Want Opinions On Weddings?
I’m doing a research essay on weddings, and was wondering if anybody would give there input on a few questions. If you are planning a wedding or just got married in the last few months i’d really like your input. Or if you happened to have gotten in the 70’s or 80’s. thank you very much.
Do you believe the bigger the better?
If you dont mind sharing, What was your budget and did you stay within it?
If your budget was large, why did you feel that was ok.
If your budget was small why did you feel that was ok.
Would you or did you hire a wedding planner?
Did the cost of your wedding leave you in debt as you started your new life together?
Thank you for all comments, im just trying to get ideas on which way to take this essay
1. No, I don’t believe the bigger the better, but to each her own.
2. Our budget was 12k, and we stuck to it.
3 & 4. I think our budget was perfect. We did have to make different arrangements, such as getting married outside of the city, to keep costs down, but in the end, it was almost perfect.
5. No, I didn’t hire a wedding planner. I had enough time to plan out our wedding as our engagement was 17 mos. long
6. No, it didn’t leave us in debt. 15 mos. before our wedding date, we opened up a savings account specifically for our wedding fund. We decided on a set amount of money to take out of both of our paychecks and we stuck to it. By the time our wedding rolled around, our wedding and honeymoon were completely paid for, with plenty left over.
Do you believe the bigger the better? NO
If you dont mind sharing, What was your budget and did you stay within it? – $25K
If your budget was large, why did you feel that was ok. enough for my wedding.
If your budget was small why did you feel that was ok. n/a
Would you or did you hire a wedding planner? – NO, but will have a wedding coordinator provided my the venue
Did the cost of your wedding leave you in debt as you started your new life together? – I hope not
the wedding will be Dec 09′
i got married just days ago…
i think that the bigger, the better, the funner (if there’s such a word)
our budget was supposed to be $40,000 and i went over by $20,000
i really think that it was okay because i realized that i’m only getting married once in my lifetime and we both thought that we should just make the best out of it.
yes, my wedding planner helped me so much, i meant it so worth it, i didn’t need to worry about anything, like i wasn’t stressed at all..
no, not really, we have prepared for it… we stated saving 6 years ago…
1) No.
2) 2,000.00 and yes.
3) smaller budget….nothing wrong with what you can afford
4) No, just stay organized with a plan and wedding planners are then not needed
5) Nope, no debt….spent what could be afforded…would do it all over again the same way.
note* it was a second marriage for both of us & we are in our 50’s….we kept it small and simple.
- no
- don’t have a budget. i’m only spending $5000, but i didn’t set a limit b/c i know that my fiance and i want what we want and will keep it within reason.
- i’m having a destination wedding; therefore i almost HAVE to have a planner. as long as i get married there, i get a planner for free.
- no
1. Bigger is better for some, not for others. It was important to my husband and me to have all the people we were really close to at our wedding. That came to about 100. You judge whether that’s big or not. If the guest list of people we really watned there had been 200, we’d have found a way to have a weddign that size. If we had come up with only 50 guests, that’s the size we would have had. It was all about having the people we care about there, not about any particular sized-wedding.
2. Our original budget was $10,000. Fairly early on, we realized that wouldn’t be enough, so we upped the budget–and our savings–to $13,000.
3. Again, I don’t know if $13,000 is large or small. We felt it was the right amount for us to have the kind of wedding we wanted, with the people we wanted there.
4. We did not hire a wedding planner because our venue took care of all the little details there, and we were quite well able to make decisions about invitations, centerpieces, clothes, cake, etc. without one. Early on we had considered one when we were looking at venues that didn’t include anything but the venue, and we would have been responsible for finding caterers, tables, chairs, linens, bartenders, waitstaff, china and glassware, etc. Neither one of us had the time or the interest in pulling all of that together.
5. We saved all of the money for the wedding ourselves: no help from any relatives, and no debt.
I do not believe the bigger the better. You can have a very nice small wedding.
Our budget is between $6,000 and $7,000 not including honeymoon. We will be staying within it. That is why there is a grand leeway.
Our budget was fairly small, I have definitely seen smaller though! I feel it is better than ok, because we get a gorgeous wedding, and it reflects us. We have to pay for most of it ourselves, and it will be perfect! You don’t always need $20,000 to have a nice wedding.
I did not hire wedding planner, because I like doing these sorts of things, and I felt it was a waste of money to pay someone to do something I could do myself.
It will not leave us in debt because we made sure to have a long engagement (over 2 years) to save up for it.
Hope this helps!
1. The bigger the better? Bigger in what meaning of the word? Amount of people on the guest list, money spent, lavish details? My venue will only accomodate 100 including the wedding party and all related peoples. We are choosing quality over quantity – I believe we could easily have a guest list over 500 people, but of those whom would we not notice? We are choosing to have a private ceremony and a public reception.
2. Our budget $12,475 and so far we are right on target with a few extra dollars for gratuity!
3&4. I feel that our budget is right for us, we had to pick and choose the important things and decide what could be cut down. I see how weddings could easily get out of hand, but we are practical and money smart.
5. No hired wedding planner, I guess you could call me a DIY Bride.
6. No debt for us, we started saving about $1200/month about 10 months in advance. Thats about 1/2 my income and we have his to pay all the bills till then, so even if we come up a little short we will have a healthy savings. In these downtrodden economic times saving money and not putting it on a credit card is essential.
My Fiancee being in the military helps us our immensly, I think that if we were working average jobs and facing possible lay-offs in the current market that we’d opt for a courthouse wedding or we’d insist on going forth with just what we have paid for thus far: My dress, the ceremony location, out officiant and the photographer. The rest of it really could throw together for under $1000 saving us a few grand, but I want to do it rght by me, and not look back in the future kicking myself for rushing and skimping on the celebration. 90% of our guests are travelling, so we are also hosting/funding a day-after mini vacation so that the guests get something “more” out of the travel.
Good luck with your research!
-Elle
We are planning a wedding for 80-100 people in my In-laws large backyard and property. Our budget is $4000 and we have to ask our parents and family friends to help pay for most of it, since we have little to put towards it. We plan to skip a caterer and planner. We have used many of our friends as resources for photography, DJ, and making invitations. We will probably ask our favourite local family restaurant to make some food, our parents will make food, and maybe do the rest potluck style, but haven’t decided.
We will go to a local farm for flowers.
I’ve been getting decorations on Ebay for 70-80$ off retail.
We don’t believe in going into debt for one day of your life when you can use that money to enjoy the rest of it. Our wedding is about family being together and not about putting on a show about how much money we spent. I am very proud and love to look good and have nice things, but we are doing it in a way that we can afford.
I am getting my dress made in China for very cheap.