Advice on CH7 Sunrise: Put your Wedding on your Credit Card!

[BayView]

Are parents out there still throwing money away on extravagant weddings?

Regards JO

Only those parents that are truly rich enough that money is not an issue,

or the stupid ones.

Basic wedding budget:
wedding dress - $500
2 x bridesmaids dresses - $400
3 x mens suits hire - $225
wedding car - $200
wedding cake - $100
reception x 60 guests - $4,200
photos - $500
celebrant - $250
flowers - $500
invitations - $100
music - $500
extras I forgot about - $500

TOTAL WEDDING COST - $7,975

Call it $9,000 for worst case scenario.

The guest list is a killer in most cases. Never let parents and/or in-laws get involved in that part of it.

 

[wylie]

The guest list is a killer in most cases. Never let parents and/or in-laws get involved in that part of it.

Totally agree with this. My mum used to say "when you get married, you will not have to do what I did, and that is have all the relatives you never see come and your own friends miss out". Yeah right!!

My wedding comes along. We have about 100 people, all the relatives we never see, and we get ONE TABLE for our friends. I appreciate the wedding my mother arranged though it is not what I would have done and certainly not what she had always said.

I totally understand why some people pay for their own weddings, so that they can have what they want.

Having said that, because I am a "no-fuss kind of gal" allowing my mother to have the day "she" always wanted was okay, especially in hindsight.

 

[Ol School Skata]

I think the put it all on the credit card is a great tip - providing you have the cash to pay for it.

My wife and I got married in 2006 and were living in a remote part of Qld and had to fit it in between study for work so we paid a little extra for an all inclusive ceremony, location, reception etc. 86 people Including honeymoon to F1J1 i think it was about $25K. Put it all on credit card, paid it off - did not pay a cent in intererst. If we lived closer to civilisation then we could have saved a bit more with being able to do the run around ourselves

Worked well - everyone had a great time - some had too good a time and did not surface for breakfast the next morning but thats weddings isn't it.

 

[marg4000]

Daughter got married in 2000, all up the wedding cost around $7K. She had exactly what she wanted but opted for the cheaper variation where it would not show. Just choosing alternate flowers to the main ones offered reduced the prices by 50%. Friends provided the cars etc.

Our son (29) is getting married in September. He and his fiance are arranging everything and are prepared to pay for it all themselves, though we will be giving them a contribution to costs but haven't told them yet. Their budget is around $15K max and so far things are on track to come in below that figure.
Marg

 

[sue78]

it's not hard decorating the car. you just need lots of ribbons and fishing wire. We have a professional car decorator amongst our group of friends and he decorates everyone's car at weddings but don't forget to do a test drive around the block first with the ribbons!!

a good tip is to get everyone to help out with lil things.

often, the bride and groom already live together, possible even own a house together and they have all the household gifts. What do you think if the couple requested a monetary gift?

I honestly think cash is the best present of all. It doesn't have to be a lot, just whatever you would spend on a gift. Even if it's $30 per person. But asians will generally give enough to at least cover the meal. I still have wedding presents from 6 yrs ago unopened. We got 3 sets of cutlery....really lovely but 3 sets!

also, did anyone invite their bank manager? we did and we're such good friends now.

 

[super_sam]

Only those parents that are truly rich enough that money is not an issue,

or the stupid ones.

Basic wedding budget:
wedding dress - $500
2 x bridesmaids dresses - $400
3 x mens suits hire - $225
wedding car - $200
wedding cake - $100
reception x 60 guests - $4,200
photos - $500
celebrant - $250
flowers - $500
invitations - $100
music - $500
extras I forgot about - $500

TOTAL WEDDING COST - $7,975

Call it $9,000 for worst case scenario.

The guest list is a killer in most cases. Never let parents and/or in-laws get involved in that part of it.

Sorry but I have to disagree with parts of this. We did virtually everything as cheaply as possible and put a ton of research into the costs, without letting it go as low as serving frozen pizza and cask wine (I posted earlier in here we had the reception at our house and a friend made my wifes dress)

Where are you getting a couple of cars for $200, and what sort of cars?
$100 for cake and invites each, only possible if you make them yourself (as we did)
We couldnt find a celebrant for less than $450
Suit hire was closer to $225 each, not all up
You will find most photographers charge around $5k. We had a student photographer whose parents are friends with my parents quote us $2k!!! Ended up finding someone for just over a grand but were less than happy with the results and ended up with only soft copies at that price. Nothing printed we had to do that ourselves

Agree with the guest list 20 turns into 50 very quickly. I know a couple of the prices I've given are only a couple of hundred more than yours Bayview but it really does add up

 

[BayView]

Sorry but I have to disagree with parts of this. We did virtually everything as cheaply as possible and put a ton of research into the costs, without letting it go as low as serving frozen pizza and cask wine (I posted earlier in here we had the reception at our house and a friend made my wifes dress)

Where are you getting a couple of cars for $200, and what sort of cars?
$100 for cake and invites each, only possible if you make them yourself (as we did)
We couldnt find a celebrant for less than $450
Suit hire was closer to $225 each, not all up
You will find most photographers charge around $5k. We had a student photographer whose parents are friends with my parents quote us $2k!!! Ended up finding someone for just over a grand but were less than happy with the results and ended up with only soft copies at that price. Nothing printed we had to do that ourselves

Agree with the guest list 20 turns into 50 very quickly. I know a couple of the prices I've given are only a couple of hundred more than yours Bayview but it really does add up

My brother-in-law got married in Jan; he and the 2 groomsmen bought "I have to get married" suits for $75 each. Looked fine. Borrowed the ties.

The sister-in-law bought the dress off e-bay (she's an e-bay junkie, hence they're always broke) for $350.

My wife did the flowers - $250, looked awesome; and the table flowers were included.
Her sister did the cake - about $50, looked awesome as well.

Do your own photos if you have to. Most of the "professional" shots are those stupid posed ones with the bridesmaids hanging off the groom like in porno shoots while the really cheesed off bride looks on, or them all going for the "speccy" for the garter belt, 25 different angles of the families etc. Pleeeese.

Use your friends' cars. Someone is bound to have a hotted up something, or hire one really nice sedan from Budget and borrow another one from the rev-head mate, etc.

I did add another $500 for other stuff; include in this a few price over-runs, but you get the picture.

 

[super_sam]

Do your own photos if you have to. Most of the "professional" shots are those stupid posed ones with the bridesmaids hanging off the groom like in porno shoots while the really cheesed off bride looks on, or them all going for the "speccy" for the garter belt, 25 different angles of the families etc. Pleeeese.

Agree with that. One of the best photos at our wedding was taken by a 7yo with a phone camera

Again, it really comes down to what you can afford. For us spending $12k didnt break the bank and as I said earlier we put the PPOR ahead of the wedding and didnt take a honeymoon.

If all you want to do is do it as cheaply as possible do the invites via sms and email, have the ceremony and reception at your own place and make it a BYO food for bbq and alcohol. That only leaves the celebrant as a MUST have, so bingo wedding and reception for $450

 

[Tizzy]

My daughters wedding ten years ago was a fabulous sit down affair for 110 people and cost her and her husband $25000. It was an amazing day and night The setting helped to make it. A beautiful yacht club on the Swan. Even she says that if she was to do a wedding these days she would chose something more casual, perhaps in Bali. I can't understand how a sit down wedding can blow out to $55000 in 2009??

I know one area where she didn't spend much was her dress because she didn't want lace or sparkly bits and that always bumps up the cost. It still cost $2000 though and that was not considered a lot for a dress. Not sure where we could have got a wedding dress for $500 unless it was in the classifieds.

Going overseas to be married seems like a great idea to me. Or, get married on a friday, or do a breakfast, a lunch or a cocktail hour reception to keep costs down.

 

[sue78]

$2k is exxy for a dress 10 yrs ago. I wouldn't buy a dress off ebay. A perfect dress has to be a perfect fit and just too much could go wrong. It's really a special day, especially for the bride...not just getting married but the one day in your life where you are the most beautiful person in the room and all the attention is on you. Get good hair stylist, make up artist, these are things nowadays I can't imagine brides skimping on those things...and why would any husband think that's a waste of money for your wife to be to look her best for you. women should spend a bit of money on themselves to look good for their husband throughout the entire marriage. Regular facials 6 mths before wedding etc all adds up. A good hair stylist can be booked out a yr in advance. Expect to pay $100 for bride or up to $350 for whole bridal party and same with make up artist. The make up isn't what you would wear everyday, it's not heavy but it's for film and photography.

But I guess if you are happy to skimp then that's fine, you just don't want to be regretting it later. It will always be one of the most special days of my life and it was perfect. I will never re-marry. But for marriages that don't last, well it's sort of a waste of money.

 

[RumpledElf]

But I guess if you are happy to skimp then that's fine, you just don't want to be regretting it later. It will always be one of the most special days of my life and it was perfect. I will never re-marry. But for marriages that don't last, well it's sort of a waste of money.

Well, statistically 50% of marriages (or something like that) end in divorce. So statistically, 50% of those $50,000 weddings are going to be a waste of money. If you just want to look good, go get one of those professional photo shoots where they tart you up first, and send people prints.

Which reminds me, I'm supposed to RSVP for a wedding in Sydney (2000km away) we won't be going to next week. We got the invite just over a week ago. Not a lot of warning, and everyone else figured we wouldn't come so they booked accommodation and flights several months ago and didn't ask us. Too bad if we actually wanted to go ...

 

[mystery]

We made a profit from marriage ....

My wife and I got married many years ago. We were living in Perth at the time. I was going to be in Melb on business and she was going to Syd at the same time. One month before we arranged for a friend to get a permission from local council to get married in a park, the marriage license and arrange the marriage celebrant.

I also spoke to the hotel I was staying at and swapped my normal room for a honeymoon suite. Food was via professional hamper company ... friends brought picnic tables and chairs and we sat around the lake under weeping willows in the sun having a wonderful day

Anyway ... When I got back to work I apparently miscalculated our travel expenses when I put the claim in. We actually made a profit of $140. The company commented that next time I go away, just buy cheaper meals .....

$50,000 ... phah!! ..... We spent nothing and we still talk about that day with great happiness .... Its about being together on the day, ... that's all that counts.

Martin

 

[natmarie73]

$55K for a wedding!!!! How?

Registry office or celebrant and casual BBQ on the beach or backyard + nice dress = <$5000. Same result.

I wonder what the stats say about people with huge wedding bills getting divorced quicker considering money woes are apparently the number one reason people have marital troubles.

 

[fmx_rider]

Basic wedding budget:
wedding dress - $500
2 x bridesmaids dresses - $400
3 x mens suits hire - $225
wedding car - $200
wedding cake - $100
reception x 60 guests - $4,200
photos - $500
celebrant - $250
flowers - $500
invitations - $100
music - $500
extras I forgot about - $500

TOTAL WEDDING COST - $7,975

Call it $9,000 for worst case scenario.

You forgot dancing lessons!! $500.

Based on list above, here was ours - roughly:
Basic wedding budget:
wedding dress - $500 (luckily the one she likes was also a cheap one)
2 x bridesmaids dresses - $400
3 x mens suits hire - $400
wedding car - $500 (could be more, cannot remember - limo)
wedding cake - $450 3 tier
reception x 110 guests - $13,200
photos - $2500 (cheap compared to some but was great & experienced)
celebrant - $450
flowers - $500 (friends did some to cut costs)
invitations - $100
music - $800
extras I forgot about - $500

Approx $20k-22k which I think I mentioned earlier.

 

[sue78]

fmx - wow the reception is really expensive.

Ours was $62p/head with approx 140 guests and we had a celebrity chef. We then went for an open bar and I did my own beverage menu which included moet & chandon toast for all guests, quality wine, cognac, heineken, liquer, 2 types of cocktails and 2 types of mocktail. Thankfully chinese ppl aren't big drinkers.

It came to less than yours.

Our photos came to about $4.5k. Initially it came to $10k then we had to halve the size lol and videographer was about $700. But I love the photos...money well spent.

We then went to asia and took more studio wed pics. For $500 we got a huge photo album, diff styles of photos (wed dress, formal dress, chinese cheongsam style dress etc), hair and make up, 2 huge frames, a couple of small photo books, and loads of smaller prints. So much cheaper than Oz and they make you look like a super star...lol actually completely different to real life. Hubby wore a white suit with sprayed dyed hair and lip gloss....he looked like a gay magician. he flat out refused to wear the white tights mermaid costume with fish net tight top and bellowing puff sleeves! My mermaid pic looked stunning though, even the wig looked good. But another pic of him in chinese military uniform which looked like it was dated in the 50s was quite cool. Even just for the experience was well worth it.

All our friends love looking at the asian wed album...it's just so different to what u get here.

 

[ianvestor]

...we had a lot of overseas guests who spent thousands to make it to our wedding.

One reason my wedding cost so much (>$55,000) is because I helped pay to get my most important guests over to Korea.

I think there were 240 guests all up, of which I knew about 20.

Wonder how much of the 55k is actually honeymoon though? Lot of couples I know waited for the honeymoon to do the big europe trip or similar.

Whoops, I didn't know it was supposed to be one or the other... I also did the big Europe trip.

 

[ruroshin]

Reception can get expensive, my wife has a huge family so we had 340 guests at our reception at $68 a head for a 10 course meal and open bar for 5 hours so it wasn't a bad deal.

Like sue, our photos came to about 14K so we gave the chop to lots of photo, still came out to 8K! I was really uncomfortable paying that much for photos but seeing how much my wife loved it I couldn't say no.

We did the $500 photo thing in asia as well, it is interesting and very different to what you get here. Took 7 hours to do all the photos there, I was really tired at the end but the album came out great. My wife is even thinking of opening up a similiar business here.

 

[sue78]

ruroshin - which photographer did you use? we used Studio 60. They were the previous year's wedding photographer winners. There are loads of good photographers in Bris. Studio 60 are good coz it's like they're not even there. They're not bossy and they didn't mind other family members tagging a long to take pics either.

it was so funny. We sort of knew what to expect from what friends had told us. Before we went into the studio, I said to hubby ' do not say a word, let me handle it...just give me a head nod if you like the photo..stick to the budget!' but I did miserably! i even cut out loads of family pics coz we have so many from other cameras and good quality SLR pics. we only bought 2 page spread for family pics @ $150 per side......it really pained me to use a full 2 side spread for 1 photo $300!! but it was a beautiful pic...you can't just have loads of lil pics on every page. But I love the digital coffee table albums. They wear well.

If your wife does open up that concept here, I can tell you the make up side will do well. Asians do make up so much better. They use better products i.e ampules. It would also be great to be able to hire wedding dresses.

Ian - you crack me up...how could you only know 20 guests out of 240?

 

[ianvestor]

Ian - you crack me up...how could you only know 20 guests out of 240?

Because I married a Korean in Korea, and I only speak English. Around 20-30 people were my family/friends who travelled to Ulsan at great expense. The other 210-220 were from my wife's side of the family plus their colleagues / friends / uncles / aunts / bosses / employees / associates / pets. It's just how it's done over there.

I'm just kidding about the pets, but they really seem to invite everyone. In South Korea, there's a very big focus on the parents so all of their friends and colleagues were there.

 

[goonandtell]

i broke up with the fiancee last year, an Australian based wedding was getting towards 15k and that wasn't being over the top.

I wanted an overseas wedding she wanted it somewhere a little unusual so it was still costing close to 15k but that was closing on a 1 month holiday for us so i found it a touch easier to agree to.

To be honest i loved our engagement party, we hired out a lawn bowls place for a few hundered, got in a spit roast company i think we had 3 meats?!, less than $30 a head, organised our own deserts, sweets, nibbles, etc... purchased a heap of beer and wine, hired my mates little sister to serve it. Actually one of the most fun and relaxing days of my life. Because we could get anyone we wanted, there was something to do other than sit around and the weather was stunning in the end. Also got quite the nice 1.02 carrot D, SI2 ring ... i don't regret the party but the ring seems a touch stupid, she is keeping it as part of the settlement but doesn't wear it and can't bring her self to sell it ... i think she is being stupid but hey, its her money.