How Much Should A Wedding Cost Per 100 Guests?

[Hank Camacho]

Because I'm about to go on a scorched Earth raid from here to the sea that will make General William Tecumseh Sherman proud of the sheer white hot fury and destruction.

Women, man. What in the world goes through their heads?

 

[KingOfBBN]

Don't be the guy who spends $40k on a wedding but don't be the guy who just goes to the courthouse.

Is this going to be outside or at a church?

 

[throatpoker]

Over 9,000

 

[mashburned]

Just buy punch and pie.

 

[Wodie sloot]

Hank is getting married? Congrats!

 

[Hank Camacho]

Thanks!

 

[oldsports_]

Go with 200 per person, and everyone will be happy. Who likes a cheap wedding nowadays?

 

[Get Buckets]

Fine I'll do it. Pic of bride to be?

 

[P.PattersonISwalkingthruthatdoor]

Too much

 

[UKserialkiller]

$2k

 

[12 Oz. Epilogue]

Got married last fall using the fine folks over at www.mytinywedding.com in Slade. They took care of everything ceremony, reception and photography related aside from the caterer and dress. After having been in several large weddings for friends, I knew it wasn't for me and we scaled down to having less than 40 people. We certainly didn't break the bank and I think it was more than affordable for what was offered. If there is anyway you could talk your wife into it, I would highly recommend them. Zero regrets and had a great day.

Furthermore, if you are doing it around Lexington, I would recommend South Van Events for the catering. Plenty of interesting choices, food was very good, and the service was excellent. Good luck!

 

[WayneDougan_rivals170043]

$90 / head

 

[d2atTech]

Listen to all these wise people OP. Weddings are bs. We had 208 guests who were happy to just dance, drink, and be merry with us. No one paid attention to the food or decoration or anything else. We could have saved a lot just elimiting the crap.

 

[bluejohnson_rivals107240]

$50 bucks for punch,
Have the church whip up a funeral spread, on the house of course!
Then whatever ya license and the minister costs. Then you're all set!!
Here's to many days of marital bliss.

 

[crazyqx83_rivals88013]

Because I'm about to go on a scorched Earth raid from here to the sea that will make General William Tecumseh Sherman proud of the sheer white hot fury and destruction.

Women, man. What in the world goes through their heads?

About 1/4 of what the woman wants you to spend.

 

[WildcatfaninOhio]

My daughter got married last summer. Reception was at a local golf course country club. We had about 140 guests. Total was about $8500. Included a very nice buffet dinner, open bar, cake and a hostess to run the event and MC the proceedings.

Of course the DJ was a separate charge. As was photographer, invitations, flowers, etc... All together probably a tad north of $100 a head.

 

[crazyqx83_rivals88013]

My daughter got married last summer. Reception was at a local golf course country club. We had about 140 guests. Total was about $8500. Included a very nice buffet dinner, open bar, cake and a hostess to run the event and MC the proceedings.

Of course the DJ was a separate charge. As was photographer, invitations, flowers, etc... All together probably a tad north of $100 a head.

What do you think this is gonna cost in 20 years. Got 2 daughters of my own. Does McDonald's do weddings?

 

[kentuckykowboy8_rivals]

Asking how much a wedding costs is like asking how much a car cost. It all depends on what's in your budget. I do videography and photography for weddings and have seen everything under the sun. I've seen 100k, and 1k. I think I heard a stat that the average bride spends 20k on a wedding.

Photographer: iPhone-$4000
Video: 1k-$2500
Chapel: free-3k
Reception Hall: free-5k
Food: potluck (yes I've seen this)-20k
Drinks: free-10k
Dress: $400-5k
Flowers: $200-6k
Music: free-8k (full band)
Hair/makeup: free-1k
Shoes: free-$300
Jewelry: free-4K
Invitations: Facebook-2k
Decorations: free-10k

And this is just what I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[Hank Camacho]

Does Qdoba cater weddings?

 

[DSmith21]

OP, if you are the one getting married, you should pay next to nothing. Weddings are the responsibility of the bride's family. You can offer to pay for the band or something like that. Also since her parents are paying, she and her mom get to plan it the way they want. So keep your opinions to yourself unless asked.

If you are planning a wedding for your daughter, don't spend more than $100-$150 per head. You should offer her a down payment on a house if she is willing to forgo the big wedding for something more modest. A year from now she will wish she had taken the money over the memory of a party that flew by because you had to spend a few moments with each and every guest.

 

[UKserialkiller]

Does Qdoba cater weddings?

Not sure, but Subway definitely does.

Here's Subway's catering menu. You can order today Hankshaker

http://www.subway.com/en-us/catering/cateringproducts

 

[starchief]

Thanks!

I definitely think you ought to consult with maverick before you go any further with this.

 

[WildcatFan1982]

I went to a wedding in Covington last summer. Around 100 people, open bar, dj, and a damn good dinner. Had the time of my life (and I have no idea how I got back to the hotel, just know I didn't drive)

Bride and Groom told me the whole thing was $6000. Just gotta shop around

 

[BBdK]

I don't remember the $20,000+ weddings I've attended any more than I remember the $3,000 ones.

New couples wasting money on an elaborate weddings is one of the stupidest things in life, imo. If her parents are rich and insist...whatever. Otherwise, you can have a perfectly fine wedding at a reasonable cost. Have an open bar of some sort -- nothing else matters to the guests unless they are total bags.

 

[UKserialkiller]

Had a buddy whose wife's parents spent $30K on their wedding (yeah, he saved exactly $0 for the wedding) and within 3 years they are divorced.

 

[dgtatu01]

Blowing money on a wedding is stupid. The only people who make out are your guests. They would have given you the same gift no matter what. The only difference between feeding them Coors Light, chicken fingers, and meatballs verses Woodford Reserve, beef tenderloin, and crab legs is they will talk about how stupid it was that you wasted all that money behind your back.

 

[MdWIldcat55]

As much as they are willing to pay. But I wouldn't charge them more than $50 a head...

 

[TruBluCatFan]

Damn, I better start saving. Figure I got 10 years max.

I knew a banker 10-12 years ago whose son was getting married. He told me the bride's parents flew the bride and groom, both parents, and the small wedding party to Aruba for a wedding on the beach.

Said it was much cheaper to do that than spring for the huge wedding his wife and daughter wanted in the Ville. Crazy.

 

[UKserialkiller]

But I wouldn't charge them more than $50 for head...

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

I think it's pretty tacky to actually tell people what you paid for a wedding. Weddings are for 2 people usually. To a lesser extent, the Bride, and to a greater extent, the Mother of the Bride. So, if the Bride's fam is paying, then they can and should spend whatever the F they want. In my case, my parents also cared a lot about the wedding (had more of their guests than my wife's fam even though the wedding was in CO where she's from), and they paid for a good chunk of it. Her fam kicked in some, then yours truly paid for the rest. Considering it was effectively a destination wedding for 75% of the guests, we felt the need to throw a good party. Plane tickets plus 2 nights in a hotel, you are looking at ~$1k expenditure for a couple. Bused everyone to a nice venue, open bar, Surf and Turf, band, plus everyone was invited to the rehearsal dinner at Folsom Field.

The tough part is all the last minute crap that comes up, and stuff you forget about, like the tips for everyone.

 

[bluelifer]

My wife and I cut corners everywhere we could, managed to spend what most would consider a low amount, and were still pretty pissed at ourselves afterwards. Even if she knows she wants a big expensive wedding now, she'll likely wish you all had that money back after the fact.

It's basically a busy, stressful, sweaty day that costs entirely too much, and you're only going to remember or care about 10% of it. So, whatever she wants to spend, multiply that by .10 and you'll get your money's worth.

 

[ukalumni00]

I believe our wedding was in the $8-10k range. Her parents paid for most of it so I just kept my mouth shut. I was resposnsible for video and photos and got both covered by friends who cost $0. Just bought a nice camera that I still use today and video camera that I already had. Spending a bunch of money on weddings is for suckers especially when you see the high divorce rates now. If I had my way we would have gone to Vegas and spent next to nothing.

 

[Ineverplayedthegame]

Daughter got married a year ago. 200 guests, buffet food, open bar, DJ, photo booth etc. My wife told me we spent 20k. I suspect it was a couple more. I fought kicking and screaming and got all bent out of shape over the stupidity of the cost. In the end, my daughter and wife won out. When my daughter and son-in-law left that night, they thanked me profusely so that was worth something I guess. I console myself with that it was the best party I ever threw.

My advice for people planning, think of the cost for your daughter's wedding as an extra year of college.

 

[rmattox]

When wife and I got married in 1983, FIL told her she had $2K (obviously not a wealthy guy but doing his best). We were very grateful. He told her she could spend it all or none of it and use it for whatever we'd rather spend it on...but he wasn't giving her (or her mother) a penny more. We had a beautiful wedding w/ 100+ guests. Nice reception..nothing fancy.

In 2012 my first daughter said she was getting married. Took a page from FIL's book. Considered cost of living increases, rule of 78, etc...came up with figure of $7K. Had 200 at wedding, 150 at reception. Great caterer, mostly finger foods, but a ton of it. When it was all over, she had around $2K to spend on the honeymoon. Second daughter the same thing a couple years later. Two beautiful weddings with great receptions. .

 

[Hank Camacho]

The whole process makes me feel like a dog watching a card trick. Just pure incomprehension.

 

[Ribsandwhitebread]

Southern bride + southern MIL equated to a fairly big wedding. My family and friends were all coming in from out of town so we wanted everyone to enjoy it.

I believe we had around 350-400 guests and the only thing we really scaled back on was liquor at the bar because the venue calculated that by the number of people at the reception so we stuck with beer and wine and then I supplied my own liquor bottles under certain tables for selected guests. The other thing we cut out last minute was the limo from the church to the reception, which was my fault for forgetting to book it until too late.

Good food, cool venue, live music, alcohol... My wife and I covered about half the costs and her parents took care of the rest. I purposefully never added up the entire price tag bc I really didn't care. Wanted to enjoy it and wanted my family and friends to have a good time.

You can certainly have a good wedding on a smaller budget- but the things we splurged on (good photographer, good band) a bit ended up being the best money spent.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

The biggest ******** is the price gouging from wedding vendors. "Our chair rentals are $10 per chair. Oh, but our wedding chairs (same exact chair) is $25 per". Seems like everything is marked up 100-200% just because they can.

 

[GrandePdre]

The more expensive the wedding, the more expensive the divorce.

 

[Mike-D]

I don't remember the $20,000+ weddings I've attended any more than I remember the $3,000 ones.

New couples wasting money on an elaborate weddings is one of the stupidest things in life, imo. If her parents are rich and insist...whatever. Otherwise, you can have a perfectly fine wedding at a reasonable cost. Have an open bar of some sort -- nothing else matters to the guests unless they are total bags.

This.

I know a couple that took out a loan for their wedding. I think it was between 20-30k. You can't fix stupid.

 

[Hank Camacho]

The biggest ******** is the price gouging from wedding vendors. "Our chair rentals are $10 per chair. Oh, but our wedding chairs (same exact chair) is $25 per". Seems like everything is marked up 100-200% just because they can.

Yup. This is the worst.