Cost of Weddings in Australia

[Quickstatus]

No, no one in the QS family are getting married anytime soon
However I was speaking to a colleague in the tea room yesterday.

His son got engaged and the day after the announcement, he gave them $25,000 towards the wedding/wedding present - no strings attached.
He then also told his son the $25K was the limit of his contribution
He based this on a reception cost of $250/head x100.
He also did not want to be involved in "who pays what" so the upfront gift solves all that.

Weddings can be whatever budget number you can think of, and of course the cost of an "all inclusive" reception may not include other extras.

What is the AFF experience?

 

[billmurray]

How longs a piece of string?

What about all the extras (photographer/videographer, cake, venue hire, suit / wedding dress, flowers etc?

I would think 25k would not go far in that instance

 

[RooFlyer]

My niece was married recently - in her 30s, so has savings (owns an investment property as well as her own) and probably more sensible/practical.

They planned everything themselves (no consultants!) and I don't think the cost was over $10K (absolute max $15K), plus the dress was ~$2K (my gift was 50% towards that; her mum was the other 50%). Maybe 50 at the combined service/reception (local), booked a 15 months ahead.

I don't know how much the father gave (we're estranged from him).

 

[Quickstatus]

How longs a piece of string

As long as or shorter than the budget.

 

[elanshin]

No, no one in the QS family are getting married anytime soon
However I was speaking to a colleague in the tea room yesterday.

His son got engaged and the day after the announcement, he gave them $25,000 towards the wedding/wedding present - no strings attached.
He then also told his son the $25K was the limit of his contribution
He based this on a reception cost of $250/head x100.
He also did not want to be involved in "who pays what" so the upfront gift solves all that.

Weddings can be whatever budget number you can think of, and of course the cost of an "all inclusive" reception may not include other extras.

What is the AFF experience?

Wedding in Jan.

I think at this point we're going to hit estimated around 40k for ~200 ppl and we're being quite frugal about some choices. We could easily blow it to 100k as well (we'd go to 65k immediately if we chose sat night at the same venue for example).

Some of the bigger costs besides the most obvious one (venue+ catering). Wedding clothing (dress, tux for the bridal party etc). Flowers, cake, video/photographer. Travel costs if it's not easy to get to.

We're also going to need to go to 2 other countries shortly after for extended family, but we're going to do that more just as a banquet night. Funda for this would be separate as well.

Anything that has the adjective "wedding" sees the prices just jump for the same actual thing.

Edit: my partner only had one real request that I try to make happen, everything else we can decide based on cost efficiency except the clothing - that one thing has me asking my friend to fire up his smithing forge though

 

[kookaburra75]

MrsK and I are both second timers, and we tied the knot nine years ago. As we had some prior experience 15+ years before, planning the wedding wasn't too bad, but as others have said, as soon as you mention that "W" word, costs double. We framed it as a Family Function, to avoid the massive increase in costs. "You want a table to sign documents - that's a $1000".

We had an afternoon wedding, so it was finger food and drinks only. The venue was a normal bar/restaurant that gave us their place from noon until 6pm, with a very low minimum spend - again another issue when you mention the "W" word. A big shout out to The Parlour in Canberra. After 6pm they roped off an area for the guests that kicked on. So there are different ways of holding a wedding, which can have a big impact on costs.

 

[Drakecula]

We got married back in 2009 and I'm a no fuss kind of person. I think it would have been less than $5k and we had about 90 people attend? We booked a small surf club's hall, got in a catering company to do a spit roast/salads buffet thing, bought our own booze (hired someone to be behind the bar to serve it), DIY-ed decorations, my friend made my dress, another friend did my hair, etc.

It was less a wedding and more a big celebratory bbq. There was even beach volleyball set up! Had a fantastic night.

 

[Myrna]

No, no one in the QS family are getting married anytime soon
However I was speaking to a colleague in the tea room yesterday.

His son got engaged and the day after the announcement, he gave them $25,000 towards the wedding/wedding present - no strings attached.
He then also told his son the $25K was the limit of his contribution
He based this on a reception cost of $250/head x100.
He also did not want to be involved in "who pays what" so the upfront gift solves all that.

Weddings can be whatever budget number you can think of, and of course the cost of an "all inclusive" reception may not include other extras.

What is the AFF experience?

Our niece got hitched last December. Hubby did the same thing - eased the pains of the wedding rception cost with a lump sum amount. In addition, we have offered to give each of them a fixed $ amount to set up a small ETF portfolio, but they have not yet taken up the offer