Mrs. Bee, New York
Age and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee Publisher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Internet
Engagement Date: May 7, 2004
Wedding Date: March 5, 2005
Venue: Westside Loft, New York
About Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
The Bees’ Budgets
June 27th, 2007 @ 6:15 pm by Mrs. Bee
Money is always a sticky subject - but it can be very interesting!
We’re actually going to start asking readers to submit their real budgets, and publish them on weddingbee. Hopefully it’ll be a helpful feature… stay tuned!
As a follow-up to our budget post yesterday, I thought it was interesting to see how many readers thought the average Weddingbee blogger has a very high budget. That didn’t jibe with our sense for the average Bee’s budget.
So we went back and did a little calculating… what do you think the average Bee’s budget is?
38 Responses to “The Bees’ Budgets”
i think it’s a good idea to show budgets! Could I also volunteer myself for it? hah.
I think the average would be…30-40,000 for the big cities.
I have a suggestion for Weddingbee. In the bee’s profiles (like when you run your mouse over their icon), can we add the number of guests and maybe a range of budget if they’re not comfortable with giving that information away? That helps me keep in mind what kind of budget they are working with and the per person amount being spent. Thanks! I think average bees wedding is around 25K.
Showing the Bees’ budget and then the actual cost when the wedding is over would be great information! I think the average bees budget is $30,000 (especially in the larger cities) but the actual cost is closer to $40,000
I guess $30K
I think I probably think the Bees’ budgets are higher than they are because the really lavish ones stick out. Not that the lower budget ones aren’t fantastic, but it’s the ones with the custom lighting and things were I really think about how much it probably cost. I think publishing budgets across the board is so hard because inevitably it will lead to bad feelings or someone saying, “whoa, I could buy a house for that amount!”
we’re definitely not going to be publishing the bees’ budgets because i think that’s a personal matter. if they choose to blog about it, it’s completely up to them.
however… we can still talk about the average budget of the bees! 
I’m going to say $25k, but only because I think some bees, like Mrs. Blueberry and her economical goodness, bring the average down a bit.
What would be most effective would be a price per person. Even though you’re not paying for all of your guests to partake in your wedding dress per se, it would still be the best breakdown, and would even the playing field when it came to both finding a great deal and making an indulgent splurge. In the end, it would all even out, so I think total budget (or total actual) divided by total guests in attendace would be the most informative.
I would guess the bees’ average budget is around $20 - 25K. I actually think that most bees’ weddings look more expensive than they really are because of all the fantastic DIY projects they get up to and the special skills they have (such as: Miss Plum’s floral design skills, Miss Raspberry’s stationery, Mrs. Blueberry’s baking, and Miss Lemon’s gocco).
I loved the breakdown suggestion in the comments of the last budget post (posting what percentage of the Bee’s budget was spent on each item). That kind of information would be helpful to brides working with any budget. I’m glad the actual budgets won’t be published across the board - I like drawing inspiration from all the Bees without mentally blocking an idea because the number is out of my range.
I’m guessing the average Bee Budget to be around 40 - 50K.
Mine’s 40k for big city bees and 15-20k for small city bees.
I also think the idea of people being able to submit their real life budgets is a great idea!
Umm… i think this is a toughy - seems like there are a few bees in the wedding industry, so while certain things look really upscale, they are probably not as expensive because of connections or DIY details that part of their businesses. That being said - 30K +/- 5K
I’m guessing $30k is the average with some really lavish ones up to $80k.
Miss Corn - LOL, you crack me up!!
I think that’s an excellent idea to post budgets from readers. I’ll gladly share mine after I’m done.
My guess is —————- $30,000.
I’d guess the average would be about 20,000-30,000. The NYC and East Coast budgets drive up the average while the Mid-west folk tend to drive the budget down, though it seems we see more “bigger” budgets on ‘bee.
My budget is approximately 10,000. If I go over, no one will care too much.
i’m guessing 25k… but i think we get a great variety of different bees.. from 5k to 80-90k.
i gotta say, even with this slightly uncomfortable subject, everyone’s very nice and genuine about their objectives of wanting ideas on this website. i ‘ve only started reading a short time, but i feel so at home here!
My guess: $35k-$55k
kinda hard to say w/o knowing the size of the guest list. i guess i’d throw out $50K as the average (for big cities).
great idea Mrs. Bee!
I would wager that “average” for the cities is $40k, with a few of the budget and high-end weddings around the edges.
I’d estimate the average to be $25-30k. But I agree with aoedorothee. I think the range is going to be pretty large!
i agree with the amount aoedorothee guessed. $30K +/- 5k. which is much more than I will be able to spend on my wedding. But if I had it, I might spend that much. (and be able to get things like the elusive chiavari chairs.) Many of the bees are older and have much better jobs than I do, so they would have more money than I do to put towards their weddings. So the average bee has a higher budget than I do.
and I think the idea of posting percentages is a good idea as that doesn’t distinguish the higher budget bees/readers from the lower budget bees/readers. I think it’s a good idea to leave it to the individual bees to decide to post their budgets and readers also have a choice in whether to send in their budget breakdowns or not.
another issue that somewhat goes along with budget is one that some have mentioned, the number of guests and price per person. That could be helpful as well. Also, I like when the bees breakdown the costs of DIY projects and to include a $ per person with things like favors is also a good idea. (ei: including the number of guests with the $ breakdown for things it’s applicable to.)
I come from a large family and that’s going to be a strain for the budget. Feeding 250-300 guests, favors for that many ppl, that many more invitations and thanks you. Having more guests adds up and my fiance and I have talked about having to up the budget (if we can) simply to accommodate more people. We could have a nicer wedding with a smaller guest list, but there isn’t a nice way to include some immediate family and not others in our situation.
I think location plays a huge role in budgets. Ours, for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, is a mere 8K with 100 guests, the average for our area is 12K. These numbers are significantly lower then what has been discussed here and blogged about recently…
My guess would also be in the 25K range…for the average bee.
I also agree with the comments that related budget to number of guests…this makes a HUGE difference in the amount spent!
I also appreciate seeing the DIY and other costs across the board. I like the idea on the price per guest breakdown, too.
What about noting one or two splurges (like a couture gown or silk invitations) and one or two amazing budget helpers (like the family friend doing flowers at cost)?
Does the wedding budget include rings, honeymoon, facials or personal trainer prep, wedding lodging?
If those figures are included, our Big City Bee’s are probably upwards to 60-70k. Little City Bee’s are 15-20k.
Aren’t weddings *expensive*??
yeah I would big city are $60K and small city are $20K
I think a 50K budget is pretty modest. We are trying to stay to that in CT and it isn’t a big city, but it is really hard. There are plenty of things we can’t have or we would be entirely over budget.
I think the wedding bees are also modest, many taking DIY projects on to save money. I like reading how much people spend on their craft projects, b/c it shows how to stretch the dollar.
But I also like seeing big splurges. Who doesn’t?
I think the real one is about $30-$35K. Now, some of the bees blog more frequently than others and if we knock out my fellow midwest bride Mrs. Blueberry, I would guess that the average of the frequent bloggers is closer to $45K. I think those with higher budgets are also exposed to more ideas and wish to share them. That’s why we see a higher budget figure.
40-45K would be my guess…
30K
50K big city bees, 20k smaller city bees
I’d say on average about 30K (+/- 10K depending on region and size).
I have to be honest though. The larger “production weddings” with multiple dresses, multiple receptions, and lighting designers are alienating. It makes me very aware of how small my budget is. If I was interested in the details of lavish weddings, I’d spend more time at the Knot.
Great idea Mrs. Bee! I am looking forward to the big reveal!
I know that I have been somewhat absent in these discussions but I promise that I will post some info on our wedding budget when I get home. I am a big fan of the percentage idea and I have in the past and will continue to blog about my DIY projects and their price per item or guest. I think that will be helpful to others and I don’t really feel comfortable divulging more info than that.
I am also wondering if we should be putting parameters on this though as I put absolutley EVERYTHING into my budget, including the honeymoon. So, maybe, in order to keep it consistent across the board we should have some details about what should be included and what shouldn’t. I think that will make it easier to compare.
I’m going with the rest of the responses, 25-30k. When I started out I thought I could do 150 guests in a city for 10k. Hahaha was I wrong
I’m guessing 25-35 for a new york wedding (not NYC like Long Island)
My ideal wedding budget is 25K lets cross our fingers its not more than that.
I’m going to guess the average budget is also in the $25k-30k range.
I’m interested to know the “average” number of guests as well! Our invite list was about 190-200 which I thought was HUGE (we were initially planning on 150 tops…:-x), but a coworker of mine is in a wedding this weekend with 350 guests!!!
Our budget, for our upstate/western NY wedding is about $14k (I should actually detail it all out to see how close we are to that) with planning on 170 guests to show up.
By the way, I’m willing to share all the details of our wedding budget, if WB does end up having a post detailing budgets.
Part of the question might be what different people consider to be a “high” budget wedding….
For example, we’re trying to keep things well under $10K (yes, despite being in Washington, DC). So, even though a $25K wedding is completely average by most U.S. statistics, I see it as “high budget” compared to my own mindset.
[…] Mrs. Bee mentioned yesterday, we’d like to start featuring reader-submitted budgets from former brides. We think […]
