How much have people here spent on your wedding? I know very little about planning a wedding. I know that for both my brother's and sister's wedding they went way over what they initially planned to spend, and seeing how much time, effort, and stress went into the wedding I clearly remember thinking that should I get married, eloping would be far preferable.
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Not counting rings, a little less than $1,000. Including rings, just a little under $2,500. Plain band for me, custom engagement ring (made overseas while I was on a deployment, without a diamond) and wedding band for my wife-in total, rings were around $1,500. We got married lakefront under beautiful old trees at the house of a friend of a friend (who was thrilled someone liked their house enough to get married at). Ordered bbq from a local restaurant, wife made the decorations, Dad bought the beer, BIL was one photographer and long time bf of sister was the other-each good amateur photographers with fancy cameras, our mothers and grandmother each made wedding cakes, and rode home in a limo I owned. Long story, but the limo was free and the monthly costs were covered by friends. Around 40 guests, mostly family and very close friends. Having our families there was important-everything else, we realized would be about someone else, not us. If we'd wanted a big party, we would have still had the small wedding and rented a room a few weeks later and catered bbq and beer for our friends (that would have been 3-4k) but we realized we didn't really need to do that to be happy. I know some people want and feel the need for a big party and lots of people, but we didn't (and after having been married, are no happier than if we had had a big party).