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Wedding Budget? - Beyond.ca - Car Forums

View Poll Results: How much did you spend/will spend?

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  • Less than $10,000

    31 20.67%
  • $10,000 - $15,000

    20 13.33%
  • $15,001 - $20,000

    23 15.33%
  • $20,001 - $25,000

    21 14.00%
  • $25,001 - $30,000

    14 9.33%
  • $30,001+

    41 27.33%
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Thread: Wedding Budget?

  1. #1
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    Default Wedding Budget?

    Just looking to get an idea of what everyone paid to get married. We are looking to have about 150 guests, and most likely within the Calgary area, or Banff/Canmore. Even better if you can break it down into categories like: venue, food(plated or buffet), entertainment, photographer etc.

    PM me if you don't want to publicly state up much you spent/will spend.

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    There are a few things that can make a big difference to this:

    1) photographer. anywhere from $0 for getting your aunt/sister to do it up to $10k for a professional team. Can add in Thousands more for the album in some cases. Mine was $3500 for the photogs, and we bought the album for our 1 year anniversary.
    2) booze. If you go straight cash bar, no worries. Loonie or twonie are the middle-ground options. I don't recommend host bar for anyone, since it just means that at lest 25% of the drinks will be wasted or thrown out. In some cultures, it's got to be host bar, which can be the most expensive part of the night at some venues.


    I've been to very nice weddings, mine included, that cost under $10k, and I've been to one recently that was without a doubt over $100k. IMO, you are doing this backwards. Figure out your budget, then figure out how to fit within that.
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    ...
    Last edited by Sugarphreak; 07-11-2019 at 08:21 AM.

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    Originally posted by Sugarphreak
    Mine won't be that useful to you... I pretty much said "fuck it", and did it as cheaply as possible so I could take a wicked 5 week honeymoon instead. I don't regret it one bit... weddings are a waste of money and too stressful IMO.

    /buzzkill lol
    My wife and I went to a restaurant in Bridgeland. had a JP show up and the waiter and bartender were our witnesses. JP was aprox 200, and had a 400-500 dollar bill including a 1XX dollar bottle of champagne and a big tip to the guys for helping out. We we're the only people in the restaurant when we got married then after the JP left a couple other tables showed up. Made for a great personal night.
    -U

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    Originally posted by Sugarphreak
    Mine won't be that useful to you... I pretty much said "fuck it", and did it as cheaply as possible so I could take a wicked 5 week honeymoon instead. I don't regret it one bit... weddings are a waste of money and too stressful IMO.

    /buzzkill lol

    Ditto! Spend like $3.5k on mine at the Canmore Nordic center, with food, my photographer buddy as a photographer, for 25 people. I just don't get the whole "my dick is bigger than yours" wedding that the Chinese like to throw, invite 250 people, including the family pets, just to show off how mighty their family is. Mind you most of my friends are Chinese (I am white) so those are mostly the type of weddings I attend. I just don't get why someone would want to blow that much money on a single day. You can make a day special without spending a years income, like going somewhere nice for a change and enjoying your time together. To each their own

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    It's just part of Asian culture. Weddings with 500+ guests are common and ceremonies last for 2 days (traditionally it was a whole week). For Asians in the west it's pretty much a showboating thing but here everyone does it so it's no biggie. Everyone looks at you strange if you have a small one. Not sure about the Chinese but it's worth noting that people always bring an envelope with cash as a gift so sometimes the wedding pays fr itself (just think of it as paying for your own meal).

    As for me, I also find it's a waist to spend too much but if I end up marrying a local girl I'd probably have to fork out a lot of cash...


    Interesting to see the results of the poll, seems there is a very even spread in terms of what people spent.
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    .
    Last edited by Cos; 01-02-2017 at 11:38 AM.
    Originally posted by adam c

    Line goes up, line goes down, line does squiggly things and fucks Alberta
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  8. #8
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    20ish people at Bellagio in Vegas

    Wedding ~$5-6k
    Dinner at Prime patio ~$10K
    Private room at a club in Caesars another $3-4K

    Could have done the same thing in Calgary for more people but decided we wanted only family and closest friends. Also they took care of everything so we just showed up and had a great time.

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    Originally posted by bitteeinbit
    It's just part of Asian culture. Weddings with 500+ guests are common and ceremonies last for 2 days (traditionally it was a whole week). For Asians in the west it's pretty much a showboating thing but here everyone does it so it's no biggie. Everyone looks at you strange if you have a small one. Not sure about the Chinese but it's worth noting that people always bring an envelope with cash as a gift so sometimes the wedding pays fr itself (just think of it as paying for your own meal).

    As for me, I also find it's a waist to spend too much but if I end up marrying a local girl I'd probably have to fork out a lot of cash...


    Interesting to see the results of the poll, seems there is a very even spread in terms of what people spent.
    I'm not sure I agree about that. I think the only reason that the Chinese/Asian weddings are so large is that the bride and groom let their parents get too involved. Ive been to some of these large weddings and I'm pretty sure the bride and groom didnt know 75% of the people there. My wife is Chinese and we kept our wedding to a modest 120 people.

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    <$10g

    We also were of the type that didn't go for the big wedding. Immediate family and 2 friends each. Did it right on the beach in Tofino, stayed at the Long Beach Lodge. Honestly, the LBL didn't most of the work for us, lol. Best fucking wedding cake ever too, it was just a chocolate cake, but it was mind blowingly good. (So much so that after the ummm... consumation... I had to go raid the hotels kitchen and we finished the cake that night on the balcony )


    The ONLY thing we regret is not having a professional photographer, but we couldn't afford it at the time.

    Originally posted by nzwasp


    Ive been to some of these large weddings and I'm pretty sure the bride and groom didnt know 75% of the people there.
    This was a large reason we didn't have a big one. We originally intended on it, but by the time her parents finished INSISTING we invite X amount of people (because they were invited to their kids weddings ), we just said fuck it, and did the small one. We aren't even asian, lol.
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  11. #11
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    my wedding cost some in the 30g range. my parents got 3 tables for their friends, and my wifes parents got 2 tables. the rest were family and friends.

    i can't remember what the breakdown for costs was but i know that the catering and alcohol was the majority of that cost.

    with all the money we collected, we spent maybe 2-3g's in the end. not bad considering i got to party and get drunk with all my friends and family.
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    150 guest plus a great venue will be at least 30,000, trust me I have been to a few weddings this year and place your budget and add 30% more

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    Prices obviously gone up since I got married but basically local community hall was 500-750, photographer 1000, friend/fam did video. Dinner was buffet around 20-25/person, then booze was 1500 or so (wife's dad paid for it) - agree that a toonie bar would keep the waste down. DJ guy was 300-500.

    Dress is a big wild card - we wanted to rent for 200-400 but her mom wanted to buy some 1000+ thing. Justice was few hundred as well.

    Well under 8K.

    Been to some 50K+ with bar rental/live bands etc and I just don't see the point.
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    .
    Last edited by Cos; 01-02-2017 at 11:37 AM.
    Originally posted by adam c

    Line goes up, line goes down, line does squiggly things and fucks Alberta
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    Ours came in less than 10g. Granted, all the planning and decorating was done by us. We got my brother to MC the reception, got a discount wedding photographer (who now charges about triple what we paid her since she was starting out) and tried to cut costs where we could.

    My wife is Filipino and none of her family could attend, so we ended up only having just under 50 people. But when asked for their honest opinions (and my siblings are nothing but honest), we were told it was a gorgeous wedding.

    The biggest expense for us was the venue. The reception room was something like 3k-4k by itself, but the supplied a gazebo in Canmore with a great view for the ceremony.

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    Originally posted by ExtraSlow
    IMO, you are doing this backwards. Figure out your budget, then figure out how to fit within that.
    Our budget can be in the +$30,000 range, but we were hoping to see how much it would cost to get a nice wedding and what people were spending. While I agree that it seems wasteful to spend 20 or 30k on a wedding, we want to have a good time with our family and friends and we enjoy good food(which is the highest single cost).

  17. #17
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    We had about 80 people and ours was in the 20-30 range as well. the reception and photographer took up about 2/3 of the budget. All the other things, cake, flowers, dress, tux rentals, church, limo, etc. took up the remaining 1/3.

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    Originally posted by npham


    Our budget can be in the +$30,000 range, but we were hoping to see how much it would cost to get a nice wedding and what people were spending. While I agree that it seems wasteful to spend 20 or 30k on a wedding, we want to have a good time with our family and friends and we enjoy good food(which is the highest single cost).
    You can have one hell of a party for 30k with all of your friend and family, without having to pay the "wedding" premium.

  19. #19
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    Originally posted by Sugarphreak
    Mine won't be that useful to you... I pretty much said &quot;fuck it&quot;, and did it as cheaply as possible so I could take a wicked 5 week honeymoon instead. I don't regret it one bit... weddings are a waste of money and too stressful IMO.

    /buzzkill lol
    No doubt.

    This thread has done well to remind me why I haven't bothered going ahead with an official wedding. Thanks guys!

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    The one upside of having a huge Asian wedding is that you can bring your own liquor. Get a one day liquor license and bring all your own booze to the restaurant.

    Budget around $5000 for a decent photographer, bonus if they have an assistant/2nd shooter for additional shots/angles.

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