Wedding Budget – Our Expected Costs

Wedding budget post about our expected wedding expenses! What you’ve all been waiting for 🙂 The picture to the left is of the venue we looked at yesterday (Kuhs Farm in St. Louis). Anyways, happy Monday everyone. I thought I’d mix it up this week and post about our wedding and our wedding budget. I made a…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: May 31, 2023

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Estate Wedding Barn Wedding Venue Picture Kuhs Farm in St. LouisWedding budget post about our expected wedding expenses! What you’ve all been waiting for 🙂 The picture to the left is of the venue we looked at yesterday (Kuhs Farm in St. Louis).

Anyways, happy Monday everyone. I thought I’d mix it up this week and post about our wedding and our wedding budget. I made a post a couple of weeks ago about some of our (ok they’re all my ideas, he doesn’t care about anything) wedding ideas.

I’m not going to lie, I am so excited to plan an awesome wedding. I am excited for the food, the dress, the venue, the pictures, EVERYTHING! And of course, since I am a personal finance blogger, I have also been thinking about the average cost of a wedding and I’ve been adding everything up over and over again.

I don’t expect anyone to help us pay since we have been together for almost 7 years, and moved out of the homes we grew up in 6 years ago. The average wedding cost over $25,000, which is a scary number. The average cost of a wedding seems to be so expensive!

Money, Money, Money

Paying for our own wedding is definitely possible, but I would prefer to spend less than $20,000 since we do want to buy a new house next year. Now, $20,000 is a lot, but we do plan on having probably 200 to 300 people at the wedding. The number was going to be higher but we decided that there’s a lot of people that we could cut and make it more of a family and close friends event.

Yes, I know most think this is an insane amount to spend (especially in the personal finance world), but I do think it’s worth it. I have almost no family. I love W’s family, and having a big wedding to celebrate everything is very important to me. I never once had a family gathering in my family, so this means a lot. It’ll be fun and if we can afford it, then I see no harm in it.

Around 150 people will be W’s family (all of them are close family members) and there will be some of my family, and the rest will be friends. I have 8 bridesmaids and W has 9 groomsmen (possibly 10 if we have my brother be a groomsman). So we will definitely be having quite a large bridal party.

Also, how many of you invited coworkers to your wedding? Where do you draw the line? I just don’t want to upset anyone by not inviting them. It’s not like I can say it’s only close family, since we will have hundreds of people.

So, since we do want so many people at our wedding, and have a budget of less than $20,000, we do need to find ways to save. I will be listing our budget categories below. And within the next couple of weeks I will be making a post on how we plan on saving money in different categories. Around 50 people will be under the age of 18 also, so we will be saving money with the fact that they will not need to drink alcohol or eat tons of food (just thought I should throw this out there).

 

Our wedding budget categories:

Wedding Venue – $4,000

This is something that I’ve of course been putting a lot of thought into. When I say $4,000, I mean just for the actual rental of the venue, with nothing else included such as food, etc. I loved the the wedding venue that we looked at yesterday, but I’m just not super positive that it’s the one for us. I did send my friend all of the pictures that I took because I knew she would love it for her wedding. She is in love with it so now I’m positive that my trip to the venue was not a waste.

This is my only picture of hi grandma's. Much prettier in person!
This is my only picture of W’s grandma’s property. Much prettier in person!

We both really want to get married at W’s grandmas. The property is beautiful and is over 200 acres with a lot of flat land (perfect for the wedding), cliffs, creeks and everything else. The property is perfect for an outdoor wedding venue, as there is a lot of room for parking and the actual wedding. The scenery is beautiful and just the thought makes me so excited. Even though it is technically “at his grandma’s house,” I would still expect it to be a semi-formal event, and I would have to make sure that guests know this (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, read my Twitter from yesterday afternoon).

If we get married there, it would be slightly more expensive than $4,000 for the venue. This is because I had to price out how much it would cost to rent everything. The clear tent that I want is $3,500, restrooms for the wedding (these would be portable FLUSHABLE toilets – they are called luxury toilets for outdoor venues) and this is $1,500, tables and chairs would be $1,000, and I’m sure there are lots of other little things that we would need to rent such as a heater or air conditioner (depending on weather of course), table cloths, etc.

The place that we end up choosing will be for both the ceremony and the reception. This sounds bad to some (some have told me that it’s weird to have the ceremony and reception at the same location, however, I don’t care), but I want an outdoor wedding so it’ll all work!

 

Food – $6,000

I have already called some caterers. Since I do want an outdoor wedding, most venues are okay with me using my own caterer. Now, don’t make fun, but for food I want really tasty comfort food. Preferably catered BBQ. I have seen some really awesome pictures on Pinterest, and I feel like BBQ will make the wedding a lot of fun and more intimate even though there will be a lot of people there.

And I definitely want an open bar also. The caterer said she could supply the bartenders as well. She said if I wanted to save money, then I could buy all the alcohol (or at least most of it) and then I would save a lot of money. She also said she would give me a checklist of what to get for the amount of people we will be having.

I then also want a dessert table. I would be going to a local bakery for this. I want a table full of cakes, apple pies, sweets and everything.

I can never turn down good BBQ! What do you all think of this idea? Am I being stupid/crazy? Please let me know what you think of this idea. I want all opinions! W and I really love this idea, so I’m pretty positive this is what we will do.

 

Wedding Attire – $3,000

Wedding attire includes our outfits, makeup, hair, etc.

I don’t want to spend too too much on my wedding dress. My limit will be $2,000 (unless of course I see something super awesome) but I would prefer to spend less than $1,000.  I am really excited for once it’s time to start looking. I am waiting on this until the actual venue is chosen and booked though.

For his suit, I do like the look of the suits that are on the JCrew wedding section on their website. I’m in love with it all and since W’s favorite store is JCrew, I’m sure he will love it all also. I would prefer to spend less than $1,000 on his suit.

 

Photography – $2,500

We want a good photographer for our wedding. I have been pricing this out and expect to spend around $2,000 to $3,000 for this. I’m in love with a photographer and have been in contact with her. She charges $2,000 and has the exact type of pictures that I want.

We will be taking our engagement photos soon and that will be around $500 with the same girl. I’m looking forward to those! We are waiting until the spring time when everything is pretty outside to do this though.

Also, do we want a videographer? I don’t really know of anyone who has done this so I am unsure about it and whether it’s worth it to hire one.

 

Music – $500

W really wants a band, but I would like a DJ so that I can listen to all types of music. DJs around here are around $500 with everything included (setup, etc.). What did you choose? How much did you spend on music?

 

Miscellaneous – $4,000

I do realize that there are a lot of little things that I did not list above. Save the dates, invitations, stamps, thank you cards, marriage license, bridal party gifts, decorations, flowers, etc. If there’s anything BIG that you think I’ve forgotten, please tell me in the comments! I definitely would want to know.

We also plan on providing transportation to our guests who are staying at local hotels. Our friend recently started his own limo party bus company, and we definitely plan on using him for this. It’ll make it a lot easier on everyone.

How much did you spend on your wedding? Does the $25,000 average cost of a wedding scare you?

 

If you have any wedding posts on your blog, please leave the link below! I will read every last word. And if you’ve ever negotiated on anything in your wedding, please tell me all about that also.


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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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  1. Our original budget was $10-15,000, when we were planning to pay for the whole thing ourselves. That was with a guest list of 150. Neither of our mothers found it possible to stick to our rule of 50 guests for us and 50 guests for each set of parents. They each gave us a list of 80, leaving us with -10 guests for ourselves. When we told them they had to cut each of their lists by 30 people, my mom offered to pay for the venue and food with money left to her by my late pop-pop if it meant she could keep all 80 guests. I told her that as long as it meant we didn't have to cut any of OUR 50 guests, she had a deal. It was kind of neat, since the venue and food were basically a posthumous wedding gift from my grandfather.

    Final guest count was 232 and total wedding cost was about $20,000, but we were very lucky that we only had to spend about $7-8,000 out of our own pockets since the venue and food (all part of the same bill) wound up being more than half the cost. There was lots of DIY, which helped keep costs down: we designed and printed our own invitations and made the favors and centerpieces.
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    1. That's an awesome deal that you got! Good to know that it's possible to have a wedding with that amount of people for $20,000.
      My recent post Wedding Budget – Our Expected Costs

  2. Sounds like you've got a really good start! Yay!

    I'm going to echo the others who suggested going with a videographer – we almost didn't, because we figured we'd have pictures and that would be enough. My parents' 25th anniversary was about 6 months before I got married, and at their surprise party we watched their wedding video, which was so fun! (Of course, their video is much lower quality, and very simple – it was almost 30 years ago! But it was still so fun to watch together)

    1. I definitely think I'm going to get one! All of you are making me feel like it's a need 🙂
      My recent post Wedding Budget – Our Expected Costs

  3. "Also, do we want a videographer?" – We did one, get in touch if you want to ask (I promise to forward questions onto my wife).

    Our connections are all on the West Coast, but who knows?

    We did a DJ, and my wife pretty much assigned me to use my musical prowess on that one. We did intro songs for our wedding party (and he read Bios) and suggested probably half the mix, including Journey at the end (of course). He filled in the blanks.

  4. Kristi C

    My biggest recommendation to cut costs AND put in a personal touch of your style & personality is to add in DIY elements. We did lots of things DIY & it was fun & made the day our own. I know no one ever has had the same exact center pieces we did, because we made them & the idea was one of my own. AND that saved money & looked awesome.

    My budget doesn’t even live in the same town as yours as my hubby & I paid for our own wedding while in college but it was still the perfect day! And it really was beautiful.

    We didn’t hire a videographer, but had one video camera set up to film the ceremony & another friend had a handheld video camera & filmed another angle as well as took a few interviews. My hubby had the role of then putting it all together into a great video for us. He is techno savvy like that.

    I never did post a blog about that day with all these details, but now I wish I had!

    We also had friends and family pitch in and bring food. It wasn’t a full meal but more of LOTS of little things…and we had between 250-300 people & didn’t run out of food. That of course isn’t feasible for everyone. We just have so many close family, church members & friends who wanted to help that this was THE PERFECT way & it saved us a ton of money. Also, we aren’t big drinkers & our reception was held at a church, so no alcohol costs was a big money saver for us that obviously isn’t the case for everyone!

    Anyways, I LOVED planning my wedding and always joke with my hubs that we should do it again. Best day ever & so much fun to plan. Enjoy every minute!!!!! Congrats! 🙂

  5. i've been to a few weddings that just had wine and beer for booze. granted, they had really GOOD wine and beer so it wasn't totally cheap but it was a lot cheaper than hard liquor. plus, no one got too wasted either (there's always one person!)

    xo the egg out west.
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  6. Jackie

    Check out younghouselove.com their wedding was really cool and didnt cost a fortune. Think outside the box for a unique and fabulous wedding. Most of all, it's about you and your partner. Enjoy it.

    1. Thanks Jackie! I've checked out their wedding a couple of times and LOVED it 🙂
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  7. Shay

    I think you should go with a band if that is what your fiance wants. I had booked a DJ for our wedding, but my DH really wanted a band. He didn’t get to pick a lot of the details because he lived three hours away while we were engaged. So he felt a bit leftout. Let him have his band. You won’t regret it.

  8. Wedding planning is overwhelming when you have to put down a number isn't it? I don't get the sense that you were one of those girls who thought they'd have their dream wedding from when they were five or anything but it still is hard to put a number down and know that cuts down on options. I'm getting married in May and luckily my parents have been planning for this and are paying for the wedding but I still wanted to be conscientious etc… Anyway, I'm getting married in DC and that's expensive so while this may sound like a lot of money… our wedding is going to be about 28,000 with around 120 guests. It's ridiculous but its much less than we could have spent. Our venue is super reasonable and we cut out lots of flowers to save costs too. Anyway, good luck planning excited to see the results!
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    1. Wow that's definitely expensive! I bet it'll be super pretty though 🙂

  9. Anna

    We had a lovely little wedding of 22 people (immediate family only, plus a few close friends). We paid somewhere around $2,000… mostly because I splurged on the most fantastic ingredients possible. We were married on my father's deck. My family rotisseried a leg of lamb. OH, and I had a sweet little dress from Jcrew for $150, that miraculously didn't need to be tailored! I did spend about $500 on wine though (there were a few $75 bottles I had ALWAYS wanted to try!). 😉
    BBQ is some of the tastiest food in the world… it will be a hit!