Wedding budget? Pfft!

pumpkinsandturkeys

So, we met with our patisserie today and when we got there, we had to wait a little bit because the couple before us ran a little long.

As we were chatting with the owner, she told us that the previous couple is having a 500 person wedding. Yikes. (FI was proud of himself for guessing that they looked like a couple who would have at least 400 people haha). Then she tells us that their budget is apparently $500 000.

Come again?!

Half a million dollars for a wedding. Are you shitting me? That's not a budget -- that's a freaking house.

jdluvr06

Holy crap! That's a house and a vacation.

lyndausvi

When I lived in the islands we had back to back $1M+ weddings.  Nothing phases me anymore.

Jells2dot0

Yikes! I had a six figure wedding and while it was gorgeous and everything I wanted, the marriage wasn't. If that is what they want, and they are using the money to properly host their guests without going into debt, then I guess it's all good! I just learned the hard way that no matter how much you throw at your wedding, it doesn't guarantee a damn thing!

JCbride2015

Yikes.  I thought our budget was stressing me out... I can't even imagine $500,000.

Cookie Pusher

Honestly, I love my FI and am sad we can't have everything we both want due to our wedding budget. However, I can think of A LOT of things I'd rather spend half a million bucks on besides a wedding. But hey, if they can actually afford it without going into debt, great for them!

banana468

That's more than my house!

JCbride2015

My friend's parents spent about that amount on her wedding.  There were about 400 guests.  It was lovely, but Fi and I just couldn't get over the level of OOT.  There was a 15-minute fireworks show as they cut the cake on the balcony.  O_o

KPBM89

Drop two zeros and you have my budget!  Even if I had that kind of money, I wouldn't spend it on my wedding, but that's just me.

firebabe6519

Holy crap! I would totally never be able to justify that much even if I had it to spare. Way too many other good uses for it.

pumpkinsandturkeys

We're having a super small wedding because that's what we always pictured, and because it allows us to have everything we want.

I understand that if you have that kind of money, you're entitled to spend it however you want. But I also know of couples whose families mortgage their houses so that they can spend that kind of cash on one day, and I think it's ridiculous. They'll probably make a sizeable amount of it back in wedding gifts, but still.

Jells2dot0

We're having a super small wedding because that's what we always pictured, and because it allows us to have everything we want.

I understand that if you have that kind of money, you're entitled to spend it however you want. But I also know of couples whose families mortgage their houses so that they can spend that kind of cash on one day, and I think it's ridiculous. They'll probably make a sizeable amount of it back in wedding gifts, but still.

 

Stuck in box-

 

Yup- my DH's ex ILs did that. DH and ex ended up getting divorced after 12 years and the parents were still paying off the loans. Not smart AT ALL.

pinkcow13

Holy Crap! Geez it must be nice to be able to drop half a mill on a wedding!

Artemischief

banana468 said:

That's more than my house!

That's more than 2 of my house!

FiancB

Cookie Pusher said:

Honestly, I love my FI and am sad we can't have everything we both want due to our wedding budget. However, I can think of A LOT of things I'd rather spend half a million bucks on besides a wedding. But hey, if they can actually afford it without going into debt, great for them!

Yes, this. I'm not gonna lie, there are definitely things I'd do differently if I had a bigger budget but damn, how do you even manage that? I really think, if I got absolutely everything I wanted, I would be hard pressed to come up with a way to spend more than $50k. And how do you even know 500 people lol.

Obviously a wedding that big is going to be really expensive, but that's still basically a grand per person! 

Teddy917

I seriously thought it said $500.00 and I thought "Wow they must be getting some good deals if the per person cost including invites, postage, and everything else is a dollar". Reading fail.

AddieCake

I agree that even if I HAD it, I wouldn't spend it on a wedding.

lyndausvi

If I had the money I would spend it on my wedding.  We would have flown all of our guests to St Thomas, put them up in a hotel.  We would have had paid organized events like boat trips and meals on the days leading up to the wedding.    We would not have dropped a lot of on such things as flowers or linens. 

grumbledore

lyndausvi said:

If I had the money I would spend it on my wedding.  We would have flown all of our guests to St Thomas, put them up in a hotel.  We would have had paid organized events like boat trips and meals on the days leading up to the wedding.    We would not have dropped a lot of on such things as flowers or linens. 

Agreed.  I mean, if I literally had $500,000 to blow (meaning I had a LOT more than that generally), I think I might.  But it would be something amazing, like taking everyone who wanted to go to an amazing locale and just balling out and paying for everything under the run for several days.

JennyColada

This topic is now:

What would you spend $500,000 on at your dream wedding?

I'd have a DW in Paris and pay for travel costs for all my guests. (All 10 of them, lol. Yea I'd still have a small wedding!)

Edit: all-inclusive as well (food, fun, etc).

lyndausvi

I would have had my wedding here (clicky)

Which was only 40 miles from where we were living at the time. We would have flown everyone down and would have put people up on Virgin Gorda.    So basically our family would get to come to us, instead of us going to them.     

I've stayed there before (before the fire). It's amazing.

cruffino

If I had it, I would spend it.

pumpkinsandturkeys

scribe95 said:

I would not spend that amount. Regardless I hope you didn't hire this vendor. How unprofessional of here to tell you someone else's wedding budget. Terrible.

I don't even know how I would begin to spend that kind of money, because I know I would still want a small wedding.

With regard to the budget disclosure, it didn't bother me. She wasn't mentioning it in a malicious, gossipy way -- I think it just happened to slip out. And if the couple told her their budget (which isn't necessary information for your patisserie), they're obviously not shy about it. She does the best desserts (particularly, the hard-to-find French desserts I've been looking for) in the area and we really clicked well with her, so I'm not letting something like that affect whether or not we hire her.

Jells2dot0

I don't think I would have spent it on the wedding. I just would have chartered my own plane for my travels to the DW/honeymoon and maybe rented out the entire island just for the two of us. There isn't any amount of money that would solve my family drama problems and make me want to have them witness my marriage. 

edit- spelling

JCbride2015

If we had an unlimited budget and $500,000 free for a wedding, we'd get married at the Museum of Natural History and rent out all the exhibit halls so our guests could have up close and personal time with the dinosaurs.  I don't even know how much that would cost-- probably less than $500k.  Maybe we would spend the rest as a donation to become fancy lifetime members of the museum.

pinkshorts27

I would fly all of our out of town guests in, because most of our guests are out of town (though our wedding is local for us). I would give awesome awesome awesome favors! I haven't thought of what, but something expensive that people would actually like! Maybe 100 dollar amazon gift cards. Haha. 

sarahufl

JCBride2014 said:

If we had an unlimited budget and $500,000 free for a wedding, we'd get married at the Museum of Natural History and rent out all the exhibit halls so our guests could have up close and personal time with the dinosaurs.  I don't even know how much that would cost-- probably less than $500k.  Maybe we would spend the rest as a donation to become fancy lifetime members of the museum.

I am starting to think we could be friends as I quote half your posts from today..... I love this idea- I have seen weddings in natural history museums before and I love them.

I literally don't think I could spend that much on a wedding, even if I did have it. What could you possibly buy?!

abbyj700

I would spend more on our wedding if I had it - but neither of us would ever be able to justify spending $500,000 on a wedding.

And as another poster said - shame on this vendor for sharing budgets from couple to couple. I really try not to share our budget with anyone - including vendors. 

JaniV123

thats is way too much money for my taste but if I had an unlimited budget, we would have our wedding at the Diamond Ritz Carlton in Dorado and book rooms for all our guests. Invite all friends and possibly have a +200 guest wedding. Have Raymond Vega as our videographer and 2 photog's covering everything, a photo booth, and thats about it I think. 

CaliMel11

I can honestly see how it happens though. If you have a large family and know a lot of people/have extended family, the amount of people can add up quickly.

If I had that budget, I would add more food options for the guests, get transportation for everyone and hotel rooms for my family/his family and get a couple more types of wine. Of course that's if the guest list stayed exactly the same!

Maggie0829

If I had that kind of money I would have spent it on my wedding.  I would have invited pretty much everyone we know rather then worrying about cutting people out due to budget.  We would have gotten married at the same venue but we would have gotten married out on the field rather then inside.  I would have had a shit ton of flowers everywhere.  I would have spent more on my dress.  I mean I loved my dress but with that large budget the dress I had wouldn't have even been tried on since my budget for my dress would have been bigger.  We would have had top shelf everything.  A four course meal.  Crazy lighting.  Fireworks.  The party would have gone on for longer then 4 hours. I wouldn't have DIYd anything.  I probably would have hired a wedding planner.

I don't think spending $500K would really be that hard, especially if your guest list is huge.