How much is an average wedding?

amother

Yellow ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 2:43 pm

amother Papaya wrote:

Anyone want to share their resources or just tell me how they spent a fraction and I’m overspending without giving me contacts?
Please share dress gemachs which are not a fortune along with florists and music

Ehrenfeld's Gemach in Boro Park is very cheap.
Kallah gowns are in the $200 range.
Kids gowns even cheaper.

Also seeing lots of mention of invitations and stamps.
We don't mail out invitations. We only send emails. For closer family that need to be respected, we do personal phonecall invites.

Vort in the house as a previous poster mentioned. We also only do the vort the day of the engagement, so whomever can come, comes. If you can't make it, I understand, it was short notice.

imaonthepath

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 2:47 pm

amother Papaya wrote:

First of all, mazal tov on the upcoming simcha! For my DD's wedding earlier this year, we used Ateres Matel Leah (Manhattan Beach Jewish Center) in Brooklyn. It was takanah, and it was really beautiful. For comparison, it is less than Chynka, about $25,000 for a full package (you can add options to menu and photographer for a little more).

Re vendors, please get the kallah's dress at Ehrenfeld in BP, if you live close enough. Dress rental is $300, alterations are done on site for a very reasonable fee, and the selection is fantastic. Yad Leah in Crown Heights also has gorgeous bridal gowns and headpieces for rent.

My 10 y o DS's suit was from Nordstrom, I think around $80 for jacket and $50 for pants. It looked great. I was not spending stupid money on a suit he will iy"H outgrow in the near future.

I wound up getting dresses for myself and my other DDs from Augenbraun's in Lakewood. Rentals vary, from $400 up, but they have an enormous selection. They also do bridal. For gemachs, I highly recommend Simchas Rochel v'Golda in Crown Heights.

For sheitals, we went to Sheeba in Crown Heights. Beautiful selection, prices are around $2500. I've also heard that Red Carpet Wigs in Long Island (maybe Cedarhurst) has a great selection of used wigs.

Weddings are expensive, but there are choices to be made, and IMO, you can let the chosson and kallah know that some things are doable and others simply aren't. That's an important lesson in life, period.

amother

↑ Pink ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 3:45 pm

amother Yellow wrote:

Just curious, regarding invitations, does noone mind not getting any wedding money?
Chances are If you don't send paper invitations noone is sending anything.
We only put reply card stamps on those we knew would for sure respond, wether with a check or not. And the invitation can be as basic as a card - we've gotten so many basic ones.
Honestly, I don't know how much it costed, but then the chosson and kallah get no money.

amother

↑ Yellow

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 3:48 pm

amother Pink wrote:

We've done this for 7 children now kh, and all of them received money at the wedding.

amother

↑ Pink ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:10 pm

amother Lightpink wrote:

Boy am I glad my
Kids are still young!!

All these responses have been us based, I think it will be very intresting to see if anyone outside the us chimes in to see in other countries how much it comes to , I have a hunch the numbers will be a lot lower

Start saving now Smile

Regardless oot/US it will still cost alot, but yea
If let's say for arguments sake average US is 40-50k
Will UK be 20? 10? How much cheaper. And, won't it be easier to pay for if you've been saving for a while rather than 20k straight out of the bank.

amother

Topaz ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:14 pm

When I got married at least, Chicago had a wedding dress gemach. It was free besides dry cleaning and alterations. The dresses were gorgeous too. Do other communities have such a thing or it's unique to Chicago?

To a recent siblings wedding, one sister got a MacDouggal for around $200. I got from Dillards same price. Another from a gemach in Brooklyn don't know for sure but I am guessing 150-200. My mother also went there.

Another hack, maybe not perfect chasunah makeup, but go to a makeup counter or store, get a makeover and then buy some of the products (not to take advantage).

Or what I did for one of my sister's weddings was have my sister's friend who is obsessed with makeup and doing makeup (and has great makeup) do us sisters. Kallah got professional and 2 HS sisters also did IIRC. Saved so much money and in the pictures we look great. I actually like my makeup at that wedding better than the times we did professional.

amother

↑ Raspberry ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:30 pm

happyness wrote:

To start with, you don’t qualify for ‘pretty basic’ if you married off in Chynka

Non takanah, it’s the cheapest hall in Brooklyn.

Nobody is going to say Chynka is a fancy lavish place to make wedding. But yes, if basic to you means a Takana hall then it’s not basic. Otherwise it is.

amother

↑ Pink ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:34 pm

amother Topaz wrote:

There are gorgeous gowns out there for good prices, did you guys do a color scheme? I feel that puts alot of pressure.
I've been to many weddings where there is the odd one out of the family wearing the wrong/off color. And I always feel bad

amother

Olive

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:37 pm

amother Pink wrote:

This. The one thing nobody talks about cutting is the color schemes on the gowns. It really adds up, for the family, as well as for the married siblings. If you can do any color, it's easier to find cheaper.

amother

↑ Topaz ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:39 pm

amother Pink wrote:

Yes we did. I picked navy because it looks good on both sides. It was super easy to find. I don't think anyone had trouble. The pictures looked very nice.

amother

↑ Topaz ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:41 pm

amother Olive wrote:

You can do easier colors or harder colors. Our last wedding was light blue. We didn't have a hard time at all. We did pink the wedding before and had no problem. The one before we did champaign and mine was navy. I wore the same dress to the champaign wedding and the pink wedding because my dress worked with both schemes.

amother

↑ Topaz ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:44 pm

My ILs couldn't be bothered and I can't say I'm impressed with their pictures... I do get to have fun at their weddings because I can literally wear whatever color I want.

A big reason I picked navy is because I knew that was what my MIL was going to wear... regardless of the color. So I based it around her Smile

I'm sure if I stressed that the color was important to me, she would've figured something out. She's a great MIL.

But she married off 2 kids in a row and we were the second and she wanted to rewear her gown.

And while navy is not my favorite color, it looked good on all of us. It's dark and flattering without being harsh like black can be.

amother

↑ Raspberry

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:49 pm

amother Yellow wrote:

We've done this for 7 children now kh, and all of them received money at the wedding.

The people that don’t come to wedding will most likely send a check in the return card. My daughter made 4K from checks from people who did not come.

So Invitations are a good investment.

amother

↑ Pink ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:50 pm

amother Olive wrote:

While it does look nice, the amount of running around I've heard people had to do and "settle" for.
And this is for pink, light blue, the perfect shade of champagne, green, off white...
I feel like I keep hearing its more of a hassle than it's actually worth

amother

↑ Topaz ↓

Wed, Jul 10 2024, 4:51 pm

amother Camellia wrote:

Can we talk about finding plus size gowns? I'm a nonjewish XL but in frum companies I range to a 3XL. There's no plus size gowns, for brides and for other family members to rent. It's so hard to find and really expensive.

That sounds hard. I do think I have seen some on ASOS but haven't looked in awhile. Plus it's a hard type of thing to buy when you can't try it on.

What I can't understand is people who are very skinny spending so much money on their dresses. (If they have the money great... but if not...) If I had to make a gown budget and one of my children had a figure that was harder to fit, I think I would allocate more money to her.

I'm just talking out loud though. My oldest is 12.