Wedding Cost

I want to get married in Lake Arrowhead, CA. There’s a place I have in mind. It’s all-inclusive, and it’s going to be less than $11k for the whole wedding.

Does anyone know the average cost of a wedding in Southern California?
I’m sorry, I meant the wedding itself, not the dress and accessories. This place includes the following:

Wedding Coordinator
Photographer
food and beverages
minister
DJ-music for both ceremony and reception
One wedding night’s stay for bride and groom
Flowers for wedding party, mothers and fathers too
flowers for centerpieces and on gazebo and cake tables, etc.
cake
champange toast

I’m not sure if I missed anything… Oh and for 100 people.

My wedding (just last year) cost $15,000 for 150 people. This included everything but the honeymoon. For just the items you listed, I spent about $13,500. If you’re only spending $11,000 for an all-inclusive package, then you got a pretty good deal. Plus it’s nice that you don’t have to shop for different vendors (photographer, DJ, etc). Good luck and best wishes.

Also any money saving ideas !!!!!
the wedding is in england and any money saving tips would be appreciated!!

The average cost for a wedding toda is $20,000-$28,000. Ridiculous, for the average couple. There are so many ways to cut the costs of weddings, you just need to decide on three things that are paramount to the day, and compromise on the rest. For example, photography, ceremony venue, and reception venue were the three where I put the most money. Add up your monthly earnings, subtract expenses, and then see what’s left. From there decide how much each of you can afford to save.

Just keep in mind that you don’t have to spend your life savings or go into debt to have a beautiful wedding. I have seen beautiful and elegant weddings with a $2,000 budget. It’s in the planning, the chosing, and the execution. I myself am having a $5,000 English Garden wedding, and while it is sometimes difficult, I can already tell it will be beautiful =]

Here are some of my money-saving tricks:

Ceremony: Have an early ceremony (around 2 o’clock).

*Your guests will have already have eaten lunch, and won’t be expecting a huge meal. You then can serve light food such as finger food and desert. This is the only way that my fiance’ could manage to feed our 180-200 guests without going way over our budget.

Wedding dress: I found a beautiful gown at http://www.groupusa.com/ for a little more than $300 (my splurge). They have beautiful gowns by wonderful designers from affordable to extravagent.

*Try places like GroupUSA, David’s Bridal, and even eBay for knockout deals.
I just found this eBay store http://myworld.ebay.com/gianinarbridal
One dress is $39! Brand new. Add $89 for shipping from China and you have some knock out deals.

Bridal Jewelry: I found my crystal wedding jewelry at no other than Wal Mart. Originally I had been looking at genuine jewelry from big name stores, but decided to scrimp here to save money for the wedding gifts my fiance’ and I plan to get each other.

*Don’t forget retail sortes like Wal Mart and Target. My headpiece, earrings, and necklace by Crystal Collections came to $21.

Wedding location: I have four choices, a lovely place on the property of a family friend, the beautiful garden of a local inn, a church that has a SMALL fee and goes well with my wedding style, or on the mountain where my grandparents’ grew up, married, and live.

*Look for unconventional venues; they’ll be cheaper or even free. I opted for the for the garden for my English Garden theme.

Reception Site: I have two options here, one of which is the brand new mansion-style library in our town. It would cost only $199 ($100 refundable damage deposit, and $40 for a library worker to stay on site). The other would be our local arts building of the town center. They have several large and beautiful rooms and are roughly the same amount as the library.

*The same rule for venues applies here.

Caterer: My friends and family are fabulous cooks, and are going to provide a buffet-style meal for the wedding guests.

*Friends and family can really cut down on wedding expenses!

Cake: A friend of my fiance’ and I is a baker, and would only charge us the price of the ingredients.

*If you don’t have anyone who can provide this. Go for a two or three tier cake, and then have sheet cakes to cut for the bulk of the guests. That way you end up saving several hundred dollars. You can also have a two-tier cake, serving that only to wedding party, parents, and grandparents and serve guests with a cupcake tower.
I’m simply having a three tier cupcake tower and forgoing the cake.

Flowers: I am making my own bouquets. Flowers for a 30-stem wedding bouquet, toss bouqet, six 20-stem bridesmaid bouquets, arrangements, and 18 centerpieces (five flowers a vase would only run $288 before shipping costs from http://www.theflowerexchange.com. I am having a family friend do the arrangements for a fraction of the cost.

*Do as much as you can on your own! Http://www.theknot.com has videos and step-by-steps on how to make your own bouquets and arrangements.

Favors: For get then! Most of the guests toss these expensive trinkets.

*Instead I am making a candy buffet–something even my smallest guests would enjoy. You need a small table, glass vases shapes and sizes, candy from a bulk store like Sam’s (in your wedding colors, if you like), scoops, and little bags or favor boxes. Mine will come to about $60.

Children: Do you want children at your wedding, but want the adults to enjoy the reception worry free?

*If so, enlist a teenage niece, cousin, or friend. They may help as a wedding present, or simply be happy with $50 or so. They can keep the children happy and occupied with toys or color books in another room. Alternatively have the kid’s table covered in a paper table cloth with crayons at each place setting.

Invitations: You can purchase nice paper, envelopes, and an emblam, and an ink cartridge and make your own for about $50. OR you could go to http:///www.invitationsbydawn.com.
She has great deals and some of them come to a total as little as $100.

*Instead of $250-$350! Do what you can on your own, or look for budget-conscience resources like the one above.
I am making my own invitations using beautiful, old postcards from the early 1900s. One-of-a-kind, over a century old, and inexpensive at a total of $90.

DJ: My fiance’s brother is a DJ, and will save us $975 by doing the reception as a wedding gift.

*If you don’t have someone like this, consider cutting the cost by having premade CDs of the music you want, and have someone man the player.

Attendant Gifts: Try places like http://www.exclusivelyweddings.com

*I found my 7 attendants gifts for $35, because they were having a sale on freshwater pearl and silver bracelets =]

Centerpieces: Something simple. If you’re having a fall wedding, vases filled with slender branches painted gold or silver is beautiful and inexpensive, and branches of berries can be added for winter. Spring or summer, simple vases with a few flowers.

*I found short, square vases and am putting five gerbera daisies in each. Total cost for 18 tables is $99, and they look gorgeous!

Have your bridesmaids’ pay for their dress and shoes, and have a family friend who’s good with hair or makeup help with that on the wedding day. Be sure to get them nice gifts!
If your attendants are on a budget, go to a place like http://www.groupusa.com for dress ideas. My attendants dresses cost $119 each, and they’re something they can wear again and again.

GO TO http://www.theknot.com It has everything you could ever need. Also get these books: Wedding Planning for Dummies, The Knot’s Guide to Wedding Planning, and Priceless Weddings for Under $5,000. Your local library should have at least one of them.

Good luck!

Her cost is lower because her overhead is little to none. I can’t believe some of the costs I am seeing out there. Brides, what did YOU pay for your wedding photographer????

That sounds about right. My photographer is $1000. It includes two photographers and $500 credit towards the pictures that I choose. I picked them mostly because they give me a cd of all my pictures. This way I have all the pictures even if I don’t buy the actual print.
A little tip: Look at there prices for the prints. For my bridal pictures I chose a lady that only cost $75 dollars. But I didn’t realize that for a 5X7 it would be $15.00. My wedding photographer only charges $10.00. It adds up. Just look around and check everything out before you decide.

I live in N.Y

It depends on what services and products you’re looking for. A photographer can run from about $4000 down to……free! We are putting disposable cameras at our reception table and for our ceremony and other important pictures we are having a friend take our pictures. We don’t want to spend money on pictures we can print out ourselves and make copies of ourselves for our family. You can make your own photo DVD as well. No need to pay someone else thousands of dollars. But it’s completely up to you. Be sensible though, try not to overdue it. Congatulations on your wedding!

I have two years to plan my wedding and I am not sure what funds I have yet, or what to ask for. So I was hoping I could get an average of what weddings usually cost. We dont have a lot of money to start with, but I still want a great wedding!

Weddings cost precisely as much as you’re willing to spend on them. Since you’ve got two years, figure out a savings plan for the first year. Ask your guy to do the same. Figure out what you can put aside each month, add up the figures and start off with the assumption that that’s your wedding budget. If your parents or his offer financial asisstance, that’s great, but don’t budget for it until it’s offered.

About a year out from the big day, that’s when you book your wedding and reception site(s) and start paying for things. In the meantime, really consider what is and isn’t important to you about your wedding. Comparison shop. Figure out what you can make yourself or do without.

For instance, it’s fairly easy to make a simple bouquet or boutinierre, and that can save you money on a florist.

Favors are nice, but not required and often left behind by guests who have no clue what to do with them after the party. You can save a few dollars by simply not giving them out.

The word is that the ‘average’ wedding in the United States costs nearly thirty thousand dollars to put on. But keep in mind that that statistic comes from people who responded to a questionnaire in a bridal magazine, and the women who a) bought the magazine and b) answered the poll are statistically more likely to have that sort of money than the women who didn’t buy the magazine or didn’t fill out the form. Also, location will have a major effect on your budget needs. It’s a lot cheaper to throw a wedding in rural Indiana than it is in New York City, for instance.

In short, don’t worry about anyone’s budget but the one you have available. Don’t worry about what people tell you you ‘need’ for the day to be perfect. Legally, all you need is two consenting adults, a licensed officiant, a license and anywhere from one to three witnesses, depending on where you live. Everything else is either tradition, religion, or fashion…and two of those are entirely negotiable, while the third is a matter of personal conscience and priorities.

The best weddings aren’t about how much money was spent on them, but the love everyone sees between the bride and groom. I’ve seen it at weddings held in large churches and fancy hotels, and I’ve seen it at simple celebrations in parks or someone’s backyard. No matter how elaborate or how simple, the thing that makes them great is the love and happiness of the bridal couple.

Concentrate on letting your personalities and your love shine on your wedding day, and I guarantee it will be unforgettable whether you spend $100 or $100,000 on it.

Best of luck and all joy to you and your intended. I hope you have a long and happy marriage.

there would be about 80 for the meal and about a total of 120 at evening. How much is the average dress and suits, cars and a band for the night?? x

I don`t think there is an `average` for a wedding. It depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. It can cost as little or as much as you want. Mine cost £3000 for about half of the number of guests you have and we had a wonderful time. Other people pay £30,000 for a wedding and also have a good time. Same for cars, it depends on what you want, band, dress and suit…there isn`t really an `average` amount.

how much should I expect to pay for a wedding photographer in Portland, Oregon? (we just changed our date to September instead of November, so we don’t have much time to get someone lined up)

That really all depends. I ahve 2 brothers who are both married. one spend 1200 and the other spent 700. the one who spnt 1200 the photographer forgot to take the grooms side of the family and the one who spent 700 even got included was a dvd of all engagement and wedding pix. Just spend 2 days callin and getting prices and what all that it includes and i bet u will find a great one

I wanna have my wedding outside (June wedding) at a park somewhere. & for the reception, I would rather just have a BBQ at the same park. but then, if people wanna drink Alcohol then I will have to find a Reception hall. though if anyone know’s where I can rent a cheap Hall for the reception, that would be great. I live in Hobart, IN.

You don’t have to have alcohol. If you are doing a cook out you just need to buy in bulk the items you need for a BBQ and have someone cook. You could have it catered but the park lends itself to folks just cooking out for you. That could just be a couple hundred dollars for food and supplies. Caterers usually charge either a set amount for x number of dinners or x amount for a buffet. I’d be looking at a bare minimum of 15 a head if you were going the route of catering.

I think most people would say it depends on what you want, how many people you are inviting, venue, food, etc. On average, i have heard that a wedding cost around 20,000. But this really depends on how much you want to spend. I think 20,000 is the national average and you can use that as a base.

Wedding Budget 20,000
Dress – 1,500
Church/Venue – 1,000
Flowers – 1,000

That’s just an example and you can work your way down.. i’m sure you can have it cheaper or more depending on what your ideal wedding is.

Looking for a little wedding 50 or so people on a lakeside in maine.

It really ranges. A friend did hers in a resort in WV, which should have been like $55 per head, but she had a friend do DJing (which was supposed to be included), and cut out the open bar, which knocked the cost down quite a bit.

So, many resorts will have the complete package available, but don’t be afraid to negotiate!