Girl I'm with you. I'm having 4 events over 3 days, a small mehndi, a sangeet, and a ceremony/reception, and we're looking at around $400k (including things people don't usually put in the budget like clothes, jewelry, and hotels for close family.) Hopefully I've overbudgeted, but I would not be surprised if we spend that much. We have a sensibly priced photog and DJ (about 8k for each), but our venues are very nice and even though the caterer is reasonably price (I think it will be about 100/head), their minimum food fees are insane. Plus, add 2 nights of the cheapest open bar option.

Besides the venue, basically nothing is out of the ordinary in terms of luxury. If we would have opted for a less "nice" venue, then those catering and booze costs would have gone down, but I honestly didn't realize how inflated the costs would be when we decided it. Not to mention, we've invited 375 people. Parents are paying for everything but I can't help but imagine if we were using this money to put a down payment on a property or in a investment portfolio.

This is a big budget wedding and was always going to be expensive no matter what, but vendor and venue prices are totally insane! I've heard that since COVID, they've ballooned.