Weddingbee 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

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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, were included in this cost. Our ceremony took place outside next to a lake, and our reception was also outside, on the other side of the pavilion. We also received a 1-hour rehearsal time slot the day before the wedding, and the set-up and clean-up was taken care of by the staff of Cypress Ridge. The wedding party had a private changing room in the pavilion. We were allowed to start setting up in the morning, which helped a lot. Our wedding festivities started at 2:30pm and ended around 10pm.
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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 in-laws held a separate Korean-food-only reception for their invited wedding guests.
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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 rentals that are usually included in some venue packages. The best thing is that San Marcos is it’s smack dab in the middle of San Antonio and Austin, so we were able to use the best vendors out of both cities.
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We haven’t featured a real budget in awhile, so we’re happy to rejuvenate this feature!  Today we bring you Robyn’s small town lodge wedding.  She cut costs by having family members contribute services, skipping favors, and having a Sunday wedding.  This way Robyn was able to pull together a lovely, warm affair for 70 guests for under $15,000. 

We’re always looking for real reader budgets because they’re so helpful to brides!  If you’d like to contribute, please go here for more information.  Thanks!

Date:  September 2, 2007
City: small town 70 miles north of Seattle, WA
Budget:  ~$14,000
# of Guests:  70

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Today we’re featuring three budgets in the $25k range. Each of the brides is taking advantage of the talents of friends to save costs on invitations, videography, etc., giving them room to splurge in other areas.

DJ and Anon are both having day-of coordinators, for example. And SA and her fiance hired a brass quintet from the nearest symphony! You can see some shots of her wedding below.

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Submitted By: DJ
City: Washington, DC
Budget: $30,000
# of guests: 100

Ceremony Site Fees: $1200
Reception Site Fees: $0. Having it at a restaurant, so there’s no site fee - just a food and beverage minimum.
Caterer/Food/Drink: $11,000 ($110/pp)
Service Charge/Gratuities: $3500. This includes all gratuities and all includes tax on the food and drink. Read more…

Today’s Real Wedding Budgets all fall around $22,000.

- VC had 155 guests at her Los Angeles wedding.  She DIY’ed flowers, her father acted as videographer, and she spent a mere $70 on makeup.  Having budgeted in these areas, she was able to splurge on a $4k+ dress, and also spend a generous amount on gifts for her wedding party.

- BS is planning a wedding of 100-125 guests in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.  She’s saving money by skipping favors and having family and friends act as officiant, musicians, and day-of coordinator.

- NC’s wedding of 72 guests in LA was set in a beautiful gothic Catholic church.  She and her husband budgeted fair amounts of money for their flowers, stationery, and photography/videography.  In turn, they saved on music expenses by having their restaurant reception site play classical music through their satellite system!  You can see photos of her wedding below.

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Today we bring you three different wedding budgets within the $10,000 - $12,000 range.

- CC in Seattle is expecting 95 guests.  She’s saved money in lots of ways, like finding her Jim Hjelm gown on Craigslist, and having friends/family act as cake baker, officiant, and coordinator.  This has given her room to spend on other fun things, such as rented linens and even parasols!

- AB is expecting between 175 and 200 guests at her Dawson, Minnesota wedding.  She’s saving money by marrying in her hometown church, skipping favors, and having her former orchestra teacher provide ceremony music.

- Finally, SZ’s Philadelphia wedding really catered to its 49 guests.  She DIY’ed her paper goods and used an iPod for reception music. She also had all-inclusive catering package with table, chair, and linen rentals, as well as hors d’oeuvres, lunch, and cake.  You can see photos of her lovely wedding below.

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Today we’re jumping up a few budget brackets to bring you three different weddings in the $30 -$35K range, including one illustrated with photos!

- AL and her fiance are planning a Renaissance-themed wedding for 150 guests in Long Island, New York.  They’re splurging on entertainment (including a band, professional trumpeteers to announce them, and Renaissance dancers), but found ways to budget elsewhere, such as an all-inclusive photography/videography package for $3500, and makeup done by mom!  

- AA’s Houston wedding had some great details, like a string trio for the ceremony music, and catering by Marble Slab Creamery.  They saved on decorations and favors by designing their own flower centerpieces and having photo favors which were included in the cost of her photography package. 

- And finally, AS’s lakeside wedding in Milwaukee was celebrated by 320 guests (honed down from 500!).  The event was personalized with details such as high-top tables for the bar area, and adjoining hotel rooms for her and her bridesmaids the night before.  She made budgetary compromises in some areas (candlelight instead of professional lighting, prime rib instead of filet mignon), and spent money elsewhere (rented linens, Brewers tickets for the dads!).  You can see pictures of her wedding below. Read more…

Because we’re turning this into a regular feature, we’ve added a link under the Guest Blogs page for you to submit your Real Budgets at any time.  Do you like our shiny new icon?

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be featuring several different types of weddings (city, rural, destination etc.) within different budget ranges ($5,000, $10,000 etc.).  We’ve already received many submissions so we don’t know if we’ll be able to post them all, but please continue to send in your budgets as we’d like to showcase as wide a variety as possible.

Today we bring you three different $5000 budget weddings that are great examples of how to stretch a smaller budget.  

- SK had a 40 person wedding at a restaurant in Manhattan.  Restaurants can be surprisingly affordable venues that often offer lower per person prices than many caterers or wedding venues.  And because they’re already equipped with tables, chairs, linens, and china,  you don’t have to worry about paying for rentals.

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(A guest post on budget from former bride KM) 

Isn’t the most special day of your life “priceless”? Well yes…and no. The reality is that there are costs involved. Most people don’t plan weddings for a living, so how does one even begin to figure out how much to spend? Hopefully the monetary details of one 2006 wedding can help provide some perspective.

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