Wedding Blog
Mrs. Penguin here!
Money always seems to be a mysterious subject when it comes to weddings. I remember starting to plan, and seeing so many beautiful details all over the web and thinking, ’Well, I can’t afford that.’ With a good amount of digging, researching, planning, and comparing, I found out that there were definitely a lot of things that I THOUGHT were much more expensive than they actually were (and on the contrary, some things that were much more expensive than I thought!).
All bee applicants share their wedding budgets with us, and we hope we’ve done a fair job of representing the entire spectrum of wedding budgets here on Weddingbee!
Today we’re launching a series called Real Bee Budgets. Some bees will be sharing their budgets openly, and other bees have chosen to submit their budgets to us, anonymously. Either way, you’ll be able to see how a wide range of bees, past and present, have spent their wedding budgets. Since wedding budget calculators are generally vague, we hope that this series gives you a better idea how real brides spend real money to produce beautiful and inspiring weddings!
We’re kicking off the series with a recap of the past bees who have graciously shared their budgets with us, and in the next few weeks, you’ll see a wide range of budgets shared, so you can get an idea where money really goes into weddings around the hive!
Mrs. Tulip - Washington DC - total budget: $5,000
Mrs. Cherry Pie - Polebridge, Montana - total budget: $36,300
Mrs. Butterfly - New York City - total budget: $45,000
Miss Bunny - Columbus, Ohio - total budget: $5,000
Mrs. Pineapple - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - total budget: $14,000
Miss Joey - Seattle, Washington - total budget: $10,000
Mrs. Plumeria - San Francisco, California - total budget: $38,500
Miss Mary Jane - Grand Forks, North Dakota - total budget: $1,000
Mrs. Kiwi - Los Angeles, California - total budget: $12,700
Part II
Mrs. Corn - Newport, Rhode Island total budget: $41,000
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We’d really love for hive members to share their budgets as well! If you’d like to participate, check out our past real budget features, and submit your own budget and pictures with the information provided here!
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Wow! I’m going to have to check out those $40,000 weddings. I can’t imagine spending that much. But maybe it’s just because I’m a student and my fiance and I barely make that much combined in a year.
This was a cool post though. It’s good to see the spectrum of budgets!
This is so helpful. I love that you are featuring all the diverse budgets. I’m always wowed by the bees so its fun to see how much the weddings really cost. I’m always amazed at how the bees pull off beautiful weddings in various budgets! It’ll be cool to see the stats
Thank you so much for this. I may be in the minority here, but we’re fortunate enough to have a fairly high budget ($30-$40,000). Sometimes I start to feel bad because so many people seem to do it for so much less. It’s nice to see that I shouldn’t feel guilty and it’s ok to I feel blessed.
Our budget for our vow renewal is around 30k, but I’m trying to spend as little as possible.
This is so very helpful I am in the middle of planning and feel like I want to have it all with a $30K budget. This is a good reality check
I noticed that only a few of the budgets above included the rings. Are they normally included or excluded as part of the overall budget? What about the engagement ring?
@kosstobe: erings and wedding bands are typically not included because they are not part of the wedding day budget. Same goes for the honeymoon.
So awesome! Thanks so much Mrs. Bee! I know budgets are a touchy some sibject with all but it really is helpful when trying to plan your own wedding.
This is such a great series!
I agree- it’s great to see budgets all over the map. I think it would be interesting to see what the actual “budget” was versus the “spend”, and what pushed ‘em over (that is, if people are willing to share!)
@Mrs. Bee: DOH! Mine includes the wedding bands and the honeymoon. So I guess mine is around $10,000?
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this feature. It is so nice to have as a reference. We are trying to stay at $10K and it’s nice to know it can be done!
Thank you so much! I think seeing how much was spent on different weddings gives a great perspective!
Wow, so many various budgets… definitely a post I would of loved when I got engaged.
Wow–Amy who commented right before me “stole” my comment. Although I’d love to stay under $13k…I hope I hope I hope!
THANK YOU
This is interesting to see - thank you for sharing, but I would love to see how many guests each wedding had or expect to have.
Ooh i didn’t click on them, most of them do include how many guests!
I would love if in the next part of this series you also post the month and year the couple got married. It would be interesting to see and also helpful (at least for me).
great series!
Do you have any brides with higher budgets? like HIGHER? I am wondering if those couples with more expensive weddings either a. tend not to read a site such as this one (due to all the DIY which they may not have) or b. would simply be more unlikely to share their budget or c. just happen to not be featured today???
Rhodeygirl…I will tell you I am at an $80K budget and love this site and am DIYing a lot of stuff. Definitely know though I am not in the norm!
Oh~ you must have read my mind because I’ve often looked at weddings that I loved and wondered if I could afford this or that. This feature is PERFECT!!
Thank you, I know this will be helpful for many brides to bee!
This was a great post. We spent 35K on our wedding and there were only 60 guests and that cost did not include the rings. Looking back, I think places where I could have saved more money were the invites (I would do them myself), the dress (I’d try to find used, if possible), and the flowers (we spent a bit too much–but they were so pretty).
I have some budget wedding suggestions on my smartbride blog: http://www.smartbride.net/blog/ which people might find useful as well.
Thanks for this! Just one thing - I clicked on Mrs Tulip’s link, and in that post she says her wedding was $8800.00, but you have it listed as $5000 - is that a mistake or is that also “minus the rings” etc?
These are super helpful, especially with the locations since it does make a difference. Thanks the bees for sharing this information– I know it can be touchy! 
I really appreciate this! I find that people are so cryptic when it comes to their budgets and it’s not helpful. I won’t bother contacting a vendor if you tell me how much you paid and I know I can’t afford it. Thanks!
It’s so fun to see what everyone’s done with their money! And it’s also easy to get carried away. Those bees above who are already married (and have paid those bills) could probably testify that their original plans hadn’t included spending quite as much as they did.
I will be sharing the actualities of our budget after our wedding takes place of course - and comparing it to what we originally expected to spend!
Something that occurred to me, it may be helpful (and this may be too much for some to share) to know how couples saved for the wedding. What accounts or methods did they use to get to their budget since it is a substantial sum. I understand some have help from parents, etc. but they come up with a significant portion themselves. That’s what we are dealing with, not so much the budget but how to get there in 1.5 years.
I noticed that even on the real budget features page there is no budget over $35K. Doing a downtown wedding in a big city with a decent amount of people is much more expensive. I’d love to see examples in that higher range - just because I have a larger budget does not mean I’m not trying to save every step of the way.
Thanks–it’s so hard to get a handle on what things actually cost when you read magazines and drool over beautiful pics…
thanks for this wonderful post. i asked my friend how much she paid for her wedding, and she said she had NO idea. not even a ballpark figure. kind of frustrating bc she is the first of my friends that is married, and i thought (seeing that she only got married less than 2 years ago!!) that she would have remembered a number like this…
i love reading all the details about all bee’s different budgets, where they saved, where personally decided to splurge, this is really going to come in handy! 
@chicagoamber: We only post real weddings that have been submitted to us, no matter the budget! If you have a bigger budget wedding, we’d love to see it, with pictures! Plenty of Bees (including ones included on this post) have had budgets over $35K and have posted their budget breakdowns. Click on the links in this post!
Thank you sooo much! I think I am going to love this series. The hive is so helpful!
This is so great! I asked for something like this the last time Mrs. Bee did a feedback post and it’s awesome to see so many of the ideas from that post coming to life! It’s great to be able to look at the cost in relation to the geography too. Money doesn’t stretch as far in some parts of the country!
@Soon2BeMrsCLW3: My best girlfriend did as well but she is very vague (on purpose) when it comes to numbers, it’s frustrating. So I just don’t ask anymore. =0( I mean I’m not being nosey, I am planning a wedding! LOL
I think this is great. Everyone is worried and thinking about money anyway, I appreciate the Bee’s honesty and candor about the subject.
[...] give readers an inside peak at exactly how this shebang might be funded. This is all spurred by a post on Wedding Bee today about money and [...]
Thanks Mrs. Bee. This is helpful information as I sometimes have no idea of what’s in the realm of possible with my budget.
Rhodeygirl, I am with you- my budget (including rings) is well over $100K! I live in Manhattan- that is just what things cost, even on the lower end. *Sigh*
I think this is wonderful even as a way to make a budget and see what you can expect to spend money on. I just outlined mine and was surprised to see that my “inexpensive” wedding came to $200/person!
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Real Budgets
Feature Launched: July 3, 2007
About: Real wedding budgets submitted by former brides.
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