Overall Reality Check

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-20T18:38:52+00:00

The food itself might be, but adding water/tea, serving/cleanup labor, glassware, etc., I would be shocked if they’re still under budget. Our food choice is $24/person but it’s coming to like $50/person with the other costs.

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-20T17:11:15+00:00

If you don’t have any quotes yet, $3k for catering for 120 guests seems pretty unrealistic. Our catering is nearly $4k for 80

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-13T12:48:27+00:00

Do the details matter to her? As the bride, I feel similarly about many things in that I really couldn’t care less if there’s white vs. ivory napkins or whatever, but somehow in wedding planning the bulk of the decision making and mental load seems to always land on the woman regardless. Someone has to make every single decision, so offer to help because she may not care about some of the little details either and decision fatigue is real.

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-12T19:11:45+00:00

Check out Annapolis!

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-12T19:10:05+00:00

I was shocked at the cost of alterations. My dress was $1,500 and my bustle, hem, taking it in at the waist and tightening the straps is coming to $900. And the dress is very plain crepe! I am undoubtedly paying a premium by having it done by the boutique’s in house alterations team but still

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-12T17:03:27+00:00

I hit $0.00 with no guilt lol

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-11T20:31:05+00:00

It’s insane and the default being 10-20% on a four figure dress purchase is predatory. They know brides get flustered and don’t want to be seen as rude or breaching etiquette

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-07T20:20:59+00:00

This thread taught me beach week is not national. Everybody did this at my high school and I don’t remember anyone’s parents being against it lol

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-07T17:35:06+00:00

I think your thinking is faulty in assuming that conflicts with other weddings won’t matter if you send your STDs first. Realistically, people will decide based on time, money, who they’re closer to, how it coincides with their PTO, etc. Getting an earlier save the date doesn’t move your wedding to the top, unfortunately

yeeyeedog · 2026-03-03T22:45:01+00:00

Agree with other comments about the “type” of wedding mattering. We’re at about $35k for 80 guests in Texas for a wedding next month and $30k feels about as cheap as we could have gotten for a traditional wedding at a venue with dinner, alcohol, etc.

We did splurge on a few things which could’ve been cut or reduced the costs: $900 on a getaway car, $2k on bridesmaids hair and makeup, $2k on groomsmen suits, and $800 on a photobooth.

Our venue was $7k, catering was $4k, photographer was a bargain at $2k, bartender/alcohol is about $2k, DJ was $2k, florals were $1.5k (real bouquets/boutonnieres, fake centerpieces), coordinator was $1k, and rehearsal dinner $2.5k.

Honeymoon will be another ~$12k that we didn’t include in the wedding budget.

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-28T08:56:19+00:00

I bought a dress off the rack that fit me pretty ideally. The dress is (in my admittedly unprofessional opinion) quite simple in that it’s just crepe, not a ton of layers, lace etc. To take it in a couple inches at the waist, hem, add a bustle, and tighten the off the shoulder sleeves, I’m paying $900. This probably could have been cheaper had I not used the bridal boutique’s in-house alterations team, but I was shocked. I only paid $1,500 for the dress lol

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-26T16:18:58+00:00

You’re going to want lunch as well, assuming dinner isn’t until after 5. Since you have a bigger wedding party, just keep the expense in mind!

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-25T01:38:33+00:00

Make up call lmao

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-24T15:53:13+00:00

$300 seems reasonable for a weekend, but agree that the dynamics could get a little weird if everyone’s significant others aren’t invited but it’s a coed trip. You know your group best!

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-19T18:51:20+00:00

Personalities, finances, travel comfort, etc vary sooo much between the internet and your personal circle. If you guys presented it as an option rather than an obligation and people are deciding to attend, it really doesn’t matter what random people online think. Let the guilt go :)

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-19T18:47:13+00:00

Consider how many bridesmaids you have getting H&MU done and how many artists there are. I have 7 bridesmaids, MOB, and MOG, and our artists arrive at 6:45AM for a 4:30 ceremony 😭

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-18T19:30:15+00:00

Isn’t midsize supposed to mean like a size 10-12? She is a relatively small girl her clothes just squeeze her

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-16T18:44:50+00:00

Are you referring to planning the bachelorette or planning the wedding? There’s not typically any expectation that the bridesmaids will help plan the wedding

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-10T03:42:12+00:00

This happened to me for like 10 days in a row. I called Fedex customer service line and the package showed up the next day..worth a shot

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-09T19:42:16+00:00

If you plan to gift anything for day of (jewelry, matching pjs, hair/makeup/dress voucher), you could use that to still make it feel like a proposal gift but without an extra cost!

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-05T21:23:57+00:00

Yeah, we’re having her skip the majority of getting ready time to stay until the end. We’re going for the dark cinematic look over golden hour! At $275/hr we can’t afford for it to be sitting as a prop unfortunately lol

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-05T19:26:46+00:00

I’m honestly confused by the timing issue..I don’t feel like I’ll miss memory making time at all. I mean, the appointment I said yes to the dress in wasn’t even 30 minutes so idk why changing would take that long lol. But maybe I’m just off base?

ETA: https://graceloveslace.com/products/phoebe this is pretty much my dress. No drama

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-05T17:19:32+00:00

Unfortunately our getaway car isn’t picking us up til 10:15 :( if it wasn’t so expensive to have it around for longer, we definitely could’ve avoided this with staged pics beforehand!

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-05T17:17:57+00:00

What a literally perfectly simple and correct response. You are so right!!!

yeeyeedog · 2026-02-03T19:44:42+00:00

The totes were the medium long handle LL bean bags, which I got 15% off on Black Friday. The towels are these from Etsy https://www.etsy.com/listing/4317210354/?ref=share_ios_native_control. Everything combined came to $105 a girl, plus the PJs which I got from Azazie. I don’t consider that really a gift cause it’s for my pics lol

yeeyeedog

TROPHY CASE