budget questions

goldiegirl423 · April 2010

Hi,

My FI and I are starting to get in the nitty-gritty details of our budget. We had figured out the ceremoney and reception budget, but just had a general pool of what we thought we would spend on everything else. I'm hoping you could share with me (ballpark figures even) what you spent or are spending on the following (or feel free to PM me):

flowers
DJ/band
photographer

I'm the first one of my friends and family to get married in over 10 years, so I don't have anyone to guide me other than you Knotties! Thanks in advance!

vtbm · April 2010

Flowers will end up being about $3500... I hope!!, could be more if I keep adding things;)
DJ-$3000
Photographer-with album..under $3000

ARez726 · April 2010

Well, I would use the Knot budgeter to get a general idea.

For me,
Flowers - not sure yet (but family friend, so we are getting a deal)
DJ - $1100 for 5 hours
Photographer - 8 hours w/ albums and photo rights $2000

bostonbride214 · April 2010

We spent about $2,500 on flowers (bouquets, reception centerpieces & accent pieces etc.) nothing at the church though. I got married in February and avoided anything that was out of season or required to be shipped in. If you stay with flowers in your wedding season, you can stay within a set budget.

Obviously DJs are cheaper than a 10 piece band but it depends on what you want. I can speak on bands, we saw over a dozen of them...they can range from $5K - $10K for a Saturday night wedding. Also, book early if you go with a band...the good ones are always gone fast!

Photographers have a huge range as well, again it depends on what you want and what's included in your package. They can range from $1K for just a disk of images to over $5K for a full day of shots, albums etc.

If you want specifics or vendor recs, let me know. Good luck with your planning!

Karen's MOH · April 2010

Flowers will be about $2500 for me.
DJ is just under $1500
Photographer is $3600 for 7 or 8 hours, 2 shooters for part of it, plus full rights to the photos but no albums. Photos were an area I was willing to splurge.

The Knot budgeter will give you a good idea, you can just adjust up and down from their base points.

DirtyWater · April 2010

Flowers: Flowers aren't that important to me, however the more weddings and events I go to I notice the flowers more and more. This I would like to keep in the 1,000 range or lower. I still have in my mind I dont want flowers except for the wedding party.

DJ: 2,500 I have a certain DJ that I will go to the end of the world to have lol

Photog: Less than 2,000. Even that FI wants to keep to 1,000.

We're more concerned with the food and venue big list. Little funds.

noodle_oo · April 2010

I'd think about what you can afford to spend and what is most important. All these categories can range widely from $1K to up to $5K for a photographer, but there are options in every budget. So think about what is affordable for you and what is important.

For us, we are paying for our wedding ourselves and photography was most important, so we splurged there:

Flowers: about $1000 for my bouquet, 4 BM bouquet, boutonnieres, 10 centerpieces, plus other little stuff.

DJ: $900 for 4 hours (we hired a string duo for ceremony/cocktail hour for $600)

Photographer: about $4000 which includes an album that was about $1K (which she's letting us pay for after the wedding). She's awesome though, it is totally worth it. But you can definitely find good photographers for around $2000

CCBelle · April 2010

Obviously there is a huge range in each category. My wedding was on the Cape, and I spent approximately -

Flowers - $2,000
Band - $2,200
Photographer - $3,500 (not including album)

snoangel79 · April 2010

Flowers:$3600
DJ - $1500
Photographer - $5K with custom album and engagement shoot and basically she will be there during the whole time (she's amazing!! has a weddiing photo book out. this is where I wanted to spend my money)

We are getting married on a Friday in Sept, not sure if that makes a price difference.

Starmusica · April 2010

Flowers- undecided but its looking like about $1500- however, this does not include the centerpieces, which our venue covers. It does include all the bouquets, arrangements for the cocktail hour and ceremony.

DJ- $1250 for 5 hours.

Photog- we are spending $4300 which was on the low end for the style we want. This includes an engagement shoot, a custom guest book and our album, as well as unlimited coverage the day of the wedding.

good luck!

Beantown Mama · April 2010

I am doing my own flowers and it will cost me around $500 for all the flowers (roses and hydrangeas) and supplies, including all the containers for the centerpieces. I am purchasing the flowers on samsclub.com. It will be a lot of work but I think it will be worth it to save me literaly thousands of dollars. We have a child and could NOT afford to go over our budget even by a penny. I'll let you know how it goes in about 3 weeks!

DJ was $550.

Photographer was $2,500 for 7 hours, a CD, and an album.

jsychien · April 2010

We spent

$2500 on flowers
$1500 on DJ
$4100 on photographer (7 hours, 1 shooter, 1 album, all pics and rights on CD, engagement pics)

jay10 · April 2010

1000 flowers
3000 for band
1700 photographer, without album
1600 for video

it all depends....to me a band trumped flowers -you can spend whatever you want depending whats important
good luck

things that are costing a lot and i never considered are hair and make up, jewelry, outfits for the shower/bachellorette, linens for reception......consider these too!

Shazzie116 · April 2010

Flowers - $1450 - Rose bouquets and bouts, babies breath arrangements at the church and wintery wreaths for centerpieces.

DJ - $750 for 5 hours

Photog - $2000 for 7 hours, 2 shooters, 700+ proofs, and hi res disc.

motbx3 · April 2010

For my daughter's upcoming wedding in June (7 weeks, yikes) cost is:

$2200 flowers, brides bouquet, 7 b/m, 1 jr.b/m 1 flower girl, 2 mothers, 2 grandmothers, 16 bouts, 17 centerpieces, 10 "floating" flowers for cocktail tables.

Band $4,700 5.5 hours

Photographer $2,000, includes album

october010bride · April 2010

Flowers- 2k to 2500 probably. That includes:
1 bridal bouquet, 6 bm bouquets, 2 smaller bouquets for fmil and fgmil, 7 bouts, 20 centerpieces.. mixed highs and lows, and simple chuppah decorations.
DJ- 900- 5 hrs.
Photog- Free... it's a personal friend who also happens to be a wedding photog.

laura030 · April 2010

I think mine will be

flowers - about $2,000

DJ - $1,500

photographer - $2,000 (doesn't include an album but they are a pair of photographers, and we get a high quality disc of all the photos ... we figure we can decide about albums after.)

ashley.elissa.payne · April 2010

I don't know our actual flower budget, but I'll probably spend around $3000. Flowers and photos are really important to me. I expect to do a combination of DIY and hiring a florist.

DJ= FREE since my fiance's good friend is a professional dj.

Photography= probably close to $5000 in the end. We are getting and engagment session, unlimited photographs, unlimited locations, processing on every image, a one-hour pre-wedding planning session, an online slideshow, a password-protected online viewing and print gallery, and all of the high-resolution digital files for personal use and printing. It doesn't include albums, but you can get those for an addition 1000, and up.

It's really important to know what you want, and sometimes, you'll see a vendor you'll love and things will change. When I first stumbled upon my photographer, I didn't even realize she was in Boston. (I was really oblivious). I had been looking for an amateur to do our photos cheaply, but I kept going back to her site thinking, this is what I really want. I love this. So we made it work with our budget. Luckily my fiance was really against having a videographer, so that eliminated a chunk of our budget, and we have found ways to save in other areas. You are going to have to compromise a lot when it comes to wedding stuff, so finding one thing you love and building your budget around that might help. We booked our venue for a specific date since that was the only available date our photographer had open.

Lildaisy628 · April 2010

Flowers - $1,300 (I went through a florist in NH that travels to save $$)

DJ - $1,300 (includes a musician for 1 hour at our ceremony and a musician and DJ playing Sax during cocktail hour)

Photographer - $2,800 for 8 hours, 2 photogs, CD with all photos and rights to print. The album will be another $1,200 or so.

I'm happy to share any of my info with you, just send me a PM! Good luck

Pinker26 · April 2010

Flowers: $3500 (centerpieces and all the personal flowers, 6 people in the wedding party, and a few ceremony pieces)

DJ: $1200 (I don't think we have a time limit)

Photographer: $2800 for 8 hrs w/o any albums, but with the digitial rights to everything.

sboston06 · April 2010

flowers: $400 for wedding party flowers (brides bouquet, 4 BM, 9 boutonierres, 4 corsages and 3 posys). no ceremony arrangements, and centerpieces are included in our reception package (they are about $30 each). The flowers are all roses and the bouquets will be small.

DJ/band: $800 for 5 hours for a DJ. We book in 2008 and locked in the prices

photographer: $2700 for unlimited hours, an album with 100 photos, engagement shoot, 2 photographers, travel fee, all proofs, copyrights, and a disc with the photos. Again, we booked in 2008 and locked in this price.

My vendors are listed in my bio if you're interested. We were willing to splurge on photography but skimped on flowers because they weren't important to me at all. The DJ/band is important because they can make or break the event, but there are plenty of affordable ones out there!

Galaxy8227 · April 2010

Our flowers are $1,000 (just personal flowers and ones for the church, the others were part of my package)

DJ is $1,500

Photographer is $3,500

goldiegirl423 · April 2010

Thank you all so much for the help! Sometimes I feel like I'm in in a canoe without a paddle while planning. I'm so thankful to have you wonderfu Knotties to help me out!

Blueyed228 · April 2010

The only vendor I have booked so far is the photographer.

He is 5900 for all day, 2 photogs, 1 assistant, huge wedding book, 2 parents books, engagement session, 12 friends books, 1000+ proofs, high res cd.

He had other packages, that started at 2500.

Arez16 · April 2010

I'd say try to come up with a budget on your own first, and then find a range of vendors you like and adjust accordingly.

Flowers - just under $2K (25 centerpieces, 5 bouquets, 10 bouts, 5 corsages, 1 pomander, 2 altar arrangements)

DJ - $998 for 6 hours

Photography - $3700 (2 photog's all day, e-pics, guest book album, wedding album, discs of images)

bridegirl29 · April 2010

for me photography was a big thing so I didnt mind splurging for that... flowers werent that important to me either so I got to save a bit on that one...

flowers- 500 for 3 bouquets, 5 bouts, 5 corsages, and 2 arrangements for the bar at the reception- hydrangeas, roses, gerbera daisies and other various flowers

DJ- 600... and he is playing at the ceremony and will end up working for 7 hours

Photographer- 2500... that included an engagement session, 2 big prints, 9 hours of coverage, 2 photographers and the rights to the images... and I think one album

jquirke9881 · April 2010

I spent $600 on my bouquet, 3 BM bouquets, 2 small bouquets for the moms, flower girl flower petals, and like 10 boutenaires (sp?).

$650 for DJ and asst. for the ceremony and reception

$1700 for phptpgrapher for 2 people for 8 hours. Included our album and 2 parent albums.

jesibel14 · April 2010

As other have said the money can range to the very high and very low ends. That said, it's def important to prioritize what's important to you

You can save and splurge on literally every aspect of a wedding. We're on a fairly strict budget, so had areas we splurged (in our eyes) on, and areas where we saved.

flowers - Knew I wanted them, but didn't want to spend a lot of $$ on them. Was initially going to do them myself, but I have a big wedding party and 20 tables, so figured it was taking on a bit more than I could handle. So I'm paying a florist out of NH to do 20 centerpieces (tired mason jars filled with roses/hydrangeas and other local blooms), my bouquet, 8BM bouquets, 11 bouts, 2 corsages and arbor flowers, all for $950.
DJ/band - This was my #1 splurge, knew I wanted this specific DJ that I've seen numerous times, so spent $2700 here.
photographer - Found a photographer who is fairly new to the wedding industry (though has done about 20 weddings). Loved her style. For 8 hours day coverage on High Res CD, with touch ups and all rights, plus engagement shoot, is costing $1100.

GL!

deborah2121 · April 2010

I agree with the advice of PP to establish your budget and your priorities first. However, I found I had no idea how much to budget initially so it's great you are getting advice first! I'm not getting married in Boston but here's my breakdown...

Flowers--$1500 (least of my prioriites--found someone familiar with my venue who operates out of her home for fun/hobby so it's not her sole source of income and has very reasonable prices for great work)
Band--$4150 (high priority--11 piece band and DJ)
Photographer--$3450 (high priority--2 photogs all day, credit for albums and stuff, and will photograph at rehearsal dinner)

Another big component is determining who is paying for what--my parents are getting the band from their budget so we were able to go higher for photography and videography.

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