I'm just curious to know what everyone is anticipating budgeting for a wedding in the Bay Area.  I was told by my friends to just add 10k to "the budget"?!

Hello! Yes, I found out that stuff in the Bay Area is quite expensive compared to other parts of the country, especially through PW.  Before that I thought this was normal! My overall budget is about $40K with 150 guests.  I'm not sure whether or not that's average, but when I was researching, it seemed like there was no way to get much lower than that with the type of venue I was looking for.  My reception is in SF which makes it even more pricey and that makes up of half our budget already. 

I guess it really depends on what type of venue and wedding you want.  If you want it a little more upscale, I really don't feel like you can get away with much lower than maybe $30K around here.  But if you are more flexible or have less guests, you could do it for a lot less too.

Feel free to add me as a friend and look through my bio.  And I'm always happy to chat about way to save and other stuff too! I know a chiavari chair place for $6 - $6.50 each if you're still looking! :)

ours was about $32K for 95 people, not including rings or honeymoon or dress...in Lafayette (East Bay)...deets in my bio!

While reading the boards and hearing how people are having weddings under 10,000 including everything just baffles me!

For the venue- food, drinks, appetizers for 150 it is about 20,000

Photographer- Including all day, 2 photographers, engagement session, digitals, printed 11x14 engagement pics, 30 page flush mount album- 3500

DJ- Between 750-1000

Florist- 3000

Cake- Budget less than 1000

So about 30,000 for 150 people.

Ours came to about $25,000 for 200 guests, but having the reception at a Chinese restaurant significantly cut costs down, I think.

Our heavy hitting expenditures:

• Ceremony venue - $1800
• Reception - ~$12,000
• Photographer - $5,500 (splurged)
• Officiant fee - $400
• Cake - $800
• Flowers - $1,200
• DJ/DoC - $1,800
  

Have you looked at http://www.costofwedding.com ?

Our budget is around $25,000 for 140 people, not including the rings or the honeymoon...it's going to be tough but so far we are on the right track...the hardest part was finding a nice venue that didn't charge thousands of dollars in "rental fees"...if you have any questions let me know! And good luck! :)

http://www.costofwedding.com/index.cfm?action=search.weddingcost&zipcode=94121&go=Show+Wedding+Cost

The site says that for SF it's about $34K-$56K, so I would say we are right in the lower end of that range. 

Our breakdown:

- Ceremony venue - free (it's my fiance's dad's church)

- Reception (food, drinks, incl. cake) ~ $20K

- Photographer - $7500 (our biggest splurge)

- HMUA - $1K (2nd big splurge)

- DJ - $750

- DOC - $850

- Flowers (mostly DIY) ~ $2k -$2.5K

- Everything else ~ $10K

Thanks you guys for all your input on this, I knew it was really difficult to try to have a wedding w/in 10k....(a book my mom got me and needless to say she doesnt live in CA)!  I'm budgeting around 30k for about 130 ppl so it seems like my range is right around the corner from all of you guys. My biggest splurge was the photography which came over 5k but I think this will definitely be worth the money!

rkrupan - did you end up going with Jerry Yoon Photography?? :D

We pulled everything off for just over $17k for 160 people, and our wedding was in Walnut Creek. Detailed budget is in my bio. We saved a lot by receiving many vendor items as wedding gifts.