how expensive is a wedding??

[Voicy]

I was hesitant on posting this thread because of this kind of response. Did you not read that I'm an average earner?

R50k for a honeymoon is totally uncalled for. Its not necessary at all unless you really trying to make up for a lack of something else (love?) OR you got money falling out your bumhole

5 night trip to thailand etc. can go for R10k pp which isn't bad.

 

[ebendl]

A marrige certificate is dirt cheap at dept of home affairs. Dont know the exact price but wont be more than a 100 bucks. So thats R100 if she really loves you, the less she loves you the more expensive it becomes!

That's rather shallow... you could easily argue that the more you love her, the more you'd want to spend on her and keep for yourself?

In my experience - evening weddings in the summer over weekends = way more expensive than a wedding in the winter in the morning in the middle of the week.
I won't say what I spend, but it was more than R60k. Venues around Pretoria is easily R400 - R800 per person (includes food and venue hire, sometimes wine).
Roses = most expensive. Flowers can be anything from R3000 to R17k.
Photographer = from R3,000 to R20,000.
Wedding dresses I have no idea, but they are cheaper if you rent. THen you can also make-to-rent or make-to-buy (gets progressively more expensive).

I saw a friends' budget: R120,000 for 120 people. Was held at Velmore outside Pretoria (www.velmore.co.za) in December 2008. This is excluding the Honeymoon & ring but including everything else.

 

[MongooseMan]

Married in Paarl.
Venue - ~6k.
Food - ~R300p/p.
Dress(es) - homemade
Photographer - Uncle
Videographer - Other uncle
Cake - Homemade
DJ - Brother
Band - Friends
Ring - ~R10k from CraigMarks (highly recommended if you're in Cape Town, really, really great to deal with).
Total cost, for about 120 people, ~R60000.

If I had to do it again, I'd do it all the same.

 

[techead]

5 night trip to thailand etc. can go for R10k pp which isn't bad.

exactly what I was thinking

http://www.travelstart.co.za/index....ds=0&paxInfants=0&specificAirline=all&search=

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

I was hesitant on posting this thread because of this kind of response. Did you not read that I'm an average earner?

R50k for a honeymoon is totally uncalled for. Its not necessary at all unless you really trying to make up for a lack of something else (love?) OR you got money falling out your bumhole OR your love language is gifts or something

You can get away with a week long honeymoon including airfares and accommodation for about R20k, depending on the destination. You can save a lot more by doing 2 weeks local if you don't mind, but personally my idea of a honeymoon should be an overseas trip

I'm actually thinking about a cruise to the Seychelles, stay there for a few days and cruise back. You be surprised at how cost effective a cruise can be.

 

[ice_cubes]

Where do you want to get married? town, rural area, hotel?
What kind of venue are you looking at? Hall, hotel conference hall, tent (you get those huge airconditioned ones as well)?
What do you want your guests to eat? catered by local caterer, family, hotel?
Honeymoon depends on where you want to go & at what time of the year you will go. December, public holidays & easter will obviously cost you a fortune!
Wedding attire? Will you buy (overseas is cheaper), rent or get someone to tailor-make it for you guys?

 

[blunomore]

So thats R100 if she really loves you, the less she loves you the more expensive it becomes!

LOL!

I do not understand people who spend gazillions on a wedding.

My brother-in-law recently spent R250 000 on his daughter's wedding.

Umm, why??? Why do you do that? To impress whom? To make you feel better about what?

 

[ice_cubes]

You can get away with a week long honeymoon including airfares and accommodation for about R20k, depending on the destination. You can save a lot more by doing 2 weeks local if you don't mind, but personally my idea of a honeymoon should be an overseas trip

I'm actually thinking about a cruise to the Seychelles, stay there for a few days and cruise back. You be surprised at how cost effective a cruise can be.

+1
cruises are the best value for money...

 

[ice_cubes]

LOL!

I do not understand people who spend gazillions on a wedding.

My brother-in-law recently spent R250 000 on his daughter's wedding.

Umm, why??? Why do you do that? To impress whom? To make you feel better about what?

WHAT!?!?! thats insane...unless of course he has money-tree planted in his backyard

 

[xrapidx]

I was hesitant on posting this thread because of this kind of response. Did you not read that I'm an average earner?

R50k for a honeymoon is totally uncalled for. Its not necessary at all unless you really trying to make up for a lack of something else (love?) OR you got money falling out your bumhole OR your love language is gifts or something

How is it uncalled for? To me the honeymoon is more important than the wedding

I would rather spend R50k on a decent honeymoon than R50k on an average wedding.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

LOL!

I do not understand people who spend gazillions on a wedding.

My brother-in-law recently spent R250 000 on his daughter's wedding.

Umm, why??? Why do you do that? To impress whom? To make you feel better about what?

Well one could say the same thing about any wedding, really. Why bother with food, decor and flowers? Let the people come and witness the main ceremony and buzz off after that

If he has the money then why not? Obviously if he doesn't have the money, then he's an idiot

 

[blunomore]

WHAT!?!?! thats insane...unless of course he has money-tree planted in his backyard

From what I am told, he has quite a lot of money, but lives so humbly - his house is really nothing nice, plain and simple, no new or fancy furniture, so I do not understand how he made that mindshift to live humbly yet blow that kind of money on a wedding.

 

[RustyPrincess]

How is it uncalled for? To me the honeymoon is more important than the wedding

I would rather spend R50k on a decent honeymoon than R50k on an average wedding.

+1
Totally agree. R50k doesn't go that far after food, transport, shopping, entertainment, flights, and decent accomodation. Thats about what me and my bf spent in total on a 3 week trip to SE Asia last year, and I thought that wasn't bad at all.

 

[kim_bcs]

Getting back to the question of how expensive a wedding is, it all boils down to how much you can/want to spend. We got married in Feb last year, so let me give you an idea of what it cost us. We got married in Greyton in the Western Cape.

Wedding venue - free (cause it's my parents place)
Priest - R 600
Flowers - R 2000
Photographer - R 7500 + R 600 for accom + R 250 for food for photographer and assistant + km's (which she forgot to charge us)
Hiring - R 8500 - this included chairs, tables, glasses, plates etc
Sound guy - R 4000
Wedding dress - R 5500
Food - R 125/head - Total number of heads was 88 including my wife and I. This was for amazing food. I am happy to give you the menu if u are interested
booze - R 4000 - we had wine on the table and and 2 bottles of champagne per table (table of 8). There was no cash bar for anything stronger
Softdrinks - R 400
My clothing - R 600
Bridesmaids - R 1000
Groomsmen - got their own clothes
gifts for the guests - R 1500

So the total is: R 48950

Of course I could have forgotten something, but the main things are there. My wife's parents contributed R 40 000, so the rest came from us.

This really is a cheap wedding in terms of cost, but hopefully it will give you an idea. It was a pretty great wedding tho (I should of course think that) We got family and friends to come and help setup and take down, made popcorn, lemonade and punch for the guests ourselves while they were waiting for us etc. The invitations were designed by a friend and we did the table seating design ourselves as well as the thank you cards. There are a lot of small things which might seem to be cheap, but all together add up quickly. In the end, a wedding is about the two of you. Make it special based on who you are and what you like. Don't get yourselves into debt to keep up with the Joneses, but rather keep it casual and light and people will talk about it for years as the most amazing day ever

 

[techead]

Getting back to the question of how expensive a wedding is, it all boils down to how much you can/want to spend. We got married in Feb last year, so let me give you an idea of what it cost us. We got married in Greyton in the Western Cape.

Wedding venue - free (cause it's my parents place)
Priest - R 600
Flowers - R 2000
Photographer - R 7500 + R 600 for accom + R 250 for food for photographer and assistant + km's (which she forgot to charge us)
Hiring - R 8500 - this included chairs, tables, glasses, plates etc
Sound guy - R 4000
Wedding dress - R 5500
Food - R 125/head - Total number of heads was 88 including my wife and I. This was for amazing food. I am happy to give you the menu if u are interested
booze - R 4000 - we had wine on the table and and 2 bottles of champagne per table (table of 8). There was no cash bar for anything stronger
Softdrinks - R 400
My clothing - R 600
Bridesmaids - R 1000
Groomsmen - got their own clothes
gifts for the guests - R 1500

So the total is: R 48950

Of course I could have forgotten something, but the main things are there. My wife's parents contributed R 40 000, so the rest came from us.

This really is a cheap wedding in terms of cost, but hopefully it will give you an idea. It was a pretty great wedding tho (I should of course think that) We got family and friends to come and help setup and take down, made popcorn, lemonade and punch for the guests ourselves while they were waiting for us etc. The invitations were designed by a friend and we did the table seating design ourselves as well as the thank you cards. There are a lot of small things which might seem to be cheap, but all together add up quickly. In the end, a wedding is about the two of you. Make it special based on who you are and what you like. Don't get yourselves into debt to keep up with the Joneses, but rather keep it casual and light and people will talk about it for years as the most amazing day ever

thanks man

 

[AniV]

Warning! Long post - I tend to ramble a bit.

Don't get upset! Don't get despondent! Your wedding will cost what you can afford it to cost. Weddings don't have to run into the tens of thousands of rands like most of the posters on the forum have said. Friends of mine got married recently and did a very beautiful, very special, really fun low-budget wedding that wasn't more than R10k.

My wedding in 2008 was approx R60k total for 120 people. Looking back, I think we spent a lot more than we could have. If I had to re-plan, knowing what I know now, I would be able to do it for much less, possibly around R35k instead.

The venue and food was about R25k alone, but we took a really fancy venue in Pretoria North, both their chapel and their entire hall for an entire day. We had a HUGE buffet. We had four courses overall. We shopped around and hired our own decorations that were simple but pretty and easy to set up. We rented fairy lights and candles and gauze table covers and chair sashes from a really great cheap place in Joburg.
There were venues that were much cheaper but we wanted this place. It included the use of the venue beforehand for getting ready, taking photographs (beautiful gardens) and included the honeymoon suite for the night after the wedding plus breakfast the next morning.

We bought a bazillion dark red roses direct from Ludwig's rose farm out on Lynnwood road. We bought some of that green flower tape and some white ribbons and made the bouquets ourselves. It really isn't hard. We asked a florist in a nearby mall if she would arrange the roses in vases we owned for R150 and she said yes, because that was a bit more intricate and required skill and time.

My dress was R10k, but I chose material that was imported from Italy and cost R7000. Lots of lace and crystals. We had the dress made by an experienced seamstress who charged R2000 for the time and labour. It was very reasonable given what we asked her to do for us in under 2 months. Bride and Co rents out dresses from as little as R1600, and sells dresses from as little as R3k. If I had known about Bride and Co back then I would have gone there instead of getting a dress custom made. And I would probably have rented - 3 years later and my dress is just taking up space in a cupboard in our house and as much as it was special to me back then, I'm hoping to sell it or give it away.

I found pretty, comfy shoes at Green Cross. I found pretty but cheap hair pins and jewellery at various places. It doesn't have to be REAL gold or REAL diamonds. Chinese markets are your friend! You'll find lots of stuff to use for decorations, jewellery, thank you gifts and otherwise at places like the Oriental Market at Bruma Lake. I salvaged little steel tins from a shipment of corporate gifts (flash disks) that weren't wanted. I printed little thank you cards myself. I bought little slabs of chocolate and put them in the tin with something symbolic of myself and my husband.

I got my regular hairdresser to do highlights and an upstyle (on a Sunday, too! She opened the salon just for me and my sister and mom). She had a make-up artist friend who came to the salon and did our makeup and nails. My sister bought a stunning evening gown from Woolies or Edgars for R600. We hired three matching tuxes and ties for the groom, best man and father of the bride from Black Tie. Suits don't have to be expensive - just need to look good and be comfy. The honeymoon was a combination of two gifts from family and friends who had timeshare at various places that they weren't going to use anytime soon, so we were lucky. However, the honeymoon market is very exploited - you get charged more for just mentioning "honeymoon" so we just had a normal two-week holiday to George and Knysna. Bungi jumping, scuba diving, riding through the forests etc. Local is Lekker!

Our photographer was a nuclear physicist from Belarus who took brilliant photographs but cost us half the price of the next nearest over-priced egotistical South African wedding photographer. Their rates are ridiculous. If you shop around you will find good photographers who are willing to work for reasonable prices. Our wedding cake was just two large square chocolate sponge cakes from our locall SPAR with chocolate shavings sprinkled on top and we put some roses on them from the bunch we bought. Barely anybody ate cake because after all the food we fed them, nobody could afford any more.
We also have unusual taste in music, so we didn't want a DJ. We put all our own favourite music onto a playlist on a laptop and had a friend in charge of starting and stopping the right music at the right time. If you're big on dancing though, a DJ and a disco ball is good fun.

So don't panic! I know things are more expensive today than they were back then, but you can do almost anything if you take the time to shop around and choose to do things yourself. Find people who can do the things you want for the price you want to pay - lots of bakers out there can do beautiful cakes for really good prices. Find someone who can make a dress and buy the material yourself, or rent. You don't have to get married at a fancy venue - getting married in a chapel or a church somewhere is usually much cheaper. Get married outside in someone's large and gorgeous garden. Have the reception at a restaurant (friends used Blue Crane in Brooklyn, booked out the whole deck, we ate the usual delicious buffet, they put up some decor and a dance floor) or use the hall of the church.

It doesn't have to be expensive. You also don't have to invite 120 people! And you don't have to have an open bar. Cash bar saves you a lot of money and people are usually okay to pay for their own drinks. Lastly - the digital era is your friend. Don't print all your photos - just about 10 or so. Keep the rest digital! Don't print paper invitations and post them - use email! Only deliver by hand printed copies of the email version to those relatives who are not connected or who are old-fashioned. A verbal invitation or an sms also works.

Do what you want to do. And let it cost you what you want it to cost.

 

[Pavan]

sorry mate, i didn't mean to offend u by saying that a honeymoon can be over. But we go overseas every year and for a honeymoon it has to be a lot more luxurious with tons of pampering for the bride who's most likely to have stressed the most during the wedding prep. It's not like you need to make up for something or anything, but besides getting married the thing that im most excited about is the honeymoon! But to each their own...

 

[spiderz]

Get married at the magistrate with a bring & braai afterward for all the family. (this might only work in benoni )

 

[ZeroAlpha]

Getting married will cost you.. your freedom!
lol.
But seriously, i'd advise against spending huge amount of cash on an event that will be over ina few hours, where you could use half of that cash on furniture/plasma tv/etc. Ie things that will actually still be there the next morning!

 

[wise_guy]

You going to want to set up a decent living environment for you and your new bride,so take this into consideration when you budget for your wedding.
Its always good to have some spare cash for these things instead of blasting all your resources on a wedding/honeymoon.