Sunday, January 13, 2008

How Much Does it Cost to Get Married?

You hear a lot about $30k plus weddings. Our wedding will be small and simple. Having few guests obviously reduces costs. That's not on purpose, but our friends and family are scattered across the world. My mother and brother will be the only two coming from overseas, or out of town for that matter. Here is a rundown of our expected costs at this point:

Celebrant's Fees: $A400 - this includes filing our marriage registration etc.

Location: A mountainside in a nature reserve overlooking the city - free. If in the unlikely event that it rains that morning (most rain is in afternoon thunderstorms at this time of year) we will go to the restaurant where we are having lunch to hold the ceremony (again for free).

Snork Maiden's dress: RMB 3000 or so. Yes, made in China but not cheap :)

New shirt for Moom: $A45 - otherwise Moom will wear existing clothes.

Ring for Moom: We were quoted between $A400 and $A700 for an 18ct white gold V size (British ring size) comfort fit 4mm plain wedding ring. We now plan to pay $US250 for one from Blue Nile delivered to a friend in the US and then sent to us here.

Ring for Snork Maiden: Prices for a 3mm platinum comfort fit J size ring ranged from $A800 to $A1400. Blue Nile want $US465 for a 2.5mm ring that seems hard to order in Australia. BTW she doesn't have an engagement ring. But neither does my sister-in-law. My brother doesn't have a wedding ring. Fedex will charge $US72 to ship both rings to us in Australia from the friend in the US.

Photographer: $A260 for two hours of time with a CD of photos costing an extra $A300-500. Albums or prints would be for another price. Another photographer told us the minimum package was $A1480.

"Reception": Actually, lunch at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. Probably around $A35 per person. We aren't sure on numbers yet but could be from 10 to 15. We spent $A100 on "research meals" to decide where to go :) Also plenty of petrol driving around checking out locations and restaurants, meeting the celebrant and photographer. Could be 200km? About $A40 of petrol. Probably throw in $A100 or so for some decent wine/champagne from a liquor store across the street at the lunch.

Hair - Snork Maiden said - "you have to get your hair cut anyway". At this point, she doesn't feel like getting special hairdressing or makeup for the wedding.

Flowers: Snork Maiden said: "Put $A100 for now".

So the grand total is: $US2865

This isn't counting the cost of my mother and brother getting here or staying here which will be a multiple of this. We are also going to Sydney for a week after the wedding (Snork Maiden hasn't been there yet, apart from the airport :)) and I'm not including that. Probably; late in the year we will travel to China, but that's a whole other story.

4 comments:

Rafi (S) said...

BTW, sister-in-law hasn't worn her ring since her first pregnancy when it wouldn't fit on her finger anymore. Ever since, she's been saying "I've got to get that ring widened.....".

BBTW my brothers in law and sisters in law all wear wedding rings.

enoughwealth@yahoo.com said...

We also had an economical wedding. The money saved on the wedding went a long way towards our round-the-world honeymoon ;)

We just asked the guests to give us copies of their photos and videos. We ended up with more than enough, and the quality was as good as most "professional" photographers.

I picked 9.9.99 as the wedding date - easy to remember ;) Perhaps you should use 8.8.08 as it's auspicious for Chinese, plus you'll never forget an anniversary!

mOOm said...

Good idea. We decided to use a professional photographer as probably my brother would be designated photographer otherwise and we want him in the pictures of the ceremony. The wedding is on 24th February. We chose that date as the first three times we met were on the 23rd of a month and it will still be the 23rd in the US. I could come up with a lot of good mystical reasons why that is a good date for other reasons too :)

mOOm said...

I just got quoted $A1180 for Moom's ring and $A1135 for Snork Maiden's! This shop is directly opposite one that quoted us yesterday $A499 for Moom's ring. Price dispersion is indeed great in Australia and it pays to shop around.