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UploadAlternate Title: What Luis and Adam Don't Know About Planning a Wedding and How Not Knowing This Stuff Might Bankrupt Them.
On June 4, Vocalo.org host Luis Perez and his producer Adam Yoffe undertook a project deemed Herculean by their other single friends. They wanted to know what it takes to put on a wedding and just how much they did or didn't know about the whole process.Oh - and they really wanted to scare themselves by trying to estimate the cost.
Not being total masochists, they started their project with a call to Tia, a wedding planner for Chic Events in Northwest Indiana.
The quote we got for planning assistance and day of services from Tia was about $1500, though she very nicely offered Luis and I a discount. I think it was becuase she felt a little sorry for us.
We are now $1,500 in the hole for this wedding.
On Friday, June 5 we talked to Steve from The Flower Cart in Chesterton, IN about wedding flowers. Bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages for grandmas, flowers at the church, on the aisle, on the canopy, centerpieces at the reception - maybe even on the cake. Our heads are spinning...
Steve was so nice to answer all our fairly clueless questions about wedding flowers and even tolerated Luis' plan to flower up his wedding using spray starch and his neighbors garden ("Sure it's OK to do that, if your color scheme is brown!"). The price ranges he quoted ran from $35 for two pieces in a civil ceremony to a $35,000 behemoth (no, you didn't misread that). Lou and I are pretty thrifty guys, but even on the low end I don't think we're getting out of there for less than $2,500.
We are now $4,000 in the hole for this wedding.
Then out of the blue Max from Style Matters DJs called up to get in on the conversation. That's right, the vendors are coming to us. Max does weddings every weekend from May until November and he told us about some of the crazy things he's seen in his career.
Max's crew charges $250 per hour plus expenses, which seems in line with other services we've seen around the internet. Luis and I like a good party more than just about anything, so we're booking them for the whole reception and paying them to keep it going into the wee hours. $2,000 for 8 hours.
We are now $6,000 in the hole for this wedding.
Monday, June 8 and we're back on the wedding planning trail. We talked to John at Dunhill Tuxedo to get the skinny on monkey suits. The long and short of it: Usually the tuxes are black, sometimes they're white or ivory in the summer and occasionally they are brown (mostly in the fall). You got bow tie and short tie options, cummerbund or vest. All the other choices are made by the ladies - you have to match the color scheme of the wedding or you'll look ridiculous.
John's quote came in at about $125 per suit and most wedding parties are 10 strong (groom, groomsmen, ring bearers and the dads). Often the groom gets his suit for free when he brings the wedding party in. We're estimating this cost at $1,000.
We are now $7,000 in the hole for this wedding.
Tuesday, June 9 and the gang's all here. Kastaway and special guest Dan Filowitz join us on today's expedition into the world of wedding transportation. Paul from AAA Limo in Merrillville, IN took a few minutes to answer our questions.
This has been the highlight of our quest so far, as it's the only expense we've run into that was actually lower than what we'd thought it would be. 5 hours of service in a 6 person stretch limo is only $299. After tipping the driver (cause we're nice guys) this is still only $350. We may go everywhere in limousines for this price.
We are now $7,350 in the hole for this wedding.
Wednesday, June 10 found Luis buying wedding dresses on his own (Adam was in Bronzeville for a remote broadcast). Barb from Char's Wedding Shoppe in St. John's, IN - who has decked out thousands of brides and their mothers/aunts/sisters/friends - patiently walked him through the process. Lou was shocked to learn that some gowns take 6-8 months? That requires some serious planning ahead.
We'll level with you. This was the scariest inquiry we made. We've read about the $20,000 dresses and figured that's the ballpark we were going to be in. It turns out this ballpark has seats at all kinds of prices. $1200 is the median price at Char's and that's music to our ears.
We are now $8,550 in the hole for this wedding.
On Friday June 12, Luis and Kastaway talked to Pia Collins, a celebrant in Chicago. She's originally from Australia, where Celebrants are quite common. The area she's from has over 6,000 folks registered in her same line of work, and it's about the same size as Chicago. Pia is a non-denominational wedding officiant - she's fully licensed, pays dues to a professional organization for celebrants and has performed thousands of weddings.
Luis is pretty sure his special day is happening in the church, but Adam is into the idea of the officiant. Since Deacon Mark Plaiss told us church weddings only charge for 'support services' like the organist or choir, we're using the $700 median from the range of fees that Pia talked about.
We are now $9,250 in the hole for this wedding.
Monday, June 15 and we're getting fit for our big day. It's not a required expense and actually didn't even make our initial 'to do' list, but if we're spending this much money on the wedding, our lady and ourselves are going to look really good. Like, induce-death-by-jealousy-to-the-ex-girlfriend-we-invited good. Dina and Frank from Unicus Fitness run a wedding boot camp that gets brides and grooms into the shape they want.
You are guaranteed to drop a pants or dress size. Re-read that. That's a money back guarantee. That almost never happens (does your gym membership have a rebate program?), so we're in. And here's the best part - getting that pretty is pretty affordable. $270 gets two people 12 sessions over four weeks of getting our butts kicked at Unicus.
We are now $9,520 in the hole for this wedding.
Wednesday, June 16th Luis and Adam talked with Denna Fyock, owner/operator of Aberdeen Manor, a full service wedding facility in Valparaiso, IN. They do the hall, jewelry, tux rentals - they mean full service when they say it. And they're armed with a Rolodex chock full of the best wedding vendors in the area.
They would have a hall, a chapel, and a garden that would be all ours on that special day. After some readjusting (our Wedding party is down to 10 and guest limit is 100) it would cost around $6,000 for the place, the food, and the booze. Again, a surprising number for it's relative affordability. Granted, we're not dining on surf and turf for all our guests, but it's not Lou's cook out either.
We are now $15,520 in the hole for this wedding.
The end is in sight! We're pretty sure this is our last call to place. We had a chance to talk to photographer Rick Francis from RH Francis photography in Chesterton, IN. He said we should have probably called him second (because photos are the second most expensive part of the wedding - Gulp!) but he was still very generous with his time.
Rick's packages start at $1,800 but we want to get a bound album of the special day. That kicks it up to $2,649. That gets us two photographers (one for the bride, one for the groom) for twelve hours in as many locations as you like, and Rick said he delivers about 1,500 images once the day is through. When you look at it that way, that's only $1.20 per photo. The photobooth at the bar is more expensive than that (seriously!). We're going deluxe and getting the album.
We are officially $18,169 in the hole for the phantom wedding.
Seems expensive (and relatively speaking it is), but I think we actually did pretty well for not trying to do the whole thing ourselves. There were definitely ways we could've cut corners, saved a little (or a lot) here or there, but regardles of what we spent (or might spend one day) the biggest thing we learned from the folks we talked to was to simply plan to have the day we want to have.
Much gratitude to all our interview guests for taking time from their days working with folks planning actual weddings to entertain our questions. When the big day happens for either of us we're definitely going to be more prepared thanks to their help.
