Spilling the tea on the cost of our elopement.
Maybe it’s just me but I have always had a fascination of how much people spend on things and how much things cost, making various friends uncomfortable at times with my questions around this topic (sorry not sorry!).
I think it stems from having parents who LOVED talking about money and how much things cost during my childhood (could be a cultural thing???). I didn’t realize it was considered a taboo topic for most people until I grew up and people started staring at me like I had just asked for them to strip and run around naked *Gasp*.
Admit it: the cost of rings and weddings are one of those extra ‘off topic’ conversations for people. So if you are also super curious about other people’s spending habits too, don’t worry - I’ve got you.
Here is exactly how much we spent on costs associated with our elopement including engagement rings and mini-moon (my husband refuses to leave our dog with someone else for more than a few days so we usually travel overseas with friends separately - a story for another time!).
Rings
Engagement Ring $7000. We chose and purchased this together in Hong Kong. Our money was joint by that stage so we used ‘our’ money to make the purchase. Rings were around half the price in Hong Kong compared to NZ so we justified that the savings would pay for the trip to HK to see my fam (we also enjoyed a detour to Thailand). Full transparency: we were earning around $130k combined income during that time. We had just bought our house back in 2014 and were living paycheck to paycheck for the first year and didn’t have a large amount of money to spend on a ring at the time. The smarter and wiser me in hindsight would have waited so I could have gotten a bigger ring. (Totally kidding. Mostly).
Wedding Bands $2050 for mine and hubby’s. Paid for with joint money about 4-5 years after our engagement rings right before the wedding. We had a really REALLY long engagement (engaged 2015, married in 2021). Otherwise we would have bought the wedding rings at the same time as the engagement rings when we were in HK (it is cheaper, higher quality and there is more choice there).
Elopement
Let’s get one thing straight - the decision to elope was not a financial one. Hubby hates any limelight on him whatsoever and said he was willing to have a normal wedding but could not see himself enjoying the day. After much deliberation I decided that I wanted him to remember it as one of the best days, not worst days of his life and agreed to elope. Even though I would have loved to have celebrated the day with my friends and family, I am 100% happy with my decision and we had the most dreamy, fun and stress free day (like literally, zero stress or worries on the day).
Dress $1000 (purchased second hand)
Shoes/boots $1300 (They are Anine Bing studded boots that I wear all the time now so technically not a wedding cost?)
Dress Alterations $380
Ceremony + Photography $4,400 (we helicoptered up to Remarkables - hubby regrets not agreeing to spend on a package that cost more where you fly to a few different locations)
Flights to Queenstown from Auckland $436
Hair and Make Up $290
Bow Tie $42 (Hubby literally wore one of his blue work suits for the wedding!)
Marrage Licence $150
Flowers $300
Boarding for Winston (our dog) whilst we were away $160
Spa $510
Spending money in Queenstown $2157 (mainly ubers and eating out - we were there for 3 nights)
Accomodation in Queenstown $1900 (3 nights)
Dinner with the girls in Auckland $1900 (I hosted an intimate dinner with the girls to celebrate a few months after our elopement).
So all up it was around $15,000 excluding the rings. We eloped just over 6 months before we paid off our mortgage so we were more comfortable with spending costs that were not strictly a ‘must have’. We did still spend a lot less than the average wedding in NZ which according to this article is around $30,000 (excluding rings and honeymoon).
How did we pay for it? We have a strict no debt policy at our house so we saved up in advance for all our purchases. We had quite a long engagement (mainly because of the elope vs normal wedding debate and we originally wanted to elope overseas but hubby could not bring himself to leave our dog) and our wedding also got delayed for a year due to Covid (giving us extra time to save up which is always a bonus in my books!).
If we didn’t have a dog, we would have definitely spent a lot more money on a honeymoon - most likely a month long trip to Europe which is where hubby is from.
Obviously eloping is a much cheaper option but I completely understand that it is not an ideal choice for most so you do you ;-)
