From the /c/personal_finance community on Chambers

Hey guys, this is a follow up from the post I made last year about budgeting a $10,000 wedding in the SF Bay Area. We did, in fact, have a great time, and went under budget. I'd be happy to share my budget for those on the same path. I'd also love to cross reference against other budgets to share commonalities and see if there's area's where planning wise, we can work to minimize costs. **tl;dr:** A $10,000 wedding is possible in the SF Bay Area. Budget Breakdown: **Venue:** $3,000 [1] **Food:** $3,500 - Mini quiches, fruit, cheese, crackers. Oh, and an open bar. **Music:** $300 (DJ for 5 hours) and $300 (Live Acoustic 1.5 hours) **Photography:** $550 **Florals:** $1,100 **Miscellaneous:** $500 (Wedding Dress, Invites, etc). **Attire:** $1,500 **Gifts:** $1100 Total Cost: $9,850 Venues in the Bay Area are the biggest expense. We got ours for $3,000 because it was part of a multi-use center that also had a large hall for events. We had to get the hall whether we wanted it or not. Food and Beverages are next. I decided to go for a 2:00 pm wedding time slot so that I wouldn't have to serve a full meal, saving $15,000-$20,000 in the process. **The Open Bar:** The venue doesn't serve liquor. So I had to buy it outright. I learned that most venues don't actually sell liquor at all, and rather buy it at a markup, then sell it to customers at an even larger markup. So, when they tell you that the liquor for 150 guests will be $15,000, know that they're percentaging it by about triple digit percent. I only had 90 guests, so that "saved" me even more money. **The playlist:** If you have an Alexa, you know how nice it is to ask her to play specific music genres. This is essentially what I did for the wedding reception. An hour of 1950's rock, an hour of 1970's rock, an hour of 1990's rock, then an hour of dance music that I curated prior. I also made a list of all the songs that I didn't want to play, to help weed out anything that might be awkward. **Photography:** I hired a college kid to do the photo's for us. 12 hours of photo's and video for $550. It was a great deal. I suspect he's going to be a professional photographer one day, so we were happy to have been able to be a part of his journey at that price. **Florals:** This was our biggest waste of money. I thought that the bride and her bridesmaids needed flowers, and that the reception area needed some as well. It was way too expensive, and no one really even noticed the flowers anyway. **Miscellaneous:** I bought my wife's ring outright for $230. I had no clue what size it was going to end up being, or what style, but I knew that I didn't want to lease an engagement ring. So, I shopped around and found one that fit the bill. That's about it. We had a great time, and were able to stay well under budget, coming in at $9,850. Edit: We were able to keep the price lower than estimated by utilizing some credits and rewards that we didn't add into the budget. The attire was more expensive as well, I had estimated at $1000. I know there are some questions about exact numbers, etc. If you send me a pm, I'd be happy to go into further detail. Edit 2: **No Kids!**

$10,000 Wedding - A Success

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