What is your wedding budget and your honeymoon budget?

Question

Which one is more? How did you decide where to spend the funds? Do you feel you have too little money to have the kind of the wedding/honeymoon you always dreamed about?

Answer 1

Well I did it traditionally.  My family paid for the wedding and the groom paid for the honeymoon.  But I did my whole wedding for about $11,000 for 200 guests and the honeymoon was a little under 5,000.  

We spent more on the wedding since that was a whole bunch of friends and family coming together.  And food and alcohol for 200 was more expensive.

The honeymoon we did a cruise.  But you could easily spend less on that.  We spent about 2 wks--a couple days in Florida before the cruise, 1 wk cruise, and a couple days at the lake afterwards.  However some people just go to a bed and breakfast or rent a cabin 2-3 hours a way for a week.  We chose a cruise b/c all the food would be included, we love the Caribbean, and my idea of vacation is a waiter bringing me alcohol.

No I didn't feel I had too little money b/c I did a lot of budget shopping.  I bought everything on sale.  I used coupons.  I had a vision from the beginning and stuck with it.  Often when you change your mind several times is when you end up going over budget.  I spent a lot of time looking for caterer, cake baker, and reception hall that was in my price range.  I arranged the centerpieces myself.  And I stayed very laid back.  Just keep telling yourself no one will notice.  Remember most favors are left behind and make sure you have something you want 50 of.  Also invites.  Don't spend a fortune there as they just go in the trash.  Skip the limo or horse carriage.

WWW.ezweddingplanner.com is a great site.  You type in your budget and it divides it up into suggestions as to how much you should spent on different things.

Answer 2

I didn't exactly have a wedding budget. My parents paid, so I tried to keep it around $5,000 but I'm guessing it ended up being a little more than that. My wedding was held outdoors in a beautiful perennial garden, and we had about 100 guests. It was on a Sunday afternoon and the theme was an English High Tea. (Not having it on a Saturday night with a sit-down meal and a open bar saved us tons)

I didn't have a set percentage to spend on each thing, I just shopped around for the best deals or did it myself. A lot of friends and family members helped out and that kept prices down (one friend did all the flowers, another did the photography, a few musician friends did the ceremony music, lots of people helped decorate and serve food). The four biggest expenses were the venue, the photographer, the caterer, and my dress (though all less than $1000).

The honeymoon budget was supposed to be $2,000, but ended up being at least $2,500. We were in Europe for one week and then went to Malta for a week on our "official" honeymoon. My husband had a business conference in Amsterdam, so we coincided it with that and saved a ton on his airfare and our hotel and food the first week. My plane ticket was dirt cheap because a pilot friend was able to get me a buddy pass. (If we hadn't been so fortunate, we would have planned something else within our budget)

I felt that we had enough money to have a great wedding and a fantastic honeymoon, even though our budget was smaller than most people's. Neither of us wanted our wedding to be some big production, and the simplicity of what we had suited us perfectly. You just have to decide what's important to you and splurge on that. Be a savvy shopper, do your research, and don't get trapped in the wedding industry craziness that claims, "You HAVE to have ___ for it to be a REAL wedding". It's possible to have a great wedding inexpensively.

Answer 3

It was 25k for a very traditional wedding with about 200 guests. No honeymoon.

We just figured out first how much we had in savings, how much we could save through the eight month engagement - and what we wanted to have as a celebration for us, family and friends - then made it happen from there.