Cost of WellroundedInvestors Wedding :P

Over the past few months, blogging slowed down for us at WellroundedInvestor.com mainly due to intense remodeling projects and wedding planning. But I hope the political arena on this Election of Trump vs. Clinton keeps you company.

I’m from the Midwest. So, after grad school, I went to work for one year close to home. But I fell in love and moved to the Eastcoast. Things didn’t work out, the recession hit, I had to stay to maintain a job that pay well so I can sponsor some family member. I met Mr.W on the school/hospital badminton court. We were talking, I left a great impression on Mr. When he met me again he asked me out. 🙂 I don’t think it was a romantic date. 🙂 Mr.W is a lot of years older than me, but we get a long pretty well. We seldom ly fight, we just have good talk. (Like today, one of my technician brought her son, I was showing him how to play Pokemon go, we fought a gym while I was supposed to meet Mr. So we could get our flu shot together. I explained to him while I was late, and that I impressed the 10 years old with the good game. Instead of being mad for waiting for me, he said, you should have texted me that I had an emergency … Pokemoning … He’s cute like that, making the problem become so small that it’d disappear.) 

Our wedding consist of 2 parts – Wedding on the Bride’s side (Giving away ceremony and reception), Wedding on The Groom Side (Receiving Ceremony and reception)

On the Bride’s side – my family paid for the whole thing. The cost came out $20K (yikes!)

On the Groom’s side – the entire bill was paid by the 2 of us:

1. DJ: $450
2. Wedding Cake, sweet, and other desert: $1000
3. Wedding’s food for 120 people: $1500
4. Wedding Dress: $300 ($230 + $70 for fitting and dry cleaning)
5. Mr. W’s  two suits: $1300 (he chose to have the suit so he can wear to work. Mr. looks pretty nice in these brand name suit at Nordstrom’s.)
6. Donation to Church (pastor, music, and coordinator) $1000
7. Honeymoon Tuesday to Monday (7 days, 7 nights)
   1. Hotel: $105 (We used IHG, Starwood, and Hilton point for most night), except 1-night at Acadia national park, pretty much all the rooms were occupied, unless I was willing to fork out a huge number of points which would equivalent to 2-3 nights stay whereelse, so I opted to use cash+coupon at Expedia to get it down to $105).
   2. Food: $800. Given hotel stay were mostly free, we chose to go all out on food. 🙂 Our meals were breakfast buffet ($14/person at Sheraton, free breakfast at Hampton’s Inn, Breakfast at Hersey’s Chocolate World, etc)
   3. Transportation: $350 (We choose to drive, so the only cost we have to pay was for gas, and tolls in the Northeast is notorious, it’s a money making business for the States of New Jersey and New York)
   4. Medical: $10. (Mr.W lost one of his contact lens, Maine was nice enough to call home to get the prescription, they had the same one on hand, and we were on our way again. Thank you, Maine!)
   5. New iPhone. $840. Well we dunk Mr.’s iPhone 4S in water, and so it died. We needed a reliable GPS, and I ran out of data on t-mobile, so new iPhone we go! LOL 🙂 it was a good investment as the phone gave us alternative routes for faster time to avoid accidents and back-ups. It was very pleasant as we sit in very little traffic.
   6. Souvenirs and Gifts: We spent $400 for souvenirs and gifts for our friends. We did not ask for any presents, people gave us present anyways, so I feel obligated to bring something back.
8. New Mattresses and Blankets, Food, Drinks for family from out of town: $1000
9. Proposed ring $10k
10. Wedding bands $450

Total: $6900 (without rings and my my family paying)

Total of both weddings, rings, honeymoon: $37,350 yikes! I’ve never in my life imagine spending this much for my own wedding, but it happened. There were things I wish it would have gone better. In the end, we are married! So that’s important. 🙂

Some tips for ordering lobsters if you’re in the Northeast or Maine area:

1. Look for restaurant that have the name: “Lobster Pound”, “Seafood Market” then you can get one (1) pound of lobster sometimes for as low as $7/pound (soft shell), $8/pound for hardshell. $10/$12 for steamed. Some of the places we went, they have the pitch outside that they’d cook for you.
2. Corn and vegetables are quite expensive, but you’d probably need something light on the side to counter the heavy protein anyways. LOL 🙂

Traveling by car tips:

1. If you’re going to drive and have to book a hotel anyways, book one with heated pool and sauna so you can relax when you get there or take a swim in the morning before going to the next destination. Even though we limited ourselves to four (4) hours driving each day, we were pretty bogged up without any exercise. Walking around for sightseeing really doesn’t cut it.
2. Talk to the locals – We went to Amish country, the restaurant were packed, so we opted to sit at the bar. Chatting with the locals to see how best to see the Amish country. Sure enough, she leads us to the town that were less crowded and we were able to experience the Amish Country experience, without frustration of being stuck in traffic. We went to a town called: “Intercourse, PA”. The sign says: “Welcome to Intercourse”, “I heart Intercourse, PA” Being newly wed, it was super funny. hahah
3. Be spontaneous – Everyday, we look at the map and decide where we want to go, then look for a free hotel. If we have to drive 15 minutes away to our attractions, we were okay. We didn’t have to get out early to rush into traffic. Someday, we didn’t even get out of our hotel by the time we swam, ate breakfast, and freshen up.
   1. When we see some pretty place, we weren’t afraid to stop and explore the area, before going on our way. When we cross a town, I’d read up some descriptions, and if we feel like it, we would explore a little bit.
4. Be Open-minded – We tried different type of ethnics food on our trips, went to Provincetown (capital city of the LGBT community), it was the nicest town, with great food. People were willing to take our pictures.

Overall, Our wedding wasn’t perfects, some of the details didn’t go as our plan, but at the end of the day, we chose to only live with our best memories, and we’re married. Yay!