Whats the average spend on a Wedding??

[nikkif06]

Trying to budget for things - would appreciate some help....

[amieeyang]

Experts say the average American wedding costs about 20, 000 dollars.The survey said the wedding expenditure was only a small share of the overall marriage cost as most Chinese young couples in the cities tended to buy an apartment and a car before tying the knot.But all what I want is a beautiful wedding dress.

[Tuney]

The wedding dress is the most important. You can save on all other items including the groom.

[alison3030]

a friend of mine spent £20,000

[C.G.]

I have obviosuly been exposed this kind of nonsense recently and I can state thus, from having looked around. This is not neccesarily what we have spent - some of the things, like cake and transport and bridesmaids, we are not bothring with, but we are hiring other services that many couples would not bother with either!

Bride's Dress - off the peg, to get a nice one, at least £1500. More if couture.
Groom's Outfit - if hiring, budget for at least £200, more if buying
Wedding venue - budget at least £50 per person for food and drinks, and more if you are having an open bar
Evening do - at least £25 per head and more if you are having an open bar. A LOT more.
Cake - waste of money in my opinion. Who cares?!
Transport - not so sure as we don't need it.
Bridesmaids - no idea as not having them.
Rings - how much do you want to spend?!
Honeymoon - how much do you want to spend?
Music/entertainment - how much do you want to spend?!
Flowers/decorations - how much do you want to spend?
Then there are the registrars' fees/legal stuff etc


I think if you have quite a big wedding (100 people plus,) you will be lucky/creative to swing it for less than £15,000 and that is on a budget.

[C.G.]

Oh, yes, don't get me started on chair covers.....

[nikkif06]

Oh, yes, don't get me started on chair covers.....

I know ridiculous! I have seen chair covers for £6.50 each!!!! I am not having them - We are having quite a small wedding about 45 people in the day so hopefully we are not going to spend too much!

[C.G.]

Oh, yes, don't get me started on chair covers.....

I know ridiculous! I have seen chair covers for £6.50 each!!!! I am not having them - We are having quite a small wedding about 45 people in the day so hopefully we are not going to spend too much!

Similar number to us. To my shame, we are having chair covers for the ceremony (but not for the wedding breakfast) for which we are paying the princely sum of £4 each. The chairs in the ceremony room look a little "functional". I thought we wouldn't spend much to start with too, but it kinda creeps up on you....

When are you getting married Niikki?

[Idris]

Our budget is £4000, we've not reached it yet.

This is for a medium sized, mostly family civil wedding (around 80-100 guests), just about off-season.
We've saved on quite a lot by DIY-ing it (entertainment, stationary, food), giving a lower amount to things that aren't really a priority to us (flowers, transport) and just working really hard to source bargains.

Our biggest single cost (more than my dress) was the Registrar, which comes in at about £500 alone.

[suzzie76]

Our wedding in 2000 cost about $10,000 Australian Dollars for 80 guests.

Dress $1000, off the rack tailored and it was the dress I wanted not a price
Two brides maid dresses, $200 each
$750 for the I do's
$250 for horse and buggy
$150 for the hire car for bridesmaids which we used to leave that night and next day drive to airport
$1200 Photographer
$150 Celebrate

$200 for cake, present from Grandmother
$4000 for dinner and drinks, present at their insistence from both parents at last minute

No chair covers, venue was old Australian rustic restraunt with its own natural charm. Venue food was large and filling and very nice, no complaints from anyone.
No table flowers, presents or chocolates

Cake was mix fruit and white chocolate mud, was also desert.

We had not one guest we didn't want. Defintily no parents friends or uncle bob's we had not seen in 20 years, our wedding, not parents.
No kids apart from a few direct relatives

We had a few items given as gifts instead of providing normal gift, much better and encourged others to so since.

We had no real budget, there were only a few things I wanted and then just organised everything one thing per week over 6mths picking the best option that we were prepared to pay for.

I've heard some very high prices from church weddings and park weddings can be as simple as the crowd standing in a nice location for $50 fee to local council, maybe a bunch of cheap hire chairs.

A friend had her wedding for $200 in back yard with 30 guests. That included beer/wine and meat money. Dress was not normal white dress, but still very pretty.

[H. Franklin Layne]

I'll never understand how brides can't see the great wallet rip off from a mile away, and plan something smaller but dignified. Weddings are like boats....bust out another thousand!

Go to the courthouse or a little wedding chapel in Vegas, pay a couple hundred to the on site vicar and save the money!