Your wedding, lets talk about it.

[WalkingTittyBar]

The wedding thread got me wondering what kind of wedding everybody else had, who paid for it, how much it cost, did you have any fights over it, etc.

Dh and I paid for our own. It was around $3000 and this was in 2000. My dad did suprise us with a gift of $750 at the reception but it was certainly not expected. And dad also donated $100 to the church and $50 to the preacher. He done this on his own and it had not even been discussed beforehand.

My dress, veil, and shoes were a little over $700. I found the bridesmaid dresses for about $40 each at a close-out store, regular they were well over $100 each. The bridesmaids paid for their own dresses and I bought the shoes. (Well, one bridesmaid never paid for hers though. But I guess as long as she still owes me Ill never be broke. lol) The men paid for their own tuxes. My sil paid for the rehersal dinner which was pizza, salad, fruit and dessert.

We rented candle obras and had the reception in the church hall. Family, friends and I decorated the hall the night before, after the rehersal. We had a buffet line with tons of food. We bought most of the food from Sams and my family prepared it before the wedding. We also hired a great photographer. Besides my dress, he was the biggest expense, but well worth it.

I had no fights with anyone over it either. My feelings were a little hurt though that my mom wasnt more involved with the planning, but I never said anything about it.

I feel like we had a pretty nice wedding on a not-so-big budget. Everyone there seemed to have a really great time. We didnt have a honeymoon though. Well, we went on vacation to Myrtle Beach about 3 weeks later, but we took ds and my niece with us. If I had it to do over, I would have rather just had a really great honeymoon, like a cruise or something.

Tell me about yours.

[KaraJ]

I think our wedding was somewhere in the $5,000- $6,000 range, but I was lucky to have parents who paid for EVERYTHING, including our honeymoon.
Hubby and I didn't argue much about anything that I can remember, except at the reception, he kept trying to make me eat, but I was so nervous my stomach was in knots!

[pawprint]

We spent about 4k, maybe 4.5K. My IL's paid for most of it. I paid for my own dress, $450 and I couldn't have loved a dress more. I added crystals to my shoes (a present from a customer at the restaurant I worked in, oddly) and veil myself. I got a book and taught myself to arrange flowers and did most of the flowers myself except for my own and my single bridesmaid. We had it catered by a small local place. We had my BIL's college roommate bartend and he accepted tips. My FIL picked up all the tuxes. We paid for own own rehearsal dinner. My SIL played the piano. A friends mom happened to be ordained and married us without a donation to her RCJCLDS church. (I think that's the right abbreviation....)

[Justicedog]

Mine was too big. I don't recall exactly how much it cost. Likely around 15K including the honeymoon to Hawaii. It was held in the state my mom and most of my family lived. Church cost $300. Photography was a big deal for me. Reception was in a hotel, catered buffet about $35 per person for about 250? folks. Alcohol was separate, around $1K. My dress was $600, paid for by my mom. I think dh and I paid for the reception, my dad paid for the alcohol, perhaps part of the reception.

My inlaws paid for the "rehearsal dinner", actually, paid about $300 towards it. We had a bbq at my mom's house and had out of town guest invited to it. It was likely more than $300 for a pony keg and food. My MIL was such a nut that I'd have preferred she not pay, but she was insisting, so, whatever. I'd have rather paid.

My MIL didn't get along with her h's brothers and we were told that she'll not come if they come. I told her that I was not going to not invite family and that if they choose to come, I'd expect people to behave as adults. DH's aunt and uncle declined to go so as not to cause problems, however, they called the dj and sent a special dedication song. My MIL stormed off into the bridal party room and dh went after her and spent an hour or more kissing her ass rather than dancing and celebrating with me. And it's been going downhill ever since - 11 years later, they're coming this weekend. My family saw MIL's reaction and felt bad for my dh for having to grow up with someone with a mental illness.

Only flowers I had were at the church, on lapels and the bouques (sp?). I made the centerpieces. I made the veil and my shoes, which were white tennies with lace and beads glued on. Glue doesn't work so well with shoes and beads. :)

I wish we'd had a much smaller wedding. It was such a waste of money I'm quite embarassed about it. I was stupid, dh wanted a huge party like his friends had had, I wanted the fairy tale crap. I'd do it much differently, the players would likely be different too.

[vulturemom]

Our wedding cost about $2000 total. Dh's parents paid for some, my Mom paid for some, My sister catered and only charged $1 a person (not a full meal just a buffet of fruit, veggie and cheese trays)
It was a traditional Utah wedding. I thought it was a very nice wedding but, now that my mind is expanding a bit outside of Utah I know it would be considered a pretty scaled back wedding.

I am glad I live where huge weddings aren't expected.

We spent two nights at a bed and breakfast for our honeymoon.

I guess I should mention that I was married in 1989.

[jessiehannan]

My wedding cost.....$100. DH paid for it. I wore a borrowed dress, my DH wore nice clothes, and we got married at the JP with my mom, his mom and dad, his bro, our best friend, his girlfriend, and his bro's gf and kids. The carpet in the room was green, the room was too warm, and made my morning sickness pretty bad.
DH's parents treated every one to dinner at our fave Chinese food place. The only thing that I regret is being to stupid at the time to realize that my inlaws were paying for dinner, and telling my mom she couldn't come because I didn't have that much money. If I could change anything at all, that is all I would change, and have my mom be there for dinner.

[Sadalsuud]

My wedding cost $200, including the fee for the JP. With my dress, it cost $700. My parents paid for all of it.

Dh and I got married in my parent's backyard. There were only about 25 people there, total.

My mom and I made the decorations. We went to Party City and got cheap plastic champagne flutes and hot glued on mini silk flowers that we arranged and put tapered candles that we already had in them.

We bought clear plastic plates and bowls and cups and cut out sponges in the shape of hearts and stamped the underside/outside of the plates/bowls/cups. We had finger finger foods, and my mom and I used heart shaped cookie cutters to cut the cheeses and meats and bread/tortillas. We also made a fruit salad, and my aunt and uncle brought the champagne and a potato salad and the punch.

We used an antique milk can that we already had and made a silk flower arrangement to stand in front of one of our music stands that the JP used to marry us.

My sister was my bridesmaid, and since we couldn't find a dress that be both liked, we found a really pretty satin nightgown that was super cheap and that we both loved.

My mom and I also made the corsages for the parents and the boutonniere for dh and for his best man and my bouquet.

My mom made my wedding cake and the grooms cake and she also made my invitations (she is highly skilled at cake decorating and at calligraphy) and my bridal veil to go with my dress.

Dh and I didn't have a honeymoon, though everyone who was at the wedding that was closer to our age went to the movies with us after the wedding.

I didn't have any fights over anything.

[MrsKitty]

We had a fantastic wedding. I think it was the most beautiful wedding in the world :)

We paid for the licensing and that sort of thing.

I got my shoes at walmart, and my accessories at Claires (diadem, crystal hair screws) and a "diamond" eyebrow ring at a kiosk for $15. I did buy a dress but my mom decided she didnt like it and said that if I wanted money to buy a nicer dress she would give it to me. So she gave me extra money and I got a diffrent dress. So my mom contributed to the dress. I wore a corset I already had in the house. She also paid for me to get my nails done.

I wanted a crystal bouquet instead of flowers, they cost a few hundred bucks to get the real ones. I went to Michael's and got craft wire and plastic beads that sparkled and my husband and I stayed up the night before making it together.

My hair was done for free, a friend of mine was friends with a hair dresser and she convinced him to do my hair for free as a favor to her, so I got gorgeous ringlets, and he gave me sparkles to put in afterward.

My mother in law rented the arch as a suprise for us, and got crepe paper at the dollar store. We spread fake petals all over the grass, and had candle holders with purple flowers that one of the daycare workers at my sons daycare had left over from her wedding. We held it in my backyard - free.

A friend of ours who does gorgeous candid shots took pictures of us (over 300) as a wedding gift.

Afterward my dad took us to one of his country clubs, he drove my husband and I (and the photog) in one of his fancy collector cars (I only mention this because I know some people rent limos, and he thought it would be fun for us to ride in one of his cars). He had rented a small room there and paid for dinner for everyone (about 14 of us total). We drank wine that he bought the year I was born that he saved for my wedding (and apparently according to his toast, whenever I did something worthy of giving him a gray hair). The dinner was probably the most expencive, but mostly because we didn't spend much money on anything else.

I don't know how much money was spent total, because my dad wouldn't tell me what the dinner was. All three families chipped in what they could, most of it was home made or borrowed, and I can't think of anything that would have made my day any more special



http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/MizKitten/vows.jpg
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[maksmom]

DH and I spent less than $500. We were married in my parents back yard. My dress was an off white suit off the clearance rack at Dillards, my maid of honor wore a bridesmaid dress from her own wedding a few months before(her sister's dress). Dh husband had to buy a suit, but my Dad works at a men's clothing store, so we got a deal. The flowers were white roses from Wal-Mart, made into simple bouquets by my maid of honor. We did pay a local lady to do the cake, we also rented an arch and some silk flower arrangements from her. It was cheaper for us to pay a local caterer to come to the house to serve the food, there was only 14 of us total, and it was a really nice meal and they did all the serving and cleanup. (and, by the way, they also left all the left over food, which is more unusual, from my understanding)

We were married by an associate pastor from my church, and he refused any payment. My FIL took pictures. We did honeymoon in St Augustine for a few days, afterward.
It was a beautiful wedding, and I would not change a thing.

[MiMi_of_4]

My first wedding ~

My mom made my dress, my veil and the bridesmaid dresses my three sisters wore. The other bridesmaids made their own dresses. The material for my dress cost $40 and the material for the bridesmaids dresses was $25/dress. My parents paid for the dresses, the flowers and the wedding cake (we had a church reception right after the ceremony); his parents paid for his tux and he and I paid for everything else, including our "wedding party" that evening (my uncle owned a nightclub and closed it for the evening, so we could party there ~ no rent). We paid for our own honeymoon, and there was no rehearsal dinner.

DH and I had a small wedding and we paid for everything ourselves ~ I bought my dress at JCPenny for less than $50, dh wore a suit out of his closet and we bought our girls matching dresses, because they were our flower girls. My dad and step-mom surprised us with a small reception at their home afterward ~ a cake and a few bottles of champagne.

[Joyto5]

Wedding back in 1994
Dress = $500 (I paid for it.)
DH Rented his Tux (Not sure)
Cake and refreshments = $150 (Dh paid for it)
Mine and DH's ring = $1,100 (Dh paid for it)
Decorations = Free (Was going to be $350 but when they delivered it, the party before ours took more then half our stuff)
Rental at our church = Free
Everyone bought or made their own dress or Tux

No fights over anything. Dh had been dating or friends for over 4 years. We were all ready to start a family!

[KatieLou]

My Mom and Dad paid for our wedding, although I paid for half of my dress. My dress, shoes jewlery, veil, and that sort of stuff cam to about $1000. I have no idea how much was spent on the rest of it, although I am sure my Mom does. We did have a DJ and that was arounf $400. Photog was $525, tuxes were around $500, flowers were pretty pricey, but beautiful! We got married in my parents backyard, and my Dad bulit a gazebo(sp) for us to get married in. Don't know how much that cost him, but my Mom got to keep it. In fact she was saying "tell your Daddy you want a gazebo, because he will do anything you want, and I want one!" lol. It worked!
DH and I paid for our honeymoon. DH's family said they would throw the rehearsal dinner. Huh. They had a outdoor dimmer they provided the pot, and told everyone to bring 2 dishes. So my wedding party, my parents, and even I had to cook for my own rehearsal dinner.

[SueDid]

We had a very nice wedding. My Mom helped with the planning. They paid for everything except the rehearsal dinner (dh's parents paid for that, and that seemed to be customary at the time) and a few odds and ends that I wanted.

I really didn't care what the reception was like, I just wanted to get married. My mom and I talked about what I wanted and what they wanted and would pay for, she did all the legwork and narrowed things down to a few choices and I got the final say.

We had a sit down, prime rib dinner, with dancing and open bar for 125 people. The cost was somewhere around $4000, 26 years ago. The bridesmaids bought their own dresses and wore what shoes they wanted. The guys rented their own tuxes. Everything we did was pretty usual at the time and in our circle of friends.

We took all 3 weeks of our vacation for our honeymoon and took off without any reservations or real destination in mind. We decided as we went when to stop and what we wanted to see. It was wonderful.

[pawprint]

Mrs. Kitty- my grandfather brought shto glasses he'd engraved himself with out names and wedding date and we toasted with a cognac from the year I was born. Sadly, I don't like cognac, lol. He also did a toast he had given at the wedding of my mother and her sisters. When he dies a little more than a year later my mom did the same toast at his wake. She is the eldest and will do that same toast at my cousin's wedding next June. I am the eldest of this generation and someday I will do it for my sons and nieces and nephews. :)

[GirlsMama]

I had an emergency appendectomy the day we were planning to get married! We were going to get married by the base lake where we were stationed. The only cost was going to be the food for the picnic, my dress which was less than $100 and my dh's clothes, also less than $100. We ended up getting married in our living room and I had 12 staples in my stomach from the surgery two days previous and walked very slowly :)

[CatSoup]

Mrs Kitty those pics are too cute!

[cc1003]

My wedding was pretty pricey. I don't know the breakdown but I do know that including my honeymoon which my in-laws were gracious enough to pay for it was probably around 20k. We went to St. Lucia and stayed at Sandals so that made up a large part of it.

We got married at a golf club, my parents paid, my aunt made my dress because I couldn't find one I loved and I felt that they were so expensive. And it meant so much to me that my aunt would do that for me. I LOVED my dress. I'll try to find a picture. My bridesmaids dresses were around $220, they paid. I bought their jewelry and gifts for each of the bridesmaids, groomsmen, house party, ushers, flower girl, and ring bearer. We had six bridesmaids and six groomsmen, and six ushers. Really five groomsmen because my brother didn't make it back from Iraq in time. Really five and a half because one of our groomsmen passed out and knocked himself out during our wedding. Right in the middle of the vows. He was out for 45 minutes. Good times. (I can say that because he's fine now.)

The food was around $30-$35/person and we had about 250 guests. Then there was unlimited wine and beer and a champagne toast so that was separate from the cost of the food. The deejay, videographer, and photographer were combined in a package.

There were no arguments that I can recall. My wedding was expensive but I am SO thankful to our parents and really appreciate all that they did. It was absolutely amazing.

Here are a few pictures of what a great job my aunt did. She had no pattern, I just said well I like this and I don't like this, etc. She hand beaded it and everything. Gosh I am so thankful for my family!

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/cc1003/th_Wedding030207103.jpg (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/cc1003/Wedding030207103.jpg)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/cc1003/th_Wedding030207104-1.jpg (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/cc1003/Wedding030207104-1.jpg)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/cc1003/th_Wedding030207107.jpg (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/cc1003/Wedding030207107.jpg)
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[xobehs]

250 people. Catered in a tent at my friends Inn. AMAZING band, open bar and lots and lots of close and wonderful friends. 8 years later we are STILL the big talk about what a fun time was had by all.
My aunt and uncle paid for the whole thing, it was DH's dream wedding. I never would have had such a swanky affair but my family more than has it and was quite insistent. I am thankful every single day for it, but would have been happy with a pig roast and BYOB. They also paid for our honeymoon.
DH and I already owned our home (from what we were able to salvage from his families estate after his mom's tragic death) and we had no major debts to hurdle so we went for it.
We received mostly cash gifts, all of which we socked away into retirement savings.
If I had that kind of money I too would give to my family the way they have for me my whole life.
All said and done I would say it was about 50k total, everything start to finish including honeymoon.

ETA: we also paid for most of the bridal party clothes and housed them all for the 4 days they were visiting since they were from all over the country.

[sweetkisses]

Our total was around $8000. I did not ask anyone for help with the cost but those that offered I was very grateful for.

My mother gave us $2000
My father $1000
MY Grandmother bought our cakes
My husband's parents really wanted to help with the rehearsal dinner but do not have a lot of money. So we had the dinner at my father's home and DH's parents cooked an awesome authentic Mexican dinner.
Our reception was at my Grandparents home.
We paid for the rest with money we had saved.

No fights about anything.

We had a wonderful wedding but looking back I do feel that was a lot of money to spend on a wedding. I'm just glad we had enough sense not to go into debt over it.

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[GirlsMama]

I just read the wedding thread that lead to this one.

What did my family contribute? Well, none of us has any money, lol, sooo, my brother and his wife and baby spent money to drive up to see us, my mom and her husband spent money to drive down to see us, and we honestly didn't invite anyone else because we couldn't afford to have them. (We lived in NE and my family is in WI and his family is in SC). Looking back, I wish we had sent them an announcement, but I didn't want anyone to think we were looking for gifts.

Anyway... I think if a family decides together to do a wedding a certain way, then if someone goes back on their promise, it's understandable for there to be frustration and hurt feelings.

[Meredith]

Less than $500, about 300 of that was food, ROFL. We payed for it all ourselves. My dress cost $20. If I had to do it again, I would've spent more on the dress and just had cake and punch for the reception.

ETA: I thought I'd lay out how we paid for everything.

My friend played the harp for the ceremony, as her gift to us.

Another friend caters weddings. She charged us only for food, and she and her mother decorated the reception hall with all of their stuff. It was beautiful.

DH's sister took pictures with her digital camera (free).

My maid of honor made the cake for free.

My MIL was going to pay for the flowers, but a friend of hers surprised her and paid it for her.

Decorations were all done by me, except for the reception hall, which, like I said, was decorated by my friend and her mom.

I printed up invitations on floral computer paper - nothing fancy.

In retrospect, I probably would've been just as happy with everything had we eloped and saved money.

[dalurker]

We paid for our own wedding. With the license and the judge combined, it was in the $20 range. Oh, and I think I paid about $8 or so for the blood test, no more than $10 for sure, so maybe around $30 total. We got married at the courthouse in jeans and sneakers. There was no reception or food or any of that stuff. I never was the kind of girl who dreamed of big weddings and I've never missed not having one.

[Babyhellfire]

We got engaged and started planning a wedding.
Dude,STRESSFUL!!!
I did not like wedding planning.
I did not like trying to plan out food,people and use of this imaginary ridiculous sum of wasted money.The truth of the matter was the more we "planned" the more we realized we couldn't afford it and we were NOT going to get help affording it.

....SO we scrapped the whole stupid idea.
The wedding location, the bridesmaids and groomsmen,the clothes , the flowers,the reception-the band the catering -the plan of inviting my entire HUGE freaking family.


We started planning our vacation. We found a pet friendly cabin in the woods in Tennessee.
We packed the dog up the car and I borrowed my BFFs wedding dress,made my own veil- dh rented a tux . We got married in our cabin by a man in bib overalls for like 30 bucks...and had a really nice "weddingmoon" vacation in downtown Gatlinburg.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c263/babyhellfire/P1030728.jpg

Dhs mom had found out we were leaving- last minut we admitted it to a few... and she bought us champagne and some glasses.
We bought an angel food cake and strawberries and had our own teenny reception,with some old dear friends from TN of Dh's.

ETA- when we came 'Home" we handed out videos of the wedding and ,we started house hunting. We got loads of support from our family- money that would have been put into our wedding or wedding gifts, was put into helping us buy our house.

[joshsmom]

I think we spent about 11k, not including the honeymoon. My parents contributed about 4k and we paid the rest. DH parent's paid for the rehearsal dinner.

We got married in a church and had the reception at a local restaurant/hall, which is now a Wawa. ;) I think we invited about 200 and had about 150 attend. My dress was by far the most affordable aspect of the day at about $400. The rest was 'typical' wedding fare for 2001, I suppose. Caterer, flowers, photog, video..

[trueblue]

Don't even remember. But DH and I paid for most if not all of it. Probably around 8-10K. Maybe not the rehearsal dinner...I think my Mom and Dad paid for that. Honeymoon was a snowmobiling trip in Canada...we won 1/2 off of that thru our snowmobile club!

Best part was the leftover chocolate bar favors (I kept one in my freezer up until a year ago when DS#1 discovered it and ate it.....yuck! But he enjoyed it!)

[TuetonicWillow]

My first wedding was very elaborate. Limos, caterers, string quartet and then full band, open bar and champagne fountains and black tie all the way. It was a pricey affair. But I was divorced a few years later. (the majority of the bill was footed by my then DH and I)

My second marriage was without fanfare. We were married in the living of our family friend, a local judge. We had 2 witnesses. Afterwards we went out to a beautiful dinner.

That's it. By that time, I was way over the big white dress and photographers.

[ammtimes3]

Mine was about 5k.

My dress with veil and headpeice was 700 with tax. My parents paid for all but the veil.
Reception hall was the most expensive and was 3000 That included the hall, cake, flowers,and an assortment of fruits and things for dipping in the chocolate fondue. I forgot that this also included the invitations and a limo ride to our hotel that night.
We made the centerpeices our selves for about 100
The Videogarpher was around 700 and the photographer was 650 DH and I helped pay for these.
We bought the bridesmaids dresses for less than 100 for 3
Dad paid for his tux DH and I paid for DH's tux 100 each.
The Temple was free.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m285/ammtimes3/wedding133.jpg
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All of us at the reception
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[MrsKitty]

paw- that was a really sweet story. I love family traditions like that.

I noticed I forgot the cake and everyone is talking about cake. A friend of ours who loves to bake made the cake as a gift. Our cake toppers were Unicron and a figuring of a raver. (We started dating because my husband saw me at a rave..and thought wow that girl is hot..and got to talking..and he found out I was geeky..and decided then and there that he had to be with me because hot geeky raver girls are apparently in short supply)

[RedMamaBear]

I think under two grand. We had a potluck reception. Did it in the backyard of a friend's house. I got my dress at the place I was working at the time, and have worn it several times since.

[Ilovemonkeys]

We were going to pay for everything ourselves but when we announced our engagement family members offered to pay for certain things.

Our only big expenses were the reception and the invitations. And I only got those things b/c my grandmothers and aunts were insistent on being "proper"

I would have been happy getting married on the beach without all the froofra.

My mom bought my dress which was on clearance, my grandmother bought the invites, we halved the food with other family members. My family made all the food, (tea sandwiches, nuts, mints, fruit etc) my sister made my cake. We all set up the reception and church together.

My grandmother did all the flowers as I agreed to use all silks and plants so she could re-use/resell them later. So that was free.

All together abt $700.

[Ilovemonkeys]

If I had it to do over I would I have spent the money on the photographer.

[colleen0419]

My wedding was also in the pricey catalog, and completely over the top but mostly worth it. My parents paid for the majority of it, I'm guessing all in all it cost about 25K. I am the youngest of five girls, all of which are married, and I know my dad wanted to "do it up" for his baby. We had around 250 guests and it was held at a country club in our area. It was fall, so the pictures on the golf course were AMAZING!! Speaking of photos, our photographer was around 4K, but was totally and completely worth EVERY penny. DH and I paid for that. We had a band, around 5K, and every other imaginable detail that a dream wedding would have (for me anyway). DH and I paid for the honeymoon, 2 1/2 weeks on Hawaii. We were both living at home at the time and both had great jobs, so it was easy to save. Embarrassingly enough I think it was around 20K. When I look back, I realize how expensive it was, but my parents really wanted this for us and I was happy to oblige. The only thing that I really cared about was marrying DH with our family and friends present, everything else was just a bonus!

[still_me]

Our wedding was simple, but beautiful. We got married at a park in our area that has a chapel and reception hall. It was on Lake Erie, so we had great pictures and perfect because I grew up on the lake. The chapel is three walls of large windows and the 4th wall, is all knotted pine. It was so beautiful and warm that I didn't have to decorate it at all. The reception was perfect. We just did fake fall leaves on the tables and had a single large cylinder candle holder in the middle. We decorated with mums and fall tones. The front table was decorated with tulle and white Christmas lights inside the tulle. The girls and I put our flowers in vases on the table. Speaking of which, the flowers turned out beautiful. I carried a 1 1/2 doz red roses that I just tied with raffia. I left the stems naked and cut the bottoms unevenly. The girls carried flowers that looks wise, are in between a lily and freesia. I don't know what they are called. I tied their flowers the same way and had them twist and rip the last two inches off of the stems to make them uneven also.


I went to David's Bridal and couldn't find a dress that made me swoon, so we headed to Dillards and checked out dresses there. Fall is a great time to get formals at a store like that. Anyways, I found a white dress that was very 40's. It was form fitting, but not too tight and flowed out a little at the bottom. The dress had a slight sheen to it. There is a beautiful light gauze at the top that followed the neckline of the dress and came under my arms and hung in the back. DH wore a black tux with a white vest and shirt and a red tie. The guys wore all black with a red tie. The girls wore whatever style of dress they wanted, but it had to be in apple from David's Bridal.

We spent $3,500 and went to Niagara Falls for our Honeymoon. We didn't argue about a single thing. That wasn't the time to be bickering and I don't know if I would be comfortable marrying my husband if we fought over what was our day.

ETA: My uncle who now has passed on married us. It was perfect because he was like a father to me when I was younger. I am so grateful that he was able to do us that honor.

ETA2: My dad paid for the food and the photographer. A friend of his was supposed to do it for free, but he got called to Iraq. DH's mom paid for the keg and wine. My mom picked up little things here and there. I made our invitations and DH's cousin made our cake. It was a spice cake with cream cheese frosting and sugared globe grapes.

[CatSoup]

From the other thread...Me and dh got married in our preacher's office with just 2 witnesses and Jonas. I wore a $40 dollar dress from JCPennys. After the ceremony we had a reception with our family and a couple of friends that included super market party trays,cake, and punch. Oh, and we didn't skimp because we didn't have the money. We just didn't see the point in spending tons of money on something when we could have just as much fun (more really) having an informal gathering.

[kohlby]

I'm not sure of our cost, though I know it was under 10K. My parents offered to pay for it so they added things that I wouldn't have added, like the appetizers or giving three choices instead of two for the entress. (But I didn't mind. I felt some of the added things weren't necessary but weren't a big deal either). I did pay for the dress, which was from David's Bridal though it was altered somewhere else.

We had about 100 people in attendance. We had tropical flowers. We got married outside by a Unitarian minister. (I'm not sure if the proper name is minister or not). He had a really great service written out that I loved, all I did was take a few God references out and it was perfect. We had two people playing flutes as well during, before, and after the wedding. (I'm a runner so we had them play Chariot's of Fire for when DH and I walked back down the aisle at the end). Once we were married, we did appetizers a few feet away under a tent. This allowed me to meet and greet everyone in a more personal setting than a bridal party line. Then we went inside a restaurant on the same grounds, which was an old barn refinished to a restaurant. It didn't cost anything to rent out the entire restaurant as long as minimum was spent of food. We did a sit-down dinner with choice of swordfish, chicken, or steak. (Most of the people attending were from out of town. Also, weddings include a meal traditionally in the area I grew up in). For alcohol, we offered champagne or wine twice and otherwise guests had to pay. I figured two drinks was enough for an 11am wedding and alcohol costs can get expensive too fast otherwise. We had a DJ for the music. The photographer was my uncle and aunt and was their gift to us. We even got the negatives this way! They did an awesome job. The videographer was another uncle, so it was also free, though he was MUCH slower on editting a copy and sending it to us. It took 5 years I think!

*My mother planned the majority of the wedding, thankfully! I didn't really care about the planning and my mother loved doing it. Plus, I'm in SC and got married in MA, which made things more difficult. I even told my maid of honor to find any dress she liked that would work for her - any color, any style and it would be fine and then used that style/color dress for the other two bridemaids. The other bridesmaids were in NY and ME, otherwise, I would have let them pick out something together.

[xobehs]

I have been budgeting and catering weddings etc for over 15 years now. I am very impressed with what a lot of you pulled off on your budgets!

[AuLait]

We spent maybe $3-$3,500 on ours.

I bought my dress on Ebay for $300 and spent another $100 on fittings. My sisters were my bridesmaids and they all bought their own dresses in the color scheme, but they were not the same style. I don't think anyone spent over $50 for their dress.

All decorations and such were assembled by me and my family.

Invitations were handmade in a massive day of embossing, stamping and tying of bows involving 25 family members (good times, good times). Food was limited to nuts, mints, punch and then the cake.

Our largest expense was the music, which was provided by a wonderful string quartet who played Vivaldi throughout the entire thing. Photography was done by my Aunt who is a professional photographer. She flew out from NY to attend and do our pictures for free. Our rehearsal dinner was held at Bucca di Beppo and cost only $300 for 30 people. The wedding was held in a church, but at no cost since the church I attended was a "sister" church to the one we wanted to be married in. They provided a wedding coordinator and we payed her $100.

Our honeymoon was a vacation to Victoria, BC (heh, we got held in customs for a few hours because we didn't bring the proper documents) for 3 nights.

Its funny because looking back now, I would have done it SO differently and probably even more cheaply. It came out kind of country-ish in its styling and that isn't me at all, but sometimes you hop on a train and can't get off :)

[jorobaker]

Our wedding cost between $3,000 and $4,000. We paid for most of it ourselves. His parents paid for the rehearsel dinner(pizza and beer). My dad bought my dress and viel. We had a photographer and videographer. We had about 200 people and family style dinner. We went to Trifty florists(I am not a flower person). We did not go on a honeymoon though. We knew we would need that money to move. We moved to Colorado 6 months after the wedding. I LOVED that day! NO ONE fought! No one was mad, and dh's and my parents sat as far way from each other as possible.

[Bohemian]

We had originally planned to get married on the beach with a few close friends and family. Started the planning and it was such a PITA. What was supposed to be so simple started getting complicated from trying to find someone to do the ceremony outside of a church to mil asking if she could "pick the date" because the day we had settled on, her friends wanted to take her out on the town for her birthday (which was still several weeks away)

We said screw it and got married at the courthouse and spent the whole shebang on our honeymoon. Got married on a Friday and spent the weekend at this place: http://www.raggedpointinn.net/ So romantic and so beautiful.

Then after the weekend we flew out and spent 2 weeks at Walt Disney World. Had an absolute blast. I don't regret spending all our money on the honeymoon for a second.

[lisanvenice]

We were married in NYC which accounts for the costs. We were married in an Episcopal Mass and had the reception at a 100 year old social club that overlooks Prospect Park. I made my dress and veil and I think we spent about $250 the main cost was the lace (which I didn't like). I didn't like my dress at all but my mom was opposed to a religious ceremony so I gave up the dress I wanted for the service I wanted. Cocktail hour with open bar with passed hors d'heuvres followed by a three course dinner. I think it was about $125/head and we had about 150 people. So with everything it was about $25k which was actually on the very low end for wedding in the city at the time.

I am in the beginning stages of planning a renewal of our vows to get all of the stuff I wanted the first time around (like dress I actually choose and like and a small wedding with just my friends there) And I figure I can do it for about a quarter of that even 25 years later.

[Tiffearni]

We paid for it. About 11k. My mom did pay for our photographer as a gift. She was also going to send us to Jamaica since I've always wanted to go there, but things didn't work out to where we could go - on our end. That stinks.

There were no real fights except MIL's feelings got hurt a few times. I didn't know until AFTER the wedding though. I always jk with DH that she just didn't want us to get married, that's all. No really. Our mom's have been friends since they were in 4th grade, and my mom sort of went drill sargeant because she just wanted to make sure everything went as planned because she knows that MIL isn't very good at sticking to schedules and plans, etc, so I think my mom sort of stepped on her toes a little. Also, MIL didn't like our Minister - DH's fault because lol... At SIL's wedding, MIL interupted the wedding to tell the pastor that he was marrying her daughter to her father. lol He WASN'T, but MIL got confused. LOL OMGoodness, it's been a family joke for years. Poor SIL and BIL. They didn't mind though. Anyway, so before our minister even met MIL, DH forewarned him about what she did at SIL's wedding and wanted him to joke with his mom so that she did NOT do that at our wedding. Well, that was a bad idea because she took offense and stopped liking him right then and there.

I also got a little upset with my mom cause she drank a little more than I would've liked at our wedding, which would not have been a big deal but she was flirting with FIL. lol which bugged MIL also, and because she had to babysit that night, and I just thought it was irresponsible.

Other than that, I have NO complaints about my wedding. I thought it was a wonderful day, and everything was so pretty and just wonderful.

Oh wait, I did almost fall flat on my face when we went to walk out of the church though. I forgot about that. lol I'm really short and my dress was one of the puffy dresses and I guess it didn't get puffed up as much as it should've because I stepped on part of it and ALMOST fell. Lol I'm so glad I didn't Everything turned out great! :)

I don't remember all the exact numbers but my dress was about $1,000. I also wore a tiara with rhinestones and beads with an attached veil. Then I special ordered beads to be put on the veil itself. I think it was somewhere around $250-300. Shoes were probably about $50 - I can't remember. I got REALLY lucky with the bridesmaids gowns. They were the exact color I wanted and they were a great fit that would go with any body type and they were simple but so cute. They were perwinkle more purple, and they were on clearance. I had to buy 6 of them, and they actually had the sizes I needed for them. I think they were only like $20. God was beyond awesome that day! That was amazing to me. They paid for their dresses and fitting. I bought them all jewelry though. Flowergirl dress was about $100. The men paid for their own tuxes.

Rehearsal dinner was a potluck type of thing thrown by my Maitron of Honor. She's a doll.

When we went to view the hall we were interested in having the reception in, there was actually a wedding party getting ready to come there so it was all decorated. Well, I found out that they used a decorating service, sooooo I met up with them. I actually wanted a Cherub themed wedding reception and I already bought somet things for it and I bought flowers and things like that to decorate. Well, it turned out they offered a Cherub Theme that matched my cherubs PERFECTLY! So, needless to say I went with them and they catered and everything. We had a buffet style meal for our guests and the wedding party was served. It was really nice. We had chicken, ham, potatoes, pasta, you name it. I wanted a large variety to accomodate everyone's taste. The servers were dressed in black pants and white button downs. They looked very professional. We had a 3 tier cake with periwinkle touches, and the fountain water was periwinkle. It also had stairs that went off to both sides. Very cute. I don't think that cost that much. I don't know how we found her, but it was made by a lady who ran a business out of her house. I got her name from someone apparently because I set this whole wedding up pretty much by myself with a LITTLE help from others while I was living out of state.

I'm trying to remember everything. Our wedding party consisted of best man and maitron of honor, 4 bridesmaids and groomsmen, junior bridesmaid and groomsman, and flower girl and ring bearer.

Oh yeah, and we actually pulled my minister from my church I went to when I lived in state, but I had to ask him to marry us in another church because his church was smaller and wouldn't fit everyone, and the church we got married in was a very big stone castle-looking church. We just drove around town looking for a pretty church. lol But I knew I wanted him to be the one to marry us though. So I had to pay to get married in the church. I can't remember how much. I can't believe I forget all of that. I budgeted for months trying to make sure we could get the most for our money.

Actually, I didn't plan on having a big wedding. I just wanted a big church. But the way I purchased things, I sort of cornered myself into doing things the way we did, but although it cost a lot more than we wanted to spend and it became way more extravagent than I planned it was truly beautiful. It was a wonderful day. I'll have to dig out some pics. :)

[Funmommy]

My wedding cost less than $3000
My mother made my dress and DH wore dress pants and white shirt (no tie)
My Maid of honor was My Aunt who is also my God Mother and who was the maid of honor at my mother's wedding :D
DS1 was the ring bearer and my flower girl was my husbands niece
We had a JP and had the wedding at my SIL's house
My FIL rented a canopy tent and got tables and chairs from his fishing/hunting club under it. I bought rolls of plastic table cloth to put on top. Each table had a flower/candle centerpiece I bought at the christmas tree store and I had plastic flower garland going down the open staircase I walked down.
I bought paper plates and plastic silverware and plastic cups and wine glasses.
our best friend made a red velvet wedding cake and we had the food catered.
I bought small bottles of bubbles for everyone that had a set of doves on top an we bought the booze and soda. We only had about 100 people but it was a wonderful memory.

Oh Yeah the $3000 was from my income tax return and it bought our rings too :D

[Nipple_nectar]

Well, we were naive to the planning of a wedding and what it would cost, that is for sure! We just picked a figure out of our heads~ $5000 as a budget then my frugal DH whined almost the entire time I kept telling him we would have to bump up the budget yet again!

We ended up spending 11K and had a gift of 1K from my parents, so a total of 12K. I got a part time job as soon as we got engaged to pay for the entire thing, I worked a year and half to save for it. This was 2003

I wore my sisters dress, made all the floral arrangements and table centerpieces myself. We skimped where we could and spent lavishly on areas we didn't want to: like the photographer, the rings, balloons and the videographer.

It was everything I wanted:)

[HammBugga]

We spent under $1000. It was nice and cheap. Just how I like it. ;)

[Kassandra]

For the rehearsal dinner and everything that went into planning the wedding - $50K.

My in-laws paid the lion's share. My parents contributed $3K. DH and I paid around $3K for various things - including our clothing for that day.

My MIL and I planned the wedding and reception. She did so much of the work - researching various vendors and then narrowing it down to 3 choices for each category (reception site, photographer, videographer, etc.). All DH and I had to do was show up to the appointments and say yay or nay.

It was a lot of fun and relatively stress free - thanks to my in-laws.

[steelady]

We paid for everything, somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 or so (yes, we eloped).

I made my own hat, to wear with a dress I already had, and used my grandmother's wedding ring.

I absolutely loved my wedding. The JofP was a woman wearing a wedding mu-mu (sp?) from Hawaii (she was not hawaiin, her dh was stationed there). She asked if we were going to use traditional vows or ones we wrote, we said traditional and I added "but please don't use obey". She said "of course not" and winked at me.

I couldn't stop giggling and dh stumbled over "faithfulness". We hit 15 years in August (despite being married on friday the 13th).

[whitnessforhim]

I loved my wedding. My dad paid for the entire wedding (15K) and my step dad paid for the honeymoon to Hawaii (4K). One of the best days of my life...wish I could relive it again...just once...especially the honeymoon ;)

[frannie]

I love the wedding pictures ladys

My first was very pathetic,quick and last min because he had the day off (christmas eve)
I dont remember how much the license cost, but thats all we paid for. We got married at the church I was working at by the pastor. The only one there was my mom, I cant even remeber why that was. I was wearing jeans and a blue and white windbreaker zipped up over my 8mo preg. belly. He was wearing jeans and great big overstuffed jacket. LOL, I dont know why we didnt take our jackets off.
I honestly dont know why we did it that way. Well we didnt have $ to spend, and we just wanted to be married. I seems so silly now that I think about it. Every one was happy that we were getting married, just cant remember why I didnt tell any one else to join us. I think it only lasted about 5 min.

[Monkeytoes]

We got married in Reno. My parents paid for the wedding dinner. My DH sister paid for our hotel room and bouquet, his parents gave us some spending money. We paid for the little wedding chapel and marriage license. All in all I think it was around $500. (That was also our honeymoon.)

[JustMoi]

DH and I paid for it ourselves. Total of $350 maybe less, November 2007.

$250 for the chapel, which included flowers and decorations, the minister, the ceremony itself. Wedding was early, 11:30 a.m.

$22 for the license

$40 for the cake... heart shaped, with custard filling. Yum.

We each wore clothes we already had. The reception was at home, and people all brought a dish to pass. DH's dad paid for all of us to go out to breakfast after the wedding itself (reception was at night). Was just the 14 of us at the chapel (one an infant).

I carried a single hot pink Gerbera daisy that I spent $1.50 on.

There were no fights about arrangements, or anything. There was one big fight about us actually GETTING married (between DH and me) but that was the only drama.

[Tweet]

My wedding dress cost 200 dollars. We paid for our licenses and got married at the JP and then went to a nice, fancy dinner. It was wonderful.

We were going to do a lmuch arger wedding in CO, but it ultimately just became too stressful.

[BeachMama]

Winter wedding in a chapel, complete w/ Christmas trees and white lights.

Organ music and bagpipes.

About 100 guests.

My parents paid for it - about $5k



Weddings are totally overrated, imo. If I could do it over, we'd just get married on the beach with a few witnesses.

[JustMoi]

The way I see it, the wedding isn't important. The marriage is.

[Miamimama]

We got married in church with about 6 people there, one being a photographer (friend of ours)
We sent out announcements and invitations to a celebration party that was about 3 weeks after the wedding.
I liked to party and didn't want the formalities of a reception.

A few of my girlfriends got married around the same time as us and I as involved with their weddings. I had no desire to spend that kind of money or deal with any f the stress they had.
I wanted DH to be my husband and I his wife, the fanfare did not seem to be needed (for us)

[Iconoclast]

Very big, very elaborate, very expensive wedding in 1988. My parents paid for the wedding and all the events the week leading up to the wedding in their entirety; his parents paid for the rehearsal party in it's entirety; dh paid for the wedding breakfast (the morning following the wedding) and the honeymoon; I paid for dh's ring. I honestly do not know how much it all cost. I know what my dress was, and I'll just say my first car was less, lol, Let's see, transportation, lodging, clothing and gifts for a bridal party of 20, dinner and dancing for 450 guests, black tie, 5 courses and an open bar at The Breakers. A lot, lol. I wouldn't change a thing.

And no, I will not be throwing a similiar party for my dds. I'll do as much as I can comfortably afford, which automatically means we won't be noshing at The Breakers.

[hidesome]

We paid for everything. I think the total bill was something like $148.00. I tried to tip the band, but they refused.

[MissionaryMomma]

I don't think we paid for much. Dh wore his Sunday suit. I wore the same dress my Mom did. My SIL made the bouquet. My aunt bought the cake. My Dad pastored the church and married us.

If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have let my Dad invite certain guest. One girl in a fugly orange suit can be seen in my video, crying on FILs shoulder, "He should have been my husband!" She was doing that behind me as I was opening gifts. I wanted to turn around and give her a piece of my mind, but I smiled for the camera and kept opening gifts. Dh was grossed out by her, but she thought he was somethin'---can't say that I blame her there.

Also, I wouldn't have let Dad's friend vounteer to video the wedding. She can be heard wheezing as she walked. Also, she yelled at guests to "SAY IT" when they refused to say "congratulations" on camera.

I also wouldn't have had as much music (Dad pretty much set up the ceremony). Dh and I had to stand and stare at each other for SO long. You can only wink and such just so much----and those heels were killing me.

Nah, if I had to do it all over again, I'd find a rose garden and it would be him, me, the preacher, and 2 witnesses---and I'd be barefoot. And my dress would have been a lot more sexy. I would knock his socks off!

[babymakes4]

Dh and I got married in the pastors living room. We paid for the liscence and the gas to drive to the pastors home. Just me, dh, and his parents. We got married right there in the living room in our jeans and t-shirts. Then we had dinner and margaritas at the Texas Road House afterward. I think we spent $50 all together. His parents paid for dinner.

We had been engaged and wanting to plan a wedding really badly, but everyone kept fighting about where it should be, when, why, how, all that stuff. Dh and I couldn't stand the fighting anymore between families, so we woke up one morning, and dh looked at me and said, "lets get married today" I said "ok" and the rest is history.

I am so glad we did it our way. No frills or fluff, but we were so happy and in love we didn't care. :)

[Born_a_Diva]

First marriage...got married in my mom's backyard. It was a beautiful day shared with close family and friend...my aunt did the cooking and my ex is a musician and he invited all of his musician friends, and I sang so we provided the entertainment. What's funny is, I sang "chain of fools" and what a fool I was to marry him.

This marraige, my husband and I eloped to Mexico. I tried to pay for my sister to come but my mom wouldn't watch her kids. Dh won airline tickets off of the radio so we just paid for the resort. The wedding was free because we stayed for over 7 days. The resort was fabulous....all-inclusive, adults only, we woke up in the morning and stopped at the bar, after lunch--the bar, before and after dinner--the bar. There were like 8 different restaurants, jacuzzi room with balcony, 24hr room service entertainment, night club, tours to the ruins, and a bar in the room. Anyway, we spend maybe 4-5k for the whole thing including photographer and license stuff. By the way, getting married in a foreign country is no joke....you need to jump through a million hoops!

www.larryandnorine.myphotoalbum.com

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Born_a_Diva_77/DSC_0144-1-1.jpg

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Born_a_Diva_77/DSC_0118-1.jpg

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa281/Born_a_Diva_77/DSC_0124-1.jpg

[Born_a_Diva]

We paid for everything. I think the total bill was something like $148.00. I tried to tip the band, but they refused.


Wow....so, you went out to eat because I know not one band that will pay for free...lol

[Missymoo]

Ours was just under 10K, including airfare, accomodations, car rental and honeymoon.

We got married on Kauai, rented out all four cottages here http://www.halemakaicottages.com/ (they've since remodeled and upped their prices) and got married right on the lawn in front of the beach.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/devila31/kiss.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/devila31/debalex.jpg

We had about 15 people, my wedding package included the minister, musician, all flowers and hairstyles and the cake.

We all drove about 20 minutes away to the Princeville hotel for a special dinner in one of their restaurants, that was about $1500.

We stayed on Kauai for 10 days.

My dress was $900 and dh bought his tux for $1250. Ds1 and all our friends went home after a week so we could be alone.