Realistic Wedding Budget-Help Needed

miksabel

Hi lovelies!

My fiance and I are just in the initial stages of planning our wedding which we target to be in two years' time. We need a realistic ballpark figure of how much to save up for the big day. We want it to be elegant but at the same time practical. I know OC is quite an expensive area to get married in but at the same time, it provides a lot of diverse options. I am just worried that we might go to the extremes -- either underestimating the wedding financial demands or overestimating it.

We would really appreciate your thoughts please.

Thank you very much!

SpceCadet

We set up our budget based upon two things:  What we knew we could save and how we projected our costs.

I did a lot of research on catering, location, etc and put together a bare-bones and not-so-bare-bones budget based upon the findings, then figured how much we could save between now and then.  This is how we picked our wedding date.  

We knew for sure we wanted to get married in a particular spot, so this shaped a lot of the other decisions.  We also were fairly sure we wanted certain food served, which also helped.  My dress, his attire, gifts, invitations, etc were all fit into the rest of the budget not taken by the three things we focused upon (location, food and photographer).

I'm a big believer that you can have exactly what you want if you do enough research.  By comparison to most weddings in OC, we likely have a budget less than half.  Yet, there isn't a single thing I feel like we've "compromised" upon in terms of our desires and quality.

We've gone over budget in a lot of areas because of unexpected changes.  We wanted something smaller and our parents insisted upon adding their friends, which added additional tables, invites, catering, etc.  We also decided upon invitations that were more costly than anticipated (both the invite and the postage).  I'd build in at least a 10% contingency for these things.

HTH

CindyR30

I'm getting married on a $5,000 Budget. I'm having a small Wedding with about 50 People Next August at the Newport Dunes.  I looked in many places  for a nice beach side wedding and reception and after going through about ten places I feel most comfortable and satisfied there.  They have it all with not allot of restrictions. 

Best of luck to you!  

Banditorojo

My goal for our wedding is $12-$15K for a 120 people at a sit down dinner.

Hope that helps.

P.s. whatever you don't spend ON your wedding you can spend AFTER your wedding!! =P

trishamarieharri

I looking at close to $20K for 150-160 people, but we are spending a little extra for some higher end food and the location we really wanted.

I think as long as you have an idea of what you want, you can find something in your budget. Also, a lot of places in Orange County have off season rates, just in case you don't have a specific date in mind.

lala90

A lot will depend on your guest count.  I am having a small wedding (planning on about 100 right now) an I we are prepared to spend $20,000.  I don't feel like we are 'skimping" on important things....like food, drinks!!!, photos, flowers, venue.  I am being thrifty on things like favors (honestly, I have never kept anyones wedding favor) and invitaitons we are going cheap on that too.

meaganbrand

we actually just redid our whole budget AND wedding. we found a whole new venue/game plan and are paying a LOT less. we're only losing $500 out of the whole thing and will be paying half of what we originally budgeted. we just lost sight of what we were after. after many talks, we decided to do just what we wanted, forget everyone else's opinions and we are already a million times happier. the money we are saving is paying for our honeymoon. so... budgets are very specific to the couple. before you decide on a dollar amount, decide what kind of wedding you want!

My special Wedding

Well, it really depends on how many guests you will invited.
Normally for 100 guests the budget will be around $10k to $15k.....
Most of the money will spent on ceremony and reception site which include food, drink..... then for other vendors like florist, decor, photo, video, Dj will be around 10~15% of the budget....so you can have idea on how you should spent your money on each category.

Ladyvdr

We spent $25K for our wedding of 150 ppl.  We had the ceremony at the Fullerton Arboretum at Cal State Fullerton, and the reception at the Summit House.