What did your DC wedding cost?

[Anonymous]

I cannot believe how much $$$ people are paying for weddings here. Wow. How can you all afford it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went all out so ours was probably pushing $175 when all was said and done, with reception at the Willard

Wtf? The DAR wedding for 120 people posted above was less than half of that...

And it had a DJ budgeted and almost nothing for alcohol. The catering at my wedding 20 years ago in Baltimore was more than they budgeted.

I wrote the DAR blog post. At DAR you can bring in your own alcohol from a wholesaler such as ACE, so you don't have to pay retail rates to a hotel. I've had heavy drinking weddings of ~115 put back only about $1800 of alcohol. Yes, bands are much more than DJs, can be up to $15K for the best local, $30K if you bring in a large band from out of town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Venue cost and/or full cost
Trying to see what’s normal

in DC proper, the rental fees for special event venues range from $7K to $25K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Venue cost and/or full cost
Trying to see what’s normal

The Willard/$30K/which worked out to $10k per guest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Venue cost and/or full cost
Trying to see what’s normal

The Willard/$30K/which worked out to $10k per guest.

You only had 3 guests?

[Anonymous]

$35,000 for 85 people on a Saturday night in January 2018.

We got married at Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase - and because we got married in the winter, it was MUCH cheaper. $5,000 vs. $25,000 or more. That helped tremendously.

We spent most of the budget a seated/plated dinner and our fantastic photographer.

Places where we cut costs:
-My dress. I got it on sample sale for $600. A few embellishments and alterations? No more than $1500 total including the veil.
-We only served beer/wine.
-A friend put together the floral arrangements.
-The guest list. We were ruthless. Looking back, I wish we would have included a few more people and felt more free to spend a bit more to include them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Venue cost and/or full cost
Trying to see what’s normal

The Willard/$30K/which worked out to $10k per guest.

How is that possible? Even if that included the couple that's 5 people so $6000 per person? Even if you put everyone up for a night or two that seems high. Even a private dining room for 5 people wouldn't be that expensive there. And you wouldn't have to deal with a lot of the other stuff like place cards and escort charts and programs, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Venue cost and/or full cost
Trying to see what’s normal

The Willard/$30K/which worked out to $10k per guest.

You only had 3 guests?

Sorry- I meant $1k per guest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe how much $$$ people are paying for weddings here. Wow. How can you all afford it?

Yeah, these figures are nuts to me, but then again, I'm not from the typical DCUM demographic. The budget for my fiance and me is $18k tops (fiance prefers $15k - no parental help). Early Fall 2020 wedding, anticipating 140-160 guests, affordable Howard County, MD community center venue. If one of these threads exists next year, I'll report back what we ended up spending.

[Anonymous]

We married in my spouse’s west coast hometown instead (Seattle). DC was just too expensive. For 120 people we spent ~26k. DC quotes for similar weddings were around 75k+. We were shocked.

This was in 2015. We found a venue with a view in August, catering, cake, dress, etc all locally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new formula is 1/3 groom parents, 1/3 brides parents and 1/3 couple

BTW when grooms parents paid 100 percent the groom was expected to pay for home and let wife be a SAHM.

The grooms today wife expected to work, pay 1/2 everything and do 80 percent of child rearing. And actually give birth.

If anything in 2019 groom parents should pay

It’s (hopefully) a few years off still but I can’t wait to pay for DD’s wedding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new formula is 1/3 groom parents, 1/3 brides parents and 1/3 couple

BTW when grooms parents paid 100 percent the groom was expected to pay for home and let wife be a SAHM.

The grooms today wife expected to work, pay 1/2 everything and do 80 percent of child rearing. And actually give birth.

If anything in 2019 groom parents should pay

Please make sure you communicate this to the dude within the first couple of dates.. Let us know how the spinsters club is working out in a few years..

[Anonymous]

$120k-ish

But we used a fancy caterer, had lots of flowers, and my dress was $8k. If you want the high-end wedding experience, you can absolutely do it for $75k. Probably not much less than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not married in DC but I recently read a blog post that said a wedding at DAR Constitution Hall would be $75k.

Spot on. My DAR wedding was about $85k 7 years ago...

I considered DAR but went with National Museum it Women in the Arts— similar budget (and yes, still happily married)

That's where DH and I got married! Such a gorgeous venue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe how much $$$ people are paying for weddings here. Wow. How can you all afford it?

I'm an only child and dad has been a law firm partner for the last 30 years. Other than our wedding, my parents live relatively frugally...they live in Bethesda, but in a modest home...they don't take lavish vacations or drive super fancy cars or anything. If they would have felt pinched at all, I would have done something less fancy. I also would have done things very differently if we didn't already have money for a honeymoon, a down payment on a home, or any non-mortgage debt.