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wedding breakdown - Thanks for all the help everyone!!!


luvbug00 wrote: first of all the basics. hope this covers most questions.

priest-50

catering- 4500 this is only for food. all finger type foods as wedding mid afternoon. ( being done by a friend who is already cutting them a redicuals deal)

alcohal-1200 ( the groom and his fam& friends are from the hamptons ,demand high quality scotch)

flowers and decor- 1500 ( friend helping with flowers...we'll see rolleyes.gif )

table chair silverwhere rental-1200 ( it WILL end up as more)

Brides gear-700
grooms gear-100

photography- 1500 ( again a friend who is amazing who would charge the average person 3 grand for her services)

invitations- 200 ( this i'm a little ??? on becuase they are using my old ones from my wedding to brad and i didn't ask for any money for them)

wedding licesnce- 50

favors-300 ( which i think is rediculas)

spa treatment 150 ( again not needed)

wedding site matence fee 150 ( just found out about this one)

subtotal $11280

they still need a cake and her dress is never gonna make it in the 700 range arround here. so far the bakers i've called want $300-500 for a basic cake with fondant, no decorations what so ever. The cupcakes made at home may be our only option..

luvmykids replied:
Ok, that catering still sounds high, first off. I know you live in an expensive area, but how many quotes did they get? Or did they just take someones word for it? That is A LOT of food money for that number of guests.

Alcohol-sorry, they need to keep it simple, like beer and wine, and if the grooms family wants high quality scotch, they can foot that bill.

Flowers and photography sound high too, we bought an expensive wedding package with a very well known photog, and it was $1000 including ALL proofs and sets of prints. Flowers for my wedding party of four and decorations was $600. Why can't she make the table decorations?

If she's serious about the budget, the favors and spa day need to go. Favors are cute but totally not necessary, it's just a trend, not a matter of etiquette.

mckayleesmom replied: 4500 dollars for food?

Alot of that stuff sounds way overpriced....Maybe you can make the wedding a potluck... laugh.gif

I have acutally seen this done before and it turned out really well.

stella6979 replied: WOW! That seems like a lot for food! I would skip out on using my friends for the catering and photography and get some other quotes. I'm sure you could find both cheaper if you shop around a bit.
I don't think favors or decor is needed. Flowers alone would be just fine.
I still never understood the reasoning behind spending so much on a wedding. I understand that it's special day, but it's a day that most likely only you will remember. I think most people attend weddings to just celebrate and have a good time, they don't care about all that fancy schmancy stuff. At least I don't anyways. happy.gif

mckayleesmom replied: It sounds like they are letting friends and family take advantage of them buy offering to do stuff, but charging them an outrageous price for it.

I would flat out tell her that if people really want to come and see them get married then they will deal with the cheap liqour.

For the price of that photographer..she can buy a bunch of digital cameras and have people take the pictures for her..

Since it is an outside wedding...You probably don't need many flowers...You can buy some pretty daisies or mums and paint the flower pots white and set them around. Get some Tiki torches and light those suckers up and whalla..very pretty.

luvbug00 replied: I totally agree with all of you.
But she is what the wedding industry would call a bridezilla.



I insist on this one going as well. i broke it down and it's 2.30 per person!! people are just going to thow them out.

I have a meeting with them and Mar ( the catering dude) at 6 tonight. I'll update tomarrow with any progress. sigh..

luvbug00 replied: oh and the photographer is flying in from the dominican republic hence the high fee.

stella6979 replied:
Hmmmm....sorry to say this, but your friend and her family sound like snobs. If she wants things done her way, then I suggest she hands over another $11,000 for you to work with. dry.gif

mckayleesmom replied: What is wrong with the photographers here?

If they don't get realistic really soon...best friend or not I would just nicely tell her that you can't do it because it's impossible and she should find somebody better to make her 11g magically turn into 50... laugh.gif

cameragirl21 replied:
wow, wow, wow, Monica, you got the deal of a lifetime. I won't do a wedding for less than $1900 (unless it's a close friend) and all they get for that is the pleasure of my company for 8 hours, approximately 1500 pics to choose from not to keep and I'll let them pick their 100 fave pics to print as 4x6 prints. No albums, those are extra, no coffee table books, those are extra too and if they want more prints, well, those are extra too. And I wouldn't sell or give away my negatives unless someone put a gun to my head and even then I'd probably hesitate first.
And that's actually not considered expensive at all. I consider my wedding rates a bargain and a half...I keep them reasonable because while I enjoy doing weddings, my specialty is kids and I prefer to focus on that. True blue wedding photogs will charge 3k and up for their services and again, that is usually just for the pleasure of their company for the duration of the wedding.
1500 for photography is actually very reasonable. Idk as much about flowers but the weddings I've shot have definitely had upwards of 1k in flowers from what I could see.
I agree about the high quality scotch, though, I'm wondering why someone who's from the Hamptons can't just throw them a nice wedding without the stress and hassles.

mckayleesmom replied: Well call me cheap because I would just have a family member take pictures and put sony digital cameras on the tables for that much.... rolling_smile.gif

mckayleesmom replied: Heck...for that much I can buy my own semi pro camera and I already have a tripod....Just need to have somebody take the pics... rolling_smile.gif

mckayleesmom replied: Just wanted to ad one more thing.....We got married in Las vegas, but the chappel had a photography studio....We got all our pictures, the wedding, wine glasses and a video for 300 bucks.... rolling_smile.gif

The pictures turned out really nice too.


Make that 2 weddings in there...his mom got married there that day too and they paid for ours and everything and 300 was the total...They let us have the pictures and she just downloaded the cd onto her computer.

cameragirl21 replied: Yeah, but Brianne, in all fairness, I can give you my fancy shmancy camera and let you take pics with it but remember, it's not the camera that's taking the pictures. Someone can give me Beethoven's piano but it won't make me a music virtuoso. I can give you Shakespeare's pen, or probably it was a plume that he used but it won't make you a classic writer.
People aren't paying me for my fancy camera, although without it I won't be taking any pictures, nice or not. wink.gif

mckayleesmom replied:
I would rather have decent pictures and alot more money for my honeymoon...sorry. Plus, with all the people into photography these days I'm sure you could find somebody that can take decent beautiful pictures. My mother in law takes amazing pictures...so I would just have her take them... rolling_smile.gif

Kaitlin'smom replied: OMG 4500 for food????? my MIL did my sisters wedding with a TON of figer type food and spent maybe 1000 and that was after she tiped my MIL and her fried 200 each for a job well done.

now the party favors, here is my suggestion.
1) the centerpieces could be given away to one person at the table eith er agreed on or radon with a note uner a chair
2) ORIENTAL TRADING has tons of cute inexpensive favors you can probaly get all you need for 60-100 and free shipping.

she needs to comprominse on a few things if she really wants to say on buget.

cameragirl21 replied:
That's entirely up to you, not saying you must pay for top of the line photography, that's a matter of preference. My point was that 1500 is not a high price for wedding photography at all, in fact, it's a steal. If I could get wedding photography for 1500, I'd consider that I got it free, literally.

mckayleesmom replied: At ONE of my sister's weddings rolling_smile.gif She put disposable cameras on the tables and some of the best pictures came from those. You can always put those on the tables as favors and request prints of the pictures when they develop them.

stella6979 replied:
I like the way you think Bri! wink.gif

cameragirl21 replied:
That's actually becoming quite common. Drives us photogs crazy though because flashes are going off like crazy when we're trying to shoot so some photogs nowadays put a no other cameras allowed clause in their contract. I wouldn't go that far, although I have seriously considered it but I am thinking of putting a clause in my contract that says no one with a camera can shoot within 12 feet of me. The good thing is I get the right of way and I tell people to get out of my way all the time, nicely though.
What you spend your money on in a wedding is a matter of personal preference. Remember that it's one day where there are no do-overs so I'd never trust just someone out there with a camera to shoot it. Photography ultimately is the most crucial part of the wedding because the next morning, that's all you'll have left of your wedding, other than your husband/wife, hopefully. laugh.gif
Just to give you an idea, though--on average, nowadays, here in South Florida, people are spending about 3.5-5+ grand on photography for their wedding. That includes everything--books, albums, thank you cards, prints, canvases, parents' books, etc. For that reason, a lot of photogs do weddings solely or at least focus on them. I enjoy them but find them highly stressful...I'm literally standing during the reception with one camera in my hand and another dangling around my neck, anticipating something going wrong. Dealing with a huge bridal party not cooperating during formals, getting all the right shots, making sure you have everything before you leave, dealing with drunk guests hitting on you (happens all the time), etc. I'm always afraid a kid will run into me and I'll drop my camera on his head or that someone will trip over my lights' electric cords and knock the lights over and start a fire. I've had two batteries go down on me in the middle of a wedding, had more than one camera fail and had a bridesmaid drop my flash right before the wedding started. growl.gif But for some photogs, they live for this and are making a killing so obviously they're doing something right.

mckayleesmom replied:
Thats where I think you are wrong..I hated most of my wedding pictures because I had horrible morning sickness....I definantly think there can be a do over...One of these days I'm going to put my dress back on and make Leithan take pictures with me again... :rollsmile:The actual pictures were nice....just my overall look said LOOK SHE JUST SPEWED RIGHT BEFORE WALKING DOWN THE ISLE... rolling_smile.gif

cameragirl21 replied:
well, in that sense, I always say, "I'm digital, not miracle" but I mean to say that you can redo the day.

mckayleesmom replied:
Nobody would ever know... rolling_smile.gif

cameragirl21 replied: actually, Brianne, for what you want you can just do bridal shots...a lot of women get that done prior to the wedding because they are so frazzled at the wedding that it's harder to get good pics. I'm talking about the reception, ceremony, guests, flowers, etc, that you can't do again.
I shot a newborn baby whose mother got married only 15 months prior and she was still fuming at the photog--they paid over 4k for their wedding package and didn't get a single pic in the church...apparently the photog didn't shoot in the church at all. It's hard to shoot in churches because they don't allow flash and Catholic churches in particular (which is the kind of church this woman got married in) can be very dark, like caves, so some photogs I suppose won't even try it because they know they can't do it. If I were that woman, I'd be livid, Idk how any photog can just not shoot in the church?! blink.gif
Oh yeah, I almost forgot why I brought that up--she told me they thought about renting the church for an hour and putting on their wedding clothes and hiring the priest and another photog to get some pics but they ended up not doing it, it's not the same because it's not the day, the day is gone.

luvmykids replied:
Ok well then, she has to be prepared to spend more, thats all there is to it. Seriously. I know it's really easy for me to say since I'm not her friend laugh.gif but maybe if you show it to her in black and white and show her some options (like quotes on food/flowers from other people) it will make sense to her.

luvbug00 replied: Spoiled....ehh yeah. but more or less his parents are footing the house sown payment .The brides parents have 3 daughters and are shelling out half for the wedding and the bride and groom the other half.
The photog was a friend when they lived in the DR for a year. Everyone else is offering and they didn't have the heart to say no and now i have to do it for them.

I think i can do it but tonight i have to be stern nadya the wedding planner. Everyone will hate me but i have to keep them in check.


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