![[OC] My 18k wedding for ~80 people](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/41oegle0i1lf1-1024x1536.png "[OC] My 18k wedding for ~80 people")
Trying this again when it's Monday for my [OC]. My data source was manually tracked expenses and categorized into SankeyMATIC.com I love a Sankey. Other graphs were from Excel. Please be kind if I made a mistake, I am a human.
My total headcount given was 79 adult guests, 96 with vendors and children (the math to count kids was weird). Honestly most of our guests were married couples, a few kids, and 4 single people total.
Sankey: We planned a wedding we wanted, not expecting anything from parents. We are very grateful of their unexpected contributions. *Most* of the contributions came with no strings attached, which was very stress free. Ask away, this is the bulk of the info!
Excel graphs:
We had very few no shows: one couple missed their flight and one plus one didn't show. One coworker randomly sent me $20 on venmo the morning of my wedding, so she's the "not invited" and man do I feel bad about not inviting her!
Day of, we had 2 gifts to take home. The rest were sent before or slightly after. Just a bunch of cards!
I excluded the monetary gifts noted on the left of the Sankey in an effort to not distort the data, so you could see how much was actually given by guests. As you can see, most cards represented two people (as mentioned, mostly couples), so the amount is how much was given by the couple. One 0 was the coworker who sent money, the other 0 was the no show couple (kept them on the list to send a thank you, since they tried).
I'm not sharing this to comment on the price of weddings in general, or any commentary on the wedding industry. Don't come at me for spending money that you wouldn't spend. I'm voluntarily sharing data, so don't judge my choices.
Posted by IdkJustPickSomething
34 Comments
Stated in my comment, this is all OC, manually tracked expenses, which I categorized and used [SankeyMATIC.com](http://SankeyMATIC.com) and excel for graphs. They were tracked in an excel sheet from credit cards, checks, and cash expenses.
I won’t share the raw data, but more than willing to explain exactly what each item is, especially the misc categories, where I combined small expenses.
How in the hell did a spray tan cost more than the cocktail hour
Vendor -> spray tan is my favourite part of this.
But really interesting, thanks for sharing OP
15 attend with no gift. How do people live with themselves?
out of curiosity, where you from?
Does this include rings? Engagement?
$17/person for food?? Did you serve a burger and fries??
$16/plate for food and $5/person for alcohol? What is this wizardry.
The 18k budget where only 1300 is allocated to dinner is driving me nuts, like I don’t understand how it’s possible. More than 60% of our budget was food, and we didn’t do anything extravagant AND it was pre-pandemic where costs were lower. I spent $80 on my dress and did my own hair/makeup, no jewelry no nails, no flowers, that’s how frugal we were, still spent much much more on food.
Either way, congratulations!
Photo and video being almost a 1/3rd of your budget is wild. We’re in Austin and spent maybe $2k with a pro.
On the other end of the scale, I got married 3 years ago, and my wife and I spent about 500€ on the whole thing! We had 12 guests, had the simplest ceremony possible, and then took everyone to a local restaurant for a meal and drinks 😀
I love this, I wish more people posted their wedding data!
Are we going to talk about the $80 the bride’s mom contributed?
Maybe my friends drink too much, but I think I could hit a $400 alcohol bill with a keg, Costco liquor, 5-6 friends and a solid day party
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A planner for less than $250? I really hope for that price it wasn’t a planner but maybe a friend helping out. And I agree with others. Less than $2k for dinner /drinks for 90 is insane….
I guess adding pictures of the wedding would make it more understandable, clearly this a subjective situation to the taste and requirements of the organizer
Was the planner a friend or like a book planner?
I once went to a wedding where I forgot a present. Thinking quickly, I volunteered to pay for the reception. It wasn’t expensive but I learnt better
Honestly $18k sounds shocking added up but they only thing you overpaid for imo is the photo/video line.
Thanks for sharing!
I’m curious about the flowers being low as it seems to me it is usually a big spending item.
Very little flowers? Or inexpensive one? Or maybe did you source some of them yourself?
Thanks!
That’s crazy. I can’t imagine making enough money to spend $18k on a wedding. It would be nice to have enough money to afford that. Good luck with the marriage OP.
Sorry but is it customary to keep track of gifts this way? I’ve never thought of weddings as an income stream or a transactional event.
interesting data to visualize.
the 2 digit decimal places is jarring, esp given the sub. also mentioning a location would make the view more useful.
How did you spend 6k for photo and video and only 2k for food? That’s mindblowing.
Good to know I can save $4,800 by just making an album and having people post their own photos and videos of the wedding onto there.
Damn, you got a good deal on flowers. Ours was in the ballpark of $2500. Fortunately, the wedding the day after ours got to use them too.
Buncha entitled people in this thread. Sounds like they had a nice time and didn’t go into debt. Get over it.
Man I couldn’t even list 80 people and I know that’s on the small end. I feel like mine one day will have like.. 5 guests
$700 for a DJ might get you somebody at their first day on the job lol
Where did you find a wedding coordinator for $277? Mine was for the day only, gave us the friends & family discount, and it was still $1000.
The guests’ gifts surprised me. I assumed most people give $250 or more to the couple. That amount could help them significantly as they start their life together.
Brides Mom really chipped in $80?
bride’s mom, here is 80 bucks, go get married 🙂