This is like asking "how much can I expect to spend on dinner?", without saying if you're dining at a McDonald's, or a Michelin star steakhouse. Definitely going to be a lot of variability, but I'll just share my recent experience with our wedding in a major city in Texas.
Venue rental: Impossible to put a specific price on this. Could be anything from a backyard or public beach wedding to the Ritz. Just depends what the couple wants to do.
Catering: the very nice catering we had ranged from $50 to $100 a plate, depending on how fancy you wanted the meal. That pricing I believe included table, linen & plateware, and silverware rental. This caterer was in house with the venue, we had to use them at that venue. If you wanted to save money here, I think a barbecue buffet would be a great option (for someone in Texas, that is).
Dress: again could be anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands, or more. Budget for alterations too.
Photographer: we went with the higher priced photographer out of the options we looked at, meaning someone with more experience and more skill (clearly evident when comparing portfolios). My higher priced photographer may be your low priced one, or vice versa. We also decided to pay more for the all-day photographer package, which was definitely worth it to us since got some great shots at the getting ready hotel. We skipped a videographer, which saved some money, but did rent a video iPad thing where guests could record video messages. The company then edits the responses and makes a video for you.
Invitations: Wife designed our invitations on VistaPrint using their templates and what not, so that came out very affordable even for quite good looking invitations. They have frequent sales and great customer service. Was it like receiving an invitation to dine with the Queen? No, but who cares, no one is keeping those invitations anyways (except maybe you). But some people really want something like hand calligraphied invitations, if that's what you want then expect to pay for it. I once received a wedding invitation where the postage alone cost as much as our invitations did, never mind the contents which were nearly works of art. It was really nice, the invitation alone was about a quarter inch thick... but it still ended up in the trash afterwards. (The bride and groom in that case could more than afford this, think generational wealth.)
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Other notes:
Get used to everyone up selling you. They will get you in the door with a low upfront price, then layer on the add ons. Examples: Standard DJ is $X, but that doesn't include fancy lighting XYZ package for the room, that's another $1200. Do you want chargers at the table? That's another $5/person. Dinner includes soft drinks, but beer & wine service is $8/person (BYOB), add liquor/mixed drinks and that's $12/person (BYOL). I don't really regret any of the upgrades we did, though I did appreciate some more than others. Just be prepared that the initial price you see isn't necessarily what you will pay.
The biggest money saver we did was finding a florist that did everything at a reasonable price. Most florists that focus specifically on weddings will have anywhere from a $5k to $10k minimum. The one we ended up using was a local neighborhood, general florist that had been around for something like 75 years. They were great, easy to work with, no minimums. Spent I think around $3000 and the flowers were gorgeous. Some people may spend $20k, $50k, on just flowers. I'm sure they look stunning, but it's perfectly possible to have beautiful florals at much lower prices.
If you are really, really on a budget, you can DIY some or all of the above items.
Another thing that saved us some money was buying the drinks at a place that accepted returns of unused beverages (unopened wine, liquor, or canned drinks). We weren't able to return everything due to the condition of some of the boxes, but still got back several hundred dollars I believe.
Last, remember that just because something costs more, doesn't mean it's better for the bride and groom, or even better objectively speaking.
Venue rental: Impossible to put a specific price on this. Could be anything from a backyard or public beach wedding to the Ritz. Just depends what the couple wants to do.
Catering: the very nice catering we had ranged from $50 to $100 a plate, depending on how fancy you wanted the meal. That pricing I believe included table, linen & plateware, and silverware rental. This caterer was in house with the venue, we had to use them at that venue. If you wanted to save money here, I think a barbecue buffet would be a great option (for someone in Texas, that is).
Dress: again could be anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands, or more. Budget for alterations too.
Photographer: we went with the higher priced photographer out of the options we looked at, meaning someone with more experience and more skill (clearly evident when comparing portfolios). My higher priced photographer may be your low priced one, or vice versa. We also decided to pay more for the all-day photographer package, which was definitely worth it to us since got some great shots at the getting ready hotel. We skipped a videographer, which saved some money, but did rent a video iPad thing where guests could record video messages. The company then edits the responses and makes a video for you.
Invitations: Wife designed our invitations on VistaPrint using their templates and what not, so that came out very affordable even for quite good looking invitations. They have frequent sales and great customer service. Was it like receiving an invitation to dine with the Queen? No, but who cares, no one is keeping those invitations anyways (except maybe you). But some people really want something like hand calligraphied invitations, if that's what you want then expect to pay for it. I once received a wedding invitation where the postage alone cost as much as our invitations did, never mind the contents which were nearly works of art. It was really nice, the invitation alone was about a quarter inch thick... but it still ended up in the trash afterwards. (The bride and groom in that case could more than afford this, think generational wealth.)
~~~~~~~~
Other notes:
Get used to everyone up selling you. They will get you in the door with a low upfront price, then layer on the add ons. Examples: Standard DJ is $X, but that doesn't include fancy lighting XYZ package for the room, that's another $1200. Do you want chargers at the table? That's another $5/person. Dinner includes soft drinks, but beer & wine service is $8/person (BYOB), add liquor/mixed drinks and that's $12/person (BYOL). I don't really regret any of the upgrades we did, though I did appreciate some more than others. Just be prepared that the initial price you see isn't necessarily what you will pay.
The biggest money saver we did was finding a florist that did everything at a reasonable price. Most florists that focus specifically on weddings will have anywhere from a $5k to $10k minimum. The one we ended up using was a local neighborhood, general florist that had been around for something like 75 years. They were great, easy to work with, no minimums. Spent I think around $3000 and the flowers were gorgeous. Some people may spend $20k, $50k, on just flowers. I'm sure they look stunning, but it's perfectly possible to have beautiful florals at much lower prices.
If you are really, really on a budget, you can DIY some or all of the above items.
Another thing that saved us some money was buying the drinks at a place that accepted returns of unused beverages (unopened wine, liquor, or canned drinks). We weren't able to return everything due to the condition of some of the boxes, but still got back several hundred dollars I believe.
Last, remember that just because something costs more, doesn't mean it's better for the bride and groom, or even better objectively speaking.
Statistics: Posted by evancox10 — Tue Oct 08, 2024 11:27 pm