overwhelmed by cost!!

skichica622

Now that the planning aspect has kind of begun I'm starting to realize how expensive weddings are!!! I was shocked on one of the budget tools there was a blurb about the average wedding costing 27k. My priorities are good food and good photography and even those alone in my area will add up to like 15k for a 100 person wedding. Ugh. That doesn't even count the fact that the cute venues in my area are 5k just to get in the door. Ugh again. 

I aways wanted to elope. Sigh. May be rethinking this. Even if we did family only it would be at least 60 people. Ok done venting. Thanks for listening!

paintgirl

Yep, it's steep! My sister kept her costs down a few years ago by having the ceremony and reception in a local, well-known but not super-expensive restaurant. It sounds strange by they had a large private party room (large enough for separate set up of reception tables and ceremony chairs, aisle, etc). The ceremony was held in front of a big, beautiful fireplace and mantle. The room also had its own bar - big beautiful wooden bar. I think they did it for around $5,000 for about 100 people. Granted, it was in a smaller city than Philadelphia, but it might be something to consider.

(There's some trendy little name for the ceremony-and-reception-in-restaurant idea but I forget what...)

Deep breath! Good luck.

PS - Our budget will max at $5,000 and I hope to spend less. We can afford more but WHY??? I'm just not that in to it.

paintgirl

Philly has some great public parks and spaces - anything free or cheap there?

babybchbum

GL with the planning and Budgeting. Planning out your budget is the Hardest thing to do (from personal expereince) Staying under it after you know how much you can spend in each area seems to be easier than I initally thought.

jeanacorina

We started with a $5,000 budget. It grew to $10,000 once we started adding things up and realized $5,000 would get us food and that's it.

The budget and the guest list are the twin demons of stress!

swim1011

Have you thought about going outside of Philly?  My parents live in the Allentown area, which obviously isn't on the outskirts or anything, but the best places close to there were in the $60-70 per plate range.  There's really no reason to spend $100 a plate on food.  There are plenty of beautiful venues in the area, but outside of the city, so it's half the price.  GL!

skichica622

Thanks everyone. I think step 1 is reducing guest list to less than 100. My parents told me last night they are not inviting ANYONE so that helps A LOT. We're really going to keep it to a close family/close friend list. I've also decided I'll probably get married at my college since I'll likely get a discount. It's also a gorgeous campus so that helps. Plus it's where I lived when we started dating! I had kinda ruled it out before because you have to use their caterer and it's a formalish sit down dinner (I like mingle-inducing stations) but oh well!!! It also moves the wedding up to June instead of the fall because I don't want to get married when there's students there. Gah. 

And what I really should be thinking about is my master's thesis that has a deadline on Friday!   )

paintgirl

Oh man! Yeah, you don't really have enough going on right now, do you???? I vote put all wedding thoughts on hold until the thesis is done! I remember that last week... UGH!!!! Hang in there! Good luck!

oceana919

I had originally wanted a $5000 wedding. Apparently, the average wedding in SoFLa costs $38,000. We're hoping to squeek under $15K for the entire thing.