budget

shaq123 · June 2010

Hi ladies , I was worrying what is the average cost of a Vegas wedding including the the meet & greet ,ceremony and reception and transiporation maybe even brunch ect..( the whole weekend events) I started out with a 5000 budget then we went up to 6000 and this still do not seem like enough money for everything (we want to host for the weekend 15-20 people), what are something you could have saved money on ? Were their something you wished you spent a little more money to have made you day better? what details did you stress over that you would now eliminated?
Thank you

aerinpegadrak · June 2010

I think ours came to maybe $7K total? Honestly, I sort of lost track because we did pretty well saving up.

We hosted four meals for the weekend, three of which were in the Vista suite at MB.
Meet & greet: Papa John's Pizza, $4/person
Rehearsal lunch: Fazoli's (fast food Italian), $4/person
Reception: Masterpiece Cuisine, $30/person including bar
Post-wedding brunch: French Market Buffet at the Orleans Casino, $8/person

With 40 guests (not all of whom attended every event), the extra meals came to about $500 total. Using the suite as a home base saved us a TON of money, it was functionally an at-home wedding, if our home had bell service and spectacular views.

dvohnout · June 2010

I think our wedding was around 7000 total for rings, dress, everything ceremony and reception related for 60 guests (this didn't include the money we spent in vegas eating/gambling/shopping or 3 night of hotels). Because our guest list was larger, we didn't host any other events. If we had a guestlist of 40 or under, I would have liked to do a meet and greet. We did meet up with 30 of our guests at the buffet at Mandalay Bay, but everyone paid their own way. Then everyone went to the piano bar. So we did get to hang out with lots of our guests without paying for everyone.

Sloane99 · June 2010

We are around $13,000 for the whole wedding weekend, this includes wedding party gifts, rings, my dress, his attire, hair/make-up, travel, dinner the night before, cabana rental, ceremony/reception dinner/open bar.

I will tell you if I regret over-spending on anything afterwards, but so far we're well within our $15,000 budget and I don't see the need to spend on anything additional, nor did we skimp on what we have paid for.

keana123 · June 2010

Clearly I have nothing better to do so I'm gonna help a knottie out. Check out my breakdown below. I used some of my own budget info to plug in some ideas for you.

You can absolutely do a wedding for $6k for 20 people. What is your wedding date?
Just to give you an idea:
If you do a ceremony at Chapel of the Flowers or TI that should be around $750 max for ceremony, pics, etc. This would be less if you did a Sunday - Friday ceremony usually.
Depending on the time of year you can probably get a nice 4 star hotel room for 3 days at around $100-150 per night. If you stay for 3 nights that's $300-450.

There are plenty of reception and meet and greet locations for around $30pp. Studio B does a buffet dinner for $30pp and it includes beer and wine, lunch and weekdays are even less.

So far that's:
$750 - Wedding
$450 - hotel room
$700 - meet and greet
$700 - reception
$300 - est. cake, probably less
$800 - dress, shoes & veil (not sure of your taste), just throwing out a number
$200 - hair and make-up (probably can get this for less)
$250 - tux rental
$500 - photographer (Bentley Wilson or Mike L)
$250 - limo
$100 - invitations including postage
______
$5,000

This still leaves rings, gifts, mani/pedi, additional flowers, reception decor (if needed), etc. but you still have $1k to work with and/or you can cut back on some of my estimates. Good luck!

Let me know if I can help in any way.

stinkerbell6879 · June 2010

I think we hit about $7,000-8 without rings, and we did not do a hosted Meet and Greet. Here is a rough breakdown of the big items...

Ceremony - $1,900.00
Vista Suite - $580 (?? I think with tax)
Catering (50pp) - $1,500
Bringing in own Drinks - $400
Dress w/ Alterations - $1,000
Tux - $180 (??)

ETA : Nevermind Keana came to the rescue

ebonyivory10 · June 2010

Keana is awesome!

Something that suprised me - the floral aspects keep creeping into my budget. I had only planned to spend about $200 on flowers total (other than my bouquet which I figured would be covered by the venue) I need a few centerpieces, 2 bouquets for my wedding party, a bout for FI, petals for the walkway, and corsages for our moms. I want to get corsages for our mothers from an outside florist, but I don't want to pay the outside vendor fee. Do they really notice corsages or just the bouquets and bouts? Ughhh, that's one thing I should have allowed more for in the budget.

wenawinter · June 2010

I think we are at about $15,000 budget too. But that is including everything (except my dress). That's rings, BP gifts, travelling, spending money, dog sitters, invitations, all of it. We are having about 60 people coming, with a reception at Maggiano's, ceremony at Valley of the Falls, photography (Mike L).

It's a little more than I thought we would spend on a Vegas wedding, but I don't think we are going to regret any of it. I also never thought that many people would be going either.

pumpkinberry22 · June 2010

We are ending up in the 6000 - 7000 range

chrisandeva · June 2010

@ebonyivory - Limiting the flowers is a great way to save money if you are a big floral fan. The only flowers we had was my bouquet (slight package upgrade) and DH's bout. The BMs had clutches ($25/each) instead of bouquets and no flowers for anyone else (moms) or decor. With people leaving the following day, and lots of running around taking photos, we felt the flowers would have been a waste and money was better spent elsewhere. I don't think anyone even noticed the lack of flowers, and in fact, loved the alternative. Every time DH and I went to a wedding (13 times by now), we kept saying, look at all the money spent on the flowers...and why? Just our personal preference.

njt09 · June 2010

I think your budget is toally doable. It really depends on how many 'extras' you want to spend the $$ on (flowers, room upgrades, nicer restaurant, alcohol) etc.
Our wedding (no rings or dress) in Vegas is around $5000

This includes food (Masterpiece Cuisine) and alcohol with a bartender (Masterpiece) $1600
Hotel Room (Honeymoon suite 1 night and Vista Suite 2 nights) $1000
Airfare $800
Floral upgrade $200
Cupcakes and cake $320
Playing card favors $225
Poster guestbook $10
Cake Topper $50
Gifts for wedding party (2 people) $100
Dress steaming $150

A meet and greet and breakfast will run you another $500-1000 depending where you decide to go. A buffet may be the way to go or have Jason's Deli cater one or both events. They only charge $5 delivery fee and will deliver to your hotel to host the events in your room.

We too aren't doing ceterpieces/flowers/candles etc. The Vista suite doesn't need them and no one will notice anyway.

I spent $1500 on my dress and we paid a pretty penny for our rings but we didn't include those in the budget for Vegas.

1DestinationBride · June 2010

I'm at $13K for my ceremony (includes all floral, photography, etc) and reception (plated dinner and open bar).

My guest list is approx. 50 people and everyone will be considered an out-of-town guest, rather than doing a rehersal and Meet&Greet. We just going to host the Meet&Greet, in a very casual setting...pizza, drinks, desserts, etc.

My STD cards, RSVP cards, and centerpieces are/will be DIY. I'm considering making my own invitations because I haven't seen anything that's really impressed me.

Thus my suggestion is along the lines of what others have said, consider a buffet style reception and serve casual food for meet & greet. Other things you can do is rather than paying for a dance floor and DJ/band, consider going to a small club for drinks after your reception. And DIY is a great way to cut some costs.

queenklm33 · June 2010

we are also planning to be in the $5K - $6K range for a 50 person wedding. To save money, we are not providing transportation. I know people do, and it would be nice. But its Vegas, cabs are a plenty, and every other wedding I've been to local or not did not have transportation from the cermony to the reception.

Baileebb · June 2010

I am on a serious budget, and I have 50 wedding guests attending. I only plan on spending around $3000 for everything. We got the plane tickets as a present from the grooms parents but besides that we are paying for it ourselves and have very limited funds. We are having our wedding ceremony and reception in the Vista Suite at Mandalay Bay. My sister-in-law got licenced in the state of Nevada so that she could perform the ceremony. I am making my own feather bouquet and isle runner. Our wedding will definatly be very DIY, but I like it that way. I work for a company that makes custom wall art and decor (vinyl clings). I'm using the machine to make my own custom candy, guest favors, mongram stickers, ect. The ink, vinyl, and paper to make all this will cost me under $30!! Here is my budget breakdown:

Vista Suite: $500

Photographer(Mike L): $500

Cake(Retro Bakery):$250

Food (Jasons Deli): $400

Hotel Stay 3 nights (Mandalay Bay):$370

Alcohol budget (Costco): $300

Dress(Davids Bridal off the rack): $99 (He's wearing a suit)

Invitations:$100

DIY: $200 ( Isle runner, bouquet, guest favors, floor monogram cling)

Welcome Dinner (Pizza in MOH hotel suite) $4/per person- $200

Total: $2,919

I'm sure there's stuff im forgetting but all together im hoping to spend a little over 3000.

keana123 · June 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.weddings.com/Sites/Weddings/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_budget?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:91Discussion:0c46c673-a617-4ed6-9397-4d45efac0c1cPost:190666f4-a147-40e4-baa3-4eaa5ee93f7d">Re: budget</a>:
[QUOTE]we are also planning to be in the $5K - $6K range for a 50 person wedding. To save money, we are not providing transportation. I know people do, and it would be nice. But its Vegas, cabs are a plenty, and every other wedding I've been to local or not did not have transportation from the cermony to the reception.
Posted by queenklm33[/QUOTE]

Kim I see you ar efrom LA. We are skipping providing transpo as well becuase most of our guests are driving from LA so they will hav etheir own vehicles

Kristina1003 · June 2010

I really can't contribute anything that others already have not except words of encouragement that it can be done! I think others have offered great ways of staying within your budget and I think you could just start calling around and getting quotes from all of the recommended people and see where that puts you. Good luck!

kikibaby · June 2010

We started out trying to stay under 5k, but ended up around 10k. This was only because we decided to splurge on some things, though (Ceremony by the Bellagio fountains and a Penthouse Suite). It could have easily been done for around 5k, though. We had 11 guests.

RachNRich · June 2010

We were at or around the $7k range for the wedding---this included: meet and greet dinner, ceremony, reception, transportation to and from reception, dj, photog, flowers, invites, STD's, hotel, flights, and so on....and we had about 27 people at our wedding.

It could have been a lot cheaper for us too---but, we were willing to be more free with the money, and are glad we did things the way we did it!

stinkerbell6879 · June 2010

I just want to add..... Do what you can to be a good host...but....remember that as long as you host the reception (i.e. even if it's some app's in the afternoon) The rest is extra, even though it's great if you can, most guest will come in with the assumption of at least a hosted reception the rest is icing on the cake.IMO.

queenklm33 · June 2010

Yes Keana, half our guests will probably drive out from CA and as for the rest, my FI says "they are all adults they will figure out how to get there" LOL

-kate

shaq123 · June 2010

Thanks everyone, Not sure what I would do with out you ladies !!!!

wallacje · June 2010

This is really helpful, I am looking at around the $5-$7K range. Only hosting one event the reception. I didn't even think about a meet and greet. (Could we just tell people where we are meeting and then depending on the bill decidey then if we want to pay for it? Or just play it by ear?

@Keana, How was the setup at Studio B? Could they accomodate 50 people?

We're also doing the vista or media suite at MB, I didn't that we could host other things there besides the reception. A meet an greet would be good there too?

So many more things to think about now.

kirstenandivan · June 2010

It is totally doable for under $6000, depending on how many extras you want. Our budget is $3000 (not including attire) and so far we are under that:

Ceremony at Catholic Chruch = $750

Flowers (4 bouquets) - $165 (our guys don't want bouts)

Vista Suite = $400

Cake = $250

Champagne = $160

Hotel Room 2 nights = $375

Photographer = $500

Hair and Makeup = $100

TOTAL=$2700

We are thinking of adding appetizers since we are still under budget :-)

jolenemcgowan · June 2010

Hey girls,

I am going to be flying in from the UK for my wedding - if I'm expecting people to fly all that way, I'm going to have to feed them and give them a boogie afterwards! I've never been to Vegas and I'm not going to get the chance to visit before, so could you give me some tips on cheap restaurants/clubs for a recpetion? There will be some under 21s, so at least if they can be at the restaurant/reception that would be nice - or what could we do with them?!

mloeks · June 2010

we spent about 5,000...this included travel and the rooms.
we didn't buy flowers for decorating, as we were doing an insuite reception. i was regretting it initially, but it was no problem. our flower budget only consisted of mine and my bridesmaid bouquets, and bouts for the groom and bestman.
for the parents, i purchased jeweled corsages/bouts that i had designed and made by a seller on etsy.com. i also purchased other items on etsy.com, which was a savings compared to buying in bridal stores, etc.
We did an insuite reception. Masterpiece Cuisine was our "splurge" and we purchased alcohol ourselves. We could have saved here, as for some reason most of our guests didn't drink though it was offered. instead of champagne we purchased lambic beers, a champagne-like beer, as it had special significance to us. (We got so many bottles of champage from wedding vendors in Vegas that we still have some in the fridge.)
quite honestly, i have a bunch of stuff in my basement that we ended up not using because we decided not to travel with the stuff. i say watch your spending on the little things and that will help a lot as well.
We also switched suites about a month before the wedding. Going to a different hotel saved us $1,500 and it was no problem.
I think your best bet is to decide what your priorities are...anything else can be trimmed or cut back to save funds.

dvohnout · June 2010

I agree w/ Mloeks. The little things add up fast + I wanted other things just vacation related ie new clothes + all the money you spend in Vegas just bc it is Vegas. I would try to budget all of that into your wedding budget or you will be totally surprised how much u really spend there!

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