Brides Helping Brides ™ - wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

stiggles Posted: Nov 29, 2004 08:34 PM

wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

I just typed this whole long post and it erased!

The basic premise was..

what is the realistic cost for a wedding in the ny/nj area?

I feel like a criminal because I do not want to pay more than $100 a person for catering for 150 people and no more than 25-28k for the wedding.

Am I completely kidding myself?

I still havent figured out where I am coming up with the $30k yet, but thats a different worry...

Is it worth all that debt?

My fiance wanted to go away, but something has stopped me from saying yes...I want to wear the gown down the aisle....

if anyone can help with realistic budgets, what photographers, limos. etc cost I would greatly appreciate it.

If you know someplace nice in the ny/nj region actually in my price range, please let me know..its looking like its white castle for us for less than $100.

My fiance and I have been engaged for 5 months, we need to settle this wedding issue before I kill him ;) ( don't laugh but he wanted 500 people originally)

Thanks for the help!!!

Lisa

AJsMommy122 Posted: Nov 29, 2004 08:39 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

We are having a wedding for 150+ people at our budget of $25k and have been able to stick to it. We could have even done it for less so its definitly do able.

If you have any questions feel free to fm me!

Charly Posted: Nov 29, 2004 08:42 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

you can definitely find a hall for less than a $100 pp. We had 154 guests and all said and done with the honeymoon we spent $40k. You have to consider all the extras. Here's our list...depending on the day and time of day and which vendors you choose you can stay in your budget. We did a Saturday afternoon at the Westbury Manor and it was $65pp.

Reception
Band
Flowers
Photo
Dress, veil, shoes, alterations
Tux
Mom's dress
Hair/MU (include tip)
Hair/MU trials
Invitations
Addressing invites/postage
Wedding programs
Favor Boxes and tissue paper
Place Cards and menus
Church toss (bubbles)
Favors (xmas ornaments)
Limo
Tips (for all vendors)
Church donation
Pre Cana
Best man/Usher gifts
Maid of honor/bridesmaids gifts
Wedding Rings
Rehearsal Dinner
Hotels night before/night of
Honeymoon (plus spending cash)
Marriage License
Thank You cards/postage (shower)

Hope that gets you started

stiggles Posted: Nov 29, 2004 08:43 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

thats very helpful thank you!

CubanBride Posted: Nov 29, 2004 08:44 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

Our wedding is costing us about 15K for 85 people. I think $30K for 150 is totally doable. You just need to foigure out what you are not willing to compromise on.

halfpintny Posted: Nov 29, 2004 11:20 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

we're doing ours for about 20K Miller Place Inn Saturday Night in August

marymoon Posted: Nov 29, 2004 11:26 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

I guess it depends on the day and time of day, but I wanted to have a $30,000 budget and that's all being blown on the reception, and I don't thin my reception is that expensive... I'm looking at over 50K with all of my estimates, and I'm trying to have an inexpensive wedding. MANY props to those who can keep it under $30K or $20K, but I have NO idea how you did and I must be missing something!

luvsun27 Posted: Nov 29, 2004 11:38 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

We had a budget of 15K and we had 75 people...it's doable. Figure out what important to you and skip things that are not necessary. For us...we didn't do limos since our ceremony and reception was at the same place. There are lots of ways to save....you don't have to have everything you see...and you don't have to have the most expensive of everything....Good luck!

RedRoses Posted: Nov 30, 2004 12:38 AM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

go on weddingsitesandservices.com or pick up their magazine and check out the pricing...there are MANY options for different budgets

laborday06 Posted: Nov 30, 2004 11:20 AM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

Happy planning!!!

I'm doing a wedding for 200 people for just under 50K on Labor Day weekend. Make a list of what's most important and what you will be flexible with. If you are crafty then you can save a ton of $$$ doing things yourself. Or get a bridesmaid that is crafty!

I'm making my own candle centerpieces for under $25 a piece. I love the high flower centerpieces, but I can't justify spending $2200 just on centerpieces alone!

cantwait2bewed Posted: Nov 30, 2004 11:23 AM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

My budget is 17k-20k for 150 people. Being in the event business i know how to ask for deals and haggle with these vendors. Trust me it is doable to have a wedding for 20k in NY. Many people wouldnt believe that but i have been witness to it may a times. FM me if you want some tips.

lauren16 Posted: Nov 30, 2004 12:08 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

The biggest saver right off the bat would be not having a saturday night wedding. Make it a sunday daytime or thursday night, etc. and that will save a bundle. Go with a less expensive photographer (they're very pricey...you'll be shocked!), you can also save on your dress, flowers, etc. I didn't want to cut on rings or honeymoon too much, but that's even doable. There's a budgeted version of everything, and it just takes some research.
It's difficult when you expose yourself to the more expensive versions of things - I suggest not even looking at those because it's wayyyyy too tempting. It's easy to get caught up in things and wind up spending more than you wanted. Just remember that you and your fiance's love for each other is what this day is about. It will be over in a blink so try not to put yourself into crazy debt if you don't have to. You can have a great wedding without all the bells and whistles. Good luck!!!

alibali Posted: Nov 30, 2004 01:56 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

we're having about 150-175 people and our budget is 20k.

its definitely doable.. you just have to look around and find the best prices. theres many places on LI that are under 100 p/p.

Bunnymonkey Posted: Nov 30, 2004 02:20 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

You can do that. You need to prioritize.

Food and location were the most important to me. I blew 3/4 of the budget on that. So, I have a DJ who is $650 and not that many flowers and maybe small favors - it doesn't matter to me - I will be in my fairytale location getting married in a vineyard!!

Use the boards for everythng - you can always find a lower price by asking around. There is also a budget vendor page on here somewhere...can someone bump that??

Congrats and Good Luck!!

dpli Posted: Nov 30, 2004 03:26 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

Ours was about $17k for 100 people (not including the honeymoon.) We had a Sunday night wedding and we cut a lot of stuff that we didn't think was that important in order to spend a little more on the stuff that was.

Some things that cut a lot of the cost of the wedding were having the wedding on a Sunday night, not having a big bridal party (we had MOH and BM, 2 readers and 2 people giving me away), and keeping the guest list down as low as possible. With the small wedding party, we only needed one small limo, had a small number of people at the rehearsal dinner (which we also paid for ourselves) and had fewer bouquets and gifts to buy. The money was not the reason we chose to do this, it was just what we preferred, but as we were planning, I was relieved that there were actually fewer things we would have to budget for.

We also did not look at halls we knew were going to be out of the price range we were thinking of. I didn't want to visit a place and fall in love with it, knowing it was out of reach financially. You can do it, you just have to decide what is not as important to spend on and cut in those areas.

lilacwine Posted: Nov 30, 2004 03:43 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

Think about each item that you'll spend money on and what the trade-offs are.

For example, when all is said & done, my wedding attire will be around $2,000. If I made low dress cost a priority (like I planned to, but failed miserably), I would have kept shopping and wound up with wedding attire at a total cost of $1,000...or even less.

I could have spent that $1,000 toward:
- having 10 more people attend
- chocolate fountain
- favors, or
- most of the limo cost.

That said, my budget is shot to heck!

tourist Posted: Nov 30, 2004 03:43 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

Posted by marymoon

I guess it depends on the day and time of day, but I wanted to have a $30,000 budget and that's all being blown on the reception, and I don't thin my reception is that expensive... I'm looking at over 50K with all of my estimates, and I'm trying to have an inexpensive wedding. MANY props to those who can keep it under $30K or $20K, but I have NO idea how you did and I must be missing something!

Wow $50K is a lot. How may people? I didn't really cut out anything just for the budget's sake & we were in the low 20s. I only had 85 people though.
I definely could have cut out ceremony decorations, gotten less expensive favors, less expensive invitations & only 1 photographer if I had to, but the hall was a good deal so we didn't need to cut back.
I think $30K is about average for $100-150 people in this area.
I don't even think you really need to bargain hunt that much, but having a small BP will help keep the flower & the gift cost down & look at dresses under $1000.

You can defintely find a hall under $100 pp.
day of week, time of year helps the price, but at the Milleridge it wasn't much more, so we went for the Saturday night.

Dom n Nic Posted: Nov 30, 2004 03:59 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

we HAD a 50,000 limit
but that went out the door a few months ago

dpli Posted: Nov 30, 2004 03:59 PM

Re: wedding budgeting - what is realistic and ideas needed for receptions

Just because I think it might help someone, here are some of the things I did to keep my costs down.

1.) Made my own STDs - magnets
2.) ordered invitations from catalog website & kept them very simple (and cheap!)
3.) Did my own centerpieces that ended up being about $20 a piece
4.) Favors were chocolate bars - so we gave a small token, but didn't break the bank
5.) did not spend extra on the cake - took what the hall included
6.) Made my own programs with paper I got from Michael's (would cut these altogether if budget is really tight)
7.) Did not go nuts on gifts for bridal party
8.) DH and I did not buy each other gifts, we figured the wedding and HM were gift enough....
9.) One photographer with basic package, no video
10.) One DJ, no MC, no lights, no giveaways, basic package
11.) Borrowed a veil
12.) Bought a lower priced dress (although the alterations cost almost as much as the dress!)
13.) Did not wear 'bridal' shoes - got them in a department store and have already worn them again
14.) Had a friend do my makeup

Hope this helps someone. Again, spending $ on some of these things was not as important to me as, say, spending $ on my wedding bands. I didn't want a video, and I know that is a big expense. Sit down and really look at what you want and what you can live without.