Please FM me about the following....

I'm looking into the following photographers, bands and Floriss.

If anyone has booked with any of them, would you mind FM and let me know about how much you're spending.

Photographers
- Verdi
- Leli
- Jo Von
- Duet

Florist
- Flower Michele
- Burtons

Bands
- Heart and Soul

I'm so upset and angry right now. From the get go I didn't want to have a wedding. I wanted to use the money I had to buy a house. My FH agreed to some point, but wanted it acknowledged.
My family is very small, but my father wanted something. My FH's family wanted something.

Then my father told me he'd pay for it. So I booked the reception- Harbor Club and the Church. He gave me a deposit check with no problem.

I am using all the money I have as a down payment on a house that we won the bid on and are just waiting for the inspector to come on Friday.

This weekend I'm looking at bands, photographers and a florist.

I get home from work today and my father leaves me a little newspaper clipping of a photographer that charges $600. I lost my S**T.

I said how much do you think a photographer cost. He said 'well I haven't done this in a long time, but $600- $1000'

I'm so upset, I was screaming at him, saying if I knew this was what he was going to do, I wouldn't have booked any wedding.

Two days ago, I told him my FH will ask his dad for some money. My dad 'no- no- I'll pay for the wedding'

What do I do. He thinks I'm being ridiculous and am trying to find the most expensive person I can.

Please help. I need to get ideas of pricing so I can show him the norm.

Thanks

edited because I can't follow directions....sent you FM.

Maybe you can meet him halfway here, and not book a band, but opt for a DJ instead since they are considerably less $. Or, go for a smaller photography package - maybe no video and get a disc slide show instead. Perhaps go with silk flowers, or just silk bouquets and fresh CPs. If your dad was a little 'behind the times' on his budget, this may help him out w/o you having to sacrifice the $ you don't have.

I just booked Duet who was VERY NEGOTIABLE. They will customize any package for you. I took all the info they gave me, brouhgt it home, and went back to them with what we wanted and the price we could pay. They went for it.

Good Luck. Hope this helped.

There is a budget vendors website that has good vendors at good prices. I got my photographer from there. Definitely check it out. Good luck!!

Budget Vendors Website

for the photographers that you listed, i would say that Leli and Duet are on the lower/medium end of pricing (2-4k depending on what youre getting) and JoVon and Verdi are on the much higher end (look to be spending 6k+ w/albums).

For florists, Flower Michele is much pricier than Burtons' (although they do great work). I recommend looking into these florists if you're not looking to spend too much money on flowers:

Trina from Expressions Floral
Flowers by Burton
National Floral (the lowest prices that i've seen)
Linden Florist
Jenn Blossoms

Thank you all so much, you've all been very helpful!

Try going somewhere that you can get a package deal. There's a place in Commack called Wedding World, they do just about everything. You can get a dj (Xtreme Sounds), flowers, and a photographer. Plus they have limos and invitations, all for a really good price. My cousin got married last year and used WW, it was beautiful and didn't cost them and arm and a leg. So now we're going with them too, it's a great one-stop shopping deal! They're really nice and work with what you want, I highly recommend.

YOu have to talk to your father about the real expenses of a wedding. Leli photography has good rpices i think the cheapest price is $1500 and Duet's price for photo and video is like 4000.

U can find a freelance photographer for $600 but they have to just be starting off. U might also be able to get a photographer for that price if you only have the ceremony and reception photographed.

I haven't told my Dad the price of our vendors b/c he thinks we're crazy. My parents gave us a set amount of $$ for the wedding and we can do with it what we want....stay within that budget, or pay the difference ourselves. Trust me, it's made planning MUCH easier.

I'll FM you pricing info on some of those vendors b/c I have some quotes.