Wedding Blog

Today in our Bee Budget Series, the bees are sharing their photography costs. Packages and rates vary from year to year, but we hope this gives you a good idea of photography rates across the country!

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Mrs. Tulip’s Photographer

Photographer: Punam Bean Photography
Package Price: $2000

“When I was looking at photographers, there was nothing that made me as sad as finding someone I loved and then discovering that…

Here is our second installment of the bees’ invitations. This post features invites that were DIYed by the bees!  Check out the bees’ professional and semi-DIY invitations here.

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Mrs. Pineapple’s Invitations

# of Invitations: 74
Total Cost: $171.00 (including stamps and programs)
Cost per Invitation: $2.31

Invitations:

About Us…:

Next up in our “Real Bee Budgets” series is invitations! Weddingbee has seen a great mix of invitations over the years. Some bees have commissioned artists and stationers to handle the entire invitation process, some have hired graphic designers and completed the assembly at home, and some have DIYed their invites completely!  Up first today are invitations that were either entirely professional, or semi-DIY.

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Miss…

Here are the bees’ dresses over $1000 before alterations. Check out the first post in this series, dresses under $1000.

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Mrs. Meatball’s Dress

Dress: #CBD from Deborah Lindquist
Cost + Alterations: $1500, no alterations

Many bees have generously shared their wedding dress budgets with us! First up, wedding gowns under $1000 (before alterations).

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Mrs. Cupcake’s Dress

Dress: Casablanca 1860 in Champagne from The Wedding Touch in Frazer, PA
Cost + Alterations: $980 + $200 at The Wedding Touch ($1180)

Today’s budget comes from a reader who got married yesterday! She’s graciously shared her planning budget with the hive.  Congratulations Sarah and Brad!

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Date: 6/20/09
City, State: Long Beach, CA
Budget: $55k (not including honeymoon, rehearsal dinner, brunch or rings)
# of Guests: 220

Original budget did not include rings, honeymoon or rehearsal dinner & brunch. My parents paid for the wedding, his parents paid for the rehearsal dinner, brunch & bar bill at…

We created a chart using the reception venue rental costs of all the Bees who shared their budgets.  The mean cost was $2878, and the median cost was $1900.  Where does your venue fall?

Check out the venue budgets of the Bees who got hitched in small towns or medium cities below.  You can see venue budgets for Bees who got hitched in major cities here!

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Mrs.…

Here’s a look at the venue budgets of Bees who got hitched in major cities!  Part II will feature the venues of Bees who got hitched in small or medium cities.

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Miss Bruschetta’s Venue
Venue/Location: F.U.E.L. House in Philadelphia, PA
Venue Fee: $6,500 license fee, plus the cost of rentals and caterer
Rental Time: 24 hours

Read more...

Maureen & Adam - August 16, 2008

Location: Rural Michigan
Budget: $15,000 ($10,000 gifted from bride’s parents)
# of Guests: 125

Wedding Day Costs

Hi hive! Based on reader feedback, we’ve retooled the Bee budget posts! We’re approaching the series in a different way by focusing on different aspects of the bees’ budgets and including pictures of what they got, and for what price! We hope this series will give readers a glimpse into what wedding details cost real brides! So, without further ado, we’re kicking off the series…

Today we’re featuring two similar anonymous bee budgets in the under $10K range.

Bee Budget #1 - $6900
# of Guests: 315
Location: medium southern city w/ population of 200k

Wedding Day Costs:

Church Fees: $175 Wedding Director, $150 Custodial fees
Reception Site: Free
Caterer/Food/Drink: $1500
Bridal Gown & Alterations: $600
Bridal Accessories (Veil, Undergarments, Shoes, Jewelry): $300
Groom’s Attire: free
Stationery/Postage: $500
Photography: $900
Reception Music: $350
Flowers: $800
Favors: $75
Cake: $400
Officiant: $100 (offering to Church)
Hair/Makeup: $85
Wedding Party Gifts: $500
Rentals:…

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…

Date: August 23, 2008
City, State: Arroyo Grande, CA
Initial Budget: $20,000
# of Guests: 200

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony/Reception/Catering Fees: $11,000 at the Cypress Ridge Pavilion in Arroyo Grande, CA
Our wedding venue was located in San Luis Obispo County and was absolutely beautiful. The ceremony and reception facility rental, along with a food buffet of tri-tip and chicken for 200 guests, apple cider for toasting, and unlimited refills on sodas, lemonade, and iced tea,…

Jen and Andy - Dec. 29, 2007

Location: Laguna Hills, CA

Initial Budget: $35,000

Guests: 220

Planning Time: 10 months

Wedding Day Costs

Ceremony: $1,100 for Grace Hills Church, Aliso Viejo, CA. $800 covered the sanctuary rental (including the one hour rehearsal the night before the wedding), a sound technician, and the church’s coordinator on the day of the nuptials. It cost $300 to rent the church’s fellowship hall, where my…

Brooke and Richard – March 29, 2008

Location – San Marcos, Tx
Initial Budget - $13,000
Guests – 120
Planning Time – 13 months

Ceremony & Reception – My parents’ home in San Marcos, TX. 60 acres of ranch land, equipped with 13 cattle, so not quite a rustic cattle ranch, but not your average backyard wedding either. Obviously this was a free venue, but we did have to add on a lot of the…