4 kids (under 12) at $15 per person, DJ, photographer and videographer meals $15.50 each


I am having my reception at a hotel and they have a marquee set up there so we are having the reception in that. The per head price includes room hire, dance floor, table linens, canapes on arrival, 3 course sit down dinner (2 choices per course, alternately served), 5 hour beverage package with juice, soda, wine and beers and champagne for the toasts. We also get a nice honeymoon suite for the night and discounted rates for guests staying at the hotel. It's costing all up $7396. I think it is a fairly good price to pay for what we get.





Marquee decorations: $1400 (fairy lights, back drop behind bridal table, lights and fabric on front of bridal and cake table, some topiary trees, more lights and drapes around the marquee, chair covers with sash etc)


Cake: $540


Attire: my dress $2400, veil, lingerie, shoes, jewellery $500, hair and make-up $540, men's suit hire $450


Photography: $2200


Videographer: $1400


Music: string quartet for ceremony $370 and DJ for reception $475


Flowers: $1150


Table decorations: $340


Wedding rings: $1300


Stationery: $600


Bomboniere and attendant gifts: $330


Ceremony: chapel hire $750 and celebrant fee $380





I know this seems like a lot but this is just what an average wedding in Canberra and Sydney is going to cost. I suggest start saving and I think you are on track with your 20-25000 figure.


Please feel free to email me with any questions, I am more than happy to help!





PS. I know my wedding is going to be beautiful and I am more than happy to pay this as I will only do it once!
Reply:I live in Texas %26amp; my total wedding cost was $5,000. That was every thing! :)
Reply:About 40 thousand including everything!!! We had a reception of 330 people at $40 a head we got a great deal %26amp; were very fortunate this included all drinks, canapes, 3 course meal, wedding cake, tea/coffee, fruit %26amp; cheese platter %26amp; chocolates! Alot of food! We went all out %26amp; my hubby comes from a big family! If you lived in Melbourne I wouldve recommended this place!!! Argh! Good luck! Shop around! By the way, if your looking to get favours done (bomboniere) I make them %26amp; can send them to you!
Reply:I spend about 35k total on the wedding and another 10k for the honeymoon. We spend about $60 per person at the reception for the dinner and had around 300 guests. Was it worth it? Yes, however we aready owned a home. If we didnt and it was the difference between a new home or a huge wedding I would have picked the home. I dont know about australia but in the US if you were to have a 150 person wedding you could definantly do it for 20-25k all the way up to as expensive as your willing to go!
Reply:Well, in in the midwest in the US and our wedding is only costing $4,500. I'm sure there is a lot you can do with your budget! It sounds pretty similar to the average budget in our country. Our honeymoon will only cost a few hundred, we are spending one night in a really nice hotel and then we are just taking a week off from work to hang out in our new home and set everything up.





Good luck and have fun planning when it comes!
Reply:OK, I've seen you have a TON of answers, but I will give it my best, as being through my own wedding and now being in the middle of two friends/family members weddings, I think they will show you what/where you can spend your money on...








MY personal wedding:


Hired proffessional wedding planner at Resort I requested in Lake Tahoe, California, TOTAL Wedding Cost: $26,000/50 guests. Reception was five-course, served dinner. (this did NOT include extra hotel fare for out of two guests, daily spending, food, etc... JUST for ceremony, priest, reception, food, cake, houres d'oevres, I also, at extra cost, had a string quartet for my ceremony and piano and bass player for my reception.


Honeymoon: $3500. My husbands grandparents own a cabin in Lake Taho that they donated to us for two weeks. All we had to pay for was *extras* for a couple weeks in food, renting a boat for a couple days, parasailing, fun stuffm, etc...





Cousins Wedding: $18,000/150 guests. Buffet style food, self serve. Very simple, again, ceremony and reception are in the same location at a hotel in Gilbert, Arizona.


Honemoon: $12,000. Half of the cost was donated by family members as a wedding gift so that the newlyweds could go on a nice cruise in the carribean.





Friend from High School: Wedding: $15,000/50-80 guests. Done in Brides parents backyard (which is LARGE) Grooms best friend/best man is also "preacher" and marrying the couple. They're having food catered in, still self-serve. Friends of bride and groom handling most of the loose-ends...


Honeymoon: $15,000. Groom saved major money for a month long honemoon to rent a private boat and relax in multiple places through the carribean... very nice...
Reply:I live in the Midwest of the US. We are spending $2000. That is our budget. $1200 is for the honeymoon, my dress was $140, he already has a nice suit to wear, we are having family only wedding ceremony, with just cake afterwards. After the honeymoon we are having a big BBQ party at our house for our friends.


If I had $20,000 I wouldn't spend it on a wedding. I would put in another bathroom in my house, and probably get hard wood floors in.


I don't need a big fancy wedding-its all about us gettting married!
Reply:It really depends, my sister got married last august and hers was about 8,000. Im getting married in september and i plan on it being even cheaper than that, both are outside (just a cheap, but pretty, park near by) and nothing too fancy.


On average i think weddings are about 20,000, it depends on what you want, how many people, and where. (churches can be expensive). i think your budget sounds about right, it can definatly be done lol.
Reply:i live in nw pa and our wedding including honeymoon cost about $12500. i do think it was worth it, ore wedding was a great day and a beautiful event. we were very pleased with how everything turned out. our only glitch was that we were supposed to go to mexico for our honey moon and couldn't go at the last minute because of the hurrican last august.





i think 20-25 thousand is about average and that you should be able to have a very nice wedding with that budget.





oh we spent $16 a head plus alcohol for or wedding = about $6,500 on food and alchohol (this also included the location and we had the ceremony at the same place)
Reply:we spent 11179 + some.. yeah it was worth it..and your budget should be good as long as you shop around for deals.. also the groomsman and bridesmaids normally pay for their own things
Reply:Well, I live in Ohio, US %26amp; I'm trying to keep it around $4500. Ive cut most corners trying to keep the cost down while still getting the wedding I want %26amp; man, is it hard!


At the hall we're having our reception at, with the menu we're choosing, its $12 per person..$13 with punch. Our favors are probably maybe $1.50 a person? Give or take a little.


Everythings DIY so thats how we're saving money. That and lots of bargain hunting!
Reply:I'm getting married in Iowa. We started out with a budget of $5000 and 150 guests. I'm not getting married until August and we've already gone over budget! We're at about $30,000.00 right now!!!! I couldn't believe it but we've been planning already for over a year and a half so little by little we've been buying things and it just added up! I'm not talking honeymoon yet either... that's just so far. My mom and dad are both going half on it and I'm putting the an extra $5000 down for bridal party gifts, my fiance's wedding band and my hair/nails/etc...





For the reception we are spending about $50-$60 per person depending on what meal they choose. But this price includes a package of an open bar, champagne w/strawberries for the toast, half a ballroom, a block of rented rooms, a comp. suite for my fiance and I the night of the wedding, a cocktail hour and kids meals for the little ones. So it includes a lot really but still I about died when I saw that. But in our family when we go big... we really go BIG! No I don't regret it at all. It's totally worth it.
Reply:Hey Dee, I am in Sydney also and I am getting married in August.


I have been reading all the other posts and I can't believe how much more mine is costing and I am trying to budget!


Mine is at the moment $75,000.00 and there is still more costs that I know I have forgotten.


We are having around 230 guests and its costing $95 per person.


In that 75,000 is the everything to date including honeymoon which is in Fiji that is about $5000 there without spending I budget about $2000 spending which is included in the 75K My dress along with the bridesmaids and flowergirl dresses is something that blew out of our original budget that costing me alone $8500.00 so you could save money there and find a cheaper venue.


Shop around.


Hint getting married in the cooler months is cheaper also getting married on a friday or sunday is also cheaper.


email me if you need any further help.


Good luck..


By the way your budget is achievable if you shop around.
Reply:Our Chicago wedding is costing approx. $50K. Honestly our budget was more like $40K but we found it difficult to get the things we wanted at that price. We're spending close to $200 on each of our 150 guests and $500 on each of our 10 attendants. A big part of that cost is our 2 week honeymoon in French Polynesia but we decided that we didn't want to go anywhere else!





Your budget sounds good, whatever you decide to spend just don't go in to debt for your wedding.
Reply:Mine was about 23K not including the ring or the honeymoon, but I had almost 500 people in attendance. I think you'll be able to do a lot with that budget and it will be really beautiful.
Reply:We have a budget of about 20k.





We've confirmed and locked in prices for venues, celebrant, photographer, clothing, catering, flowers, hair, makeup, gifts, cake, transport and booked all honeymoon accomodation and tours. (2 weeks in NZ) We are catering for 120 guests for a three course sit down dinner in addition to drinks/canapes for an hour all at the same venue as our ceremony.





At the moment we are under budget.





I'm in canberra though so depending on where abouts in sydney you want to have your wedding you might need a bit more for the venues. I't's a big cost saver if you can find a venue that can have your ceremony and reception at the same place and good photo locations within a few minutes walk. It saved us hundreds on car hire and thousands on venue hire.





I attended a friends wedding in sydney last year that was all at the one venue and it was a fantastic idea!
Reply:We're at 17k and counting. We're just having buffet style reception. Nothing fancy. Can't even afford chair covers. The money went so quickly. Band, photgrapher, reception site...the list goes on and on. If it's important to you that you stick to the budget, I would say pretend it's at least $1000 less than it really is. So many things will keep popping up!
Reply:So far it's about 25k and growing...the little things add up quick! $28,000 is the national average in the U.S. I think. The reason for our budget is because we have 100 people, and it is at a hotel, where there is an astonishing view. We've cut back on a bunch of stuff already, but there are just some things I have to have, (which I think is the reason it got to this amount.)
Reply:My best friend got married this past summer and spent $7000. She had about 250 guests and said her main costs was her dress and decoration costs. She got by cheaply on the cake (300), photographer (free, she just got the prints developed), food (a lot of it was given)... so, it just depends on the kind of wedding you want to have. A buffet will cost less than a sit-down meal. Alcohol will raise your costs a lot. Are you paying for your groomsmen/bridesmaid dresses, or just flowers and gifts? Are the flowers going to be fake or real? Determine how much your budget is, then work from there. Decide how much you can spend, how much your fiance can spend, and how much other family members (parents, etc.) are going to spend, then put that number into a budget calculator, like on theknot.com, and it will break it down for you to how much you should spend in each area and lets you change things as need be.
Reply:Still paying for it up to 15,000 w/out the honeymoon
Reply:My fiance and I are going to Cayo Largo, Cuba and if we have 25 guests the wedding is FREE that includes all the all inclusive amenities, wedding ceremony, flowers, drinks, food, cake, reception, hair, photography, etc.


The tickets to go there for two weeks for the both of us is going to be approximately $6000.00 plus some spending cash. As for dresses my budget is about $400.00 and for bridesmaids we are just getting the girls sun dresses and the boys linen shirts with pants.





Our invitations we did via a computer program and we emailed the majority out to people so no postage costs either!





Our entire wedding with honeymoon will be under $8000.00.





Spending more money to have all the little things that no one ever remembers (chair covers, pretty invitations, etc.) is not worth the cost.
Reply:I live in Sydney and my church is the Garrison Church at Millers Point and the reception is at Rydges North Sydney and it is costing $40,000. Everything is pretty much all booked in and its just some of the finer details we are doing now. We shopped around heaps on everything to get the best prices and deals. We are doing all our own stationery, bonboneries etc and you can get so much stuff of ebay. Its great. Our honeymoon alone is costing $9000 not including spending money.


Our reception is costing us $95 ahead and we have at this stage 92 people including the bridal party. This is a really really good price. Average reception around the cty is about $130 ahead with a minimum 100 people.


Theres no reason why a wedding couldn't be done with a budget of 20000-25000. Shop around and you can find good deals. Just be warned though that it all adds up really quick. Pick the things that mean the most to you and spend on those areas and not as much on the less important aspects.
Reply:for everything including the rings, minister, EVERYTHING....we spent about $400 US dollars....then again, we got married in front of Wal-Mart....and we're just as married as if we would have spent a fortune!!!