Marrieds: best money/time splurges vs regrets

So glad we splurged on florist, photographer, and catering! Wish we had splurged on videography.

Very happy we splurged on food, photographer and day-of coordinator. Total waste of money was buying a dance floor to go over the sand (beach) .... it started breaking apart half-way through the reception.

We splurged on flowers, photography and the venue with no regrets. The only regret I have is not hiring a videographer.

We splurged on photo and video (2 photographers and videographers each, with extras like raw footage) and I'm glad we did because I love having those things so much. The only thing I think we shouldn't have spent all theat $$ on was paper save-the-dates. We changed our date due to COVID, so we bought two rounds of cards with all the envelopes and stamps. It would have been better to just do those as an e-mail and save the paper postage suites for the formal invitations only.

There is nothing that I regret spending time and money on. As for what I'm especially glad we spent time and money on, I'd have to say food, beverage, photography, and videography. I'm glad we didn't splurge on flowers or fancy decor. We had a couple specific decor pieces that we put decent time and effort into, but overall, kept decor fairly minimal, and instead focused our budget on 1. what our guests would enjoy, and 2. capturing memories from our day that we can look at for the rest of our lives. We booked a florist, but limited flowers to just bouquets and boutonnieres for us and our wedding party.

We spent a very average amount for a wedding.
I looked up the average cost of wedding things and spent $30,000 for 70 people
Venue: $5500
Alcohol: $1180, affiliated with venue
Food: $9,640 he picked
Rentals: $500 coordinatior picked
Wedding Coordinatior: $400, glad we had would not occured to me to rent dance floor or cups, the venue told us to rent tables, my mom picked her
Photography: $1125 I picked from 'the bash'
Clothes: $700, I wore my mom's dress this was the cost to have it steamed and hemmed.
Paper: $60, Husband printed seating chart at fedEx and glued it to cardboard himself. Also thankyou cards with two 4x6 photos. remember cards are per party not per person
DJ1200 I picked from 'the bash'
Rings: $40 I bought a silver ring at a small business, he got a brass ring from Etsy
Officiant: $1500 He picked cause he's more religous than me
Decor: His mom picked, I don't know the price cause she paid it. Thanks!
Tip3000 about 10% of the total cost don't forget
I did not realize how expensive heming and steaming a dress is.
I got my hair and make up done at a mall, it looks great.
When picking a venue there was one venue that was prettier and one that was a cheaper all in one ($80/person). The all in one includes rentals, food and venue. Since we had 70 guests $5600 (all in one) vs $15,640 (venue+food+rentals).
He likes the prettier one better, but $10,000!