Weddings are Expensive

Yesterday I posted about attending my friend's wedding. It is a great honor to be chosen as one of her bridesmaids, but it is still expensive. Also, I forgot to include transportation cost. My fiance is going to drive down to LA and back for the wedding (about 600 miles round trip). I am hoping that I will be assigned to work in LA next week, so I can reimburse him some money for the trip (if I end up working Monday after my trip, I can expense a portion of the drive down). He is driving some of my friends as well, so they will help with gas expenses. Luckily he has a Prius (last time we drove down, we averaged 40 mph).

For my own wedding, we've tentatively set a budget for $20,000-$25,000. It looks like we will be at the upper end of the amount and this doesn't include the honeymoon. Here are some of the main items
Reception $12,000 (includes site,food, and alcohol)
Photography $4,000
Videographer $1,000
Wedding rings $3,000
Dress and Alterations $1,000
Hair & Makeup $800
Wedding Site $500
Invitations, etc. $600
Cake $500
Chair Covers $500

As you can see, we're almost at $25,00 already. One notable thing missing from my budget is wedding flowers. That is because I have a good friend who is a florist and he going to give us the wedding flowers as a gift. I have another friend who is going to help on labor (I'm going to help with her wedding flowers as well). We will probably end up spending $200