I'm curious what the average wedding cost is in NC, google says anywhere between $23k and $38k and that sounds expensive and shit. We didn't pay nearly that and I thought we were being pretty indulgent.

How much did you pay?

A. < $5k
B. $5k to $10k
C. $10k to $15k
D. $15k to $20k
E. $20k to $30k
F. $30k+

post inspired by this:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/news/kimye-wedding?click=feed

5/26/2014 6:56:15 PM

A

5/26/2014 6:57:13 PM

The Wedding Industrial Complex.....Anything past B is full retard.

5/26/2014 7:05:34 PM

B. my wife estimates it at $6k.

but we had it at a methodist church, so it was dry and my mom's boyfriend cooked a pig. my granny made the cake. all we really bought was flowers, dress, church rental, and pictures (the most expensive part).

[Edited on May 26, 2014 at 7:13 PM. Reason : fdsa]

5/26/2014 7:07:49 PM

When you say 6k is that including the ring?

5/26/2014 7:11:21 PM

no, not including the rings.

5/26/2014 7:13:59 PM

I was thinking not including the ring

(Ring prices are some bullshit though, why can't us dudes get engagement watches or something)

We were D and I thought that was disgusting. It was mostly because her parents had a bunch of people they wanted to invite and since they paid I didn't care. If cash instead of a wedding was an option, I would have said fuck those people.

[Edited on May 26, 2014 at 7:28 PM. Reason : .]

5/26/2014 7:23:02 PM

C

On our 10 year anniversary, we plan to have another bigger "wedding" when we renew our vows, and have had time to build our bank up

[Edited on May 26, 2014 at 7:24 PM. Reason : Jj]

5/26/2014 7:23:26 PM

i never wore my wedding band after the honeymoon. i hate having shit on my hands or wrists. all that crap isn't allowed where i work anyways due to safety reasons. it eventually got stolen from my house.

5/26/2014 7:27:50 PM

Most of the sites I found googling don't cite a source, I wonder if maybe they include honeymoons?

5/26/2014 7:30:02 PM

C

The answer is always C.

^ Probably not. Including the honeymoon would move our wedding into D.

5/26/2014 7:30:53 PM

my wife went back and checked the book where she tracked all that crap. it was more like $3k.

5/26/2014 7:31:11 PM

Yea I'll just not propose...EVER.

5/26/2014 7:34:47 PM

A

5 guests, in a hotel garden about 20 yards from the beach (Indian Ocean), Mauritius

Wedding cost practically nothing, like $100 or something (free, just had to pay for cake, music, and registrar to come to hotel).

Flights to Mauritius and 3 day hotel stay for us cost < 3k.


[Edited on May 26, 2014 at 8:33 PM. Reason : ]

5/26/2014 8:22:52 PM

Got married at the court house so about $50. Then had a party with friends and family afterwards. Took the money we saved and put 55k down on a house. Going in debt to have a wedding is a bad way to start your life together in my opinion

5/26/2014 8:27:14 PM

A

5/26/2014 8:36:02 PM

Quote :

"Got married at the court house so about $50. Then had a party with friends and family afterwards. Took the money we saved and put 55k down on a house. Going in debt to have a wedding is a bad way to start your life together in my opinion"

That would be my choice.

5/26/2014 8:47:29 PM

People actually go in debt for a wedding?

5/26/2014 8:52:58 PM

So did you guys pay for your own weddings? I thought the brides family paying was standard, getting cash instead wasn't an option they offered.

5/26/2014 8:54:10 PM

her dad cut her a check for the total after all was said and done. my mom paid for the cabin where we stayed on our honeymoon.

5/26/2014 8:57:01 PM

My wife's parents paid for everything...and pretty sure it ended up being over $70k. Definitely not my style...but it was baller and they can afford it...so oh well.

5/26/2014 9:40:18 PM

we paid for most of it. My parents bought our plane tickets for our honeymoon and her dad gave us a little money toward our location for the wedding as well. But we kept it all very cheap.

5/26/2014 9:44:25 PM

if I ever do get married, it will be F. I've never really thrown a party before so I plan on dropping 100k or so on the reception. I give 2 shits about the actual wedding. more than likely be in barbados too

5/26/2014 9:49:20 PM

We were either a or b.

5/26/2014 9:59:38 PM

B - just under $10k including rings, dress, and kilt (like a boss). planned it in 2 months because we were worried my grandma wouldn't make it till summer. 24 people. friend administered the ceremony in a historic house (francis scott key's daughter was also married there). had another friend who is a DJ do the reception. another friend who was semipro did photography for free. reception was at an historic inn's ballroom (where George Washington used to attend balls). the food was done by the excellent restaurant in the inn and we had an open bar with wine during the meal for all.

even my guests got the hookup with free places to stay at my parent's b&b and my brother's house.

[Edited on May 26, 2014 at 10:06 PM. Reason : .]

5/26/2014 10:04:41 PM

Low end of B.

5/26/2014 10:15:03 PM

C, I think, might have tipped over into D. Parents contributed, but neither set were in the position to fund the whole thing so we covered more than half. Wedding on the beach in the Outer Banks with reception at a B&B across the street, 53 guests, beer/wine/champagne but no hard liquor, buffet-style dinner, DJ, photography but no videography.

5/26/2014 10:30:00 PM

A. Baptist wedding. Member of the church the wedding was performed at. Homeschooling friend made the cake. Reception dry, just punch & cookie fellowship hall type festivities. The flowers were probably the moat expensive part outside of the dress.

5/26/2014 10:30:26 PM

not sure of the final cost because my wife's parents paid for everything but from what i know it was in the D or E category - if you include the rehearsal dinner that my parents paid for then it was at least E - i paid for the alcohol at the wedding

65 for rehearsal dinner / 225 for wedding - looking back the only change i'd have made is to have about 100 people less at the wedding portion

5/26/2014 10:43:22 PM

i forgot about the rehearsal dinner. my dad paid for that. only about 20 people i guess. we just had supper at a local restaurant. no party. our families don't do parties.

5/26/2014 10:46:55 PM

B. It was about 7500. Open bar and great food. And the 7500 covered the rental of the place for the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and the wedding, flowers, dress, decor, food, booze, cake, favors, kids gift bags with snacks coloring book bubbles sunglasses and glow sticks, DJ, town car rental, photographer and digital copies, a bridal portrait, and the wedding album. Mom knows everyone so we got good deals.

All three rings total cost about the same as the wedding.

Grandma bought my dress, Dad cut a check for 2 grand and paid for the beer and wine, step dad bought the liquor, husbands parents paid for the flowers and part of the photographer (and paid our airfare to the honeymoon), and mom did pretty much everything else minus maybe a few hundred bucks I spent on decor and favors.

5/26/2014 10:47:15 PM

note to self: marry into money

5/26/2014 10:58:00 PM

what are yalls thoughts on people who, instead of a wedding registry for kitchenware and dishes and shit, have a registry to pay for their honeymoon

5/26/2014 11:17:58 PM

cool with me. who gives a fuck?

5/26/2014 11:21:08 PM

A.

Probably about $500 total for the wedding. Got married on the beach, just the parents were invited. We had a reception later which probably cost my wife's parents about 2k.

I would definitely not go into debt for a wedding or reception. Even if your parents are willing to dump a bunch of cash into a wedding you would be better off having a small quaint wedding and asking your parents to just give you the cash for a big down payment on a home or pay off bills.

You don't want to start your marriage off with money issues. It always causes us to argue when money's tight. Because we start nit picking each other purchases. If I buy this, then she can't buy that and visa versa.

5/26/2014 11:23:44 PM

^^yeah fuck a kitchen-aid mixer, those people wanna snorkel trip. i'm cool with that.

5/26/2014 11:25:29 PM

E.
My FiL paid for everything though so I didn't really have much reason to complain even though I thought it was absurd.

5/27/2014 12:20:15 AM

Quote :

"what are yalls thoughts on people who, instead of a wedding registry for kitchenware and dishes and shit, have a registry to pay for their honeymoon"

We thought about this. Then my parents told us their wedding present would be to pay for the honeymoon. So, back to the kitchenwares and stuff. (We did end up replacing most of our shitty old cookware/etc. with nice shiny new items, so that's good.)

But it's certainly a good idea in my book. I guess some people might find it tacky but who cares really?

5/27/2014 12:26:44 AM

D/E. We had planned to stay in the B range, until the FIL decided we were being too simple and understated and it would look bad on my wife's family.

We rented a massive beach house in Ocean Isle (16br I think), that everyone split evenly. The original plan was to have the rehearsal dinner underneath the house in the parking area, wedding on the beach and reception in the big deck/pool area. Total would have been about 6k.

Instead we had the wedding and reception at the only place on Ocean Isle that could fit us, which cost in insane amount of money. Fortunately we didn't have to pay it, and it was NICE, but I would never have gone about it that way

5/27/2014 1:49:49 AM

A

Our wedding was on the super cheap and super boring. It was at her families Baptist church, so it was dry. She and her mom found a used dress at a wedding store and spent $verylittle on it. She wasn't about a big stone, so we got some standard wedding rings. A friend made the cake, which was actually very tasty but not a fancy looking cake. Her family doesn't have much, but they paid for everything but the rehearsal dinner. That was catered at my grandparents neighbors house, which was pretty fancy. Probably had like 50-60 people at the wedding itself. The photographer was likely the single biggest expense and this was before digital photography, so she was still shooting on film. #oldskool

[Edited on May 27, 2014 at 6:24 AM. Reason : ]

5/27/2014 6:24:00 AM

^^ our original plan was to get a giant beach house, or two side by side, for a week and invite immediate family and close friends for a week. Simple ceremony on the beach, and a vacation at the beach as the reception for anyone who wanted to stay. It would have been cheaper, more fun, and more memorable.

5/27/2014 6:43:37 AM

C.

5/27/2014 7:22:48 AM

E

All totaled, it came to $23,060.17 (including the rings, not including the honeymoon which we got on Groupon)

We paid cash for everything and hosted 170 guests. We made most things and the venue was the most expensive part as we had high handicap accessibility requirements. We both (strangely enough) had saved up money specifically for a wedding since high school. Our parents contributed a portion because they wanted to be included and helpful. We created a budget and stuck to it. Also took financial classes before we got married to make sure we were truly on the same page. So glad we didn't get into any debt over it and still have none to this day (except our house).

5/27/2014 7:49:00 AM

^^^ That's what we did. We went to Nags Head and rented a 10 BR (enough for both of our immediate families). Most of the family took off after the first couple days, so we invited friends to come out and hang out throughout the rest of the week. We spent probably about 6k the house being about 40% of that.

[Edited on May 27, 2014 at 7:50 AM. Reason : ]

5/27/2014 7:49:56 AM

E

5/27/2014 8:08:42 AM

My in-laws paid for our wedding but I think it was about $3k so

A

5/27/2014 8:38:28 AM

Depends on if you include the honeymoon or not for us.

We spent about $15k and had a super non traditional wedding. We flew the parents to Switzerland and got married on the porch of hotel overlooking the Eiger and Matterhorn by a snowboard instructor that doubled as a minister in the off season. After that we started the honeymoon and spent 2 weeks in Greece and Paris. When we returned we had what was effectively the reception for about 130 people. It was $9k for the party and $4k for the Switzerland part.

We saved another $9k that was to be used for the honey moon but we only managed to spend about $7k of it.

5/27/2014 8:41:18 AM

seeing as how my wife's parents paid for practically all of it, i don't know. But from what I've heard, I think it was around C.

5/27/2014 8:57:17 AM

Just a hair over $10k. 50 guests. Not including rings or honeymoon.
Paid for half of it ourselves.

5/27/2014 10:46:35 AM

A (practically free)

Mom did the planning for free with about 15 attendees. A cousin did the cake for free. My uncle played his flute for free. We got married at my grandma's historic house which was free. Borrowed chairs from the church. Had a comped room at the Seneca Casino in Niagara Falls. Cousin did photography and mom's friend made a DVD for free. $100 for her dress and $50 for my vest and tie from Formalwear Outlet in Hillsborough. $50 for the license, $50 donation to the retired judge that married us, $300 in gas for the round trip drive, $200 for reception dinner at the casino buffet. On our wedding night we won $600 playing blackjack and slots and had free drinks all night from random nice people .

[Edited on May 27, 2014 at 11:11 AM. Reason : ]

5/27/2014 11:06:55 AM