What is your wedding ceremony and reception budget? And did you go over?

After we got engaged I set a rough budget of $5000 but, once we started planning we realized we couldn't host the wedding we wanted for this amount. We upped our budget and its looking like we will come in under $7000.

Location: Ontario, Canada

Venue: Boutique Hotel

Guest size: 20

Date: Friday in September (peak season)

The best way to keep your budget in check is to reduce your guest list. Also, look into alternate venues (public spaces, historical venues, museums, etc) ocean-front venues will be pricey. Another suggestion is to pick an off-season or a non-Saturday to save money.

We are in Oregon, getting married 8-18-18 with 100 people and our budget was $5,000. We'll probably be between $5,000-$6,000. To do this, we have really shopped around. Our venue is an old house with gardens connected to a university that is extremely affordable. We found an affordable and very experienced photographer we like, and got a wonderful deal on catering through a locally owned BBQ restaraunt. We aren't doing a bridal party, our day of coordinator is having a special, and we're getting dresses for ourselves at low cost. Our officiant is really special to us and is not charging us anything so that does really help. We haven't sat down with the florist yet and are just starting to look at decorations. We also have a Costco membership and will be buying cake and probably beer and wine from there.

We had an original loose budget of $10,000 but ended up increasing it to $15,000 after we realized what everything actually costs! We have a flexible budget. We live in the Midwest, which is obviously much cheaper than Orange County. Our venue is not all-inclusive, but it came in significantly under budget so we have more room for other things. It will be right at the beginning of 'wedding season' -- May 4, 2019.

For saving money, I would suggest skipping party favors and maybe using less floral. Also, keep your guest count low -- I'm not sure what it costs in OC per person for food/drinks!

ETA: we're going to have around 200 people.

We are at 15K for a Kansas City wedding. That was our budget going in and we are still on track.

However, we are not factoring honeymoons or rings into this. That was a different budget.

Have the wedding you can afford. It that is only 10 people, then that is what you get.

Under $10,000 is hard for a full, "traditional" wedding (i.e. reception and most of the bells and whistles). We spent $9800 on everything minus the honeymoon and rings. We wear my husband's grandparents rings, so we didn't buy those. Our honeymoon is about $3500. Our wedding was in upstate NY right on Lake Ontario for 75 people. To cut costs: reduce guest list as everyone mentioned. Other ways: cut extras. We did not have a DOC (didn't miss having one either), no videographer (again didn't miss) and no florist. Not having these three vendors saved us about $3,000.

Dress: I got my dress at a shop that sells sample dresses for $600 (alterations were another $600 though). Buy off the rack, try on in store and order online (Modcloth, JCrew, DB, BHDLN all have very nice reasonably priced dresses).

Flowers: my close friend made the bouquets as a gift to us out of silk flowers. Centerpieces: my mom made the centerpieces out of fake flowers and simple wood from the beach. She also bought two dozen roses to decorate the church.

Food and alcohol: We had an open bar but beer/wine only would have saved us $500 (will depend on venue). We only had two passed appetizers b/c we had a short cocktail hour and a full buffet. No midnight snacks, which was the amount recommended by our coordinator and plenty. (All of those were additional at our venue). Cake: we served cheesecake bought from a local bakery at a retail shop. That was $115 for 75 versus almost $500. Our venue was a local restaurant in the small town where we got married. It was $200 for the space, including table, chairs, tableware, etc.

Photographer/DJ: A friend from HS was my photographer. (She is a professional and not a friendor and would not have been invited, so was not "working" instead of being there). We negotiated a reduced rate with her. I shopped around for a DJ and also asked for a discount b/c we didn't want any extras (photobooth, uplighting, etc.). Our DJ was $500 and was awesome.

MUA and hair: My sister is a professional stylist and did my hair for free. My mom found a local MUA for $30 a person. In general, going to the salon will be cheaper than asking someone to come to you. If you wear makeup regularly, you can do you own. My friend did her own for her wedding, and it looked great (and was exactly what she wanted!)

I worked hard to keep it under $10,000 BUT my dream budget was $5,000 and my new budget was $7500. Don't forget to add tax and tip (most venues don't include the tax or tip in the pp price, so add 25% to whatever price you're quoted to cover those). We also spent an extra $1,000 in the weeks leading up to the wedding on extras (gifts, decorations, tips, etc). DIY is helpful but still costs money. IMO the best thing is just to cut things your don't need or really want. I wanted a fun wedding with great food and booze. And that's what I did and eliminated the extra stuff. Ask vendors for discounts, and ask your network for recommendations. Finally, try not to think "its just an extra $100." To keep a wedding under $10,000 with a full dinner and alcohol takes effort, so every $100 matters.

We didn't really have a budget per say but we had an idea of what we thought we would spend. Once we started to get quotes for what we wanted though that number easily doubled. Of course, we probably could have done things cheaper, but I like what I like

We are planning of around 20-25K for 100 guests in Metairie, LA. I've been able to keep the venue costs pretty reasonable since we decided to get married on the outskirt of NOLA to avoid blowing our budget up.

We are in Kansas so we would be able to have a whole lot of wedding for $20,000! We have a budget of 10k. The venue we had booked was about $1100 but included only tables/chairs. Once I got my dress and realized my vision wasn't really in line with that venue we changed (also, decorating costs were getting pretty high with everything I wanted). We changed to a more inclusive venue for 5k (originally 10k but they had half price before the end of the year). That includes 4 night stay. Even though our venue cost is pretty high and will probably lead to us going over our original budget it gives us a piece of mind since more is included. So, don't go cheap to save money only because it could cost you more.

Other PP's have had very good suggestions. If you're determined for the beach, I'd look for a beach side restaurant and a small guest list. I'm getting married a little north of you in LA but our guest list big and we're spending between 30-40K. In Los Angeles/Glendale, there are ball rooms that host tons of weddings their prices are really competitive (most expensive I saw for these was 60/pp). the food is good and they're inclusive of food, linens, tables etc. You have to bring in your own cake, photographer/videographer, DJ, florist and DOC if you want one. Also, if you get married in the off season (ie winter), you'll have a bit more negotiating power than if you got married in June for example.

I had a friend who had her reception at the Richard Nixon library in Yorba Linda and that was a gorgeous venue as well. I also went to a smaller engagement party at the Grand in Long Beach which was also lovely although only the patio looked out over the water. Not sure how much that was. If you want to save on flowers, I highly recommend checking out downtown LA as well.

I was shooting for 10k but with honeymoon, and lighting etc we’re probably ending up closer to 13k

We are doing $8k in East Tennessee! We are using an all inclusive venue, so no going over! It is in the on season, but we told then we would have it after another event. So, we got a great discount. Keep your guest list low and look for the best deal!

We are doing around $20k in North Florida. Originally wanted to keep it under $15k, but increased it due to not wanting to cut the guest list too much and keep our guests a priority. We are doing an all inclusive venue, so that makes it also a little more pricey, but we live far away from my home town now so I am trying to make it easier with planning. I am trying to prioritize my wants and needs to keep costs as low as possible.

Boston area here—was shooting for $60,000 and probably ended up closer to $65,000 for reception and ceremony for ~150 guests.

We basically doubled our budget from when we originally started. However, we were like several other people on here.. we had no clue of wedding prices when we created our first budget. When we realized how expensive everything was, we doubled the budget. Still not going into debt over it so I'm happy! That was my biggest concern.