How much should things cost?!

hey everyone!

So my fiance and I will be getting married some time in July 2012 (we are narrowing down the dates now and visiting places!)

We are sticking to a budget, so we are doing a Friday night wedding but the real question is...how much should things really cost? How much are vendors quoting you for things?

Flowers?
Photos?
Limos?
DJ?

We are very unsure what a good deal really is. We are trying to make our budget but we don't know what we should be aiming for! (For our reception we are sticking between 60-80 pp)

Thanks!

first you should figure out how much you can spend on your wedding TOTAL. then it would be easier to figure that out.

you can't really just ask that question on here bc there are people that had $10,000 weddings and people that had $100,000 weddings...

eta: i'll tell you what i paid anyway:

flowers: $3350 with Flower Michele (all high cps, ceremony flowers, boks/bouts - cymbidium orchids and calla lillies)

photo/video: $5500 with Duet

limo: $700 with Royalty (2 10 passengers for 3 hours each)

band: $2500

This is what it cost for me...

Flowers? - 1600
Photos? - 2500
Limos? - over 4k... dont know the exact price because it changed the day before... thats 3 Coach buses, 2 limos, 1 party bus & 1 lincoln town car
DJ? - 1500

Video - 1000

Well we know we don't want to spend more than 20K total, and that is pushing it


I just meant the vendors in general, how much people spent on these things. I know the RH will change for everyone but photos and the dj are pretty much universal. There are always more lavish packages but I was just wondering the average of what people spent

well, the costs really depend on a lot of factors. Its hard to say what things 'should' cost.

I can tell you about what we paid, but its different depending on what you want.

Flowers: 1600 for all flowers

Photos: we paid 5k for photo and video with parent albums, our album, DVDs of video, engagement shoot, enlargements, etc

Limos: didnt use, cant help.

DJ: we paid 1100 for our DJ, DJ and MC, but no lights or upgrades.


You may spend more on each, you may spend less on some, depending on what you want with it.

For photo, if you just want the images and you will do your own albums, I have seen it for around 1400, if you want the whole kit and kaboodle with a major photographer, albums out the wazoo, I have seen 10k plus

Flowers, I have seen between 800 and 12000, again, depending on what you are looking for and fall in love with (with a smaller wedding though, if you do all tall centerpieces, you may be looking at between 1200-3000, depending on the florist)

DJ: if you want a one man DJ/MC, you should be able to find it for about 1000, if you want DJ and MC, Singers, Plasma Screens, Light effects, etc, you may be in the 2.5 to 3k range

If you are trying to distinguish a budget, you can visit the K N O T website and use the budget calculator. It calculates a budget for you based off percentages of your total wedding budget - it can help you see what you can spend on each vendor

I haven't booked any vendors yet, so i can't help with actual prices, sry

Good luck!

The problem with trying to figure out how much things should cost is that certain things, like limos and flowers, will vary greatly depending on the amount of people you are having. Others, like photos/video and DJ will be the same.

I'm having approximately 125 people (aiming for 12 tables) and am paying:

Flowers: $3,300 from Pedestals (all tall orchid centerpieces, roses and orchids for bo-q and bouts)

Photos/Video: $5,200 from Duet (2 photographers, 1 videographer, 1 big album, 2 parents albums, 3 DVDs, engagement session, 16X20 enlargement, a few other enlargements, 500 edited photo proofs)

Band: $4,900 from Infinity (Franklin Wayne band) (4 hours reception, 1 hour CH keyboard player)

Limos: no clue....haven't booked yet!

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Posted by jenna618

Well we know we don't want to spend more than 20K total, and that is pushing it


I just meant the vendors in general, how much people spent on these things. I know the RH will change for everyone but photos and the dj are pretty much universal. There are always more lavish packages but I was just wondering the average of what people spent

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Wow ur budget is very tight!!!!!! How many people are you having? What time of year do you plan on getting married? What venues do you like? I am also a bride with a budget. To save us money we are having the wedding on a Sunday afternoon at Westbury Manor for $77pp. Due to the fact that we are having our wedding on a Sunday we got a dj and mc team for $995. We also are getting all of our flowers from b u r t o n s for $1700 which includes 7 boks, 12cp high and short, 10 bots and 2 mother boks. I am having peonies cause they r my fav flower and they are in season, video and photo $4,400 which we got a discount for booking both with unique visions studio and booking early. I am getting a trolley pick up drop off in the am and a rolls royce pick up drop off at the end of the night for $912. if you have any questions feel free to fm me.

Hi Brittndave,

I noticed you stated that you had paid $2,500 for a band--that's a great deal!! Bands usually cost $10,000 & up. May I ask which company did you use & everything that was included in that price (including # of band members, did it include the music during the actual ceremony, etc., type of music they specialize in??) My fiance & I are into alternative pop & rock music. Were you pleased with their singing, MC'ing, & overall performance?? Thanks in advance!! =)

--Maryann

Hey jenna618

We spent over our orginal budget of 20K. But we were bale to make some concessions- you might want to think about how important certain upgrdaes are to you..bc they r what really make things get outta control. For example, we did not do a videographer bc we figured how many times will we watch this for an additional couple of thousands of dollars? We asked friends and like nobody ever watches it. I did all invites, menu cards, place cards---this saved a few dollars.

We spent:

approx. $1500 flowers- 14 centerpieces, bouq and bouts- With all My Heart (total was more bc we also did chair covers)

DJ- $2500- Tommy tunes

Photo- $ 3000- Princess II Package with Vougue Album- ADA- includes a lot and they do a great job!!!!

we didnt do limos bc we were stayn at esat wind for whole weekend..but an old friend owns Coachman and they r great!

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Posted by brittndave

first you should figure out how much you can spend on your wedding TOTAL. then it would be easier to figure that out.

you can't really just ask that question on here bc there are people that had $10,000 weddings and people that had $100,000 weddings...

eta: i'll tell you what i paid anyway:

flowers: $3350 with Flower Michele (all high cps, ceremony flowers, boks/bouts - cymbidium orchids and calla lillies)

photo/video: $5500 with Duet

limo: $700 with Royalty (2 10 passengers for 3 hours each)

band: $2500

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Which band did you use?!

Here's what we've spent so far:

DJ: $1,000 (one man DJ, CH, ceremony, basic lights)
Photo: $3,584.62 (2 pro photographers for 1/2 the day, then one, epics, 4 HD digital slide shows w digital proofing discs, all images on disc)
Video: $1,195
Officiant: $375
Ceremony fee: $750

I'm a little concerned about how limos and flowers will fit in the budget! But we are saving money on invites and favors.

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Posted by maryann667

Hi Brittndave,

I noticed you stated that you had paid $2,500 for a band--that's a great deal!! Bands usually cost $10,000 & up. May I ask which company did you use & everything that was included in that price (including # of band members, did it include the music during the actual ceremony, etc., type of music they specialize in??) My fiance & I are into alternative pop & rock music. Were you pleased with their singing, MC'ing, & overall performance?? Thanks in advance!! =)

--Maryann

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we used a bar band, not a wedding band. they were amazing! their name is catz 'n dawgz and they're based out of nj. they have 5 people and just did the reception music (they played and also played an ipod during breaks and for songs they didn't know). we also had to pay for their hotel rooms since they were travelling but that wasn't a huge cost. you can hear them playing at the very end of this video!

here

they have a myspace page if you want to look it/contact them. there's a song list up there (not the full one) that can give you an idea of the kind of music they play