$2500 tops 45 years ago, and probably less than that/ My wife’s parents gave us a budget - go under, we keep the difference, go over and we pay. (We did the same for our kids.) We had 25 people, all friends except for our parents and my brother. We rented the Ethical Culture Society in Philadelphia, not expensive, then to a restaurant for lunch/party. We had a “rehearsal” dinner the night before with everyone who was there, and her parents had people over to their house after the ceremony. We drove her car to Louisiana for the honeymoon so it hardly counted as an extra expense.
No idea?
My in laws paid for it, we were fairly young, and I had no opinions other than on our ketubah. I think I was asked about the tux options.
It was a nice party. I’m sure it was not cheap. But it wasn’t for me and it was only partly for my wife.
My wife doesn’t remember either but reassures me that it wasn’t fancy. We had the reception in the temple after the ceremony.
Still met lots of people I never knew …
I didn’t know half the people at my wedding, either, but so what? Our parents -who we loved - had lots of fun, and it was their celebration too, wasn’t it?
Plus, I like it when strangers tell me how beautiful my wife is.
Not a complaint!
It was a fun time!
Ours was kinda a hassle, because my wife’s mom wanted a biggish wedding and made most of the arrangements. She was getting divorced (and drinking heavily) at the time, we were away at school, and my wife’s maid-of-honor was kinda a fuckup living in a distant state. So the upshot was that a bunch of things really hadn’t been prepared and thought out, and during the wedding day we were continually being bombarded with questions as to what should be done how and when. The final photo in our album is us leaving the reception, flipping off the pain in the ass photographer.
Mine cost me almost nothing, because my parents insisted on paying for it. As it was over 30 years ago and in no way fancy, I suspect it wasn’t much.
Probably around $1000 in 1997 dollars. The biggest expense was the reception hall and the catering budget. A friend of the family made her dress, the preacher was Mrs. H’s minister from childhood who steadfastly refused an honorarium. Preteen nieces helped make the centerpieces, etc. etc.
Ours was $40 including tip. Of course that was in 1970s dollars.
I have a relative that’s on their 4th marriage. At least 3 of those were big, expensive affairs.
There’s an old saying about spending more time and effort planning the wedding than they did planning the marriage. Usually ends badly.
Welcome Chrisonsd.
Did someone/something get cornfielded?
Yep. There is no post #111. Must be a tear in the Matrix.
This is in 1975 dollars. Cake, $75, organist $50. church hall about the same, clergy fee $60, mints, nuts, napkins, paper plates and so on I don’t know. Invitations were at cost as my uncle printed them. The dress was $75 or so for the materials. A friend made it so the labor was her gift. The gown my sister wore as maid of honor cost about the same but my folks paid for it. No cost for greooms outfit or best man as they wore their military uniforms. The veil was bought at a wedding store but I don’t recall the cost. It was a lovely smaller wedding.
Sounds reasonable even by 1970s standards. I’m always reminded of the gem that is the scene in the 1992 remake of Father of the Bride, when the protagonist and his wife go to Franck, the wedding planner, and he pitches them a $1200 wedding cake.
Dad: “A cake, Franck, is made of flour and water!”
Franck: “Well! WELCOME TO THE NINETIES, Mr. Banks!”
Back in 86 - I really don’t know, but I’d guess $10k. It was pretty comparable to my eldest daughter’s which cost around $14k in 2015 or so. But she had a DJ and we had a band.
Back story, my wife’s parents were getting divorced at the time. The prior year my wife’s family found out that FIL was a bigamist, and that they had 2 teenage half sibs living 1 town over. Suffice it to say, we didn’t have anything to do with the asshole. And MIL fell off the wagon in a big way.
The prior year, my wife’s sister had gotten married at their country club. For whatever reason, MIL wanted our wedding to be similar, and wanted to pay for it. Likely wanting to spend the bigamist’s $. We were away at college and were too young and stupid to say we wanted to just rent out a VFW hall. So MIL hired a hall at a semiprivate golf club. About 150 guests. Open bar, GREAT band. All our friends said it was a kickass party. For us, it was a bit of a hassle, b/c MIL was drunk and the Maid of Honor was pretty much of a fuckup, so we kept having to make decisions during the reception rather than just enjoying it.
I think we paid for my wife’s dress and the invites.
Here’s the punchline - the day before our wedding, MIL told my wife she had to go to her father to get a check! Turns out MIL WASN’T paying for it! 
We almost called the damned thing off. When my wife got the check from FIL, she said things that resulted in him cutting her out of the will - tho he never told her and we only learned after he died a couple of years ago.
Re: Texas in July? Been there, done that. Nephew got married outside of Austin. Temps in the high 90s. And HUUU-MID! Outdoor ceremony, with everyone just wilting. Reception was in some stupid barn thing, with the music so damned loud I couldn’t sit inside. I recall sitting outside in the evening with the sweat just running off me and my clothing just soaked…
My youngest daughter eloped. In all seriousness, likely the wedding I’ve liked best of all I’ve been associated with/related to.
nm I already wrote this and forgot.
Year: 2018
Guests: ~100
Cost: $29k
Breakdown:
- Catering $8000
- Venue $6200 (rural wedding barn kind of venue, and we had it from Friday through Sunday. It also included 5 tiny houses that we and select friends/family stayed at for the weekend)
- Band $5800 (I would not have chosen a band, but my wife was insistent. They were stellar and really made the evening amazing. I still have friends bring up how great they were.)
- Photography $3400
- Dessert (“artisanal” popsicle cart/food truck) $650
- Staff for the open bar $700
- Invitations (printed at a local letterpress using artwork a friend created for us) $200
Things I’m thinking of that didn’t make it onto my budget spreadsheet are:
- Alcohol. A few kegs from local brewery, and a few cases of affordable wine. I think under $1000.
- Paper goods (we didn’t get place settings from the caterer), decorations, etc. I think we borrowed tablecloths from somewhere, did our own decorations (my mom was really into that piece). A few hundred dollars here.
- Clothes. I don’t remember exactly, but let’s say I spent $1000 on a kind of stylish jacket, pants, shirt, shoes, tie combo. I don’t know what my wife spent on clothing/hair/etc. More than me, I’m sure, but probably in the $2-4k range at most.
- Rings. Under $200 each I think.
Also not included was the reception, for a smaller number of people at a nearby inn, that my mom paid for- I’m not sure what the cost there was. A few thousand.
Her family paid for the venue, and they and my dad paid for the band. Our out of pocket including dress/suit/rings/everything was probably in the realm of $17k. Which felt like a lot, but we were/are both working professionals without kids, and for a once (probably) in a lifetime event, in retrospect it seems reasonable, though it stressed me out at the time.
It must’ve been less than 100 dollars, and probably even less than 20.
It was 2003 and I had just got a job after looking for one for about a year, so we more or less did it on the extremely cheap.
After the civil ceremony all the guests and us walked to a buffet were everybody paid for their food and we paid for the drinks, the country being in the grip of the worst economic depression in living memory soft drinks for about 20 people were just about cheap enough for us.
$3,000. We were 23. It was 2006.
Most of the stuff was donated by various family members. We had the wedding on his mother’s friend’s property which was really lovely, she even planted flowers to match our colors. My grandparents bought the cake. We didn’t have a DJ, we had an iPod and speakers.
We had a guest list of 75 people, which we didn’t realize was a major faux pas because some of his relatives were invited and some weren’t. There are like 300 people in his family, his family’s weddings are generally 400-500 people and not only did we not want that, we couldn’t afford it.
Fortunately they kept the shit-talking behind our back until years later when it no longer mattered. I can see how some feelings got hurt and I feel bad for that. But I didn’t even want to have a wedding and it turned out perfect for us, so I can’t say I have regrets.