Man-centric Spending Strategy for a Wedding

The average wedding budget in 2011, according to a recent survey conducted by The Knot, costs a whopping $27,021 _ and this excludes the honeymoon. Do you know how many beers this would buy? According to our calculations, you could buy 18,000 cases of Budweiser¬ (at $15 dollars a pop) which equates to 43,300 cans of icy, cold goodness. If you consider 55 years to be the maximum beer-drinking lifespan of a man (from age 21 to age 76), that comes out to be 785 beers a year _ or a little more than two beers a day! Would you rather have an ñaverageî wedding or be guaranteed two beers a day until you kick the bucket? Gee, thatÍs not a hard decision for us guys, but trying selling that on the bride. Here are some other interesting wedding budget comparisons that may make you want to evaluate how you are spending your hard-earned money.

Wedding Planner: Sure, a wedding planner may help reduce a little stress in setting up the perfect soiree, but at an average cost of $1,753 per wedding, is it really all that necessary to strive for perfection? After all, we think itÍs some of the little unanticipated events that pop up that make the wedding even more memorable. We say, make some computer spreadsheets for the bride to check her way through and then use the extra savings on some really cool groomsmen gifts. Fine cigar humidors or top-grain leather wallets will really make a great impression when given as groomsmen gifts to those friends who would never, ever notice the fact that some wedding planner had matched the exact shade of the periwinkle flowers in the reception centerpieces to the color of the brideÍs eyes.

Reception Band: Plan on spending an average of $3,122 to hire a band to entertain your guests. Even just a DJ to play songs comes in at $923. Why not just make an awesome playlist and hook it up to the speaker system and save enough money to put a down payment on that Harley youÍve been eyeballing. If the bride says no, you can at least hang onto the ñwhat could have beenî memory with a personalized sign for your man cave _ we love this man cave sign with a biker bar design.

Reception Venue: Where you party down after the ceremony is probably the most expensive line item in the wedding budget, coming in at a heart-palpitating $12,116 for the average wedding in 2011. Of course, food and drinks are included, but this is still big bucks if you consider that the average wedding has 141 guests. This comes out to be about $86 bucks per guest. I guess thatÍs not as bad as the total sounded, but when you consider you can get a McWedding in Hong Kong for $400 for 100 guests, it makes you think that maybe pizza delivery or a few buckets of chicken might be the better way to go. Another idea that is totally on trend right now is to hire food trucks to come out and serve at your wedding, a much more cost-effective way to serve guests. Hey, food is food right? If you save even half of the 12 grand, you could be looking at a really nice vacation to celebrate your first anniversary.

So, are you planning to have a no-expenses sparred wedding or are you planning a more frugal festivity? Either way, you never want to forget to be generous with the friends who have supported you through the process, namely the best man, groomsmen and ushers. Check out our large selection of groomsmen gifts that will fit any budget and may be personalized for that one-of-a-kind gesture money canÍt buy.

* Budweiser is a trademark of In-Bev.