- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
Ah, the budget. The budget is a tricky beast, wouldn’t you agree? Everyone who is contributing to it wants a say in how the funds are used, not to mention the fact that it has a funny way of rapidly expanding (much like my stomach after my recent purchase of six boxes of Girl Scout cookies…).
First off, I gotta put this out there: Tented weddings are not cheap, yo! I originally decided to go this route after looking at packages from a few places that were well above what I thought we could afford. For example, one place I liked would have cost right around $100/head. When I did the math, my eyes bulged out of my head and I decided (without really thinking it through) that a tented wedding would be a better option, since I had been quoted around $45/head from a caterer I had sent an inquiry to. What I didn’t think about was the fact that when you add in all the rentals, the costs per head were probably almost equal! Ooooops…D’oh! *Insert the sound of my palm hitting my forehead here…
Another major issue was location. In a book my mom received about tips for planning a wedding, the number one recommendation to save money was (wait for it…)—to get out of the Northeast. Huh. Well, seeing as how we’d already put down a deposit on our venue at this point, it was too late to do that, but I will say that I agree with the book: the Northeast is a mad expensive place to hold a wedding.
Somehow, in spite of all our penny-pinching and stressing about money, our wedding still ended up costing a sh*t-ton.
Huge thanks, mom, dad and Trail Mix in-laws, for prolonging your retirement so we could have such an awesome shindig (I’m kidding about the retirement thing…*I hope.) Anyways, hopefully this is somewhat helpful for those of you in the midst of planning and wondering how much things cost.
Alright, let’s do this thang!
Venue: The Tannery Pond, New Lebanon, NY
Cost: $3,000 site fee plus $360 for event insurance. This included access to the Tannery (an old Shaker building) where our ceremony was, as well as use of the grounds for the tent, electricity, water, etc. This site had tons of significance to me and I loved it. It makes my heart happy to tell people I got married in my hometown. Totally worth the exorbitant site fee.
Mmmmm, cheese…
Caterer: Debbie of Spice of Life Catering, Valatie, NY
Cost: Including food, linens, wait and bar service and set up, plus tip the total came out to be around $13,000. I don’t know the exact number because I didn’t pay this bill but Debbie was worth every penny. Her mushroom ravioli were to-die-for.
I loved his hat- it’s his signature!
If you book The Characters, I can guarantee your guests will look like this all night long…
Music: The Characters, New York, NY
Cost: $4,500 including travel costs from NYC two hours Upstate. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, they were without a doubt the BEST investment of the entire wedding!
Rentals: Aviator Tent Rentals, Kinderhook, NY
Cost: Roughly $8,000 (not completely sure what the exact total ended up being) that included everything one would need for a wedding for 185 guests, including: tent, prop tent, catering grill, dance floor, tables, chairs, plates, silverware, glassware, salt and pepper shakers and a golf cart. They were awesome and helped us pack up everything the next morning too, which was huge.
*BTW, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend getting a golf cart if you’re planning a wedding where the bathrooms or parking is more than 100 yards away from your reception! Not only is it helpful for elderly guests but your inebriated friends will have a blast being complete and total idiots on it as well!
Flowers: Angel’s Trumpet, New Lebanon, NY
Cost: $3,750 which included 18 centerpieces, 5 or so table arrangements, aisle decorations, the chuppah and altar decorations, 5 bouquets, 8 boutonnieres, 2 nosegays, my hair wreath and a large wreath for the front door.
Alcohol: DIY
Cost: $4,000. We opted to bring in our own alcohol from a local liquor store rather than go through our caterer. They helped us figure out how much we’d need but we had tons leftover. Probably could’ve cut down by about 1/3 and still had plenty. Oh well, better too much than too little, y’all know we haven’t let that go to waste. 
Transportation: I can’t recall the name of the company I used for this but it was a 21-passenger bus and we hired them for eight hours to shuttle all our drunk-ass friends from the bed and breakfasts to the venue.
Cost: $600 plus $100 tip
Photographer: Kelly of Closed Circle Photography, Boston, MA
Cost: $2,200 plus $100 tip. This included seven hours of coverage, a second shooter and a photobooth, plus CDs of all the pics. And, I mean, have you seen my pictures? I think they speak for themselves but I’ll say it anyways: Kelly’s incredibly talented, I love our pro pics and I definitely recommend her!
Attire: Claire Pettibone “Fontaine” dress from Kleinfeld’s (purchased as a sample) and a charcoal grey suit from Men’s Wearhouse, plus white dress shirt and tie. My shoes were from J. Crew.
Cost: $1200 for my dress, plus $350 for alterations at Ellen’s Couture in Manhattan’s Upper West Side; $225 for the suit, plus $100 for shirt and tie. $80 for my shoes.
Paper Products: Invitations (from Encore Studios), save the dates, postage, programs, menus, etc.
Cost: $1400
Officiant: Friend of cousin’s
Cost: $600 including travel and hotel room. Rena was amazing. She made us laugh, she made us cry and she infused our entire ceremony with heartfelt joy and love.
Rings: Morays Jewelers in Miami, FL.
Cost: $690 for my 1.5mm rose gold eternity band and Mr Trail Mix’s white gold band plus $70 for engraving.
Ketubah: Created by Amy Fagin of 20th Century Illuminations
Cost: $175 for the Ketubah itself (ours is small, 15″ x 12″) plus $30 for the cost of the frame. My mom had it matted and I don’t know what the price on that was.
Miscellaneous: Includes gifts for our bridal party and parents, random decor, favors, OOT bags, flip flops, Day of Coordinator, guest book, kippot and bathroom baskets.
Cost: $3,200
Whoooof. If you made it this far, I commend you (although I did try to give you guys lots of pretty pictures to look at through the whole thing!). I can’t even give a grand total because I might vomit. The moral of this story? Weddings are expensive. Especially tented weddings in the Northeast.
Was it worth it? HELL yeah. While there are things I could have (or would have) changed to save money, overall our wedding experience was incredible and the memories have no price tag. Go big or go home is my motto and I’m only planning on having one wedding, so for us, it was worth it without a doubt, to throw the party of our lives (until our kid’s bar or bat mitzvahs, haha! Juuuuust kidding…)
Anyways, thanks so much for recapping with me, it’s hard to believe but this is all I got. Done. Finito. Hasta lasagna, don’t get any on ya! Obviously, I’ve got one last “goodbye” post for yas (you didn’t think I’d say goodbye just like that, did you? Nope, waaaay too sentimental to just sign off lickety split…) but this is the official end of the Trail Mix wedding recaps. It’s been real.
Follow along, if ya want!
Thanks for the honest and detailed post, Mrs. Trail Mix! I love seeing budget breakdowns!
i love this post! weddings are just plain old expensive in certain parts of the country, no matter how much you try to be frugal. we’re running right along in your range… *sigh.
Budget talk always makes me anxious. Sigh. Thanks for this post! It’s always good to see what others are spending. And I’m right there with ya on the whole some-locations-are-just-pricey thing. Yuck.
Oh I would love to hear the amount of alchol you bought! I have been trying to figure out how much to buy and all the drink calculators seem like they are giving us WAY too much.
I always love seeing budget breakdowns - thanks for sharing! And I love love love all of your photos! Your wedding was so incredibly beautiful!
I love budget break downs too! Thanks. (and PS–I did the math on the totals you posted–OMG! SO glad I did a LOT of DIY). The pictures are great!
@Courtnee:I know, right!?!?! The crazy thing is, I DIY-ed everything I could and kept costs down as much as I could…YIKES!
Oh my gosh, isn’t it scary to see all the numbers together?! You think $100 here and $200 there is decent but once all of those add up it can really hit home! Ahhh. Also, I loooove the flip flop basket you had- what a great idea! Are they Havianas, by chance?
Thanks for this post! It’s really helpful to see where other people spent their budget (and to make sure that I wasn’t the only one who did things like that!)
I don’t want to add it up either! haha. It is daunting to see it like that, but I so appreciate the post and the real-ness. My budget is up there too, and for only 60 people, so I get how much it hurts. It’s great to hear that it was totally worth it though!
Thanks for sharing your budget, Trailmix! If it makes you feel any better, I have to say you definitely got a steal on your photography and transportation.
I’ve been dreading the budget breakdown! I kept everything in an excel sheet so I know the total cost, and have yet to break it all down. We spent right around what we planned to spend (thankfully), but seeing that big number at the end is a little more than I can handle!
I like the way you put yours together though, I was doing mine like some crazy accountant. I think I might keep mine simple and to the point like yours. Thanks for sharing Trail Mix!!!
I would love to see the alcohol breakdown too! We can bring in the bar and I have seen estimates all over the place!
Thanks for sharing this. Budget posts are SO helpful to brides to be in the planning process! It also makes me feel a little less insane to know that I’m not the only one that despite my best attempts at budgeting is spending more than I ever expected!
Thanks for the honest budget breakdown. Breaking down my own budget it daunting… it’s so helpful to see how someone else does it!
Wow! I wonder if that high cost has anything to do with your location? I feel like the same wedding might be half that cost in the midwest! Everything is gorgeous, thanks for the breakdown. It’s very informative…and SCARY!
The photography is fantastic, seems like you got a great deal on that!
thank you for sharing! when I started out I thought for SURE I could throw a fabulous wedding for $15k…in the bay area…at a winery. HA! We have doubled that and will hopefully stay on track to meet our budget. Weddings are just crazy expensive, especially in certain areas.
Thanks for putting this together, Trail Mix! Your wedding was absolutely beautiful! You and Mr. T are cut of the same “go big or go home” motto. 
@chrispygal: Ours is getting up there too (with only about 60 guests). I fear our original budget is en route to being totally, utterly demolished.
Thanks for the budget breakdown Trail Mix! I keep an excel going, but I don’t really think of the numbers when they’re all added together.
You are awesome - thank you for sharing!
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Mrs. Trail Mix, New York Age and Occupation: 26, PE Teacher Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, MBA Student Engagement Date: March 2009 Wedding Date: June 2010 Venue: Tannery Pond at the Darrow School About Me: I'm a country girl who somehow found herself living in the Big Apple and loving every minute of it. I'm planning a rustic, country-chic wedding in my hometown in upstate New York and it's going to be a Party with a capital P. White wine, flea markets and running keep me happy and my friends, family and fiance are my world. I'm a little bit crafty, a little bit crazy but mostly just crazy in love.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
Latest Gallery Pics