As a wedding band, we get to see a variety of weddings and receptions ranging from everything to a backyard rager, a formal event in a park, a casual art gallery reception, and everything in between.  The range of budgets is all over the place as well, especially once you start figuring in things like venue, outfits, flowers, food, entertainment, travel, and so on.  That’s why we only ask for a 10% deposit when booking Fun DMC to play at an event, as we know most couples have a lot of expensive deposits to put down during the planning process.  Some couples have the means to cover the costs of a reception entirely, while some have to borrow or tone down the event to meet budget.  However, we’ve found over the years that the success of an event and the memories it leaves behind doesn’t come down to a dollar amount or how lavish a wedding can be.  My own wedding cost a total of around $2,000 – we had been to a number of by-the-numbers weddings over the year prior and committed to having a ceremony and reception that was different from everyone else.  Now, almost ten years later, people still bring up fond memories they had from that day.

That said, we gathered some testimonies from around the web on how much couples said their wedding cost and what it entailed.  Hopefully it shows that there are a wide range of options to go, with no right or wrong answer!

How Much Did Your Wedding Cost?

$250. Me, my wife, a witness, and an Elvis Presley impersonator. The whole package was done at the Graceland Wedding chapel in Vegas. Totally worth it, best wedding I ever attended.

What I have learned in planning my wedding this November:
“Hi, I am planning a lunch, how much per head?” – “$30”
“Hi, I am planning a wedding reception lunch, how much per head?” – “$80”

As a guest, destination weddings are a huge imposition on whoever you ask to be in your wedding. They’re you’re friend and they don’t want to say no, but they also may not really want to drop $1,500 on a vacation that may be coming at an inopportune time. Also, a lot of your friends in general will wish that they could be there, but won’t reasonably be able to make it happen.  The funny thing is that a destination wedding is much, much more expensive than a regular wedding, it’s just that you make your guests pay for it and probably get a mostly free vacation if you bring enough people. That being said, it’s your wedding.

Looking at about 100 people, mainly friends for a big piss up. Going to be about $20,000.  Everything’s just so expensive! It’s $100 a head for food and drink, so that’s $10,000 right there.  I could put a deposit on a house for that much.

I had a large, lavish wedding that I adored and was totally worth it… to me. I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone else if they didn’t want the hassle and stress involved in planning such an affair. Destination weddings can be loads of fun and more memorable for everyone involved.

My girlfriend (now wife) and I went on a trip to Hawaii, where I had planned on asking her to marry me. I had already made the trip to ask the dad (successfully, I might add), so I was free and clear.  I asked her on a Friday night after a few Mai Tai’s as the sun was going down, then we woke on up Saturday morning and she jokingly said, “What if we just got married while we are here so we don’t have to deal with family.” I said, “Sure, good idea.” We stared at each other for 30 seconds and both said, “why not?”
We looked up the first “weddings” listing in the phone book and booked it for 9:00 AM Monday morning, on the beach. We went to Hilo Hatties the next day to get a matching shirt for me and a nice dress for her, went to Wal-Mart and bought a $15 ring for me, and got hitched on Monday morning. We had to wait util the next day for the preacher to have the certificate signed and finalized, and we met him on the golf course between 9 and 10.
Total cost: $350 including a nice frame of our vows (which were VERY Hawaiian). It worked out beautifully, and we wouldn’t change a thing.  In fact, next year is 10 years and we are thinking about a similar renewal in Italy.

We spent around $1,500. We rented a local historic building in our town, had about 80 guests, had a dessert bar, our friend married us and we kept it pretty simple. We hired a new photographer in town who was trying to build a name for herself. I’m a teacher, and I had two former students perform, so we had some amazing live music. It was a beautiful event. Keep in mind; your wedding is one day. ONE day. I don’t see the purpose in spending thousands and thousands. More money does not equal a better marriage. Simple is good.

If you count the rings, just under $200. If you count just getting married, $5. One day she said, “You know you’re marrying me, right?” I said, “Ok.” A couple days later we were married at the courthouse. We celebrated our 19th Anniversary in April and have been together over 20.

15-20k. Yes that’s a lot of money, but her parents helped with some of it. We had about 150 guests at an outdoor reception hall in Ohio. It was an amazing evening. My wife did all of the planning, but she’s an event planner by trade so it came easy.

We spent about $10,000 altogether, had approximately 200 people at the reception and two big gorgeous cakes. It was totally worth it because of the caliber of people I invited… I really did run around with a huge grin on my face hugging everyone in sight.