When I say "wedding" I mean the ceremony + reception.
Maybe it is because I am from the northeast (stone’s throw from New York City) and have cousins who are about 10-15 years older than me that got married when I was a kid, I was aware of how expensive weddings are.
Normal weddings, where I am from, are church ceremony (occassionally ceremony @ Reception venue), banquet hall for the reception with cocktail hour, dinner (buffet or plated), DJ, Dancing, Cake, Limos for the wedding party, Professional Photographer for photos, etc. And I’ve never been to a wedding that didn’t have a full open bar. And 150 to 200 guests is the norm.
I don’t find the k – k average to be crazy, as some folks do on here. That is representative of a pretty common wedding where I am from — not anything elaborate or over-the-top.
Dinners at banquet halls for wedding guests easily start at 0 per plate (my SIL is planning her wedding at a place that is nearly 0 per plate). 0 per plate x 100 guests and you’re at -grand and you’ve only fed 100 people.
So I am curious – especially when dollar amounts are discussed on here. What is the norm where you are? Do you thumbs down those of us who live in or come from high-priced areas because we spent -grand on our weddings (which is ‘cheap’ for the Northeast where I’m from)?
Before you dug into the real price tags, what did you think weddings costs? How did that change after you did your research?
Blunt, I couldn’t agree more – I love the "that’d be better spent on a downpayment".
When I met my hubby we each owned a home, I had 4 cars (3 classics + my daily driver), and he had 3 cars (daily driver, sports car & race car). We did have modest car payments on our daily drivers but our "fun" cars were 100% paid for.
And we went cheap and only spent k on our wedding and didn’t rack up ANY debt. Only used credit cards when ordering stuff online & those got paid off when the bill came in.
People can drop some big-bucks on their weddings, without relying on their rich parents & without debt.
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