How much is too much for a wedding

@kelly "These are the kinds of things you save for." Yes.

OP, spend what you are comfortable with. No matter how much I would spend on a wedding, I would feel a little bit of guilt about it just knowing I could put that money somewhere else (ie student loans, down payment, car loan). As long as you aren't putting yourself into debt, just try to enjoy the process. If you feel guilty even though you can afford it, try scaling back on things so you know you aren't being extreme.

We're trying to stay under 15k since that what my father is gifting us with, because of that I will probably spend a couple thousand from our own funds for the honeymoon, makeup, FH attire, and photo booth. Our venue cost $5,500.00 because that was something I wanted to be big, so everything else I'm spending less on. I'm also very fortunate to have an aunt that's a florist who is gifting us with all the flowers and décor which will save us another 5k !

Anyway, spend what you're most comfortable with. If I had the money to spend 60k on a wedding, I still personally wouldn't do it..but this isn't my day, it's yours!

Spend what you can afford. If you're feeling guilty about spending that much money, you can cut back on guests, assuming you haven't sent out invites - that is what's going to save you the most money.

We are spending $20k on ours with some help from both of our parents. FH is a frugal mcdougal and feels weird about spending so much on one day, but I keep telling him we aren't going into debt whatsoever and will still have money in the bank after all of this. Definitely don't spend every last cent you have on a wedding, but if you can easily afford it I don't see a problem with spending that much.

If you can afford it, you do you. Weddings can cost $500 or $200,000- it's all about individual budget. Our wedding with rings, rehearsal dinner, and our Key West 6 night minimoon, totaled roughly 40K. We had 148 people attend. We did what we could afford.

Edit: We also got married in our hometown in SW Michigan aka CHEAP. If I lived in a big city, we would have either had 75 people or doubled our budget. Also, keep future plans in mind when you plan your budget. We built a home while we were engaged, so that drastically impacted our budget with the down payment, furniture, appliances, etc. If you want to buy a home or buy anything else expensive, make sure you note it!

If you can afford it while still being good financially then I don't think its too much.

I don't think it's "too much" at all; it's all about what you guys make and can afford. I know people who have spent 200k+ on a wedding, but it was just a drop in the bucket for them and they never had to worry about it. I also know people who spent only 10k but that put them into debt, which obviously isn't smart.

Some of the comments here are definitely big-budget shaming. If you wouldn't shame someone for not having enough money to spend on a wedding, don't shame people for having a lot of money to spend on a wedding.

@OP you do you. Don't let any of the negativity affect you!

I think a lot of times budget varies on locations also. I feel like big cities it's expected to spend a significantly larger amount of money on a wedding than you would in a small country town. We're in South Louisiana, having a Plantation wedding in June on a Saturday (all big times for weddings) for 200 people and initially budgeted about $50K and it's looking like we're going to be shy of $55k

I live in ATL and our venue is relatively cheap ($700) for space...but EVERYTHING else to properly host people adds up...and we want to host well as we have many people flying in to celebrate us. Taking out a loan or putting the wedding on a CC bc you are spending beyond your means is frowned upon...but if you have the funds and WANT to spend it, enjoy and make it a day to remember!

Let's stop shaming big budget brides and shame those who have potluck receptions or Honeyfunds.

As long as you can afford it, there should be no issues with what someone spends. Now, if you start taking loans out for it or can't pay your bills, then yes, the budget is too much.

I get what you mean initially we were spending what I thought was too much and it was becoming ridiculous and getting away from the smaller intimate feel we wanted so I chopped the guestlist in half and we're having a smaller wedding.

It doesn't matter if you can spend 1k or 1 million dollars as long as your guest are properly hosted.

I don't feel like small budget brides are attacked, don't think anyones budget should be attacked, as long as that budget is realistic in proper hosting.

If I could comfortable afford a 100k wedding I would absolutely host the shit out of my guest and go all out without thinking about it twice or giving shit about what people say

Our original budget was 10k for 50 people. We are now at 12k and have almost 70 guests. For me this is still way too much to spend on one day (I wanted to elope but FH was strongly against it) but if you can afford it then go for it!

I think I'd feel guilty too, but it's because I don't want a crazy big wedding. For a lot of people, weddings are the most important days of their lives, and if that's true, then go big if you can. Neither FH or I have ever had anything given to us; we paid for our own first cars, bills, college, everything. And we're thrifty because of that. But just because I'm having a $4000 wedding doesn't mean you can't have a $100,000 wedding. It's your day. Make it yours

eta forgot I can't put symbols

My FW and I wanted to spend 10k on the wedding, because her parents are giving us the money to pay for it. (They've saved their kids lives for it) When we found out that we had double that it didn't change what we wanted it just meant that we could be better hosts.

I've veen to weddings where the couple spent 5k total amd a few 70k+ and people were just as happy to be married. I'm struggling to increase my budget because I am a frugal person... I've had to educate myself in this process to cope with the cost of venues and wedding services, and all tje options out there. Babu steps for me! I guess what I'm trying to say is to spend what yoh are comfortable spending :-)

I spent $8k on my wedding and Disney world honeymoon and driving there from SD, that's after everything! ($3500 for 4 nights at all star music resort with their best dining plan) We had a destination wedding too and got married on Pass-A-Grille Beach in Florida. We were originally planning a big wedding in town but people kept trying to micromanage OUR wedding so we only had 25 people which was the max of our beach permit. We spent $800 on catering and served New York strip steak. Your guest size is the biggest impact on your budget. I have a big family too but with a destination wedding, there were no hard feelings only inviting immediate family. We booked our whole ceremony and reception hall and catering through Florida Gulf Beach Weddings. Luckily we got back just in time before covid restrictions shut everything down.