Possible to have a nice wedding for under 5k?

feeding + alcohol for 100 people you can probably figure 25 bucks a head going on the cheap side, and that is low, likely much more than that. That alone will eat up more than half your budget. Renting a Tux ~100-150 depending on the style, we just bought new suits since it was the same price.

Good luck finding a band to play for 100 bucks unless you are friends with them. If you have a DJ, why get a band.

With what you posted I don't think you will be able to do it for 5k.
 
DSM Turbos said:
feeding + alcohol for 100 people you can probably figure 25 bucks a head going on the cheap side, and that is low, likely much more than that. That alone will eat up more than half your budget. Renting a Tux ~100-150 depending on the style, we just bought new suits since it was the same price.

Good luck finding a band to play for 100 bucks unless you are friends with them. If you have a DJ, why get a band.

With what you posted I don't think you will be able to do it for 5k.
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well let me back up a bit. $1500 covers the venue, tables, chairs, reception place. DJ will be free - Photographer will be cheap if we use family friend....maybe $100. Catering will be about $600.
 
We did ours in my mothers back yard. Rented a big tent, chairs and tables, linens , dishes, catered it, had a preacher, supplied beer and wine, cake, no dj or band, did not include rings in budget and spent over $6500.
I don't think you can do 120+ for $5k and include rings.
Buy a trip to Vegas for you both and get married there. Much cheaper!
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
well let me back up a bit. $1500 covers the venue, tables, chairs, reception place. DJ will be free - Photographer will be cheap if we use family friend....maybe $100. Catering will be about $600.
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My sister has a funny story about her first wedding photographer. Friend of a friend who had a nice camera setup, etc. and had done some good photos for other weddings. Day of the wedding, the photographer was in jail for something or other, so the only wedding photos she had were from my mom's Polaroid instamatic. Should have been an omen....
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
well let me back up a bit. $1500 covers the venue, tables, chairs, reception place. DJ will be free - Photographer will be cheap if we use family friend....maybe $100. Catering will be about $600.
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Catering for 100+ people for $600? That is super cheap. We must be talking BBQ sandwiches and cole slaw.

One thing to decide up front is whether this is a "nice" (AKA formal) affair, or more of a good-ol southern boy deal. The latter will be waaay cheaper (e.g. BBQ sammiches + beer, guys buy new suits as above, etc)
 
My wife and I did ours in Lake Lure. Had the wedding on the lake at the park and the reception at the Lake Lure Inn and spa with meal provided by them. We did have alot of friends help out and did not have open bar (that crap gets expensive) but I think we came in just under 3k for everything. She was happy, I was happy, and people still talk about how good the food was. So yes it is possible just gotta keep it modest.
 
For teh record, our total cost on our wedding was about $800. Mind you that was 15 years ago so maybe $1200 in today money. Not including rings.

But - we had just graduated college and had no $$ and little from parents. We used our local church, gave them $100 donation. We went to Sams Club and bought all the reception food - snack/munchies/not a formal meal. A friend set up all teh food and essentially served as "caterers", we have pics of friends who can across the country and even from England who were helping w/ setup & cutting veggies, setting up food etc. No booze (church rules). our photographer was my college roomate who had just finished a lib art degree and needed example photog work for his new business so he did it cheap.
FYI we also bought a 20 pack of disposable film cameras and put them on every table, let people take their own pics, we developed them later. Those are probably the best pics we have.
of course that dates me a little too ;-).
 
I blew about 7k on my wedding. Venue was free, aunt was the preacher, and I had at least 150 people. Buddies cooked a pig and other stuff, catered all the sides from 12 Bones and the other food and all alcohol was wholesale. It is on the record as best wedding ever by multiple people.

It should be the biggest party of your lives. Have fun.

Biggest mistake we made was not "hiring" a photographer and as a result we have very few awesome pics.
 
RatLabGuy said:
For teh record, our total cost on our wedding was about $800. Mind you that was 15 years ago so maybe $1200 in today money. Not including rings.

But - we had just graduated college and had no $$ and little from parents. We used our local church, gave them $100 donation. We went to Sams Club and bought all the reception food - snack/munchies/not a formal meal. A friend set up all teh food and essentially served as "caterers", we have pics of friends who can across the country and even from England who were helping w/ setup & cutting veggies, setting up food etc. No booze (church rules). our photographer was my college roomate who had just finished a lib art degree and needed example photog work for his new business so he did it cheap.
FYI we also bought a 20 pack of disposable film cameras and put them on every table, let people take their own pics, we developed them later. Those are probably the best pics we have.
of course that dates me a little too ;-).
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This is almost exactly what we did. Mind you, for both of us, it was our second wedding. My first one was the "no expenses spared" lake front country club setting with jet-skis buzzing in the background, photographer, videographer, catered with 3 choices of dinner - steak, chicken or seafood, full open bar (Russians like to drink), tuxedos for the guys, cocktail dresses for the gals - blah blah blah. 1 year one month and ten days later, we were divorced.

The only advice I can give on marriage (and it's worth exactly what you pay for it) is to focus on your bride instead of on the wedding. The second time around, I did so and it's been a great marriage. We have our fights, but they are mostly over her older two kids. I think one may have been my fault, too.... :)
 
Do a destination wedding. The wedding party will be small and will include only the closest people in your life. They pay for the trip and you are at the place for your honeymoon. There are very good specials and packages available at resorts all over the world for this.
 
rockcity said:
Do a destination wedding. The wedding party will be small and will include only the closest people in your life. They pay for the trip and you are at the place for your honeymoon. There are very good specials and packages available at resorts all over the world for this.
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Some friends of ours did this (Vegas... yuck), and also had a nice reception at their parents' house afterwards, so that family and friends that couldn't go could still feel involved. That was basically just your classic nice house party so the only real expense was food.
 
Wife and I did our entire wedding for less than $4k including dress and rings.

Our wedding bands cost less than $200 total.
Dress was custom sewn by a friend. We had an old fashioned "shogun" wedding...thye dont necessarily make wedding gowns for folks "in her condiiton"
Wedding was at 2pm finger foods and cake at the reception.

Actually we may have been below $3 all i including invitations and everything..but we were young broke "in love"...its lasted 15 years so wasnt all wrong.

Her dad actually had $10k saved up for her wedding. I asked him to split it and give us $5k for the marriage and keep $5k for himself...then wouldnt take his money (long story)
 
anything can be done on the cheap if you look around and spend money wisely..

I spent $5000 on rings, dress, suit and wedding in Paris, France. Then traveled Europe(France, Spain and Italy) for 3 weeks using Euro Rail and then had a party(reception) in backyard when we got back.. we did not want the traditional wedding..
 
its all depends on your wife I personally could have had a 5000 dollar wedding and been very happy but instead we had a 45,000 dollar wedding biggest waste of money I have ever seen but the in-laws fronted the bill and it made the wife happy so I did not complain
 
Go to the court house & get the paperwork done. Take the money you would have spent on a wedding & go on a spectacular honey moon. At least then when you divorce you will remember the money well spent..
 
Jeff B said:
Go to the court house & get the paperwork done. Take the money you would have spent on a wedding & go on a spectacular honey moon. At least then when you divorce you will remember the money well spent..
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This was my original plan...but I gotta do what makes her happy. We have been together for 8 years and im still learning things about her...but I have learned..Happy wife, happy life.
She wants to feel like a princess and I have no problem with that. If I can drink some booze, act crazy and have fun...who am I to argue?

But having this wedding would def mean, no honeymoon. We had planned on going to Punta Cana, DR, but that would be another $1500 or so...
 
I am married.
My wife and Mom-in-law also used to do catering for weddings ..... anything from the just the cake to the whole enchilada.
I have seen literally hundreds of weddings/receptions.
Really some of the nicest, were not the most expensive ... and I've seen weddings from 100 bucks to the cost of a very nice house!

Our wedding cake took TWO six foot tables to set up and fed a THOUSAND people ....... MIL said anyone wanted the same cake would be $1000.00 minimum. In 1990. Now would be at least a $4000.00 cake.

All of our plans were made before we even started doing anything. MIL sat us down and handed us a check. For the entire balance she planned on spending on our wedding.
"Here's the money ... take it and go get a JOP wedding or give it back and do the regular wedding."


That's when I learned I was just there because the bride needed someone to marry. I was a very minute part of the day.
The hundreds of wedding I've seen since just re-enforce that idea.
I wanted to pull a Billy Joe and Bobby Sue and take the money and run ............ I still hear about that 24 years later.

Man up and give her what she wants. Regardless of what it costs. She will remember this til the day she dies

Now, to cut costs.
-catering -Friends know people, ask around for services. Lotsa people cater and will do it cheaper than a main line caterer.
-venue - got a friend with a nice big farm? works well for a fall theme and half of what you need is there already and most friends will let it be done for free.
- A tux is a tux and wedding dresses cost out the butt. Take it like a man.
---Fall theme, nice western shirts, cowboy boots and blue jeans. But yer still gonna have to man up on the wedding dress.
-booze- why ya gotta be drunk to have a good time? SMH - but what usually happens when one or more of your buds find out there won't be booze .... there will be!
-buy a lot of the stuff yourself ... from plates to ribbon. It was cheaper to buy hi dollar paper plates than to rent our glass plates.
- wedding planner. just, no, unless one of her friends wants to do it. Any reasonably intelligent person can order cake and tell someone how/when to walk down an isle.
- announcements and invitations- only line is cheaper. generic ( not personalized ) even cheaperer.

I post more ideas as they come.

Matt
 
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Cherokeekid88 said:
.but I gotta do what makes her happy.
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This will eventually bring your relationship to it's demise. Your thought process (both of you two) Should be "do what makes you both happy" especially on an event as important as this. Communicate, compromise come to a mutual understanding & make it happen. No matter what it is. Always doing what makes the other happy will cause resentment in the long run, this is human nature.

Unless you're a master of Bodhisattva, of which you are not..
 
Re-read the OP's original post...Stuff of pintrest-looks easy but actually turns out to be incredibly hard to do. I've done many things my wife 'saw' on pintrest. None have been easy or fun.

But other than that good luck on the wedding. They can be spendy. It is usually stupid stuff that adds up. Like monogramed napkins and wine glasses.
 
Ours cost less than that, almost 11 years ago, but we had a 'destination' wedding at the OBX and there were 50 guests. We had the wedding on the beach, a Best Man, a Best Girl, local preacher and photog, found a restaurant to host the reception and they made the cake. Wine and beer, fish, steak and other really good food, buffet style. We ordered flowers wholesale and some friends helped us make arrangements, bouquets, etc. We also ordered favors (these really awesome chocolates, company is out of business now, I think) wholesale. Wedding was at 3pm so it was basically dinner, but there was still plenty of time after for folks to go back to hotels or rented houses and do whatever. It was a pretty good party. My dress was off the rack and was basically a bridesmaid's dress. My Best Girl found her dress (I just told her the color I had in mind) at a department store on sale for $45. The rings weren't $100, but not bad. We made our own invitations, printed and cut colored paper and inserts (maps, etc.). using some leftover card stock and envelopes from where my mom made me order college graduation announcements. We didn't have programs. My uncle and cousin performed the music for the ceremony and my brother made cds they played in the restaurant during the reception, since there wasn't really room for dancing.

Some people spend more than $5k on flowers, alone, or the dress, alone. We did what WE wanted. Like JeffB said, marriage is all about compromise and the wedding is the best place to start the trend.

For our honeymoon, we drove to Moab, UT, for a week of 'wheeling with friends.
 
1. Go cheap, save your $$ for the divorce lawyer.

2. My wife was a wedding planner at the time we married. She had venues and connections but we were still too cheap (2nd for both of us). In the end, we went to a bar where my friend (bartender) was an ordained minister and he took a 10 min break to marry us them back to work. We all had a great time and didn't spend $400 for the entire service.
 
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