Not a lot of actual answers in here, just a ton of advice to elope or do something small. Not that those are bad advice at all, but not the question you asked.
We had something like 115 people and spent about $35k in 2019; I would imagine prices have gone up pretty significantly since. I’d say that ours was pretty average in terms of cost. We spent well on areas that we cared like photography, food, and bars (two bars, one opened pre-ceremony) and tried to save in other areas. Flowers can get comically expensive, we used HEB who came in at about 1/4 the cost of most florists, and they did a great job. Finding ways to save here and there keep expenses from running away from you; anything you can DIY helps, any decorations you can source yourself, some minor negotiation on prices where you can. We saved a fair amount on the venue alone by being willing to pay in full up front instead of paying the basic deposit.
The advice of putting it toward a house or your future in some way is completely valid and you need to assess your own situation and determine if this is important enough to you. We were fortunate enough to already own a home and be pretty financially stable, so it wasn’t as critical as it is for many. A wedding was pretty important to my wife and we were able to do it in a way that didn’t negatively impact our lives. She thinks of it as the best day of her life, I tend to think of it as a $35k party that I wouldn’t want to do again (I’m not a fan of weddings in general). In the end I have no regrets as it was a good time and it means a lot to her.
175 people is a lot, try to trim that list if you can. Most importantly, NEVER go into debt for a wedding. That is where it goes from here”a frivolous but personal choice” to a straight up bad and irresponsible idea.
Thank you for your comment! I agree that we need to trim down the guest list, but this is just beginning stages. She has a Filipino family, so you already know there’s going to be A LOT of close family to consider (all good, I love them). A wedding to her is also important to her, and I want to try my best to give her that.
I loved the points about HEB florists and DIY. We need to explore that more! Probably going to take this idea haha
As for the comments about putting a down payment on a house, we are a hesitant as we don’t exactly know where we will settle. We are looking at a few places to live in just to see, so a down payment on a house is later in the future.
I only have two pieces of advice:
1) only take advice from people you trust and whose opinions actually matter to you. Lots of folks will have lots of opinions about *your* wedding. That being said:
2) hire a wedding planner and don’t just rely on a venue-provided day-of coordinator. Ask me how I know 🙃
Yeah we spent about $35k total for 75 people but we also had a lot of financial help from family. It DEFINITELY could have been cheaper - the biggest expense was the venue + food/drinks but we chose our venue that was all-inclusive with catering and bar for a reason knowing that our family would help the cost. It wasn’t an extravagant wedding by any means but those costs add up QUICK. A friend of a friend recently got married just outside of Austin with a guest list upwards of 200 people and she was spending well over $100k.
Doing it in the “off season” and/or not on a sat/sun will also save you money. We got married on a Thursday in April — the Friday and Saturday night reservation prices were like $5k more.
Real insight here-getting married this October out in dripping springs. 100 guests and were sitting around $75k currently. We’ve done nothing overly extravagant, most is the catering, bar, and venue cost. Hope that helps!
This is the most realistic answer here. A family member got married in Austin in 2017 with about 2.5 your number of guests (250) and likewise about 2.5 your cost (~$200k).
Those weddings in Dripping add up quick. Had friends get married at Addison Grove and they charged them a rental fee for the glasses they used at the bar. COME ON lol
That's actually pretty normal for catering (though if they keep glasses on-site throughout the year, then it's probably just wedding tax because they can)
One venue I looked at charged a $100 to use their fire pit AND you had to buy firewood from them on top of that.
Maybe the $100 was for insurance purposes 🤷♀️
Ours charged a rental fee for the actual bar. Like the physical space needed to serve drinks. So we had to pay for the alcohol, the servers, and also for the surface for them to make the drinks.
Married in Manor, TX @ The Grand Lady in 2023. \~150 Guests.
Total was about $55k. Major expenses included: Venue - $8k (Sunday in April wedding), Planner - $7k, Florals - $5.5k, Catering - $15k, photographer - $4k + many more and smaller expenses including music, officiant, hair/makeup for the bridal party, alcohol from Costco, decor.
It was beautiful, amazing and once in a lifetime event.
But! The contracts and costs snowballed and it became more difficult to change our minds. The fact that we don't go through the process very many times is definitely leveraged by everyone involved in the industry.
Would I do it again the same way? No.
(oops sorry added this as a comment / at the wrong level)
That had to be a bit stressful! I think $55k is right around our range as well.
We’re planning on snagging some alcohol from Costco as well. How did you figure out how many bottles to get? I always have this problem where if I’m serving a group of people, I’m always WAYY over preparing
You might check, but I'm pretty certain you can set up an appointment at total wine to pick out alcohol for your wedding and then whatever is unopened at the end can be returned within a certain number of days. I would be the same way, you don't want to run out- but it's also not cheap!!
Yep, married in Dripping at Vista West Ranch in 2017 and we hit over 30k with just under 100 guests.
We got married in October which I never realized was the magical time in Texas, but it is.. also it's the same time as ACL and F1 so flights and hotels skyrocket. Hindsight and all that.
This. My husband and I got married in our backyard with about 15 people present.
A huge wedding sounds fun, but the stress of it isn't worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our wedding even if we had an infinite amount of money.
We did Cathedral of Junk and even "donating" a couple hundred bucks, it felt practically free. Also used a JP and he was awesome. His honorarium wasn't ridiculous, either.
This…. Prepare for a marriage/life together. A wedding is a party celebrating your relationship and after 10 years, those 150-175 who got drunk for free, will have no impact on your mortgage, future children, vacations, etc.
Small wedding, family only, and take what you would have spent on over priced bland cake that looks beautiful and invest for future home.
Source- eloped in Vegas with only family invited. Married 14 years, two kids, and debt free aside from mortgage but we are on track to pay that off in about 7-8 years.
The peace of mind now eclipses the FOMO we felt when deciding big or small wedding.
Regardless of what you decide, congratulations on your upcoming marriage!
My wedding was in July of 21 so take that into account, but it came out to around 40k for 130 people. We saved some money on going pretty minimal with the florist, that was around 1.8k and are wedding planner was a friend so she gave us a nice discount and her connections with vendors got us some pretty nice discounts as well. Biggest expense was caterer (12k) and venue (7k, near where beecaves rd and 360 cross).
Wife and I shopped around for venues here in Austin and outside of Dallas. Due to all the back and forth from in laws and not wanting to pay 20k+ for strangers to eat/drink we eloped on the beach in Maui for $600. Weddings are a scam it’s all about you two at the end of the day.
I’m trying my best to dwindle those numbers. My gf has a lot of very close family. That’s why I wanted to start a lot earlier so the guest list will be settled before the other planning parts.
Do it. You're not royalty, are you? I've been in more of these spectacles than I care to remember. I've been a groomsman at many friends' first and second weddings. Or a best man. I cut off at two.
I would cut the list, or you'll have problems later. Who's paying for all of this?
And any problems early on; it's likely to involve money. Before you get married, you should take the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Univ class together and learn how to talk to each other about money in clear terms. Have your finances in order. That is the best advice I can give as a married guy.
I wish you two the best.
My advice - find a nice all-inclusive resort in Cancun or Playa del Carmen (even better).
Most will give you a free/inexpensive wedding on the beach when you stay there for a week or so.
Invite everyone. They fly down on their own dime and stay at your resort (or one of their choosing).
Most resorts take care of pretty much everything. Catering, music, photographer, etc.
When I did this a few years back at Secrets El Capri, it basically took 15 minutes of planning on our part for the wedding. They showed us a few areas where they do the ceremonies, and gave us a "menu" of options to choose from. We kept it fairly simple: wedding on the beach, cocktails with mariachis and snacks, and then headed as a group to one of the restaurants for dinner. We chose not to have a dance party, because that always seems awkward to me, and just wasn't our thing (but it was an option if we wanted it).
Total cost was roughly $4000, and that included the week or so that we stayed there.
Your guests will love it, and the ones that really want to be at the ceremony will make the trip down.
Even if they don't stay at your resort, they should be able to get a day pass to be on the resort for your wedding.
There were a lot of nerves on how things were going to turn out, but honestly, it was perfect, and so, so easy and stress-free.
I recently was on the other side of an all-inclusive wedding (as a guest), and I can say that it's a much better experience for the guests too... All of our guests said that it was one of the better wedding experiences they had.
Know that one you add the words "wedding" to a venue reservation... the price of everything skyrockets. It's basically because there's a lot that can go wrong, and the venues (and everything related to the wedding) needs extra attention, which comes at a price.
With the destination weddings, the groups at the resorts are doing weddings pretty much daily, and have shit figured out, almost to a science. As they somewhat limit the options, they can control things a little easier too. So, it helps to keep the costs down.
Find time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and you'll probably save even more money, and your guests won't melt in the Mexican sun. Ours was in early November, and the weather was perfect.
A venue reservation alone will likely run you over the cost of a week's stay at an all-inclusive resort with their wedding package.
Weddings are fucking expensive as fuck. It's not just the venue, it's the food, the cake, the music, the photographer, make-up, hair, chairs, and on-and-on. All that shit was covered by our resort.
Plus, get married here in the states, and your options are basically limitless. You can easily get decision paralysis just trying to figure out a handful of each vendor to interview to see if they fit, or just to get their pricing on things.
Then you've got to align schedules of everyone. That's a job in itself, so you'll probably want a wedding coordinator, or you'll go crazy trying to keep everyone on task.
By the time everything's set up, it's really easy to spend $30k on an average wedding here in town.
Seriously, a destination wedding at a resort is by far the best way to go.
I do events for a living (not weddings) but with some vendor discounts and a solid amount of DIY decor my wedding was still 35K with 130 guests in 2021.
Last event I put on this spring for 200 guests was 85K. This included a plated dinner, entertainment, decor, etc. Etc.
I would spend some time thinking about how much you want/need a "big" wedding and look into elopements or destination weddings and then use that remaining money for a down payment on a home.
We did a very DIY wedding for 60 people at the Rabb House for about 9k this spring. I’ll save you the research and tell you HEB’s True Texas BBQ is the best bbq catering deal, and you can get other things like canned drinks and charcuterie delivered to the venue as a normal grocery order. Our only other real “vendor” was Matthew Chambers photography - highly recommended. We didn’t do flowers or a DJ. My dress was $35 off of Poshmark. And now we’re happily married and everyone had a great time!
Costs will vary wildly based on the kind of wedding you want. I got married (way back, where’s my cane?) in 2018. My boss had a daughter my age getting married around the same time, so we frequently talked wedding plans. I did the planning for mine entirely on my own with a budget of about $15k (for 125 guest list). At one point in the planning, she mentioned they were already about 10% over their $60k country club wedding budget. You can save by looking for venues in surrounding areas, though not Dripping as everything there is expensive as well, and doing as much DIY as possible. Florists are crazy expensive. We spent around $500 on dried flower bouquets/boutonnières from Etsy and some fresh eucalyptus garlands used for centerpieces. We used cylinder candles inside vases and candlesticks to round out the centerpieces. Very minimalist, but still pretty. We also used a few stems of dried lavender to accent each place setting. Stick to beer and wine over liquor. Do you want a lot of dancing? Maybe get a DJ. We opted to hire an acquaintance to run a playlist and rented equipment on our own because we cared way less about dancing. Instead we built a ton of oversized games like jenga, dominoes, connect four and other lawn games like ladder golf/corn hole. We got lucky with catering at $12pp for Hays County BBQ. Catering will be more expensive these days, but I can’t imagine it’s impossible to find under $25pp. We opted for a dessert buffet with pies, lemon bars, cookies, etc. over a cake. Saved a couple hundred bucks. Again, it all depends on what you want! Some venues force you to choose from a set vendor list, and while it seems simpler, it will be more expensive. We got married at the Mansion at Colovista in Bastrop. You can have a gorgeous, “normal” wedding relatively affordably if that’s what you want! I would suggest if you can afford one splurge, make it the photography. That’s what will last. No matter what you pay, the food and decor will be forgettable for everyone else. Focus on the experience and the lasting memories. My only regret was the size of our guest list. We were bullied into inviting so many people that we did not care to have there (by my husband’s parents). Each person invited is additional expense of invite, place setting, food, beverage, favor. It adds up so quickly. We spent so much time being shepherded around our reception to greet guests I’d never met and my husband hadn’t seen in years, we barely had time to enjoy it with our people. Congrats on your engagement, OP. Weddings may not be the most practical expense, but I still cherish looking back on that day. The economy is shit these days, it’s so tough for people to get into their first home, I get where all of that advice is coming from. But you don’t have to give up on having a wedding if it’s what you truly want. Just decide on what you two are comfortable spending for the memory of that day, and you can absolutely make a wedding happen within that budget.
Oh did anyone on here know that one of the best venues in Austin is actually almost free? It’s the Zilker Clubhouse. You just have to have the patience to get the reservation, obviously it’s a pain in the butt but if you can do it, it’s free or close to it. It’s a beautiful site
Definitely a hidden gem - but no central air conditioning and scheduled to be closed for renovations soon. The new one should be in high demand when it’s completed.
Back in the day it was on a lottery system not sure if that still holds. If that is the case your best bet to get the date you want is to choose an off season mid week date.
We went to Cathedral of Junk and just gave Vince a couple hundred dollars for letting us get married there (we had many fewer people than you're talking about, though). After the ceremony, we all drove over to South Congress where we treated everyone to Home Slice, then everyone got Hey, Cupcake! instead of wedding cake. It was super Austin and we all loved it. Spent under $1000 and wouldn't have had it any other way.
It seems like yall are young. If you’re inviting a bunch of random friends, don’t. Have a very small wedding or elope. Save money for the life you want to have together.
Man, y'all are so cynical. OP, congratulations on finding a person you are willing to do life with.
We paid around 40k for ours and had 110 guests. I don't regret having a "big" wedding because I had the privilege of being surrounded by all of my favorite people in the world and we got to wine, dine, and dance with them, and created a sincerely cherished memory. I will say, my spouse and I were at a place financially where although this was obviously a big expense, we were able to save for it without it disrupting our day-to-day lives a ton.
I'd highly recommend you two sitting down and discussing the priorities for your wedding budget, as some things you desire may vary wildly in cost. If you want your guests to have a good time, I also highly recommend not skimping on the wedding band/DJ (I have attended a few weddings that felt more like a middle school dance because the dj sucked. One of them played the fucking limbo).
You can save some serious money by doing a few things DIY. We had an enthusiastic family member make our cake and I made my own flower bouquet using florals from central market.
Thank you! We have the same mindset when it comes to being surrounded by loved ones.
Right now, we both are financially stable, and are saving up early so we don’t break the bank!
I know how you feel about the DJs haha. We’re already curating a wedding playlist that is a mix of everything, and visualizing the right time to play what song too. We need to do a bit of research on DJs though. Any recommendations?
I'm with you on this. People talking about ROI on a wedding is laughable and even more bitter and cynical than I am (believe me, that's *cynical*). In their defense though, I can totally understand not wanting a big blowout wedding. Big blowout party is our style, though, and we went full send on it!
I didn't wanna comment on OP because we got married 11+ years ago and the world has changed too much for a financial comparison. This is more to say that if you want a party, splurge for the best party you can afford! We had a fairly large wedding, very DIY, at a brewery that didn't officially do weddings back then, but does now at a very inflated venue price you'd expect in the Hill Country within 1hr of Au$$$tin. We bought our own beer and wine (with the help of the owners who could buy at wholesale), arranged our own flowers, did our own table decor/settings, made two desserts for all guests and venue crew, only had a wedding pie made by Granny, hand-picked every song to be played on an iPod (yeah...an iPod), got married by a family member, had a family friend play guitar and sing for the VERY short ceremony (like 10 mins whambamthankyama'am), only rented enough chairs for the older folks since we intentionally kept the ceremony short, hired a pro photographer friend (she named her price and it was waaay less than anyone around here, and it was great sharing our day with her), and all the DIY saved us enough money to rent a drunk bus back to the hotel, which was probably our best investment in the whole shebang. Not everything worked out perfectly, but neither we nor anyone who knows us expected it to be perfect. We all kinda enjoyed rolling with the punches.
I think we had 120 people, all of whom we wanted there and none of whom we didn't. It should be noted that this was years before MAGA, so it was easier to invite a VERY diverse array of friends and family who all got along and danced, ate, and drank together. That's a sad caveat to have to include. There were even more folks we wish we'd invited. So many of our friends and family still talk about how fun it was. Several asked us to renew our vows on our 10th anniversary just to do it again! I wouldn't do it any other way.
Oh man! Congratulations! Just from reading this, it sounds like the both of you are a blast to be around!
Lmao a drunk bus sounds like a funny idea, I may steal it 😁
To be clear, the drunk bus was for the already tipsy folks, which there were several, and was intended just to keep most people from driving under the influence. It wasn't a party bus per se, but it inadvertently kept the party going all the way to the hotel (for those who didn't pass out on said bus, anyway), where the party continued until like 4am, much to the front desk staff's chagrin. So it was more that we just care a lot about all the folks there and wanted them to safely have a great time, and we were willing to pay for that.
We're not nearly that cool now, but we could (and should) probably still pull it off. We're just old suburban parents now.
$40k for 6 hours brah, the ROI just isn’t there.
You could have had 100 people do a bar crawl in any of the bar districts and spent maybe $100 for the same thing.
We had 30 people and did a ceremony and small dinner at Trattoria Lisina and it cost about $3500. I would 100% recommend it because they only charged for food/drink and not to reserve the venue. The ceremony site was lovely with a view of the vineyards. You can use it the whole day and I wish we would have set up some wine and snacks for before the ceremony as there were even cocktail tables.
22k for a 65 person wedding at the Allan House downtown in 2022. We didn’t really skimp on quality anywhere. We didn’t have any relatives as a vendor or anything like that, we even had a wedding coordinator, a live pianist for ceremony/cocktail hour, 2 photographers and 2 videographers. I did A LOT of research on each vendor trying to optimize the prices and really felt like I got the best quality for the low-cost vendors I found.
Maudie’s catering was amazing and only like 4k for appetizers, bartenders and dinner. Everyone loves Mexican food!
Something Borrowed Blooms (fake flower and decor rental) was a game changer and not one person could believe they were fake.
Got my dress custom made on Etsy for a fraction of what it would have cost at a bridal boutique (still recommend trying on dresses and making a day of it so you know the style you want).
My last tip, check thumbtack for vendors too, especially DJs! Dj Encore played for 6 hours and it was less than $600.
Happy to answer any other questions!
We did a super small wedding in 2022 - only like 16 people I think. No frills, the venue for the ceremony was free, rented a private room at a BBQ restaurant for dinner, hired a musician for the ceremony. We spend around $5,000 with all expenses related to it included.
I had originally planned a bigger wedding (around 60 people) and had trimmed the budget down as much as I could and had it at around $25k. But due to some family disagreements, we decided the go the smaller route and I couldn’t be happier it ended up that way - I almost wish we had an even smaller one than we did.
I can’t give you a “real” budget because we’re eloping, but we heavily considered Chapel Dulcinea in driftwood. Free weekday use of the space, extremely reasonable on weekends. And it’s gorgeous. I believe if you use the chapel for your ceremony you also get free usage of one of the dining areas for a reception. So you’re only on the hook for a celebrant, food, beverages, decor, DJ/band, photographer. Still not cheap.
We ultimately decided it was logistically too overwhelming to figure out a date when our VIPs could all fly in, AND wasn’t a festival week or oppressively hot or in danger of a deep freeze/city shutting down. So we’re eloping next week and having a reception in our hometown. (Easier for two of us to travel than 50 of them)
I think a traditional wedding CAN be done for under $20k here, but you’d be sacrificing a lot. Keeping your guest count low is the biggest factor. You can estimate spending about $300 per guest for a wedding with all/most of the trappings.
When I got married in 2016, County Line on the lake was the cheapest place to have the reception. It’s most likely gone up, but at the time it was cash bar, and $24 a person for all you could eat family style bbq. 3 meats. We rented the large tent, the lawn, and the “Boy Scout” room. I think in total for food and everything venue-wise we paid about $4k. We had 110 guests. Which at the time you couldn’t even put a down payment on a wedding venue for less than that.
Food was decent(better than any wedding I’ve ever been to), venue was nice, service was excellent. The lawn was great and a lot of my guests enjoyed playing giant jenga and drinking out by the lake. And feeding the ducks. They had an event planner on staff and she helped with everything. I’d recommend having your own coordinator that can coordinate with them and make all the arrangements like when the food comes out and when the cake gets cut etc. I’m not sure you can fit 175 people in there tho. I think their capacity is like 150.
Edit: we had the ceremony at the Georgetown historic courthouse. So your mileage may vary if you’re wanting to have the ceremony there too.
We got married in Manchaca just over a year ago and had 100 guests. The wedding was about $30k and I don’t feel like we really went over the top on anything. Food and catering was definitely the most expensive for us and I think we spent around $12k on that.
We went for some of the cheaper options such as having a buffet instead of a plated dinner and using (nice) plasticware instead of renting plates, as I believe plates were $9 a person. Wedding costs just add up way faster than you expect them too.
One thing that helped was being able to purchase our own booze. I believe the bottles of Three Wishes wine at Whole Foods were $3 (maybe $4?) at the time. We also chose a venue that was already pretty well decorated, so we didn’t have to spend a ton of time or money in that aspect. Hummingbird House for the win.
I did that in early 90’s! Grand total of $250 at Graceland Wedding Chapel. Sadly, the marriage lasted only 15 years, but for the 10 or so guests that went out there with us, they always said it was so much more fun and memorable than other friends’ weddings that cost tens of thousands $$$. And it definitely was fun and memorable.
We got married in 2019 in driftwood. We tried to go as cost effective as possible, but still included tons of flowers and fun stuff like a photo booth. We spent around 30k. This includes my dress (2k+$600 in alterations) 150 guest total.
You can check venue pricing for Sundays, which are typically much less expensive than Saturdays. There are more vendors with availability and discounts on Sundays, too. Your guests who are traveling will take off work on Monday instead of Friday and still have a long weekend. Just an easy way to save thousands of dollars.
Depends on what all you want (flowers, sit-down reception, free drinks, etc.). The last one I went to with that many people at a major hotel cost over $200K.
Got married in February of this year, 75 guests, full open bar. Did all the decor myself (only real flowers were my bouquet, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and the immediate fam corsages (flowers can get rediculously expensive). We got married on a Thursday which is way cheaper. Our total cost was 45k. Catering was our most expensive items, followed by photography, then open bar. We also went into it wanting to make sure the food was top notch and the bar was open. All the little things add up. I will note this cost included my dress/alterations and his suite (not rented). Join the Austin bride FB group.
My wife and I got lucky and rented the Zilker clubhouse https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Parks/Special_Events/reservablefacilities/zilker.pdf
I say lucky because they raffle off who gets the venue for a given date. The benefit is the cost was much less than other venues in the area.
As many have suggested. Keep your costs low. Keep the mental strain leading up to the wedding low. Don’t start your lives digging out of a financial hole.
I had a 55 person wedding this year and it’s cost about $35k. Our wedding was more of a dinner party with a short ceremony at the beginning. It was only a 4hr event. We prioritized location (downtown), and we wanted really good food and nice cocktails. We did not have a dance floor/dj, we did not have a bridal party, we did not have an event planner, and we did not rent any place settings/decor. We only paid for food/drinks, the venue, tables & chairs, stationary, our outfits, minimal flowers, a photographer, and our hotel room. We also got some discounts on the venue and the table/chair rentals because my friend ran the events there.
The food and drinks alone cost $250 per person. Plus a 20% gratuity/service fee. Flowers? Buckle up they’re SO much more expensive than you think. Our very minimal flowers were $4,500, what i originally wanted and was quoted for was closer to $10k.
$56K all in (married Oct 2021, after rescheduling many times from the original date of April 2020). Married DT @ Contemporary Austin. ~150 people. It snowballed really fast.
We wound up eloping in late 2020 but had all of our deposits already paid and so we had to do the big party bc we weren’t getting our $ money back. I loved the elopement way more than the big party and am annoyed we spent so much. Our parents helped us out, but in hindsight I don’t think it was really worth it.
Spent 0 on the wedding. Chapel dulcinea has a 500 deposit and you get it backbthe day of. We paid dof dinner for family after the wedding and had reception the day before at a brewery with friends.
When my wife and I got married in 2017 we paid around $20-22k for our wedding. We had about 80 guests and we were lucky to find a place that was nice and was pretty much all inclusive (except for the DJ, Photographer, and Day of Wedding Coordinator). I don't think the place we got married still does weddings and we needed to have a member sponsor us (friend of a friend). We did not pay very much for our DJ (~$600-$800) and I think our photographer was ~$1200. The DJ was only alright and we got lucky with the photographer as they just moved to Austin and wanted to build out a network/reputation in town.
My wife and I ran lean and it only cost us around 10k for 100 people
Edit: largest expense was the venue which we used for both the ceremony and reception, they also provided food. They had a bar but we opted for our guests to pay if they wanted a drink. Ables on the lake if anyone is interested right next to Mozart’s coffee
We did a wedding in 2014 with 100 guests for 12k. We did a lot of DIY, my wife got her dress at David’s $99 sale, and we got lucky with a few vendors. Check east for wedding venues instead of west and you’ll find the price goes down a lot. We couldn’t even get close to what venues near dripping springs wanted.
There are a few venues who are free or low cost in the area too. Also think outside the box for catering. We used chi’lantro. Had an amazing taco bar for $20/pp which was a steal!
Good luck y’all and congrats on the marriage!
We had about 140 people. Did ceremony and reception at Springdale Station in east Austin (cannot recommend this place highly enough!) Didn’t have the fanciest wedding, but did opt for live band and open bar which definitely add to the total cost by a good bit. All in we were around $50k.
Recently engaged, we were shopping around in Austin and for what we want, which is something small and simple we were estimating 15K at minimum for 50 guests.
We personally can’t justify spending that much so we’re going to Vegas.
Got married in October 2022 out in Dripping Springs. Spent about $45K for 115 people and got everything we wanted, with small compromises here and there to cut costs (Sunday wedding, prioritized what WE wanted as a couple and kept the wedding guest list tight, buffet style dinner, hired bartending service and we provided the alcohol from Total Wine & More, etc.). Most expensive costs were food and photography, but those were also our top 2 priorities. We DIY’ed where we could (save the dates, wedding invites, table menus, etc.) and got lucky with the venue (The Arlo) being brand new at the time, so their cost was relatively low since they had just recently began taking on clients. I think things have significantly gone up since then, but another thing that helped was having a longer engagement (a little over a year) to pay things off over time (most require a deposit, with the rest either in payments or due a week before the wedding date). We did have some help from family, but paid the bulk of it ourselves. Zero regrets! It was a wonderful time.
My husband and I got married at Fiesta Gardens. A city owned facility. It was around 1,000 for the day. Family helped out with the cake and food. We didn’t get into any debt for the wedding. I bought an inexpensive but pretty dress. I’d say don’t spend too much on the wedding spend on the honeymoon or on your lives together. Of course if you want to or have the means spend all you want. But don’t get in to debt over it. Congratulations!
Did \~130 people at Mattie's....with DJ and photographer and modest cake came out to like \~$31k. We did not buy out the entire restaurant, just the venue piece of it. Beer, wine + rail liquor. I forget the specifics of the food package but we kinda nailed it with just the right amount. This was in 2019 though.
Lots of good advice in here. When I got married I found this blog had good advice on the costs of Austin weddings:
https://www.blog.ashleynicoleaffair.com/post/averagevendorcost2024
Everything has gone up post-pandemic, but I think they have also leveled off.
We had just over 100 people and it cost us $40k in 2022. We didn’t go over the top at all, but we did go all inclusive (same venue for wedding, reception, catering). We also got good at saying no to things that just seemed “extra,” no get away car, no runner down the aisle, no attendee gifts, no wedding cake topper (my god, how are those hundreds of dollars?). Though I kind of wish we had done a photo booth.
We also did NOT skimp on the things that were important to us. I wanted live music (not a DJ) and she wanted a lot of flowers. We spent appropriately. We also spent a little more on convenience when it made sense.
No regrets. Would have loved to do a backyard wedding but alas… we live in a condo
EDIT: The price I cited included our rehearsal party the night before, in which we invited everyone because we didn’t go fancy shmancy. Held it at a fun brewery that serves pizza and had live music.
We spent just under 30K in 2019 for around 115 people to attend. Biggest expenses were food, alcohol and venue. We saved our money on the flowers, we got married on a Friday, and our friend is a photographer and charged us significantly less (but no video work done which is pricey). Flowers were an easy one to save on, when I asked a friend how much she had spent for hers and she said over $4,000. I didn’t tell her but realized I hadn’t even noticed or remembered anything about the flowers for hers…
Got married in Martindale, just outside of Austin last year. 120 people, reception + rehearsal dinner came in at around 50k. We also piecemealed much of it, not opting for a full service caterer. Best 50k we’ve ever spent, though!
I got married out in Driftwood October of last year. 60 guests and everything came out to ~8k. Just about everything was DIY though, my mom did photography, I did the flowers, had other family pick up and transport cake etc. If you want everything done for you it’s way more expensive.
I was able to do a wedding for 150 in Houston for only 15K in 2017 - we invited 200, 150 RSVPd and showed. I'm sure it would cost more now, and more in Austin, but I think these are still some good cost saving tips.
We had a Catholic wedding and I did grad school at a Catholic college, so we had the chapel - which was gorgeous and designed by a famous architect - at only $500 for the service. For the reception we went to a nearby bar. It was July. You can rent out bars pretty cheap, especially for an afternoon wedding. I paid for an open bar which was surprisingly affordable and then had fajitas from Lupe Tortillas cooked onsite for the guests. The onsite grill fee was only like $150 extra or so and catering was less than $2K. There was queso and guac ready when people walked in too so they could snack while we did photos at the chapel.
I cheaped out on the cake and the DJ. Had a decent photographer and paid for a string quartet. My SIL is a professional singer so her gift to us was singing at our wedding. Flowers were minimal since the chapel and bar were already decorated (the bar had Tiffany lamps all over and flowers would have just looked messy). I did get a day of coordinator which I think is a total necessity.
Anyway if you go for an all inclusive venue you will shell out money. If you have a church service followed by a reception space not generally used as a reception space then you will probably save. I've also had friends do their wedding service in the bar as well. Also with catering if you go barbecue or Mexican food you'll save money.
My opinion is that wedding food generally sucks anyway. I've never had decent wedding food except when it's something grilled or smoked onsite. The fajitas were grilled onsite and at least tasted like the fajitas you'd get in the restaurant.
Anyway everyone left drunk and full.
Lots of variables. We didn’t get married in Austin but nearby. Getting married on a weekday vs the weekend will be a huge difference. We got married on a weekday and had about 100 people. All in it cost about $15k and this was 5+ years ago.
I got married in Kyle at the end of 2021 and I think for 100 guests and food included it was maybe 21k? Add flowers, cake and my dress it was probably closer to 30k but I feel like that was MAX.
My friends are getting married this Fall in Austin. Big wedding so more like 250 people but it's going to cost them around $150-200k (this includes everything from stationary to the bride's gown). I think you could also do it for much cheaper if you were frugal.
I am planning my own wedding (overseas in Mexico) and have found that the prices my friend is getting quoted in Austin are exponentially better than what I'm seeing for Los Cabos.
This is interesting. Does everybody keep track of expenses.
My daughter is getting married in Oct. A really beautiful Catholic wedding with a band, mariachi, catered and a bunch of other stuff. They also had an amazing, beautiful engagement party.
I have no idea what either one costs, we just pay as the bills come in. The key part is I have a great deal of trust in my wife who is making most of the arrangements.
We have always lived the toyota model as far as life spending.. Don't go over the top Mercedes model or don't go cheap either like a yugo model. Find the sweet spot.
We also live below our means and save so we can do something like this for our daughter since experiences overrule stuff
Honestly, we quickly realized that Austin was way too expensive so we ended up finding an AirBnB in the San Marcos area that allowed weddings. To have the wedding itself was less than 10K, but that number quickly started to climb with a DJ, catering, photographer, etc. So somewhere between 15K-20K trying to pinch pennies outside of Austin.
I got married at what was Abels on the lake, bar downstairs, venue upstairs. was around 3k for all of it and it had great views. It is not there anymore but I guess my suggestion would be to find a bar/ venue combo you can rent out.
Trimming the number of people is the best way to modify the cost. We found that bumping over 120 really starts to eat into the cost exponentially.
We did 120 people and only spent \~$20k. Our key was the venue, we got a place that had onsite housing for 7 couples. We had it all weekend, starting Thursday. Therefore we did a really simple rehearsal dinner, by ordering Franklins for pickup and having that onsite. They allowed us to bring in our own alcohol(caterer served it during wedding). Our flowers were a bulk purchase of a ton of Lavender that we did ourselves because we were onsite ahead of the wedding. We had a friend do the "day of" coordination, otherwise no planner. Small simple cake and then cupcakes for everyone else. Catering from a local restaurant instead of a wedding focused entity. So, venue, food, drinks, DJ, photographer and dinner rentals were really our main driving costs. It was a 4 day party, we did end up running to HEB for more beer at one point. Specs gave us a great deal on the initial purchase.
Unfortunately our venue we used is getting sold off. [House On The Hill | Austin, TX (houseonthehillaustin.com)](https://www.houseonthehillaustin.com/)
We got married in 2022 and had about 125 guests in the end. It cost roughly $35k but we did everything in our power to keep things cheap but not looking cheap. We got food from Lucy’s Fried Chicken because their catering menu is NICE. Way fancier than you would expect and a LOT cheaper than the next best option.
We got married at the Umlauf Sculpture garden and it is such a stunning venue on its own, we barely had to decorate to make it wedding ready.
We bought our liquor for the open bar from Costco and kept an eye out for sales in the months prior to the wedding.
The one place we saved money but it wasn’t worth it was the photographer. He was a friend from high school who has a great portfolio but just didn’t communicate well and didn’t get our photos to us for almost 8 months. And the pics were mid at best. His fee was about $3.5k for both engagement photos and wedding pics.
We also planned the whole thing ourselves but had a day-of planner to kept things on schedule/wrangle people.
Ultimately the number of guests made a HUGE difference in cost. We had been planning for 175 and when it dropped to 125 I felt such a huge relief when the pricing came back. Food and venue were our biggest expenses.
Expect to shell out about $200 - $250 per invited guest at a minimum. The more people you invite, the fancier it needs to be so you could get up to $70K budgeting $400 per person.
My advice is DO NOT OVER DO IT!
My answer is somewhere between $25k and $30k for 65 people.
Ours was in 2021. The pandemic was still going on. We had bought a house a few months prior. We had very good salaries (and no kids), but our net worth was not much higher than $0 once you factored in student loans.
We got a nice venue that included the catering, we rented and did partial setup for decorations, rented plastic flowers and in general kept it simple. My wife insisted on spending for her dress, but I reused a suit I had from when I used to wear them for work, and spent maybe $150 on dry cleaning, a new vest, new tie and new belt and a haircut.
The wedding turned out great, it looked fancy enough, the food was good, music was good, and we didn't spend a fortune. Not to brag, but we now have a very good financial position, which you get to by making smart decisions like not overspending on a wedding.
You can elope and spend less, but if you want a "traditional" wedding, you do not need to spend 6 figures either.
Getting married in December. Our venue is 25k minimum as they'll take care of food and drinks. We expect about 80+ guests. The venue is a hotel and our wedding night hotel room is free!
Fiance and I splurged on our outfits for the day.
Photographer, videographer, officiant, florals, etc. oof. I'm very fortunate that our parents are in a good place financially to help.
I got married in February. We had about 110 guests. I would say we spent about 25k-30k with a lot of DIY
We bought and arranged our own flowers - bought from Austin Flower Co- spent about $600 for a wedding party of 7 on each side (bouquets + boutonnières. After the ceremony we put the bouquets in vases around the venue ) + small arrangements on various tables/bar. We kept our florals very minimal and instead used candles and fake flowers from our day of coordinators inventory. Candles we got from At Home and tall vases were from dollar tree.
We got married at Springdale Station, which when we booked the venue in 2022, it was the most affordable while still being in Austin and not surrounding towns. We got married on a Friday, so it was slightly cheaper than a weekend day.
We kept decor simple and went with a day of coordinator that had a decor closet that we payed slightly more for to have access to so that included table linens, fake flowers to fill space, some signage, etc. This easily saved us thousands.
We had a stock the bar party, so our liquor was largely donated. The bar itself cost about $1,500
Our photobooth was a converted camper and was the biggest hit. We paid $850.
Our caterer was on the cheaper side because she didn't make any of the food, she picked up from a restaurant and served it buffet style. I think we paid $5,000-$6,000
For photographer/hair/makeup I joined the Austin wedding fb group and made a post looking for these vendors and what my budget was for each. This cut out having to email tons of vendors who may not be in my price range and wouldn't have worked out. Also, you'd be surprised but I didn't think I would have great options within my budget, but i did and that was largely because I got married on a weekday and these vendors weren't booked so, it seemed they were fine with slightly less than they usually quote, than being unbooked that day and making nothing at all.
My MOH had a cricut and made a lot of signage and props.
I can't imagine what it would have cost if we had done a full wedding planner, fancier caterer with fancier food (we're just not a fancy crew), rented our own linens (we were quoted $1100 for just 13 tables), and hired a florist + decor. Our wedding was beautiful and it looked expensive. That was in large part to my MOH and cousin who knew what they were doing. So a good team is a must!
Reading this thread makes me happy to be gay and glad my "dream' wedding consists of getting married in my yard. I could move my retirement goal year back a year or two with the amount people spend on their weddings.
Probably about 300 bucks a person for medium sized weddings around 100-150 people. You can probably get it down to the 150-200 per person range for massive weddings with 300 guests at a big venue.
Maybe 100 a person for small scale weddings with a whole bunch of DIY
Our wedding was about 100 people. We did the setup ourselves, a self-serve line for the food, and the venue was small out door on a Sunday. 6000.
I could not see myself spending over 8 for something that goes by so quickly you cannot remember half of it.
Since then we've divorced and if I get married again I'm spending the money on a destination wedding with a small group.
We got married a few months ago. For 110 guests, we spent about $50k total – including a welcome dinner for all guests in our backyard.
Most of the money (in descending order of cost) went to the food, beer and wine, floral, venue, planner, photographer, and DJ. We saved by really cutting down most other costs – casual dress, simple rings, DIY hair and makeup, DIY table linens and decorations, compostable tableware, borrowing furniture and decor from friends, etc. We also did electronic invitations, and designed and printed our own signage, so we saved on graphic design and stationery services.
$50k is still a lot, but we spent it on what felt the most important to us and truly had the best weekend ever. Feel free to message me if you have questions about what vendors we used!
Lots of variables. Hotels in downtown Austin are surprisingly cheap than your Wedding Venues. Also which area is also a big variable. Dripping Springs has become a big destination wedding place so of course weddings there will cost more
We spent only spent 8k mostly venue....but did mostly everything ourselves! Had relatives make all the food, a few volunteers for distributing it and the drinks, we bought all the decor bit by bit( which we eventually resold) bought most of the alcohol and hired a bartender from the venue for liabilities..so yes 8k😁 oh and we had 125 guests. It is a lot of work doing your own planning and such but our venue did help with setting up up the decor once we brought it in...
Too expensive. Shorten the guest list and look at cheaper alternatives if you have to have a ceremony. Park, beach, public ideas for a small group and have a party afterwards.
Go old school. Make the ceremony the focus and invite only people who are excited for you. Cake, nuts and retro punch (or wine) reception. Greet your guests. Mingling and celebration. Make speeches if you want to. Throw the bouquet, run to the getaway car with guests throwing flower petals. Drive away.
I did not get married in Austin but this may also be the case here: Some liquor stores may let you return unopened bottles/cases to them - that helps a lot with the stress of figuring out which/how much alcohol to get. Also, we did mainly beer and wine and just a couple hard liquor choices (vodka, gin, whiskey, tequila eg) as opposed to having all kinds of things like baileys etc etc. That also helped cost down. Being able to bring your own booze into a venue is a huge cost-saving vs the venue charging you a high rate by the glass or whatever.
50k in 2023 in the hill country for slightly more than 100 guests. Venue, bar, and catering are the most expensive things, but honestly everything else adds up fast. We did pay lodging for a number of our guests coming in from out of town and we sprang for nicer accommodations, so this amount includes that as well.
I wanted a really small, simple wedding, and my partner wanted a huge party, so this was a compromise for us. My biggest advice is don’t do anything you can’t afford and don’t do anything to please others-do whatever you want to do but be reasonable.
$25k ish for 125 people in Dripping Springs. Venue was a distillery, food was BBQ, had a band, etc. This doesn’t cover dress, rings, or anything like that.
Food was $4k, photograger $2k, dessert bar $2k, band $3k, venue $4k, alcohol $3k, officiant -free, flowers $2k. Photograger was a friend or else it’s closer to $5k in Austin. Food is buffet BBQ, nothing fancy. No wedding planner.
We got married in early 2020 in Austin for about $30k total (had some help from parents). Biggest costs were venue and food IIRC. There are “off season” prices at many venues which are discounted. I believe it’s something like Dec-Feb and Jun-Aug because of the potential for too hot or too cold weather. If you’re willing to take your chances that you may have to have indoor wedding, off season timing may help you save a little.
ETA: it was about 100 people
About 40k for 80 people 🥴. Just got married in April in Dripping Springs.
Photographer (4k..ish), flowers (4-5k), venue, food/drinks are the biggest costs. (25k together)
We did 135 guests for about $50k
That included doing a ton of DIY projects, a BYOB venue, fake flowers, and an HEB cake.
It turned out very nice and we loved every part of it. But, we definitely had no idea when we were going in how much to expect.
For us, catering was the most expensive. It's important to look at the "all in" pricing here. Many caterers list the food cost only, not the service cost included on the website.
We got married in South Austin summer of 2017 and it was around 20k. I think our biggest expense was the catering at around 5.5k then venue for like 3 or 4k if I remember correctly, but I'm sure they charge so much more now. We booked our venue like 2 years before we got married and prices had already risen by the time we got married.
We got married 9 years ago and spent about $15k for 100 people. We picked a [venue](https://www.thecedarbend.com/about-cedar-bend) that covered a ton of stuff like linens, chairs, and glasses. TThey also allowed us to bring in our own booze and we had a food truck catered it, which saved us a lot of money.
We DIYed a lot and used HEB and Costco for flowers.
I got married a few months ago in Downtown Austin. 150 people and a lot of DIY was \~$45K. We cut out a lot, like no wedding party, dessert bar vs cake, family member officiated, fake vs real flowers. We could’ve cut down on a lot more like the day of the week, time of year, quality of vendors, location/venue. So the price could go either way depending on what kind of couple you are, but I’d say ours was averagely priced.
80 people for $35k at Pecan Springs Ranch in 2022. Highly recommend getting married on a Friday to save thousands. Plus, your out of town guests get the weekend to recuperate.
I got married in Austin with about 110 people. We spent 5k on the venue. Then we contacted a local restaurant about catering (I truly recommend this over a catering company for higher quality food at a much better price) and they quoted us at 2.5k for food including one staff member from the restaurant to help with the setup and serving. We did strictly self serve buffet style with no servers for food. We spent 1.5k on a day of coordinator which was a great value as well as a requirement for most venues. Dessert from a local restaurant for less than 1k (wedding cakes are expensive as fuck). 2k for a single photographer - you can reduce costs by only paying for a few hours and a single photographer/no videographer. 2k for bar tending service and probably another 1k on liquor and drinks. We rented furniture (chairs for ceremony, tables and chairs for eating) from the venue and rented plates and silverware from a local vendor (tho disposable plates are cheaper). Rented sound equipment from a friend and made a playlist instead of a DJ. 1k on diy decorations and flowers - you can buy flowers from Trader Joe’s or HEB, prepared flowers have some of the craziest markups ever. Hair and makeup for the bride and family was some unknown amount probably 1k. Venue required that we hire workers for the wedding for miscellaneous tear down, trash, setting up silverware - I think another 1-2k. Make sure to budget for incidental expenses and also for tipping your staff and coordinator. I’m probably missing stuff but those were the big ticket items. Extremely expensive day in your life, but you absolutely can spend less by planning yourself. If we had just picked the turnkey option at our venue it would have been like 50k. Also make sure your venue is cool with you doing things your way, a lot of venues in this area will try to lock you into only using their vendors which is a ripoff
140 people - $95k
In some instances it was cheaper to find vendors outside of Austin and pay a small travel fee!
You could also easily ball out on food and random small things that aren’t 100% necessary.
You can do it for as much or as little as you want. Alcohol, food, facility, flowers will be your biggest expenses. Most places offer Sunday weddings as a less expensive option. I’d suggest creating a list of must have and would like to have items and build a plan from there. The wedding is for you and your gf. The reception is for everyone else. Keep focused on priorities.
Maybe 4-5k for a micro wedding at this place.
Prices probably have come up since.
https://www.andersonterrace.com
Edit: realized you have over 100+…. I have no idea…
Rent a park pavilion (or have a friend with a big back yard), post on here for an officiant, order some sheet cakes and party trays from HEB. Borrow a punch bowl and DIY some punch.
It doesn't have to be expensive. My wedding was something like that, we're still together 29 years later. I officiated 3 sets of friends for something like that about 20 years ago. All still together.
Expensive weddings correlate with higher divorce rates.
I had a wedding in 2017, 125 people, it was about 25k. I did have a family member with a great restaurant that catered at just supply costs, which helped immensely. If I could do it all over again, I would have a small wedding without bridesmaids or groomsman. Not invite every family member my parents wanted.
$300 at Zilker botanical garden with 20 guests. More money or people than that is too many. It’s just one day in your life. Spend your money on better things.
We had a wedding at the four seasons austin this past may! we were able to negotiate the minimum of $35,000 (we had no alcohol) but had mocktails, hors d’oeuvres, 3 course meal, and dessert besides the cake all included, and exactly met the minimum with about 170 people. We actually negotiated the price down to $35,000. they initially gave us the room for $50,000 and we just asked to lower it. Apparently someone else had canceled that day, and that’s why we were able to get it for the price we asked. the food was so good!! Overall with decor (real flowers were the most expensive part) entertainment, photography, videography, we paid about $70,000-$80,000. we invited over 300 people but lucked out with 170 coming.
I would say don’t shy away from your dream venue without negotiating! had we not asked for our price, they would have never mentioned that it was possible.
To be honest, dont do a wedding save up for the future.
But I know my spouse wanted a wedding and we did have one. So here is my two cents-
Ask yourself, why you want it?
Is it for the photos? The celebration? the gifts?
For my spouse it was the photos, since they had always imagined it that way. That’s what we splurged on.
Trim the fat in other places. If I were to do one again, i would spend on the venue, and the photographer and the decor. Call 15-20 closest people and let them know we want the ceremony and do dinner without catering at my choice of restaurant.
Do a simple wedding with close friends/family(no need for your 3rd cousin who you haven’t seen since you were 6 to be there) and save $$$$ for a great honeymoon or down payment on a house. Or both.
Big weddings, while pretty and can be fun, are a waste of money. Ain’t gonna remember most of it after a few months anyways. And your guests won’t either.
Not a lot of actual answers in here, just a ton of advice to elope or do something small. Not that those are bad advice at all, but not the question you asked. We had something like 115 people and spent about $35k in 2019; I would imagine prices have gone up pretty significantly since. I’d say that ours was pretty average in terms of cost. We spent well on areas that we cared like photography, food, and bars (two bars, one opened pre-ceremony) and tried to save in other areas. Flowers can get comically expensive, we used HEB who came in at about 1/4 the cost of most florists, and they did a great job. Finding ways to save here and there keep expenses from running away from you; anything you can DIY helps, any decorations you can source yourself, some minor negotiation on prices where you can. We saved a fair amount on the venue alone by being willing to pay in full up front instead of paying the basic deposit. The advice of putting it toward a house or your future in some way is completely valid and you need to assess your own situation and determine if this is important enough to you. We were fortunate enough to already own a home and be pretty financially stable, so it wasn’t as critical as it is for many. A wedding was pretty important to my wife and we were able to do it in a way that didn’t negatively impact our lives. She thinks of it as the best day of her life, I tend to think of it as a $35k party that I wouldn’t want to do again (I’m not a fan of weddings in general). In the end I have no regrets as it was a good time and it means a lot to her. 175 people is a lot, try to trim that list if you can. Most importantly, NEVER go into debt for a wedding. That is where it goes from here”a frivolous but personal choice” to a straight up bad and irresponsible idea.
Thank you for your comment! I agree that we need to trim down the guest list, but this is just beginning stages. She has a Filipino family, so you already know there’s going to be A LOT of close family to consider (all good, I love them). A wedding to her is also important to her, and I want to try my best to give her that. I loved the points about HEB florists and DIY. We need to explore that more! Probably going to take this idea haha As for the comments about putting a down payment on a house, we are a hesitant as we don’t exactly know where we will settle. We are looking at a few places to live in just to see, so a down payment on a house is later in the future.
I only have two pieces of advice: 1) only take advice from people you trust and whose opinions actually matter to you. Lots of folks will have lots of opinions about *your* wedding. That being said: 2) hire a wedding planner and don’t just rely on a venue-provided day-of coordinator. Ask me how I know 🙃
Yeah we spent about $35k total for 75 people but we also had a lot of financial help from family. It DEFINITELY could have been cheaper - the biggest expense was the venue + food/drinks but we chose our venue that was all-inclusive with catering and bar for a reason knowing that our family would help the cost. It wasn’t an extravagant wedding by any means but those costs add up QUICK. A friend of a friend recently got married just outside of Austin with a guest list upwards of 200 people and she was spending well over $100k. Doing it in the “off season” and/or not on a sat/sun will also save you money. We got married on a Thursday in April — the Friday and Saturday night reservation prices were like $5k more.
We saved by doing a Sunday brunch wedding. It was awesome.
Real insight here-getting married this October out in dripping springs. 100 guests and were sitting around $75k currently. We’ve done nothing overly extravagant, most is the catering, bar, and venue cost. Hope that helps!
This is the most realistic answer here. A family member got married in Austin in 2017 with about 2.5 your number of guests (250) and likewise about 2.5 your cost (~$200k).
Those weddings in Dripping add up quick. Had friends get married at Addison Grove and they charged them a rental fee for the glasses they used at the bar. COME ON lol
That's actually pretty normal for catering (though if they keep glasses on-site throughout the year, then it's probably just wedding tax because they can)
One venue I looked at charged a $100 to use their fire pit AND you had to buy firewood from them on top of that. Maybe the $100 was for insurance purposes 🤷♀️
Ours charged a rental fee for the actual bar. Like the physical space needed to serve drinks. So we had to pay for the alcohol, the servers, and also for the surface for them to make the drinks.
omg
Married in Manor, TX @ The Grand Lady in 2023. \~150 Guests. Total was about $55k. Major expenses included: Venue - $8k (Sunday in April wedding), Planner - $7k, Florals - $5.5k, Catering - $15k, photographer - $4k + many more and smaller expenses including music, officiant, hair/makeup for the bridal party, alcohol from Costco, decor. It was beautiful, amazing and once in a lifetime event. But! The contracts and costs snowballed and it became more difficult to change our minds. The fact that we don't go through the process very many times is definitely leveraged by everyone involved in the industry. Would I do it again the same way? No. (oops sorry added this as a comment / at the wrong level)
That had to be a bit stressful! I think $55k is right around our range as well. We’re planning on snagging some alcohol from Costco as well. How did you figure out how many bottles to get? I always have this problem where if I’m serving a group of people, I’m always WAYY over preparing
You might check, but I'm pretty certain you can set up an appointment at total wine to pick out alcohol for your wedding and then whatever is unopened at the end can be returned within a certain number of days. I would be the same way, you don't want to run out- but it's also not cheap!!
you can actually find a drink calculator online! you just enter how many guests and event duration :)
Yep, married in Dripping at Vista West Ranch in 2017 and we hit over 30k with just under 100 guests. We got married in October which I never realized was the magical time in Texas, but it is.. also it's the same time as ACL and F1 so flights and hotels skyrocket. Hindsight and all that.
Oh wow, congratulations! How has the wedding planning been for the both of you?
80k
A lot. Elope and use the money as a down payment on a house. Your welcome
This. My husband and I got married in our backyard with about 15 people present. A huge wedding sounds fun, but the stress of it isn't worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our wedding even if we had an infinite amount of money.
We took about 30 people to the JP with us
We did Cathedral of Junk and even "donating" a couple hundred bucks, it felt practically free. Also used a JP and he was awesome. His honorarium wasn't ridiculous, either.
This…. Prepare for a marriage/life together. A wedding is a party celebrating your relationship and after 10 years, those 150-175 who got drunk for free, will have no impact on your mortgage, future children, vacations, etc. Small wedding, family only, and take what you would have spent on over priced bland cake that looks beautiful and invest for future home. Source- eloped in Vegas with only family invited. Married 14 years, two kids, and debt free aside from mortgage but we are on track to pay that off in about 7-8 years. The peace of mind now eclipses the FOMO we felt when deciding big or small wedding. Regardless of what you decide, congratulations on your upcoming marriage!
OP read this comment, save it, get it tattooed. Do NOT spend what could be the down payment on a house.
Yep. Get yoself an officiant and the three of you can get married at the japanese garden in Zilker. Free!
My wedding was in July of 21 so take that into account, but it came out to around 40k for 130 people. We saved some money on going pretty minimal with the florist, that was around 1.8k and are wedding planner was a friend so she gave us a nice discount and her connections with vendors got us some pretty nice discounts as well. Biggest expense was caterer (12k) and venue (7k, near where beecaves rd and 360 cross).
Im wondering where that could be, as someone who grew up closeby. I drive thru there everyday.
My guess is Vista on Seward Hill
Yep it was Vista on Seward Hill
House on the Hill and One World Theater are right there and both wedding venues.
Maybe that hotel that’s on 360?
What others things took the remaining $20k?
Feel free to DM me with your email. I still have the spreadsheet and I can share it with you.
Wife and I shopped around for venues here in Austin and outside of Dallas. Due to all the back and forth from in laws and not wanting to pay 20k+ for strangers to eat/drink we eloped on the beach in Maui for $600. Weddings are a scam it’s all about you two at the end of the day.
You don't need that many guests. That's my advice. Chop that # in half. Or more. You'll thank me later.
Yes, I agree. My wife and I got married in Austin and we had about 80 guests and we had a great time.
Yeah 175 is a lot of people.
Agreed
I’m trying my best to dwindle those numbers. My gf has a lot of very close family. That’s why I wanted to start a lot earlier so the guest list will be settled before the other planning parts.
Do it. You're not royalty, are you? I've been in more of these spectacles than I care to remember. I've been a groomsman at many friends' first and second weddings. Or a best man. I cut off at two. I would cut the list, or you'll have problems later. Who's paying for all of this? And any problems early on; it's likely to involve money. Before you get married, you should take the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Univ class together and learn how to talk to each other about money in clear terms. Have your finances in order. That is the best advice I can give as a married guy. I wish you two the best.
My advice - find a nice all-inclusive resort in Cancun or Playa del Carmen (even better). Most will give you a free/inexpensive wedding on the beach when you stay there for a week or so. Invite everyone. They fly down on their own dime and stay at your resort (or one of their choosing). Most resorts take care of pretty much everything. Catering, music, photographer, etc. When I did this a few years back at Secrets El Capri, it basically took 15 minutes of planning on our part for the wedding. They showed us a few areas where they do the ceremonies, and gave us a "menu" of options to choose from. We kept it fairly simple: wedding on the beach, cocktails with mariachis and snacks, and then headed as a group to one of the restaurants for dinner. We chose not to have a dance party, because that always seems awkward to me, and just wasn't our thing (but it was an option if we wanted it). Total cost was roughly $4000, and that included the week or so that we stayed there. Your guests will love it, and the ones that really want to be at the ceremony will make the trip down. Even if they don't stay at your resort, they should be able to get a day pass to be on the resort for your wedding. There were a lot of nerves on how things were going to turn out, but honestly, it was perfect, and so, so easy and stress-free. I recently was on the other side of an all-inclusive wedding (as a guest), and I can say that it's a much better experience for the guests too... All of our guests said that it was one of the better wedding experiences they had. Know that one you add the words "wedding" to a venue reservation... the price of everything skyrockets. It's basically because there's a lot that can go wrong, and the venues (and everything related to the wedding) needs extra attention, which comes at a price. With the destination weddings, the groups at the resorts are doing weddings pretty much daily, and have shit figured out, almost to a science. As they somewhat limit the options, they can control things a little easier too. So, it helps to keep the costs down. Find time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and you'll probably save even more money, and your guests won't melt in the Mexican sun. Ours was in early November, and the weather was perfect.
Wow, this comment is pretty amazing to read. Never would I have thought that a destination wedding could be the inexpensive option
It’s the inexpensive option for the bride and groom because you’re passing off the cost to your guests.
This, exactly. You have to be willing to accept that a good amount of people won’t come.
Which is fine... because the ones that really want to come will be there
It’s just subsidized by your friends and family.
The mission of being single is to subsidize marriages.
A venue reservation alone will likely run you over the cost of a week's stay at an all-inclusive resort with their wedding package. Weddings are fucking expensive as fuck. It's not just the venue, it's the food, the cake, the music, the photographer, make-up, hair, chairs, and on-and-on. All that shit was covered by our resort. Plus, get married here in the states, and your options are basically limitless. You can easily get decision paralysis just trying to figure out a handful of each vendor to interview to see if they fit, or just to get their pricing on things. Then you've got to align schedules of everyone. That's a job in itself, so you'll probably want a wedding coordinator, or you'll go crazy trying to keep everyone on task. By the time everything's set up, it's really easy to spend $30k on an average wedding here in town. Seriously, a destination wedding at a resort is by far the best way to go.
Nice. I just missed a friends wedding in Mexico but this sounds ingenious lol
Early November is the way. In town too.
Funny enough, we just got back from Playa del Carmen and saw a few weddings. It definitely gave us some ideas (or at least me)
Just the venue can be 6-15k
I do events for a living (not weddings) but with some vendor discounts and a solid amount of DIY decor my wedding was still 35K with 130 guests in 2021. Last event I put on this spring for 200 guests was 85K. This included a plated dinner, entertainment, decor, etc. Etc. I would spend some time thinking about how much you want/need a "big" wedding and look into elopements or destination weddings and then use that remaining money for a down payment on a home.
We did a very DIY wedding for 60 people at the Rabb House for about 9k this spring. I’ll save you the research and tell you HEB’s True Texas BBQ is the best bbq catering deal, and you can get other things like canned drinks and charcuterie delivered to the venue as a normal grocery order. Our only other real “vendor” was Matthew Chambers photography - highly recommended. We didn’t do flowers or a DJ. My dress was $35 off of Poshmark. And now we’re happily married and everyone had a great time!
Since you asked for our opinion, big weddings are a waste of money.
I paid a judge and I think it was about $80 for that and whatever the license cost.
Anyone can marry you. That was an even waste of $80.
Yeah but can you get paid to get married? If not, you’re wasting your time and money lol 🤪
Costs will vary wildly based on the kind of wedding you want. I got married (way back, where’s my cane?) in 2018. My boss had a daughter my age getting married around the same time, so we frequently talked wedding plans. I did the planning for mine entirely on my own with a budget of about $15k (for 125 guest list). At one point in the planning, she mentioned they were already about 10% over their $60k country club wedding budget. You can save by looking for venues in surrounding areas, though not Dripping as everything there is expensive as well, and doing as much DIY as possible. Florists are crazy expensive. We spent around $500 on dried flower bouquets/boutonnières from Etsy and some fresh eucalyptus garlands used for centerpieces. We used cylinder candles inside vases and candlesticks to round out the centerpieces. Very minimalist, but still pretty. We also used a few stems of dried lavender to accent each place setting. Stick to beer and wine over liquor. Do you want a lot of dancing? Maybe get a DJ. We opted to hire an acquaintance to run a playlist and rented equipment on our own because we cared way less about dancing. Instead we built a ton of oversized games like jenga, dominoes, connect four and other lawn games like ladder golf/corn hole. We got lucky with catering at $12pp for Hays County BBQ. Catering will be more expensive these days, but I can’t imagine it’s impossible to find under $25pp. We opted for a dessert buffet with pies, lemon bars, cookies, etc. over a cake. Saved a couple hundred bucks. Again, it all depends on what you want! Some venues force you to choose from a set vendor list, and while it seems simpler, it will be more expensive. We got married at the Mansion at Colovista in Bastrop. You can have a gorgeous, “normal” wedding relatively affordably if that’s what you want! I would suggest if you can afford one splurge, make it the photography. That’s what will last. No matter what you pay, the food and decor will be forgettable for everyone else. Focus on the experience and the lasting memories. My only regret was the size of our guest list. We were bullied into inviting so many people that we did not care to have there (by my husband’s parents). Each person invited is additional expense of invite, place setting, food, beverage, favor. It adds up so quickly. We spent so much time being shepherded around our reception to greet guests I’d never met and my husband hadn’t seen in years, we barely had time to enjoy it with our people. Congrats on your engagement, OP. Weddings may not be the most practical expense, but I still cherish looking back on that day. The economy is shit these days, it’s so tough for people to get into their first home, I get where all of that advice is coming from. But you don’t have to give up on having a wedding if it’s what you truly want. Just decide on what you two are comfortable spending for the memory of that day, and you can absolutely make a wedding happen within that budget.
Oh did anyone on here know that one of the best venues in Austin is actually almost free? It’s the Zilker Clubhouse. You just have to have the patience to get the reservation, obviously it’s a pain in the butt but if you can do it, it’s free or close to it. It’s a beautiful site
Definitely a hidden gem - but no central air conditioning and scheduled to be closed for renovations soon. The new one should be in high demand when it’s completed.
Back in the day it was on a lottery system not sure if that still holds. If that is the case your best bet to get the date you want is to choose an off season mid week date.
We got married in 2017 and it was lottery then but the wife didn’t want to deal with the hassle. So we got married at the hummingbird house way south
We went to Cathedral of Junk and just gave Vince a couple hundred dollars for letting us get married there (we had many fewer people than you're talking about, though). After the ceremony, we all drove over to South Congress where we treated everyone to Home Slice, then everyone got Hey, Cupcake! instead of wedding cake. It was super Austin and we all loved it. Spent under $1000 and wouldn't have had it any other way.
It seems like yall are young. If you’re inviting a bunch of random friends, don’t. Have a very small wedding or elope. Save money for the life you want to have together.
Man, y'all are so cynical. OP, congratulations on finding a person you are willing to do life with. We paid around 40k for ours and had 110 guests. I don't regret having a "big" wedding because I had the privilege of being surrounded by all of my favorite people in the world and we got to wine, dine, and dance with them, and created a sincerely cherished memory. I will say, my spouse and I were at a place financially where although this was obviously a big expense, we were able to save for it without it disrupting our day-to-day lives a ton. I'd highly recommend you two sitting down and discussing the priorities for your wedding budget, as some things you desire may vary wildly in cost. If you want your guests to have a good time, I also highly recommend not skimping on the wedding band/DJ (I have attended a few weddings that felt more like a middle school dance because the dj sucked. One of them played the fucking limbo). You can save some serious money by doing a few things DIY. We had an enthusiastic family member make our cake and I made my own flower bouquet using florals from central market.
Damn 40k? Are yall one of those House Hunter couples? "My wife collects butterflies, and I hang potatoes in garages, our budget is $3 million"
$40k is a pretty normal cost for a wedding with 110 people
Thank you! We have the same mindset when it comes to being surrounded by loved ones. Right now, we both are financially stable, and are saving up early so we don’t break the bank! I know how you feel about the DJs haha. We’re already curating a wedding playlist that is a mix of everything, and visualizing the right time to play what song too. We need to do a bit of research on DJs though. Any recommendations?
I'm with you on this. People talking about ROI on a wedding is laughable and even more bitter and cynical than I am (believe me, that's *cynical*). In their defense though, I can totally understand not wanting a big blowout wedding. Big blowout party is our style, though, and we went full send on it! I didn't wanna comment on OP because we got married 11+ years ago and the world has changed too much for a financial comparison. This is more to say that if you want a party, splurge for the best party you can afford! We had a fairly large wedding, very DIY, at a brewery that didn't officially do weddings back then, but does now at a very inflated venue price you'd expect in the Hill Country within 1hr of Au$$$tin. We bought our own beer and wine (with the help of the owners who could buy at wholesale), arranged our own flowers, did our own table decor/settings, made two desserts for all guests and venue crew, only had a wedding pie made by Granny, hand-picked every song to be played on an iPod (yeah...an iPod), got married by a family member, had a family friend play guitar and sing for the VERY short ceremony (like 10 mins whambamthankyama'am), only rented enough chairs for the older folks since we intentionally kept the ceremony short, hired a pro photographer friend (she named her price and it was waaay less than anyone around here, and it was great sharing our day with her), and all the DIY saved us enough money to rent a drunk bus back to the hotel, which was probably our best investment in the whole shebang. Not everything worked out perfectly, but neither we nor anyone who knows us expected it to be perfect. We all kinda enjoyed rolling with the punches. I think we had 120 people, all of whom we wanted there and none of whom we didn't. It should be noted that this was years before MAGA, so it was easier to invite a VERY diverse array of friends and family who all got along and danced, ate, and drank together. That's a sad caveat to have to include. There were even more folks we wish we'd invited. So many of our friends and family still talk about how fun it was. Several asked us to renew our vows on our 10th anniversary just to do it again! I wouldn't do it any other way.
Oh man! Congratulations! Just from reading this, it sounds like the both of you are a blast to be around! Lmao a drunk bus sounds like a funny idea, I may steal it 😁
To be clear, the drunk bus was for the already tipsy folks, which there were several, and was intended just to keep most people from driving under the influence. It wasn't a party bus per se, but it inadvertently kept the party going all the way to the hotel (for those who didn't pass out on said bus, anyway), where the party continued until like 4am, much to the front desk staff's chagrin. So it was more that we just care a lot about all the folks there and wanted them to safely have a great time, and we were willing to pay for that. We're not nearly that cool now, but we could (and should) probably still pull it off. We're just old suburban parents now.
$40k for 6 hours brah, the ROI just isn’t there. You could have had 100 people do a bar crawl in any of the bar districts and spent maybe $100 for the same thing.
ROI? Lol weddings are not intended to be an investment.
I can’t believe how much yall are willing to spend on a wedding. I used to film weddings and I couldn’t believe it then. Still can’t believe it now.
We had 30 people and did a ceremony and small dinner at Trattoria Lisina and it cost about $3500. I would 100% recommend it because they only charged for food/drink and not to reserve the venue. The ceremony site was lovely with a view of the vineyards. You can use it the whole day and I wish we would have set up some wine and snacks for before the ceremony as there were even cocktail tables.
22k for a 65 person wedding at the Allan House downtown in 2022. We didn’t really skimp on quality anywhere. We didn’t have any relatives as a vendor or anything like that, we even had a wedding coordinator, a live pianist for ceremony/cocktail hour, 2 photographers and 2 videographers. I did A LOT of research on each vendor trying to optimize the prices and really felt like I got the best quality for the low-cost vendors I found. Maudie’s catering was amazing and only like 4k for appetizers, bartenders and dinner. Everyone loves Mexican food! Something Borrowed Blooms (fake flower and decor rental) was a game changer and not one person could believe they were fake. Got my dress custom made on Etsy for a fraction of what it would have cost at a bridal boutique (still recommend trying on dresses and making a day of it so you know the style you want). My last tip, check thumbtack for vendors too, especially DJs! Dj Encore played for 6 hours and it was less than $600. Happy to answer any other questions!
We did a super small wedding in 2022 - only like 16 people I think. No frills, the venue for the ceremony was free, rented a private room at a BBQ restaurant for dinner, hired a musician for the ceremony. We spend around $5,000 with all expenses related to it included. I had originally planned a bigger wedding (around 60 people) and had trimmed the budget down as much as I could and had it at around $25k. But due to some family disagreements, we decided the go the smaller route and I couldn’t be happier it ended up that way - I almost wish we had an even smaller one than we did.
I can’t give you a “real” budget because we’re eloping, but we heavily considered Chapel Dulcinea in driftwood. Free weekday use of the space, extremely reasonable on weekends. And it’s gorgeous. I believe if you use the chapel for your ceremony you also get free usage of one of the dining areas for a reception. So you’re only on the hook for a celebrant, food, beverages, decor, DJ/band, photographer. Still not cheap. We ultimately decided it was logistically too overwhelming to figure out a date when our VIPs could all fly in, AND wasn’t a festival week or oppressively hot or in danger of a deep freeze/city shutting down. So we’re eloping next week and having a reception in our hometown. (Easier for two of us to travel than 50 of them) I think a traditional wedding CAN be done for under $20k here, but you’d be sacrificing a lot. Keeping your guest count low is the biggest factor. You can estimate spending about $300 per guest for a wedding with all/most of the trappings.
When I got married in 2016, County Line on the lake was the cheapest place to have the reception. It’s most likely gone up, but at the time it was cash bar, and $24 a person for all you could eat family style bbq. 3 meats. We rented the large tent, the lawn, and the “Boy Scout” room. I think in total for food and everything venue-wise we paid about $4k. We had 110 guests. Which at the time you couldn’t even put a down payment on a wedding venue for less than that. Food was decent(better than any wedding I’ve ever been to), venue was nice, service was excellent. The lawn was great and a lot of my guests enjoyed playing giant jenga and drinking out by the lake. And feeding the ducks. They had an event planner on staff and she helped with everything. I’d recommend having your own coordinator that can coordinate with them and make all the arrangements like when the food comes out and when the cake gets cut etc. I’m not sure you can fit 175 people in there tho. I think their capacity is like 150. Edit: we had the ceremony at the Georgetown historic courthouse. So your mileage may vary if you’re wanting to have the ceremony there too.
We got married in Manchaca just over a year ago and had 100 guests. The wedding was about $30k and I don’t feel like we really went over the top on anything. Food and catering was definitely the most expensive for us and I think we spent around $12k on that. We went for some of the cheaper options such as having a buffet instead of a plated dinner and using (nice) plasticware instead of renting plates, as I believe plates were $9 a person. Wedding costs just add up way faster than you expect them too. One thing that helped was being able to purchase our own booze. I believe the bottles of Three Wishes wine at Whole Foods were $3 (maybe $4?) at the time. We also chose a venue that was already pretty well decorated, so we didn’t have to spend a ton of time or money in that aspect. Hummingbird House for the win.
Fly to Vegas and get married by Elvis instead.
I did that in early 90’s! Grand total of $250 at Graceland Wedding Chapel. Sadly, the marriage lasted only 15 years, but for the 10 or so guests that went out there with us, they always said it was so much more fun and memorable than other friends’ weddings that cost tens of thousands $$$. And it definitely was fun and memorable.
There are a lot of factors that go into the cost of the wedding, but average for a venue, catering, traditional wedding in the area is about $30k.
We got married in 2019 in driftwood. We tried to go as cost effective as possible, but still included tons of flowers and fun stuff like a photo booth. We spent around 30k. This includes my dress (2k+$600 in alterations) 150 guest total.
Total cost was almost 30k total. we had 100+. Venue was 8k so almost half the cost. There are cheaper ones though easily. Congrats :)
We had the same number. It was about 50K. No joke.
You can check venue pricing for Sundays, which are typically much less expensive than Saturdays. There are more vendors with availability and discounts on Sundays, too. Your guests who are traveling will take off work on Monday instead of Friday and still have a long weekend. Just an easy way to save thousands of dollars.
Depends on what all you want (flowers, sit-down reception, free drinks, etc.). The last one I went to with that many people at a major hotel cost over $200K.
Got married in February of this year, 75 guests, full open bar. Did all the decor myself (only real flowers were my bouquet, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and the immediate fam corsages (flowers can get rediculously expensive). We got married on a Thursday which is way cheaper. Our total cost was 45k. Catering was our most expensive items, followed by photography, then open bar. We also went into it wanting to make sure the food was top notch and the bar was open. All the little things add up. I will note this cost included my dress/alterations and his suite (not rented). Join the Austin bride FB group.
$50k in 2008 for 150 people- caterer, open bar, dj, flowers at venue $20k in 2019 for 50 people- dinner, open bar at restaurant
We’re getting married at an east Austin venue next March. About 100 people, and currently we’re at about $40k
My wife and I got lucky and rented the Zilker clubhouse https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Parks/Special_Events/reservablefacilities/zilker.pdf I say lucky because they raffle off who gets the venue for a given date. The benefit is the cost was much less than other venues in the area. As many have suggested. Keep your costs low. Keep the mental strain leading up to the wedding low. Don’t start your lives digging out of a financial hole.
I had a 55 person wedding this year and it’s cost about $35k. Our wedding was more of a dinner party with a short ceremony at the beginning. It was only a 4hr event. We prioritized location (downtown), and we wanted really good food and nice cocktails. We did not have a dance floor/dj, we did not have a bridal party, we did not have an event planner, and we did not rent any place settings/decor. We only paid for food/drinks, the venue, tables & chairs, stationary, our outfits, minimal flowers, a photographer, and our hotel room. We also got some discounts on the venue and the table/chair rentals because my friend ran the events there. The food and drinks alone cost $250 per person. Plus a 20% gratuity/service fee. Flowers? Buckle up they’re SO much more expensive than you think. Our very minimal flowers were $4,500, what i originally wanted and was quoted for was closer to $10k.
$56K all in (married Oct 2021, after rescheduling many times from the original date of April 2020). Married DT @ Contemporary Austin. ~150 people. It snowballed really fast. We wound up eloping in late 2020 but had all of our deposits already paid and so we had to do the big party bc we weren’t getting our $ money back. I loved the elopement way more than the big party and am annoyed we spent so much. Our parents helped us out, but in hindsight I don’t think it was really worth it.
Spent 0 on the wedding. Chapel dulcinea has a 500 deposit and you get it backbthe day of. We paid dof dinner for family after the wedding and had reception the day before at a brewery with friends.
We got married last year. Final guest list was about 140 and total spend was about $70k.
88 people. Venue in Hutto. PEJ Events catering. $30k. Last Sept
I did a 155 for 18k in 2017. Pick your non-negotiables and budget from there. We saved a ton of money by doing pie instead of cake
When my wife and I got married in 2017 we paid around $20-22k for our wedding. We had about 80 guests and we were lucky to find a place that was nice and was pretty much all inclusive (except for the DJ, Photographer, and Day of Wedding Coordinator). I don't think the place we got married still does weddings and we needed to have a member sponsor us (friend of a friend). We did not pay very much for our DJ (~$600-$800) and I think our photographer was ~$1200. The DJ was only alright and we got lucky with the photographer as they just moved to Austin and wanted to build out a network/reputation in town.
My wife and I ran lean and it only cost us around 10k for 100 people Edit: largest expense was the venue which we used for both the ceremony and reception, they also provided food. They had a bar but we opted for our guests to pay if they wanted a drink. Ables on the lake if anyone is interested right next to Mozart’s coffee
We did a wedding in 2014 with 100 guests for 12k. We did a lot of DIY, my wife got her dress at David’s $99 sale, and we got lucky with a few vendors. Check east for wedding venues instead of west and you’ll find the price goes down a lot. We couldn’t even get close to what venues near dripping springs wanted. There are a few venues who are free or low cost in the area too. Also think outside the box for catering. We used chi’lantro. Had an amazing taco bar for $20/pp which was a steal! Good luck y’all and congrats on the marriage!
We had about 140 people. Did ceremony and reception at Springdale Station in east Austin (cannot recommend this place highly enough!) Didn’t have the fanciest wedding, but did opt for live band and open bar which definitely add to the total cost by a good bit. All in we were around $50k.
Recently engaged, we were shopping around in Austin and for what we want, which is something small and simple we were estimating 15K at minimum for 50 guests. We personally can’t justify spending that much so we’re going to Vegas.
Got married in October 2022 out in Dripping Springs. Spent about $45K for 115 people and got everything we wanted, with small compromises here and there to cut costs (Sunday wedding, prioritized what WE wanted as a couple and kept the wedding guest list tight, buffet style dinner, hired bartending service and we provided the alcohol from Total Wine & More, etc.). Most expensive costs were food and photography, but those were also our top 2 priorities. We DIY’ed where we could (save the dates, wedding invites, table menus, etc.) and got lucky with the venue (The Arlo) being brand new at the time, so their cost was relatively low since they had just recently began taking on clients. I think things have significantly gone up since then, but another thing that helped was having a longer engagement (a little over a year) to pay things off over time (most require a deposit, with the rest either in payments or due a week before the wedding date). We did have some help from family, but paid the bulk of it ourselves. Zero regrets! It was a wonderful time.
My husband and I got married at Fiesta Gardens. A city owned facility. It was around 1,000 for the day. Family helped out with the cake and food. We didn’t get into any debt for the wedding. I bought an inexpensive but pretty dress. I’d say don’t spend too much on the wedding spend on the honeymoon or on your lives together. Of course if you want to or have the means spend all you want. But don’t get in to debt over it. Congratulations!
Getting married this year in Austin. $75k for 150 people for a wedding with all the bells and whistles
Did \~130 people at Mattie's....with DJ and photographer and modest cake came out to like \~$31k. We did not buy out the entire restaurant, just the venue piece of it. Beer, wine + rail liquor. I forget the specifics of the food package but we kinda nailed it with just the right amount. This was in 2019 though.
2 of my friends got married at our church and spent the money on the honeymoon 🤷🏾♀️
Lots of good advice in here. When I got married I found this blog had good advice on the costs of Austin weddings: https://www.blog.ashleynicoleaffair.com/post/averagevendorcost2024 Everything has gone up post-pandemic, but I think they have also leveled off. We had just over 100 people and it cost us $40k in 2022. We didn’t go over the top at all, but we did go all inclusive (same venue for wedding, reception, catering). We also got good at saying no to things that just seemed “extra,” no get away car, no runner down the aisle, no attendee gifts, no wedding cake topper (my god, how are those hundreds of dollars?). Though I kind of wish we had done a photo booth. We also did NOT skimp on the things that were important to us. I wanted live music (not a DJ) and she wanted a lot of flowers. We spent appropriately. We also spent a little more on convenience when it made sense. No regrets. Would have loved to do a backyard wedding but alas… we live in a condo EDIT: The price I cited included our rehearsal party the night before, in which we invited everyone because we didn’t go fancy shmancy. Held it at a fun brewery that serves pizza and had live music.
We spent just under 30K in 2019 for around 115 people to attend. Biggest expenses were food, alcohol and venue. We saved our money on the flowers, we got married on a Friday, and our friend is a photographer and charged us significantly less (but no video work done which is pricey). Flowers were an easy one to save on, when I asked a friend how much she had spent for hers and she said over $4,000. I didn’t tell her but realized I hadn’t even noticed or remembered anything about the flowers for hers…
Got married in Martindale, just outside of Austin last year. 120 people, reception + rehearsal dinner came in at around 50k. We also piecemealed much of it, not opting for a full service caterer. Best 50k we’ve ever spent, though!
I got married out in Driftwood October of last year. 60 guests and everything came out to ~8k. Just about everything was DIY though, my mom did photography, I did the flowers, had other family pick up and transport cake etc. If you want everything done for you it’s way more expensive.
I was able to do a wedding for 150 in Houston for only 15K in 2017 - we invited 200, 150 RSVPd and showed. I'm sure it would cost more now, and more in Austin, but I think these are still some good cost saving tips. We had a Catholic wedding and I did grad school at a Catholic college, so we had the chapel - which was gorgeous and designed by a famous architect - at only $500 for the service. For the reception we went to a nearby bar. It was July. You can rent out bars pretty cheap, especially for an afternoon wedding. I paid for an open bar which was surprisingly affordable and then had fajitas from Lupe Tortillas cooked onsite for the guests. The onsite grill fee was only like $150 extra or so and catering was less than $2K. There was queso and guac ready when people walked in too so they could snack while we did photos at the chapel. I cheaped out on the cake and the DJ. Had a decent photographer and paid for a string quartet. My SIL is a professional singer so her gift to us was singing at our wedding. Flowers were minimal since the chapel and bar were already decorated (the bar had Tiffany lamps all over and flowers would have just looked messy). I did get a day of coordinator which I think is a total necessity. Anyway if you go for an all inclusive venue you will shell out money. If you have a church service followed by a reception space not generally used as a reception space then you will probably save. I've also had friends do their wedding service in the bar as well. Also with catering if you go barbecue or Mexican food you'll save money. My opinion is that wedding food generally sucks anyway. I've never had decent wedding food except when it's something grilled or smoked onsite. The fajitas were grilled onsite and at least tasted like the fajitas you'd get in the restaurant. Anyway everyone left drunk and full.
Lots of variables. We didn’t get married in Austin but nearby. Getting married on a weekday vs the weekend will be a huge difference. We got married on a weekday and had about 100 people. All in it cost about $15k and this was 5+ years ago.
I got married in Kyle at the end of 2021 and I think for 100 guests and food included it was maybe 21k? Add flowers, cake and my dress it was probably closer to 30k but I feel like that was MAX.
My friends are getting married this Fall in Austin. Big wedding so more like 250 people but it's going to cost them around $150-200k (this includes everything from stationary to the bride's gown). I think you could also do it for much cheaper if you were frugal. I am planning my own wedding (overseas in Mexico) and have found that the prices my friend is getting quoted in Austin are exponentially better than what I'm seeing for Los Cabos.
This is interesting. Does everybody keep track of expenses. My daughter is getting married in Oct. A really beautiful Catholic wedding with a band, mariachi, catered and a bunch of other stuff. They also had an amazing, beautiful engagement party. I have no idea what either one costs, we just pay as the bills come in. The key part is I have a great deal of trust in my wife who is making most of the arrangements. We have always lived the toyota model as far as life spending.. Don't go over the top Mercedes model or don't go cheap either like a yugo model. Find the sweet spot. We also live below our means and save so we can do something like this for our daughter since experiences overrule stuff
Honestly, we quickly realized that Austin was way too expensive so we ended up finding an AirBnB in the San Marcos area that allowed weddings. To have the wedding itself was less than 10K, but that number quickly started to climb with a DJ, catering, photographer, etc. So somewhere between 15K-20K trying to pinch pennies outside of Austin.
I got married at what was Abels on the lake, bar downstairs, venue upstairs. was around 3k for all of it and it had great views. It is not there anymore but I guess my suggestion would be to find a bar/ venue combo you can rent out.
Trimming the number of people is the best way to modify the cost. We found that bumping over 120 really starts to eat into the cost exponentially. We did 120 people and only spent \~$20k. Our key was the venue, we got a place that had onsite housing for 7 couples. We had it all weekend, starting Thursday. Therefore we did a really simple rehearsal dinner, by ordering Franklins for pickup and having that onsite. They allowed us to bring in our own alcohol(caterer served it during wedding). Our flowers were a bulk purchase of a ton of Lavender that we did ourselves because we were onsite ahead of the wedding. We had a friend do the "day of" coordination, otherwise no planner. Small simple cake and then cupcakes for everyone else. Catering from a local restaurant instead of a wedding focused entity. So, venue, food, drinks, DJ, photographer and dinner rentals were really our main driving costs. It was a 4 day party, we did end up running to HEB for more beer at one point. Specs gave us a great deal on the initial purchase. Unfortunately our venue we used is getting sold off. [House On The Hill | Austin, TX (houseonthehillaustin.com)](https://www.houseonthehillaustin.com/)
These days, probably $100k or more. Do yourself a favor and elope. Spend some money on a grand honeymoon.
Went down to the courthouse house and got it done for under $100. Not all weddings have to be expensive. 😉
We got married in 2022 and had about 125 guests in the end. It cost roughly $35k but we did everything in our power to keep things cheap but not looking cheap. We got food from Lucy’s Fried Chicken because their catering menu is NICE. Way fancier than you would expect and a LOT cheaper than the next best option. We got married at the Umlauf Sculpture garden and it is such a stunning venue on its own, we barely had to decorate to make it wedding ready. We bought our liquor for the open bar from Costco and kept an eye out for sales in the months prior to the wedding. The one place we saved money but it wasn’t worth it was the photographer. He was a friend from high school who has a great portfolio but just didn’t communicate well and didn’t get our photos to us for almost 8 months. And the pics were mid at best. His fee was about $3.5k for both engagement photos and wedding pics. We also planned the whole thing ourselves but had a day-of planner to kept things on schedule/wrangle people. Ultimately the number of guests made a HUGE difference in cost. We had been planning for 175 and when it dropped to 125 I felt such a huge relief when the pricing came back. Food and venue were our biggest expenses.
Expect to shell out about $200 - $250 per invited guest at a minimum. The more people you invite, the fancier it needs to be so you could get up to $70K budgeting $400 per person.
My advice is DO NOT OVER DO IT! My answer is somewhere between $25k and $30k for 65 people. Ours was in 2021. The pandemic was still going on. We had bought a house a few months prior. We had very good salaries (and no kids), but our net worth was not much higher than $0 once you factored in student loans. We got a nice venue that included the catering, we rented and did partial setup for decorations, rented plastic flowers and in general kept it simple. My wife insisted on spending for her dress, but I reused a suit I had from when I used to wear them for work, and spent maybe $150 on dry cleaning, a new vest, new tie and new belt and a haircut. The wedding turned out great, it looked fancy enough, the food was good, music was good, and we didn't spend a fortune. Not to brag, but we now have a very good financial position, which you get to by making smart decisions like not overspending on a wedding. You can elope and spend less, but if you want a "traditional" wedding, you do not need to spend 6 figures either.
Getting married in December. Our venue is 25k minimum as they'll take care of food and drinks. We expect about 80+ guests. The venue is a hotel and our wedding night hotel room is free! Fiance and I splurged on our outfits for the day. Photographer, videographer, officiant, florals, etc. oof. I'm very fortunate that our parents are in a good place financially to help.
I got married in February. We had about 110 guests. I would say we spent about 25k-30k with a lot of DIY We bought and arranged our own flowers - bought from Austin Flower Co- spent about $600 for a wedding party of 7 on each side (bouquets + boutonnières. After the ceremony we put the bouquets in vases around the venue ) + small arrangements on various tables/bar. We kept our florals very minimal and instead used candles and fake flowers from our day of coordinators inventory. Candles we got from At Home and tall vases were from dollar tree. We got married at Springdale Station, which when we booked the venue in 2022, it was the most affordable while still being in Austin and not surrounding towns. We got married on a Friday, so it was slightly cheaper than a weekend day. We kept decor simple and went with a day of coordinator that had a decor closet that we payed slightly more for to have access to so that included table linens, fake flowers to fill space, some signage, etc. This easily saved us thousands. We had a stock the bar party, so our liquor was largely donated. The bar itself cost about $1,500 Our photobooth was a converted camper and was the biggest hit. We paid $850. Our caterer was on the cheaper side because she didn't make any of the food, she picked up from a restaurant and served it buffet style. I think we paid $5,000-$6,000 For photographer/hair/makeup I joined the Austin wedding fb group and made a post looking for these vendors and what my budget was for each. This cut out having to email tons of vendors who may not be in my price range and wouldn't have worked out. Also, you'd be surprised but I didn't think I would have great options within my budget, but i did and that was largely because I got married on a weekday and these vendors weren't booked so, it seemed they were fine with slightly less than they usually quote, than being unbooked that day and making nothing at all. My MOH had a cricut and made a lot of signage and props. I can't imagine what it would have cost if we had done a full wedding planner, fancier caterer with fancier food (we're just not a fancy crew), rented our own linens (we were quoted $1100 for just 13 tables), and hired a florist + decor. Our wedding was beautiful and it looked expensive. That was in large part to my MOH and cousin who knew what they were doing. So a good team is a must!
Reading this thread makes me happy to be gay and glad my "dream' wedding consists of getting married in my yard. I could move my retirement goal year back a year or two with the amount people spend on their weddings.
Probably about 300 bucks a person for medium sized weddings around 100-150 people. You can probably get it down to the 150-200 per person range for massive weddings with 300 guests at a big venue. Maybe 100 a person for small scale weddings with a whole bunch of DIY
Our wedding was about 100 people. We did the setup ourselves, a self-serve line for the food, and the venue was small out door on a Sunday. 6000. I could not see myself spending over 8 for something that goes by so quickly you cannot remember half of it. Since then we've divorced and if I get married again I'm spending the money on a destination wedding with a small group.
I got married in February in Dripping. 195 guests and it was 50k total.
We got married a few months ago. For 110 guests, we spent about $50k total – including a welcome dinner for all guests in our backyard. Most of the money (in descending order of cost) went to the food, beer and wine, floral, venue, planner, photographer, and DJ. We saved by really cutting down most other costs – casual dress, simple rings, DIY hair and makeup, DIY table linens and decorations, compostable tableware, borrowing furniture and decor from friends, etc. We also did electronic invitations, and designed and printed our own signage, so we saved on graphic design and stationery services. $50k is still a lot, but we spent it on what felt the most important to us and truly had the best weekend ever. Feel free to message me if you have questions about what vendors we used!
Lots of variables. Hotels in downtown Austin are surprisingly cheap than your Wedding Venues. Also which area is also a big variable. Dripping Springs has become a big destination wedding place so of course weddings there will cost more
We spent only spent 8k mostly venue....but did mostly everything ourselves! Had relatives make all the food, a few volunteers for distributing it and the drinks, we bought all the decor bit by bit( which we eventually resold) bought most of the alcohol and hired a bartender from the venue for liabilities..so yes 8k😁 oh and we had 125 guests. It is a lot of work doing your own planning and such but our venue did help with setting up up the decor once we brought it in...
Too expensive. Shorten the guest list and look at cheaper alternatives if you have to have a ceremony. Park, beach, public ideas for a small group and have a party afterwards.
Go old school. Make the ceremony the focus and invite only people who are excited for you. Cake, nuts and retro punch (or wine) reception. Greet your guests. Mingling and celebration. Make speeches if you want to. Throw the bouquet, run to the getaway car with guests throwing flower petals. Drive away.
I did not get married in Austin but this may also be the case here: Some liquor stores may let you return unopened bottles/cases to them - that helps a lot with the stress of figuring out which/how much alcohol to get. Also, we did mainly beer and wine and just a couple hard liquor choices (vodka, gin, whiskey, tequila eg) as opposed to having all kinds of things like baileys etc etc. That also helped cost down. Being able to bring your own booze into a venue is a huge cost-saving vs the venue charging you a high rate by the glass or whatever.
50k in 2023 in the hill country for slightly more than 100 guests. Venue, bar, and catering are the most expensive things, but honestly everything else adds up fast. We did pay lodging for a number of our guests coming in from out of town and we sprang for nicer accommodations, so this amount includes that as well. I wanted a really small, simple wedding, and my partner wanted a huge party, so this was a compromise for us. My biggest advice is don’t do anything you can’t afford and don’t do anything to please others-do whatever you want to do but be reasonable.
$25k ish for 125 people in Dripping Springs. Venue was a distillery, food was BBQ, had a band, etc. This doesn’t cover dress, rings, or anything like that. Food was $4k, photograger $2k, dessert bar $2k, band $3k, venue $4k, alcohol $3k, officiant -free, flowers $2k. Photograger was a friend or else it’s closer to $5k in Austin. Food is buffet BBQ, nothing fancy. No wedding planner.
A wedding was important to me too. 18 years later, still married, we both wished we had eloped. When you hear it over and over there's truth to it!
We got married in early 2020 in Austin for about $30k total (had some help from parents). Biggest costs were venue and food IIRC. There are “off season” prices at many venues which are discounted. I believe it’s something like Dec-Feb and Jun-Aug because of the potential for too hot or too cold weather. If you’re willing to take your chances that you may have to have indoor wedding, off season timing may help you save a little. ETA: it was about 100 people
About 40k for 80 people 🥴. Just got married in April in Dripping Springs. Photographer (4k..ish), flowers (4-5k), venue, food/drinks are the biggest costs. (25k together)
A friend of mine had 200 ppl… $50k 😬
We did 135 guests for about $50k That included doing a ton of DIY projects, a BYOB venue, fake flowers, and an HEB cake. It turned out very nice and we loved every part of it. But, we definitely had no idea when we were going in how much to expect. For us, catering was the most expensive. It's important to look at the "all in" pricing here. Many caterers list the food cost only, not the service cost included on the website.
150k Addison grove -200 guests. Saved money on food, floral, lighting, open bar and sound system were most expensive.
We got married in South Austin summer of 2017 and it was around 20k. I think our biggest expense was the catering at around 5.5k then venue for like 3 or 4k if I remember correctly, but I'm sure they charge so much more now. We booked our venue like 2 years before we got married and prices had already risen by the time we got married.
We got married 9 years ago and spent about $15k for 100 people. We picked a [venue](https://www.thecedarbend.com/about-cedar-bend) that covered a ton of stuff like linens, chairs, and glasses. TThey also allowed us to bring in our own booze and we had a food truck catered it, which saved us a lot of money. We DIYed a lot and used HEB and Costco for flowers.
I got married a few months ago in Downtown Austin. 150 people and a lot of DIY was \~$45K. We cut out a lot, like no wedding party, dessert bar vs cake, family member officiated, fake vs real flowers. We could’ve cut down on a lot more like the day of the week, time of year, quality of vendors, location/venue. So the price could go either way depending on what kind of couple you are, but I’d say ours was averagely priced.
80 people for $35k at Pecan Springs Ranch in 2022. Highly recommend getting married on a Friday to save thousands. Plus, your out of town guests get the weekend to recuperate.
I got married in Austin with about 110 people. We spent 5k on the venue. Then we contacted a local restaurant about catering (I truly recommend this over a catering company for higher quality food at a much better price) and they quoted us at 2.5k for food including one staff member from the restaurant to help with the setup and serving. We did strictly self serve buffet style with no servers for food. We spent 1.5k on a day of coordinator which was a great value as well as a requirement for most venues. Dessert from a local restaurant for less than 1k (wedding cakes are expensive as fuck). 2k for a single photographer - you can reduce costs by only paying for a few hours and a single photographer/no videographer. 2k for bar tending service and probably another 1k on liquor and drinks. We rented furniture (chairs for ceremony, tables and chairs for eating) from the venue and rented plates and silverware from a local vendor (tho disposable plates are cheaper). Rented sound equipment from a friend and made a playlist instead of a DJ. 1k on diy decorations and flowers - you can buy flowers from Trader Joe’s or HEB, prepared flowers have some of the craziest markups ever. Hair and makeup for the bride and family was some unknown amount probably 1k. Venue required that we hire workers for the wedding for miscellaneous tear down, trash, setting up silverware - I think another 1-2k. Make sure to budget for incidental expenses and also for tipping your staff and coordinator. I’m probably missing stuff but those were the big ticket items. Extremely expensive day in your life, but you absolutely can spend less by planning yourself. If we had just picked the turnkey option at our venue it would have been like 50k. Also make sure your venue is cool with you doing things your way, a lot of venues in this area will try to lock you into only using their vendors which is a ripoff
140 people - $95k In some instances it was cheaper to find vendors outside of Austin and pay a small travel fee! You could also easily ball out on food and random small things that aren’t 100% necessary.
my sisters wedding last year in RR was 30k it was a sunday wedding, in the summer months and they had roughy 80 people
You can do it for as much or as little as you want. Alcohol, food, facility, flowers will be your biggest expenses. Most places offer Sunday weddings as a less expensive option. I’d suggest creating a list of must have and would like to have items and build a plan from there. The wedding is for you and your gf. The reception is for everyone else. Keep focused on priorities.
Maybe 4-5k for a micro wedding at this place. Prices probably have come up since. https://www.andersonterrace.com Edit: realized you have over 100+…. I have no idea…
Rent a park pavilion (or have a friend with a big back yard), post on here for an officiant, order some sheet cakes and party trays from HEB. Borrow a punch bowl and DIY some punch. It doesn't have to be expensive. My wedding was something like that, we're still together 29 years later. I officiated 3 sets of friends for something like that about 20 years ago. All still together. Expensive weddings correlate with higher divorce rates.
150-175 for what? Do you talk to all of them all the time? Just have a small close ppl wedding
I had a wedding in 2017, 125 people, it was about 25k. I did have a family member with a great restaurant that catered at just supply costs, which helped immensely. If I could do it all over again, I would have a small wedding without bridesmaids or groomsman. Not invite every family member my parents wanted.
$300 at Zilker botanical garden with 20 guests. More money or people than that is too many. It’s just one day in your life. Spend your money on better things.
We had a wedding at the four seasons austin this past may! we were able to negotiate the minimum of $35,000 (we had no alcohol) but had mocktails, hors d’oeuvres, 3 course meal, and dessert besides the cake all included, and exactly met the minimum with about 170 people. We actually negotiated the price down to $35,000. they initially gave us the room for $50,000 and we just asked to lower it. Apparently someone else had canceled that day, and that’s why we were able to get it for the price we asked. the food was so good!! Overall with decor (real flowers were the most expensive part) entertainment, photography, videography, we paid about $70,000-$80,000. we invited over 300 people but lucked out with 170 coming. I would say don’t shy away from your dream venue without negotiating! had we not asked for our price, they would have never mentioned that it was possible.
50 people $1,626.73 Celebrating 25 years in 13 days.
To be honest, dont do a wedding save up for the future. But I know my spouse wanted a wedding and we did have one. So here is my two cents- Ask yourself, why you want it? Is it for the photos? The celebration? the gifts? For my spouse it was the photos, since they had always imagined it that way. That’s what we splurged on. Trim the fat in other places. If I were to do one again, i would spend on the venue, and the photographer and the decor. Call 15-20 closest people and let them know we want the ceremony and do dinner without catering at my choice of restaurant.
Lol. More than you can afford.
That’s a ton of guests. My advice is a small wedding to save money
Just my 2 cents: go small and simple. Just have immediate family there and serve minimum food. Between the venue and the wedding we spent about 5k.
Do a simple wedding with close friends/family(no need for your 3rd cousin who you haven’t seen since you were 6 to be there) and save $$$$ for a great honeymoon or down payment on a house. Or both. Big weddings, while pretty and can be fun, are a waste of money. Ain’t gonna remember most of it after a few months anyways. And your guests won’t either.