Wedding budget

Lifestyle Wedding, Fashion & Beauty
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Okay, so I was wondering about the average wedding budget for a girl’s shaadi. I’m not getting married any time soon but I’m one of those girls who’s obsessed w/ planning het own wedding, lol. I mean I have my dresses, MUA, decor and those kinda things plannev out already. >.<

Anyway, how much would the average wedding cost if you’re a girl and have a designer lehnga planned, the great MUA and all that stuff? And this would be a wedding on Lahore (I couldn’t even picture having my wedding elsewhere).

p.s. This crazy wedding-fiend behavior comes mainly from you ladies and this board. You guys better stick around until I get married, oye! >.<

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Re: Wedding budget

lolz :stuck_out_tongue:
18, 20 lac approx
thats tooooooooooo much !!!

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Re: Wedding budget

we r also going through this process of defining our wedding budget right know , and i think we are about to spend 12.000 - 13.000 € (excluding valima, because we will have no :smiley: )

wedding can really ruin your bank balance :smiley:

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Re: Wedding budget

we’ve set aside about 15 lakh for it. But that excludes the dress and photographer which I am paying for myself :tubelight:

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Re: Wedding budget

my dresses are no designers, but my wedding is still costing us almost $20,000 (just the girl’s side)…lol but then again I’m not getting married in Pakistan…sigh

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Re: Wedding budget

Oh wow, I always thought it was like $40K
Wow, I was living in some crazy la-la land.

I’m the only girl and the first child so I’m assuming my parents are going to be a bit easy going about the budget. For me, being Lahori, we have to have the wedding in Lahore since all of my family is there. And being Lahori/Punjabi we have the tradition where the girl’s side pays for the baraat/Mayoon and the guy pays for the Mehndi/Valima. I dont mind helping w/ the paying. In fact, I’d be more than happy to as long as I get to have my dream wedding that I’ve been planning since I was 16, lol.

And here is what I can think of just off the top of my head:

  • Clothing/accessories: $2,000-$2,500 (I’m wanting a red Karma since I like the traditional red look w/ simple kaam)
  • Jewelry: ?? (I’m totally clueless when it comes to this but I’m assuming $2K-$4K. My parents have bought gold bricks or whatever they are called abhi sain so the designing process is probably another cost on its own but I like the simple look so one necklace/earrings/bindya and since I love jhumars I need me one of those too! >.<)
  • Decor/Food: How much does this stuff usually cost in Lahore?
  • Photography/Video making: Again, what is the usual cost for some good quality stuff? I know a photoshoot that you’d get done from your Salon place can cost around 30,000 Rupees.
  • And of course the makeup artist: I’m wanting either Ather Shahzad (a dream of mine) or Maram & Abroo. Both of these cost 20,000 to 35,000 and this is not including the photography.

What else?

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Re: Wedding budget

wedding cards, favours, transport, venue hire

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i know someone who got married in pakistan in december…
The total cost of the wedding was 35 lakh…(their budget was 28 lakh)
it includes all the furniture, car (10 lakh), jewelery, clothes, holiday inn (for weddign day), Qasr-e-noor (for mehndi)…
lets see what else… hmmm..
her wedding dress was probably cheaper ..cuz she paid 1lakh and 20 thousand..in which she got a wedding dress plus 2 formal suits!

This really worries me because it was just a standard wedding but it still cost so much!

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Re: Wedding budget

don’t forget to factor in the plane tickets for the trip down for you and your family.
and keep aside about 50,000 in your budget for last minute expenses and things that will crop up.
there’s also budgeting for the joras/jewellery you might give to people in your family and his family. as an aside, from my recent trip to pakistan, you can factor in about 5000 each for joras for immediate family (khalas, phuppos, grandmothers, etc.).
then there is your jaheyz, your mayyoun clothes, and mehendi outfit.
then there’s shoes and purses too, of course :smiley:

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Re: Wedding budget

if youre getting atleast one designer dress for the wedding plus the mehndi/mayon dress, plus jahez outfits and looking to have your wedding in a nice hotel with good decor and a variety of food, and a large mehndi, great photog, and MUA, you’re looking at 40 lakh+. the majority of the cost would probably be the venue.

and i would say this is excluding the valima.

ofcourse u can cut costs everywhere if u want to.

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Re: Wedding budget

holy smoke$ is this all on credit or u guys have the ca$h?

we have some high rollers here!

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Re: Wedding budget

how much would a karachi wedding cost - indoors - PC, Avari…or any other places???

$20,000-25,000??? is that enough or little???

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Re: Wedding budget

my goodness, weddings are too expensive.

Iam cutting costs through the jewellery. Don’t want to have anything too loud. Just a small, simple set

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Re: Wedding budget

dont forget the tickets to pakistan lol they cost too

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Re: Wedding budget

I just ordered my bridal lengha (designer) and did my wedding shopping in Pakistan. Already spent like 25,000+ with lengha, jewelery, and clothes for jahez and stuff. :confused: In the process of planning my wedding right now…it’s not fun to see money go like that but hey you only get married once! So start saving now if you want a grand ball!

Of course to each their own, some people get beautiful non-designer lenghas and would rather focus on things like gold and all. Always have a plan for the future so that when the situation comes close…you know what you are working with. :slight_smile:

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Re: Wedding budget

I just booked the hall and checked out the prices for catering places and it is costing us 16,000 USD to have the wedding done at Holiday Inn for 350 ppl. This doesnt include the stage decoration so there goes another $1000.

Then my mother got me gold sets and that was about 10,000 but it depends on family to family. I get more cuz i am the only daughter.

My mother made over 100 suits for me which includes formal, semi formal, saaris, party wear lehengas, cotton suits, lawn suits, printed georget suits and some jeans n kurtas..

Then she got me over 45 artificial jewlery set that matches almost every other outfits, and over 80 choorian set for every new suits.

Infact i just went shopping today and got 11 beautiful handbag, golden, silver, black and red bridal purses, 25 pairs of new different colors of party wear sandles.

Then she is getting me bedroom set and all the kitchen appliances (including dinnerware, cookware, serving dishes, baking set, washer, dryer, fridge) so that will cost her another 10,000 USD.

My parents have to get dresses for larkay walay, then cost of mehendi which will happen in my home, and my wedding and reception day joras. As we are getting ours and he is getting his. So for bridal dress i will need to have atleast 2,000 USD for both dresses, jewlery, tika, chooriyan, and footwear…

dangggggggg i just realize my wedding is costing too much to my poor parents.. :frowning:

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Re: Wedding budget

Proud Pakistani, Mashallah se you are very lucky! Even if I wanted to, I don’t think our budget would allow for me to make that many clothes. 100 suits?? Wow! Lucky girl! :slight_smile:

I guess it also really depends on your life style as well. I am also living in the states and I know those 100 suits would probablly lasts for me 5 years haha…maybe even more lol. I would never have the oppurtunity to wear them as much.

For jewllery I am also going simple and having some made by my family and then the jewllery that is coming from my fiances family.

My outfits have cost me $4300 and I picked them out from a Boutique in Toronto. My mother is making me about 20-30 suits, formal and semi formal and then the rest will come with my Bari. Those suits are costing me about $2000-3000.

All in all, our wedding budget is about $20,000 - $25, 000 CDA. We do not want to go over that. There have been so many weddings in my family in the past couple years, that my family is realizing more and more the extra money is not worth spending for just the one day. So far, everything is falling under budget, but ofcourse with weddings last minute expenses come up. But to answer you question Mclovin, I think that is a fair budget for a elegant event of about 200-300 people. But ofcourse, the bigger the guest list, the bigger the expense! I’m not sure if that would be the same for a wedding to take in Pakistan. I’m just going on North American prices.

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Haan yaar i feel lucky too… actually my mom has been getting cloths for me from the past 5 years so that when my date is set, she doesnt have too much stress for the dresses…

Its not like she gets everything from US.. most of my kaprays are from pakistan. Ammi used to go to places like jomaar whenever there is a huge sale and use to get plain georget, shiffon, plain silk and printed silk dresses. And everytime someone goes to pakistan, ammi used to ask me to print out designs from website and send it along with the pieces… and then khala use to find really good and affordable dress maker who does really good kaam on kapray and sew them.. and thats how i started to get designer style kaam on american georget and silk which has a better quality too…

My mom has some really nice and generous friends here.. Everytime they come to our house, instead of getting something for my mom, they bring a real nice outfit for me. If its my birthday, eid, exams, everyone present me a 3 piece suit. You have no idea i get soooo many awesome kapray from aunties…and my mom has been saving them all for my wedding… Whenever i have a party to go to and i dont have new dress available, i take out one that i like and get it stitched and wear it.. thats how the counts reached 100… and they are all brand new…Plus i dont wear anything other than shalwar qameez at home or even outside.. thats why i always need more.. and i also think that i will use these dresses for over 5 years for sure…cuz they are made by my dad’s hard earned money and my mom n khalas effort. And i do believe that just how social i am right now, i will be same after marriage as well.. So i will get the opportunity to wear them all.. :slight_smile:

wow i would love to see your bridal outfits.. i am sure it must be very pretty because they cost you a lot.. I am sooo not sure how my wedding outfit will be. I do not want to spend a lot of money to wear the lehenga for only one day…But i want a beatiful lehenga as well.. I have checked out the prices here and it is gonna be very expensive… like 1200 USD for shadi jora and same for valima… :(its tooo much

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Re: Wedding budget

Ohhhhh :slight_smile: that explains the 100 suits! I know the dresses here are sooo expensive to have done. I was hoping for a budget like yours as well but we weren’t able to find anything that wasn’t over $1500. It was so tough so with both my outfits put together the cost is $4300. and ofcourse with a little bit of bargaining we will be able to bring it down a little more inshallah. Will you be making your outfit here?

Also is your kaam wali lady here in the US? I have never head of anyone doing kaam here in the US. I am also really into stitching and sewing so I have a collections of fabrics that I have bought here which I can not wait to take to paksitan and get made. But my family does not travel to Pakistan often so they are just sitting there in my closet :(.

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Do u guys know how long it take to make a dress in pk? does it take one week?