About how much would a wedding like this cost?

You don’t say where the reception will be held; are you planning to rent a hall or have it somewhere like a family house or garden? I don’t know the South specifically but it seems to be me very likely that you could have a simple wedding like that for $10,000 or under. As far as the church goes, I would call or visit some local churches and talk to the them about their requirements. It sounds lovely, by the way. Best of luck and congratulations!

The wedding you described sounds less than $10k. Assuming you will have a DJ and not a band, or no music, or you can use your own ipod and speakers. Flowers and decorations can be a lot too.

Price it all out before you decide the date. Your parents aren’t helping you with the cost?

I have no idea but congratulations!!

This response obviously does not meet the standards of General but, Christmas day proposal, just yesterday, c’mon! Have a heart, mods!

Update: Wait, wait I have an on-topic comment! Will there be booze? That adds a lot if you are paying for it.

Don’t forget to take into account photography.

Oh yeah photography, and video also maybe. I love my video. Could wind up to be $10k it is already adding up. The things is we have no clue because I know people who spend $500 on flowers, and I know people who spend $5,000 on flowers, even more.

@jaytkay Thank you! :)

@JLeslie No, my parents aren’t helping with the cost. They simply don’t have the money to help much. The food our family is cooking will be paid for by our moms and my dad said he’ll give the donation to the church to get a preacher to marry us.

@marinelife I’m planning on relying on photos taken by the family. I’m not too worried about the professional photographer/videographer. I think the photos taken will fit us just fine.

We’d love to find a place to do the ceremony and the reception in the same building. Is that even possible? I want to keep the cost as low as possible. I’ve read articles about beautiful, yet simple weddings done at around $5,000 and the pictures look fantastic. I’m a college student and has only a decent paying job, so we aren’t looking for extravagant. However, I refuse to do it in my backyard.

Your parents are helping you with the costs. Food and the church. :). From everything you described I think you can easily do it for $5k.

Yes, you can do the reception and the ceremony at the same place. That is easier done not at a church probably where you live. Probably easier to bring the minister to the place. A party room, or hall.

@lbwhite89 I think it can be done. Look for a firemen’s or vet’s halls to rent, and perhaps a preacher or Justice of the Peace who will attend. Alternately, since you say you want a church, a church with a church hall is feasible and probably not very expensive. Having friends take pictures is a great money saving idea – at my son’s wedding, the best pictures and videos were taken by friends. The trick is keeping your goal in mind and not getting sucked into the bigger is better mentality.

Space?
Food?
Church?
Minister?
Photography?
Flowers?
Music?
Rehearsal Dinner?
Cake?

In planning, the first thing you do is set a budget. Yours is 10K. Now you look around and try to price the items you’ll need. Once you get an idea, you’ll find that what you want is way more than you can afford. You then try to see where you’ll be willing to make compromises.

I think your major items will be space and food. You’ve got the food nailed down by volunteers, so that may not cost you much at all. If you are doing a summer wedding, you might be able to do it in someone’s back yard. Just set up a tent in case of rain. Or rent space from a park.

Set up a spreadsheet or write it down on paper. Get the costs for the various items, and start budgeting.

I strongly recommend you find someone to do the organizing, or at least manage things in the last few days. The last thing you want is to be about to walk up the aisle, and get a call from your bakery saying they can’t find you. I think it’s worth more hiring an organizer because that takes so much weight off your shoulders.

That’s my best advice at the moment.

Fun! I love weddings.

@lbwhite89 why don’t you contact somebody like Wintergreen Woods in your area. They do all inclusive weddings. You can get an idea some of the costs.

@bkcunningham I believe the ceremony is done outdoors. I’m not interested in an outdoor wedding. Not only because of the chance of rain, but because August in SC doesn’t provide the best weather.

I would not hire a wedding planner for a wedding fo this size. You’ll spend more money than you’ll save and they can push you in directions you don’t want to go in. Do recruit friends and family to help out with organizing, decorating, etc.

My wedding cost under $1,000. We got married at a beautiful Womens Club in our community which cost about 75.00 to rent for the day. We also had the reception in the same place. My dress was about 100.00 on sale after Christmas. My family made all the food which was only snack type food. A good friend of mine that was very creative and artistic made all the flower arrangements, but I paid for the flowers, under 100.00. We bought 2 dozen helium balloons that served as our backdrop which eveyone let go as we left the reception and was beautiful in the pictures. I had one maid of honor and he had one best man. Your wedding can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you choose. I personally did not want all our money spent on a wedding, I wanted a honeymoon also, which we went on a cruise afterwards. I had 75 people at my wedding, also.

I just had an idea on how to save this money. Right now we have a joint savings account that we are using to save up for a home, moving after I graduate, emergencies (hope not), etc. I really don’t want to touch that for the wedding, so I was planning on having us both save up for that in a separate account. HOWEVER, we get pretty decent income tax checks back each year, especially him. That would pay for a good chunk of the cost of the wedding. If we combine that at the beginning of 2012 with whatever we can save until then, then it wouldn’t be as if we spent all of our money on the wedding.

It would be nice if it worked out that way. :)

I agree no wedding planner, but @wundayatta brings up a valid point about last minute issues. Have a friend, or close relative help you. Include them on all of the plans near the time of the wedding, and make them a point person people can go to with issues or concerns. Also, the hall might have a point person to help as part of the cost to rent the hall.

Also, hire servers and a bartender. They will maintain the buffet, clean up, keep things orderly, make the coffee (you might want to rent a big coffee maker, if you are renting plates, glasses, table, chaffing dishes, they will have the coffee maker also) and the wait staff will not be a lot of money, maybe 3 people? It can make all of the difference. You don’t want your guests to have to worry about these things once there.

@lbwhite89 I thought perhaps just to get a cost idea you might contact this venue. Anyway, they do have three different chapel settings and one is on a covered veranda,

http://www.wintergreenwoods.com/Elegant_Package.html

Anyway, we just paid for a very simple but nice outdoor wedding for a daughter who got married outside Washington, DC, on the Cheasapeake Bay in Maryland. Cost of dress; tux rental; tents; bbq catering; (his parents bought the booze); a friend bartended; a friend was photographer; rehearsal dinner; DJ; rental of reception hall; rental of tables, chairs and linens, invitations all was about $14,000. Two years ago a much nicer wedding for the oldest daughter in Northern NY was about $20,000. That wedding included nicer food, professional photographer and we paid the bar tab.

@lbwhite89 Just a suggestion. If you are good at saving, you might want to change your withholdings so you don’t get a big chunk of money from the IRS at the end of the year. If it is in the bank you will earn some interest on it. Very little interest right now, but everything counts. Plus, you probably would have a better handle on how much money you have saved up. But, you would want to do a little math, and make sure you don’t owe a lot at tax time.

Also, I would never recommend having a joint bank account before you are married.

@JLeslie We’ve had our joint savings account for awhile and we haven’t had a problem with it. Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of people telling me how stupid I am for having a joint account. Our checking accounts will always be separate, but we’re perfectly capable of keeping a savings account together. We both put $100 in to start it off and we have $25 drafted from each of our accounts to add to it each month. If there was $20,000 in there, of course there would be an issue if we ever split up, but I don’t think anyone is going to cry over $300 if that were to happen. Also, I’ve known him a long time. Even if that were to happen, neither of us would need to worry about the other skipping out of town with all the money. I know anyone can say that, but you’ll just have to take my word for it on this one.

Oh, and we both only have only 1 on our W-4s and enjoy the money that comes in at the beginning of every year. We aren’t that great at saving unless it’s separate (like our savings account) and don’t do well at the “little bit at a time” saving plan. It just doesn’t usually work for us. If it all comes in at once and we already know where it’s going, it’ll just work better that way.

But thank you anyways for those suggestions. We know what works for us on certain things. I’m only concerned about the wedding cost in this question.

@lbwhite89 Sounds like you know best about what works for you regarding saviing money. Some people don’t understand they pay the same amount to the IRS whether they get money at the end of the year, or owe it, but sounds like you do, just are aware you are not the best at saving little by little. Sounds like a plan.

The joint savings will become a few thousand dollars for the wedding, not just $300, but you seem confident, so I won’t dwell on it.

Is your family the type of family that gives money for gifts at weddings? I’m stereotyping SC as it not being the case, that they would be more gift oriented, but of course I could be wrong. I just hate for you to spend all your savings on a wedding and have nothing left to start your marriage together.

@JLeslie Unfortunately, neither of our families have a whole lot of money. I’m not sure what they’d be more inclined to give as a gift, to be completely honest. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. I’m pretty good at hinting. :) But even if they do give money, it won’t be much. We’re kind of on our own when it comes to all that.

@lbwhite89 I think it generally has more to do with tradition than hinting. Jews, Italians, Greeks, tend to give money.

You are going to do a registry right?

Congratulations! No suggestions but Good Luck!! I got married at home with a Justice of the Peace. The stress of getting the tiny house we were in ready about killed me!!

@JLeslie Well we aren’t Jewish, Italian, or Greek, so I guess we’re out of luck. haha. However, I’ve known a lot of people who received a lot of money and they aren’t any of those either. And yes, I’m going to do a registry.