I think my wife's dress was about $4,500. She got it at Kleinfeld's in Brooklyn (and of course they now have a store in Manhattan after we moved out of the city), that was including alterations, travel expenses for 3 fittings, etc. More than I would have paid but it was something important to her and her mother so it was a splurge by them, just like her wedding cake which was ridiculously expensive, but very pretty.

SQ_Crazies wrote: Is this a message to wildcats?

Lol no. I mean his best friend did tell him to propose...but he can't afford a big enough rock yet.

150 Invitations (including envelopes, RSVP cards, additional card that provides reception information/hotels in area etc - $550
Postage about $132.00
Church rental fee $500
Reception hall $1200
caterer for family style dinner for 200 = $4500
Cake (if you buy a wedding cake that serves everyone you'll looking at prob $2.00 per slice to $12 per slice) most get a small wedding cake and sheet cakes to serve everyone so estimate $500
Flowers - $1200 (10 small pew decorations, altar flowers, 8 bridesmaids bouquets, mom's flowers, flowers for men.
Dress - $1700 (crinoline and bra built in - otherwise those are from $75 to $300 extra)
Veil - $300 Veils are ridiculously pricey
Shoes - guessing $75
jewelry - $50
hair - $75
manicure, pedicure, make-up, day-of $100
Photographer $2500 (include bride/grooms album, engagement pictures, small album for both sets of parents), also included Save the Dates
Candelabra rental (and candles & refills) for centerpieces, different sizes $750 (includes delivery & pick up)
Alcohol - purchased by couple, in Kentucky to save money - not sure but think it will be about $1500.
Giftts for wedding party, large wedding party: $1200
Fee to pastor: $250
Fee to ceremony string quartet - not sure, thinking $450
Band for reception - not sure, thinking $4,000
Aisle Runner - cloth, $75 (girls get heels stuck in plastic runners).
License - $25? or more?
And I'm sure I'm forgetting things.
Oh, they had to rent extra tables, chairs, table clothes - I'm guessing $400 total, including delivery and pick up.

That is $20630 or so right there and I'm probably forgetting things.

Grooms family is paying for the rehearsal dinner. With just the couple, wedding party/spouses/dates, pastor & wife, parents of couple we will have 53 people. No other guests because that is going to run about $1500 or more.

It adds up fast.

Fab4Runner wrote:

SQ_Crazies wrote: Is this a message to wildcats?

Lol no. I mean his best friend did tell him to propose...but he can't afford a big enough rock yet.

Fab4Runner wrote:

SQ_Crazies wrote: Is this a message to wildcats?

Lol no. I mean his best friend did tell him to propose...but he can't afford a big enough rock yet.

Somewhere in Ohio, Wildcats' balls just shrank a little bit after reading this post.

People rent churches????

I learned something new today.

Con_Alma wrote: People rent churches????

I learned something new today.

Yeah, typically there is some sort of fee for non-members. It makes sense to me, after all if you have a standard "Friday rehearsal Saturday ceremony" that is two days that someone from the church has to make sure the lights/AC/heat, yadda yadda yadda is on and the facilities are unlocked. So more or less you're renting the person's or persons' time. We got married in a non-denominational college chapel, and even with my superlow Alumni rate it was still a few hundred dollars to get the facility for an hour rehearsal and a two hour ceremony allotment.

Little Danny wrote:

Fab4Runner wrote:

SQ_Crazies wrote: Is this a message to wildcats?

Lol no. I mean his best friend did tell him to propose...but he can't afford a big enough rock yet.

Somewhere in Ohio, Wildcats' balls just shrank a little bit after reading this post.

Lol no I'm just kidding. I have no idea what he could afford. And neither of us are planning on getting engaged anytime soon anyways. We've been dating a whole 5 months, lol.

Ahhh, the non-member fee. Now I understand.

Most churches charge a fee. Usually less for members and more for non-members. If you think about it:
you do have wear and tear on pew cushions, carpet, etc. Someone has to be there to unlock, lock up.

It include rehearsal time, someone usually cleans before and after.
Wedding time - again, someone cleans before and after
use of organ/piano,water/electric/toilet paper and so on
Someone has to be there to let florists in, etc.

Some provide a "coordinator" that will meet with you to set up arrangements, they are there for the rehearsal and the wedding.

Some require that you use their organist or if not, that their organist approve your choice and you still must pay the organist.

If you'll have a soloist (or more), and they need the church organist to play for them then there are additional fees for that time.

Usually you'll have the use of a room or two - 1 for the bride and her attendants and one for the groom and his attendant. Someone has to clean them when they are done.

We looked at both our church and a church of the same denomination but closer to our house and while what the fees paid for were slightly different, the total cost was about the same.

One of our kids chose a chapel at their alma mater at $500. That was 1 hour rehearsal on Friday night, 4 hours time on Saturday. One hour before will be set up (flowers, etc), 1 hour for the wedding itself (from processional to recessional). 1 hour pictures, 1 hour clean-up.

The other chose to not have a church wedding, wedding & reception are same location so the fees vary but we'd looked in to both churches for both weddings.

^^^

Yeah, the wedding I was just in in Dallas, I'm not sure how much my buddy paid but they had a coordinator woman from the church there on Friday to show us where everything was and explain where we needed to go on Saturday. We had a groomsmen room with refreshments 2 hours before the ceremony - also this is the church that George W. and Laura Bush attend often, so they tend to run things their way for obvious reasons.

sherm03 wrote:

krambman wrote: They're inviting 580 people to their wedding and the whole shindig is going to be around $10,000 (my parents are paying $4,000 and his are paying $6,000 because most of the guests are their people and he's an only child so they'll never have to pay for another wedding).

Good Lord! They are inviting 580 people and are only paying $10,000?!?!

I'm at right around $10,000 for my wedding, and we're going to be having 150 guests at the most. It sucks because I have a huge family...so it really cut into the number of people would could invite. 150 people fills up really quick, and we're really nervous that the room is going to be a super tight fit.

Yes, they are inviting 580 people. About 150 (or less) of those are either my sister's guest or guests both sides wanted to invite. The rest are from his side (now you see why his parents are paying more). The wedding is near where he's from in Indiana and he comes from two very large families who all still live in the area and I guess are relatively close. Originally my parents and his parents were going to do a traditional bride/groom cost division until his family realized that there would only be around 200 people max invited to the wedding. They then began coughing up more money so that all of their guests could attend.

My dad is a pastor and is doing the wedding so no pastor's fee. The got their invitations through the tux rental company so they got a big discount since they rented the tuxes there. hey didn't mail out any save-the-date cards, but did it online. They are only doing cake at the reception, not a full meal. They skipped engagement pictures and did them themselves, then got a discount on their photographer at a bridal show. They are also not having any alcohol at the reception. They are using a DJ and not a live band for the reception. That is how they are able to invite 580 people and only spend around $10,000, although it'll probably be closer to $12,000 or $15,0000 by the time it's all said and done.

muffy wrote: Church rental fee $500
Fee to pastor: $250

That seems a bit high for a church rental fee and pastor's fee. I performed 6 weddings in 2009 and $200 was the most I was paid for any of them. And typically if the pastor is the pastor from the church where you're getting married his fee is included in the rental cost. My church doesn't charge nearly that much and that includes the sound person, janitor, and pastor's fee, and our church can seat just shy of 300 people.

Sounds about right to me, our wedding chapel charges $750 for non-university affiliations (and this for a facility with no bathrooms!) and an organist is an additional $300 - all in addition to any fee for the officiant, plus there are a bunch of rules and a lottery system to get a timeslot.

http://www.virginia.edu/newcomb/space/chapel.html

BigAppleBuckeye wrote: My wedding is coming in around $60,000-$65,000. I know that sounds like a lot (shit, it really does), but in New York, that is nice but not over-the-top wedding for 200 people. Good thing Websurfinbird's and my parents are chipping in! Didn't realize how expensive this stuff is ...

Wow! What the hell do you do for a living to have a wedding THAT expensive? Does that also include your honeymoon, and if so, where are you guys going? BTW, congrats to you both ahead of time!

60K!!
I just think that money could be better spent or saved. But whatever works for ya.

I can proudly say that we spent more for booze at my wedding than all of the dresses and tux rentals combined.

wife's dress = 600
wife's shoes = 85
bridesmaids dresses and shoes = 150 X 4 = 600
Tuxes and shoes = 85 X 5 = 425

clothing = $1710

booze = $1975 including 9 floated kegs and 1/2 of a 10th keg several cases of jack, crown, seagrams, 2 bottles of moet, a case each of grey goose, bacardi, captain, jagermeister

OUgrad wrote:

BigAppleBuckeye wrote: My wedding is coming in around $60,000-$65,000. I know that sounds like a lot (shit, it really does), but in New York, that is nice but not over-the-top wedding for 200 people. Good thing Websurfinbird's and my parents are chipping in! Didn't realize how expensive this stuff is ...

Wow! What the hell do you do for a living to have a wedding THAT expensive? Does that also include your honeymoon, and if so, where are you guys going? BTW, congrats to you both ahead of time!

It does not include the honeymoon we're going to Italy for one week and Israel for another so it's a splurge, but to me this is a once in a lifetime sort of trip.

I am very lucky that my parents are paying for most of the wedding. If that weren't the case, we'd scale back a lot.

Her dad gave us $6,000
My parents gave us $1,500
We paid the rest
Dress- $2,100 All together (Fittings...)
Wedding Reception $39.75/160 people=$6,360
Included
Ore' dervers (sp?)
Open Bar (Wine, Beer on Tap, Well Drinks, and some Top Shelf)
Wedding Cake-Estimated $2,000
DJ
Honeymoon Suite for the night in a Hotel
Flowers- Less than $500- she did them all herself (her bouqet, 6 bridesmaids, 5 coursages for mothers and grandmothers, 10 bouteniers for me, my men, dads and ring bearer). She bought a bunch of fake stuff from a hobby store, but they looked awesome)
Photogropher-$250- A friend of hers had just graduated with their bachelor's in photography and graphic design.
Rehersal Dinner-$500
Gifts for Bridal Party and Parents-$500
Honeymoon- $101,000

Grand Total-$111,210

I WIN!

Where did you go on a honeymoon that was $101,000?

LOL 100k honeymoon??

bigkahuna wrote: Her dad gave us $6,000
My parents gave us $1,500
We paid the rest
Dress- $2,100 All together (Fittings...)
Wedding Reception $39.75/160 people=$6,360
Included
Ore' dervers (sp?)
Open Bar (Wine, Beer on Tap, Well Drinks, and some Top Shelf)
Wedding Cake-Estimated $2,000
DJ
Honeymoon Suite for the night in a Hotel
Flowers- Less than $500- she did them all herself (her bouqet, 6 bridesmaids, 5 coursages for mothers and grandmothers, 10 bouteniers for me, my men, dads and ring bearer). She bought a bunch of fake stuff from a hobby store, but they looked awesome)
Photogropher-$250- A friend of hers had just graduated with their bachelor's in photography and graphic design.
Rehersal Dinner-$500
Gifts for Bridal Party and Parents-$500
Honeymoon- $101,000

Grand Total-$111,210

I WIN!

Where the hell did you go on a honeymoon that cost over 100K? The moon?

I too am another one who would like to know where this honeymoon is. And the moon would cost more than 100K, loser.

ernest_t_bass wrote: I too am another one who would like to know where this honeymoon is. And the moon would cost more than 100K, loser.

hey jackass, he spent 101k.

ernest_t_bass wrote: I too am another one who would like to know where this honeymoon is. And the moon would cost more than 100K, loser.

Whatever, ass wipe.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

We decided that we were going to use the money we had for our honey moon and or wedding gift money and put it on a down payment towards a house. We both thought that buying a house for our future was a better use of the money than a honey moon.

Plus, I took her on a trip to Macinac Island for a week last July (We got married in October) and closed on a house about 2 months ago