~I just read this article http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/39681 and it got me thinking about what we Frugal Villagers spent on our weddings(or about what our parents spent). According to the article, the average is $28,000. I sure would've LOVED to have had that much to spend. I'm a such a Bridezilla type. The princess gown, the band, ice sculptures, everything! We had VERY little to spend. DH insisted on a wedding over eloping so we had to do something really simple. We spent about $2000. That's everything from rings and clothes to flowers, food and the rehearsal dinner. Our honeymoon cost more!In fact, my engagement ring cost more...How about you?~

None of the options fit me, so I didn't vote.

We spent under $500 for a small family wedding with immediate family members and my best friend and her fiance in attendance (22 people, including kids). This included my dress, Hubby's suit, dinner following the wedding Mass, small amount for flowers, 1 night at a hotel, decorations and hall rental for the big reception we held for extended family and friends the following week. The food at our reception was a gift from several of my aunts, who made everything but the cake, which was also a gift from someone whose children I babysat in high school.

After the reception, we went on a week-long honeymoon, and that cost as much as the wedding!

We spent about $1,000 so I chose the $2,500 option even though we were way under that. We haven't had a honeymoon yet, we decided we'll do that once we're debt free.

lol we spent 100 it was a justice of the peace, and included the dinner we bought that night, lol.

We didnt spend much on our wedding, because dh was a student. We didn't even have credit cards! We had my wedding gown and the bridesmaids gowns handmade (I think my wedding gown cost just over 100!) We rented a local banquet hall for dinner only and my parents paid for that. The photographer was a family friend who did our wedding for free. Flowers were the silk kind and I think we paid under 300. We drove to FL for our honeymoon, so with one night at a B&B, the other nights at motels, gas and meals, we didn't pay alot. I'm guessing roughly 2500 for the whole wedding!

I chose "we eloped" but in reality we were supposed to do that when DH's family started complaining and we had to invite them to the wedding. But I think overall we spent max $500, including the honeymoon and my wedding dress. Got married on Lake Tahoe on a private beach and spent two days in a luxury cabin (off season). If it had been entirely up to me, the wedding would have cost $0 and there would not have been any guests.

Our "wedding" was on the cheap. We had a courthouse wedding, so the expenses were $40 for the license, I think $50? for the judge, $250 for my ring, and $90 for DH's ring. I wore a dress from Sear's ($59.99), and DH wore jeans and boots with a long sleeved shirt he already had. We didn't have any flowers, a cake, or a honeymoon. We both went to work the next morning. Less than $500 for everything. Twelve years later, we still wear the same rings, and I still have the dress. Still waiting for the honeymoon, though.

We eloped. Spent $25 on the marriage license and $25 for the mayor to marry us in his office. Afterwards we went for Chinese food and then went home. We have yet to be on a honeymoon and we have been together since 1985

We were married 22 years ago and I think when all was said and done it ended up costing about $4800 for everything. Dh's parents paid for our honeymoon.

I put $10,000, but it was probably more like 8 or 9K. We were married on the beach in Jamaica. That was my husband's idea - I would have been more than happy to go to the courthouse but he wasn't having that.

hmm - counting the cost of the material to make my dress, and a small bouquet of flowers - $50.00 maybe!?! Second marriage for both of us, so very low key. Best man paid for the minister - hubby was acolyte at church so not cost there -

My first wedding was also very frugal - mom and I made
all the bridesmaid dresses (6)
my wedding dress,
Mom of the bride dress,
we decorated both cakes,
made mountains of finger sandwiches
we made hundreds of silk ribbon flowers for decorations
we made the coursages, boutineers, bridesmaid bouquets and my bouquet.

Only big expense was the rental of (if I'm lyin' I'm dyin) powder blue with royal blue fuzzy lapeled tuz's (What was I thinking!!!) and the hall for the reception. Friends put together mixed cassettes tapes for dancing.

I was married at the courthouse for both of my weddings. The first one was about $50 total. Paid for the license and the judge. Married on a snowy Friday afternoon. No honeymoon. Just 2 neighbors as witnesses. Nothing fancy at all.
Second was a little more but not much maybe $200. We got married at 8:30 a.m. so not a lot a guest my 3 kids, his sister and brother and a neighbor were all that attended.
Paid $15 for license $20 to the judge. And after wedding I had a brunch at the house. Then later we got a motel room. We did not have a honey moon until our 1 st anniversary.
My dress can from goodwill, he wore what was in the closet.
My ring is a recycled ring. The stone was from his mothers ring. We had it reset into something that I like. Cost about $500 to have it reset. Valued at $2500.
Married 6 years tomorrow. 7/27/01.

Mine was around $2500.00.

We eloped! I think my dress was like $15 shipped on sale (NOT a wedding dress, really - just a dress I thought was pretty!) Ross's outfit was just "nice clothes" he already owned - my mom and grandma were the only invited people. My mom bought me a corsage and also bought Ross and my wedding bands (I think they were something like $90 shipped?) and my dad paid for half of my engagement ring (I think it was $900 total?)...... we paid I think $45 or $30 to the judge to do the honors in his courtroom. ;)

My cousin hosted our "reception" at his house - my grandma made the cake and provided some white grape juice.......

Our honey moon was compliments of my mom - 2 nights at a bed and breakfast about 40 minutes from where we lived. LOL


Yep, cheap!

We got married at the courthouse. I think our license and whatnot was less than $100. Then we had a little get together at our place afterwards, I probably spent less than $100 on a cake and food. My dress was just a nice dress and it was around $40. We stayed in a nice hotel and went out to dinner the night after we got married, a mini honeymoon. But my parents gave us money to pay for that as a wedding gift. So my entire 'wedding' including reception afterwards, cost less than $300. :)

We got married on leap day, Feb 29th, 1996. ;)

:hmmm: Ok, I'll admit it, I am the one that entered $15,000. That was 13 yrs ago when i had a good paying job and before the kids came. The wedding ceremony wasnt expensive, but the reception and honeymoon were. I had the reception at a country club (the largest room) and we went to Maui for a little over a week. We had so much fun that day. I would love to see my daughter in my wedding gown someday...

I couldn't give an answer!!! I didn't elope and I only spent $1500 on my wedding, start to finish, including my dress and Dh's Tux! (There were only 40 people at it though...lol)

I was married at the courthouse for both of my weddings. The first one was about $50 total. Paid for the license and the judge. Married on a snowy Friday afternoon. No honeymoon. Just 2 neighbors as witnesses. Nothing fancy at all.
Second was a little more but not much maybe $200. We got married at 8:30 a.m. so not a lot a guest my 3 kids, his sister and brother and a neighbor were all that attended.
Paid $15 for license $20 to the judge. And after wedding I had a brunch at the house. Then later we got a motel room. We did not have a honey moon until our 1 st anniversary.
My dress can from goodwill, he wore what was in the closet.
My ring is a recycled ring. The stone was from his mothers ring. We had it reset into something that I like. Cost about $500 to have it reset. Valued at $2500.
Married 6 years tomorrow. 7/27/01.

Awwww.... Happy Anniversary!!!!

DH and I spent around 2500 including our "honeymoon" (We went to the next city and did things like go to the zoo). It's the only non-relative vacation I've ever had. We could have done it cheaper but ALL of our immediate family was coming from way out of town. I grew up around those big Italian weddings you see on TV that run 30 or 40 thousand and was blissfully happy to hear "the aunts" (my father's aunts) talk about what an amazing and fun wedding ours was. We hadn't set out to impress, just to make sure everyone was comfortable while we celebrated. Because everyone was from out of town we did the whole dinner-type-food-thing at the reception and extended the hours on the hall. I don't remember how much everything individually cost but we did alot of it ourselves. My dress was second hand but just what I wanted. We had some food from a caterer but didn't have it catered. We used live philadandrens as the centerpiece/favors bought in bulk from a local nursery for about a buck apiece. What amazing memories!!! Oh and we saved first and paid for everything in cash!!!!!:tay:

About $250, not including the rings ($170) because my mom paid for those as a wedding present.

We got married at a friend of a family's ranch with that friend's FIL for the preacher. My dress was a used prom dress for $32 at a consignment shop. Dh wore his father's suit. I baked the cake myself ($10 for box mix then hand made icing) and we got the flowers at a grocery store. They were HUGE red roses for super cheap. The marriage license was only $5 instead of $50 because we went through premarital counseling.

We did it on the cheap side, only family and a few close friends invited. It was so lovely though. I think it was the best way we could have started our lives out together.

we got married through the country radio station. they do a mass wedding on valentines day. they cover all the food, music, etc for the reception and the JoP. my dress was $80. it is a simple cream colored easter dress, so i can still wear it. i think dh might have gotten a new suit jacket, but i'm not sure. mil paid for our rings. my folks paid for dinner out and tickets to a hockey game after. i think it might have cost 300 all together since teh rings were on sale.

I chose 5,000 but it was more like $3500.

I chose $2500 but it was actually under $1500, that was almost 16 years ago. We were married in a church and had a luncheon reception at my sister's house. For decorations we re-used decorations from a friend's wedding. For lunch we made sandwiches, salads, veges and dip the day before. We ordered squares from the bakery. Everything was set up buffet style. Our wedding cake was a regular slab cake decorated to look like a wedding cake. For flowers we had 2 bouquets, one for me and my maid of honour, corsages for the groom and best man and corsages for the parent's and grandparents. We played tapes for background music at the church and reception. I hand-made candy bags to give out. We did not have a bar but we did have champagne to toast with. I wore a nice dress, my maid of honour wore a regular dress from her closet. My DH and his best man just wore suits (included in the $1500 was a new suit, tie and shoes for my DH). We had about 35 people come to our wedding. We did not have a professional photographer, an uncle snapped pictures for us and developed them as our wedding gift. Our honeymoon was a night at a nice hotel that my sister paid for as a wedding gift. We were both in college at the time so we thought when we had more money we would renew our vows and have a big party but as the years have went on I really have never seen the need for it. We did go away on a cruise for our 10th anniversary so I consider that our belated honeymoon.

Including everything (even down to the nylons) we spent just about $5000!! We cut costs by having the reception right at the church... so we didn't have the drinking, dancing and the extra $ for the reception hall.

First time was a church wedding -- cost around $500 with around 150 guests. That was 25 years ago. I wore my mother's dress and made the dress for my one bridesmaid. The men wore their own suits. The florist, cake decorator, photographer and musicians were all close friends who provided their services either at a reduced rate or as their gift to us (neither were expected or asked for). We just had a punch and cake reception -- no dinner or dance -- no alcohol. That saves a lot of money.

Anyway second wedding was in a park along the river. The cost of the marriage license was about it. A preacher friend of mine married us and we only had a few close friends with us. We did get a couple of really wonderful stories out of it though. Too bad we didn't have a video camera.

Well ours was 21 years ago and was a church wedding but including my dress, husbands tux, gifts for the attendants, food, music, and rings we spent under $500. Even today you could easily do a nice church wedding for $1000.

WOW.... Um, been married a couple of times and never spent over $150.00

Actually, me and my current husband were so poor, we had Mcdonald's for our honeymoon! LOL... it's kinda a running joke with us now.. Will be married for 6 years in Feb.

I think altogether is was between 2,500 and 5,000. Not 100% sure because my parents paid for a few things, and so did his parents. But it was the nicest wedding. We had it on my in-laws front lawn underneath a willow tree. We had the reception in the backyard. Our biggest expense was the photography, I wanted great pictures and I got them. My dress was maybe 350 and I bought it at Discount Bridal. It was lovely. We hired a DJ and just played great rock songs. I know that it is a wedding that our friends still talk about to this day. I got everything that I wanted, and had very little stress involved with it all. It was perfect.

A lot more people then I thought have eloped. We eloped and spent maybe 400 dollars. We wore what we alrealy had in our closet. Went out to dinner after but no honeymoon.

Katy

We were married in Gatlinburg, TN...We rented a cabin for the weekend on a wedding special, it ended up being $500 for the cabin, cake, preacher and an arch for the wedding. My parents gave us $1000 for the caterer and that was our wedding present. So, including the keg for the reception we never had (it was more of just the friends partying after the old folks left), it cost $1600. We could have had something better if we didn't have to get married in a haurry, DH got orders for Hawaii, so we had less than a month to plan, and if my parents didn't have their Florida vacation either righ tbefore or right after, I can't remember.