I’m recently engaged and curious! What is/was your budget and how did you celebrate?

Things are so expensive now that we’re considering having a micro wedding with an $15,000 budget 😭. We originally wanted a full wedding with a $30,000 budget but had trouble working that out.

Says u/kawaiicutie404

20K Elopement in Red Wing, Minnesota

Engaged since 2020- picked a random date of Sep 16 2023. I can only say I wanted to elope with 10 people we love to a nice Airbnb.. fiancé was set on a wedding with a budget of $10k.

I told him there was almost no way we could do that for ~150 people unless we did everything ourselves….

We’ve had so much time to plan and so many changes among the color we’ve probably spent more time DIY-ing everything just to end up not using it.

Currently we are sitting at around 20k.

We (and I really mean ME) plan to sell on FB after the wedding is over…

Def should’ve eloped like I wanted to. Sooo much planning for an event when many don’t understand how time consuming and difficult it was.

Says u/Opensneakpastya

45K Wedding in Los Angeles, California

$45k for 100 people in LA, also includes welcome dinner for 50.

It took a ton of research to even get it that low, venues and catering alone add up so fast!

Luxury Wedding in Las Vegas, Nevada

We had a small, all inclusive ceremony in Vegas, had a fancy dinner reception for our guests, and saved most of the money for our 24 day luxury honeymoon on the other side of the world.

No regrets/wouldn’t change a thing. It was perfect!

100K Wedding in Boston, Massachusetts

112 guests and spent between 80-100k in Boston last year.

Never figured out the final number or kept a spreadsheet. My family contributed about 40k and my husband and I paid the rest.

Says u/Ngr2054

40K wedding in Nassu, Bahamas

40k for 40 guests—- destination wedding in Nassau, Bahamas — getting married in 2 1/2 weeks.

Edit: engaged in 2019.

Finally getting married 🤣

45k Wedding in Pacific North West

Material-Currency-85 says

Still in the planning phase but we're looking at around 45K for a 125 person wedding.

The venue is around 10K, food 15K (includes bar service), cake 1K, flowers 1K, photography 5K, music 3K, transportation 2K, decorations 1K, signs/invites $500, day of coordinator (required by venue) 2.5K and other misc that I'm forgetting.

Does not include cost of rings, dresses, hair, makeup etc. Our wedding will be in the PNW in 2024

40K Wedding in the Midwest

~$40k for 60 people in the Midwest.

It was a reasonably formal wedding, but about half the size it should have been because of covid.

Says u/itinerantdustbunny

12K Elopement in New Orleans, Louisiana

We haven’t started to plan yet, but our budget it going to be 5k for our micro destination wedding with 15 people in NOLA, and then another 5-7k for a happily ever after party. Not sure how many people we’ll invite to that one. But it’ll be very chill and a lot of DIY

Says u/nursejooliet

45K Canadian Wedding

Ours is 45k for 110 people in one of the larger Canadian cities

Says u/E632885

60K Wedding in Brooklyn, New York

$60k total for 70 people in Brooklyn NY.

Including the cost of venue, food, drinks, photographer, officiant, DJ, florals, lighting, and outfits.

Says, u/akw329

Large Wedding for $43K

Honestly we spent more than we wanted.

About $43K for 160 people.

Everything is more expensive than I could’ve imagined.

Paying for everything was a team effort.

My parents, my grandmother, and I spilt the cost fortunately.

says, u/Alternative-Tea-39

70K Wedding in the Bay Area

Budget was $20k, ended up spending about $70k 🤷🏽‍♀️ weddings add up so quick lol it’s shocking.

140 people in the Bay Area

Says, u/mydogsnameispaulito

25K Wedding in Massachusetts

The best advice I got when I got engaged was you’ll plan a budget and most likely go over anyways.

Our original budget was 15k in MA for about 60 people.

Currently I’m thinking it will be more like 25k once we’re done 🥲

says, u/oofwhatathrowaway

40K Wedding for 150 guests

We are at about $40k for 150 guests but our family friends own a venue that we were gifted the use of for the weekend.

So I’d say, if we were paying for that, closer to $55k.

says, u/Spiritual_Diamond_29

135K Wedding for 120 people In Washington, DC

I’m gonna get murdered by downvotes, but hopefully my pain can be remedied by some upvotes for being transparent LOL.

Budget: 60k

Actual: 80k

Added 2nd (multicultural + international family/friends flying in so we wanted to add it on per tradition): 25K

Honeymoon: 30k💀

Total: 135k

People: 120 in Washington, DC 2023

20K for 200 people in Wisconsin

I think prices vary drastically depending on size, location, and number of people.

I’m planning for an Oct 2023 wedding and we wanted to stay at or under 15k but will probably end up closer to 17-20k for ~200 people in Wisconsin.

u/florence_delilah

We got married in 2021 outside of Nashville.

17 people and spent $13k including honeymoon.

We rented a 7 bedroom farmhouse on 5 acres Airbnb and a separate 2 bedroom house.

I stayed with our families in the bigger house, we had our reception there.

He stayed with his brother in the smaller house which served as his getting ready location and the where we spent our wedding night alone.

The bigger house was perfect for a family style wedding reception. Our ceremony was free at a state park in front of waterfalls.

Europe was still in lockdown for the most part so we honeymooned in Jackson Hole, WY.

Given the chance, I wouldn’t change a thing if we had to do it all over again.

Says u/sonny-v2-point-0

65K in North Carolina

$62k in NC for 95 people on 6/24/23.

That number is off a spreadsheet that includes virtually everything except my engagement ring and our honeymoon.

That figure includes a few post wedding costs as well.

I was initially thinking we could do it for $30k…nope.

My mom gave me $7k toward the wedding as well.



That also included a casual rehearsal dinner for 30 people.