sunuva
Initiate Member
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 16:20:28 GMT -5
Posts: 77
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Post by sunuva on Feb 10, 2011 16:20:52 GMT -5
I'll weigh in on a couple of items - our situation - so it may not be pertinent to your situation.
For the photographer we asked a couple of our friends. We just happen to have a bunch of friends who have some high end digital cameras. We also happen to have some high end digital cameras. I argue that the quality of the high end digital cameras these days is no different than negative film 9and I am assuming 35mm film). Our friends gave us all of the pictures they took in RAW format. So we could choose which ones we liked best. We spent a few evenings in advance checking out areas we'd like to have our pictures taken and with friends it's easy to spend evenings taking practice shots. With digital cameras we can take as many pictures as we want and get the right feel.
Add to that I have a high-end printer and the latest Adobe Creative Suite and the capability to print on any medium you would use to hang a portrait we have at home and my wife being a Photoshop nut can get the exact picture she wants exactly like she wants it. So all it cost us were a couple of $100 gift cards (we gave them as a thank you) and the time to pick and choose and fix up our pictures (my wife did most of that). Our wedding picture is on a very specific canvas type (can't remember the name exactly). That was our biggest expense since I bought a few samples of various types to print on - so used up some ink and wasted quite a bit of expensive paper. All told, though, still only about $500.
But I did the layouts and the printing of our invitations (custom paper and custom cutouts - the cutting out was the most time). Again, only possible if you have a printer that can do that sort of thing and software that allows for that flexibility. I already had those things so it was a nifty benefit. And no one can tell that they were home-made jobs but were impressed at the personalization that went into them assuming a huge expense. It would be a nice racket to get into if I had the patience to sit down and do this stuff for strangers (I don't have the patience so I haven't turned it into a side business).
We also foot the bill for the bridesmaids dresses and the rented tuxes so as not to burden our wedding party with those costs. I don't have a breakdown of the costs, but in total (all in - venue, food, liquor, etc) it came to around $7500 (not including the wedding dress - which her parents paid for). We were quite a bit older than young kids so we didn't rely on our parents to help fund the wedding. We also didn't expect our guests to foot the bill so it was an open bar (this may not be the best course of action if you are a twenty-ish crowd and subject to drinking to excess - in our case those years were behind us and behind our friends so no one getting out of control and every couple having a built-in designated driver).
And as for wedding pictures of the event - like I said - our circle of friends and family all have some pretty high-end digital cameras. So we have a lot of high quality photographs from all sorts of people of all sorts of people from all sorts of angles and all of those were free.
I would forego the cost of any photographer who won't use a digital camera and provide all of the pictures in RAW format (you can always convert to jpeg later if you want).
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Post by cytoglycerine on Feb 10, 2011 17:52:46 GMT -5
Just a quick comment on your idea of taking a cruise for your honeymoon - you said you're looking at a cruise to bermuda or the caribbean and that your wedding is in 5 months...in 5 months, it will be hurricane season...that means you can probably get some really sweet deals, but you run a greater risk of having your trip cancelled if the weather doesn't cooperate
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cael
Junior Associate
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 9:12:36 GMT -5
Posts: 5,745
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Post by cael on Feb 10, 2011 22:24:19 GMT -5
Oooooh - I didn't think of that, lol! All I considered was that we may get a deal because people might go on cruises more during the winter rather in the summer. Wonder if the trip insurance Travelocity offers would cover weather cancellation? I will check lol.
Thanks for all the input everyone! I think we're going to do pretty much fine with everything, and if I can negotiate down on any of my prices even better! I have 2 photographers I'm going to check out (recommended by friends) who are right in my price range, and a good cheap DJ to check out now.
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crockpottin
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2, 2011 19:36:52 GMT -5
Posts: 102
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Post by crockpottin on Feb 18, 2011 13:18:09 GMT -5
I got married about 3 years ago, the whole thing cost about 5 grand, with the bulk of that being spent on food and beer/wine. We have families that like to party ;D, and we had a venue that let us bring in our own alcohol, which is a great way to save as you can generally buy your own a lot cheaper than getting a bartender etc. We also saved on the flowers by growing our own-is that a possibility for you, OP? Besides the money savings, it was certainly nice to be able to go outside and gather my own bouquet that morning. Felt very romantic too A lot of posters are mentioning the photographer so I'll throw in my own .02 on that too-if you do go with a professional, be sure to scrutinize their work reeeaaally carefully first. I wish I had; my pics look nice, but the photographer somehow managed to "forget" to photograph any of my non-white guests! I'm not saying anything that extreme will happen to you, but the pics are the only thing (besides your marriage itself, obviously) that will last more than 1 day, so it's important to get that part right.
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steph08
Junior Associate
Joined: Jan 3, 2011 13:06:01 GMT -5
Posts: 5,459
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Post by steph08 on Feb 18, 2011 13:45:06 GMT -5
I got married a year and a half ago, LCOL for the most part. 185 people.
$4500 - reception (food/location/bartenders/etc.) $1000 - photographer $1000 - dress $1000 - DJ (really wanted a good one, and he was awesome - really made the reception) $500 - booze (open bar, I bet it wasn't even that much though. Not a big drinking crowd) $350 - centerpieces $300- Invitations (I did not want to do them myself and they were worth every penny) $300 - flowers (just did bouquets and boutonnieres - no flowers for centerpieces) $200 - bought flower girl dress and rented ring bearer's tuxedo $150 - cake (friend of MIL) $150 - bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts $100 - hair for bride and bridesmaids
So all total about $10k; I am sure I forgot some things. That doesn't include wedding bands (about $700 total) or honeymoon (because we haven't gone on one yet!).
I thought we did fairly well.
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Deleted
Joined: May 18, 2024 1:54:45 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 14:24:07 GMT -5
Our numbers are pretty much out of date so I won't itemize- we got married in 2003 for about $7K excl. honeymoon and jewelry.
Cheap: use of church hall (we're parishioners), only 50 guests, served heavy hors d'oeuvres instead of a plated sit-down meal (but still plenty of food). Church ladies did the flowers, which we bought at their wholesale prices and they used for Pentecost the next day. Wine and beer which we brought in; wine was from a local winery. My dress was $300. I was 50 years old, second marriage, it was not a fashion show. DH made cookies instead of a cake, and we also boiled a lot of shrimp to go with the rest of the food. We made our own invitations. No favors, no limos, only one attendant each and we told them to wear what they wanted. DH wore a suit he already had. No music/entertainment at the reception. We just wandered around and visited. No videographer. DH's parents are deceased; rehearsal dinner was a BBQ in my back yard by the pool.
Splurges: The music (4 soloists and a fantastic organist), 3 priests officiating, good professional photographer. Paid to bring in stepson and his GF (now wife) from Seattle and put them up in hotel. Honeymoon in St. Petersburg, Russia: probably another $7K.
The best advice I ever got on theknot.com was to pick the 3 things most important to you and splurge on those. Don't try to do it all unless you're a trust fund baby. Compensating 3 priests, 4 soloists and an organist may sound crazy to many people but we still talk about how wonderful the ceremony was. For some people, the same may be true of the food or the entertainment at the reception.
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