You guys ever see this show?  I walked in and the babysitter had it on last night...  It's bargain basement brides (looks like $10k and under) planning their weddings. 

They pinch every penny (like spending $500 on their gown, shows, veil, etc.), and then expect everyone to fall all over them...  *ugh*  I'll never need a reminder to stay away from Craigslist ever again!  

:o) 

You think 10K is not enough to spend? Maybe in Texas....but here in Indiana - 10K is OUTRAGEOUS!  It would get you The Works!  The most expensive thing I purchased was my dress (12 years ago) and it was $695.00.  I think everything else combined was MAYBE 2K, including venue, church, cake, food, flowers, music and photography. And I got exactly what I wanted.  I'd like to think that I had the typical wedding (200 guests) at that time, and it wasn't 10K....

 

I do not consider myself or my wedding Bargain Basement.   Although my marriage was.....LOL

 Oops.    Okay, it's not my premise that $10k is "cheap" (although it would fall into the "inexpensive" category easy enough...)  The premise of the show is to take brides that are on a tight budget and watch them plan their wedding.  Entertaining.  Scary as hell from a vendor perspective.  :o)

It looks like the show covers $10k and under when they're talking about the "poor bride" in the "Rich Bride, Poor Bride" title.  

tht is too funny!!!!!  10K  whew~!

I spent 2,000.  My mom said I could use it for a wedding or to elope with bu t2K was it. (almost 20 yrs ago)

I got a dress for 75 dollars and had my memere do the alterations.  We invited 75 people, (112 showed up) at a local family restaurant.  We served traditional turkey dinner.  My memere ended up having to help out to feed the extra people (the owner of the restaurant was her childhood chum and ran to the supermarket to get more turkey!)

We got it all- DJ, food, flowers, photog, favors, church, material for the bridesmaids dresses(they made their own) and a limo for 2 grand.  My mom was very proud!

LOL

what I could have done with 10K  zowie~!

I was grateful for the $500 my parents gave me (8 years ago).  We eloped and I don't regret it.  We used the $ to pay for one semester of school. 

we spent $12,000 3 years ago on out wedding.   That included  the whole ceremony, a very nice reception venue and full sit down meal for $150 people, flowers, invitations, DJ, photographer and honeymoon to Cancun.

We live in Indiana and we were able to have a beautiful elegant wedding and reception but let me tell you it was hard. I could have easily spent another $5,000

 I am sooo in favor of eloping.  I wish we eloped.  My daughter decides to, more power to her.  :o)

just a side note to previous message..... I could have spent another $5,000 on the wedding but my husband (fiance at the time)  spent almost double that on my engagement ring..... not complaining because I love my ring i'm just saying it would have been less stressfull throwing the kind of wedding we both wanted.

We had a $5k wedding, and it was upscale for our area.  The dollar amount is subjective depending on your locale.  Texas, yeah, $10k is cheap.  Rural midwest, $10k could do 4 weddings and then some, and do them well.

my hubby wanted to elope and now I see he was right, but my daughter????she BETTER NOT!!!

LOL  oh, how times change as we age!

I was waiting for DH to get home last night and started watching this.  I was chuckling under my breath.  I'm in the NorthEast and my $12,000 wedding was considered on a tight budget 8 years ago.  The average around here is $30,000.  I was amazed at some of the things they were able to do on such tight budgets.  I did think, however, it was rediculous to pay close to $2,000 for a coordinator on a $12,000 budget. 

I laughed out loud at the last bride I saw.  The groom set a budget of $40,000 and told her that was set in stone and all he was paying and she kept saying "well, the budget can change"  "I don't care, I'm supposed to have fun planning my wedding"  The guy looked like he was going to kill her.  I just kept laughing thinking, "Oh God, what is that marriage going to be like?"  They ended up going over by almost $7,000.  Eesh!

 

waltherchic:

The groom set a budget of $40,000 and told her that was set in stone and all he was paying and she kept saying "well, the budget can change"  "I don't care, I'm supposed to have fun planning my wedding"  The guy looked like he was going to kill her.  I just kept laughing thinking, "Oh God, what is that marriage going to be like?"  They ended up going over by almost $7,000.  Eesh!

 

Okay.... here's some perspective... $40,000 is more than my HOUSE cost!!! Yes, it's a small house in a small, rural, NW Minnesota town, but SHEESH! I wish I had that much money... I certainly wouldn't spent it on what amounts to a huge party with some legal documents.

When I married my first husband in 1995 we spent $40K on our wedding.  Yep, that is $40,000.  We only had about 100 people attend but we had the works - sit down dinner, open bar, hotel rooms for out of town guests, etc.  I remember our photography being around $8,000 and my dress was about $6,000.  This was in Texas and I really think there is a lot more pressure in the Dallas/Ft Worth area to hold these really high dollar weddings.  Anyhow.. that marriage lasted 3 years! lol

Husband #2 and I spent $3000 - including the honeymoon as we flew out to Vegas, got married and stayed in a gorgeous suite for a long weekend.  I definitely think it was the way to go! lol  We had a lot more fun but I have to say the photography sucked.  lol  Oh well.  :-)

I want to look up this show - sounds very interesting!! :-)

My husband wanted a big wedding and I didn't, I just wanted to go and get it done.  I didn't want any of the planning or headaches or hurt feelings because such and such wasn't picked to be in the wedding.  Also we had 4 children all under the age of 5.

Finally I gave in and told him if he wanted a big wedding fine but, HE had to plan it.  He changed his mind real quick!

I don't know how much was spent about a quarter of a century ago on my wedding. I guess it was around $6-8 k. One of my colleagues was on his first marriage and her second. When they started planning it out, and it got to be ugly with relatives they said "you know, for this 6 grand, we could go to Hawaii and get married and not have to put up with all the drama... " and thats what they did! Came home had a barbecue and kegger reception for ~$300 and called it a wedding!

 

My parents gave me $1,000 19 years ago and believe me there wasn't a lot we could do with $1,000!  I think the most expensive thing we had was the photographer and he only cost $350!  We got pre-wedding pictures and ceremony pictures and 35 5x4's and that was it!  A friend "took" the reception (cake and finger foods) pictures for us, but forgot to put film in the camera, which we didn't discover until after the honeymoon!  We have something like 5 reception pictures taken by a guest with one of those cameras that had a round wheel negative thingy.  Now my sister, got $20,000 for her wedding-- .

We spent close to $25K when we got married 5 years ago. I don't feel like I really went over the top on anything...it just all added up fast! I got my dress for a bargain (Only $200 because the bridal shop was closing and I got the floor model), I spent a good chunk on my photographer (about $3500) and videographer (about $1500). We had a sit down dinner, beer and wine bar, string quartet before the ceremony.

I am an only child and my Dad has very high tastes, so a lot was done because he wanted it that way. Not that I minded or didn't want it that way, but my Dad isn't one to scrimp!

I have seen some beautiful weddings on low budgets. The thing that really irritates me is when people cut corners on photography and then I hear how they regret it later because it didn't turn out. It is very true with photography...you get what you pay for!

Steph
 

 

We definitely got out cheap, but we called in all sorts of favors! My cousin is a professional photographer and he shot the wedding as our wedding gift. My mom had a friend who was a florist, and she got all the flowers at cost and made the arrangements herself. Being a long-time business owner here, I had a few connections and got our reception site for $100 -- It's a Chamber of Commerce outside/inside venue ON the square downtown in our city (they don't rent it -- it was just a favor to me) and my (now) wife had a caterer friend who catered the wedding for a few hundred dollars and made our cakes for FREE!

I think the most expensive things were rings and her dress. I didn't go overboard, but I spent around $1500 on her engagement ring and got her platinum bands on both the engagement and wedding rings. Mine is just white gold (I prefer it and it's cheaper).

I think we did the entire shabang for around $4,000 but I'd have to ask my wife. It was great though -- we had a blast. One of my clients owns a historic hotel, and let us HAVE it for the night. They closed the entire hotel -- about 12-15 rooms -- and we had our run of the place. There were a few workers there to take care of us but they stayed out of the way. It was really nice, and I don't think we could've done better.

My wife's sister's wedding was probably $50k easily. They had it at a mansion, full bar, flew in out of town guests, etc. Several years later they wish they'd put the money on a down payment for a house or paid off their hefty student loans instead. I'm very happy about our decision to have a small wedding!

Ok...we had a beautiful wedding...but it only cost around $5-7K 3 years ago .  My dress was $600 and I love(d) it...and yes...IT WAS FROM DAVID'S BRIDAL!!!  My engagement ring and wedding band all together cost $700...and they are absolutely beautiful!!  Again, we got married in central Illinois and a lot of our vendors were friends of the family.  But we had 6 people on either side, 2 rings bearers and a flower girl, and around 300 people at our wedding.  It was perfect.  And people commented that it was the most beautiful wedding they had ever been to.  And it was very us.  Tradition didn't mean much at our wedding.  We did things the way we wanted to and it was great!

Anyhoo...I guess my point is...you can have exactly what you want w/o going overboard on the price.  It's not being cheap...it's being thrifty and smart. 

I haven't seen the show but I did see a little of Bridezillas once and I suggest that no one that wants to continue shooting weddings ever, ever watch it. 

Nicole says 40G is more than her house, yep, back in 87 we bought a two story, 5 BR, attached garage for 25G.  When that burned down we got a smaller 2BR with 8 acres for about 80G and my relatives in southern MN thought we had greatly robbed someone.  Nicole is in the north or MN so I guess things are different up along the iron range or that area than south of the cities.  She could use that 40G to heat her home for two or thee years.

Now Ashley from OH is on the right track.  An engagement and wedding ring for $700, she must care more about the relationship than the ring.  Still, how she did that in her big town must have been a trick.  Diamonds by the way are one of the most common gems out there, way overvalued when compared to rarer gems.  The cartel keeps prices up by releasing only so many at a time and constant brainwash advertising.  You can find them cheaper if you find someone that buys them from mine workers and smuggles them out up their heinie.  Incidentally, has anyone ever seen the show, I think on History or Discovery Channel about the diamond wars and how many people were killed and murdered because of them and the cartels? 

  I know you all wanted to hear this trivia and may even now be sniffing that ring to see if someone got you a cheap one.  Ugh. 

These variances in prices are why I say I wouldn't move to CA even tho offered four times what I make here.  I don't want to become a pauper. 

jollygreen:

She could use that 40G to heat her home for two or three years.

ROTFLMAO

Considering that we can go weeks (Yes, I said WEEKS - nearly all of January and February) where our temps don't even go above the Zero mark on the thermometer, you aren't too far off!!!

It may not cost that much, but I do get sticker shock every winter when I see our heating bills.

jollygreen:

Nicole says 40G is more than her house, yep, back in 87 we bought a two story, 5 BR, attached garage for 25G.

We bought our house at about $36,500 in summer of 2000.  1 story (plus basement) 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom. Seperate two car garage. In town lot.

jollygreen:

Now Ashley from OH is on the right track.  An engagement and wedding ring for $700, she must care more about the relationship than the ring.  Still, how she did that in her big town must have been a trick.  

 

I got married in a small town in Illinois.  It was only after we got married that we started moving to all sorts of big cities. 

we spent $1500 4.5 years ago. I do wish that we would have had a nicer venue and better photos. If I had it to do over again I think we would take our immediate family to a beach somewhere and done it there but that would have cost more. our wedding was nice I could have easily spent more but we didn't have more I think 10k is insane i wouldn't spend that much unless i was crazy rich.