Dress paid for? The spending has just begun

You didn't really think you could just put on a pretty dress and call it a wedding, did you?

Silly bride.

Ask the $50-billion-a-year bridal industry. Or your mother-in-law. You need wedding stuff.

Food, flowers, favors and — oh, definitely — cocktails. Right through the honeymoon. Which you also need.

And unless you're Star Jones Reynolds, it's gonna cost you. Possibly a lot. The average American wedding this year will run from $22,000 to $27,000, even more in big-city Seattle.

Here's how that breaks down for two local traditional weddings with 150 guests — one at $25,000 or less, one at $50,000 and up — and one nontraditional, offbeat wedding with 100 guests for about $5,000.

Reception Sites

Mid-range: Popular locales include Columbia Tower Club, The Edgewater, The Harbor Club, Shilshole Bay Beach Club and the Grand Hyatt Seattle. Packages from $1,500 to $2,500 typically include linens, servers and bartenders — but not food. (Be cautious about sites that seem surprisingly cheap — you likely will pay dearly for "extras" such as chairs.)

High-end: These favorite, showier digs cost $2,500 to $10,000 or more just for the site alone: The Golf Club at Newcastle, The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Showbox Theater, Paramount Theatre, Experience Music Project, Benaroya Hall and the Nestlé Regional Training Center at Carnation Farm.

Offbeat: Ariel Meadow Stallings, author of the new book, "Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides," rented Holly Lane Gardens B&B on Bainbridge Island for $500 (a deal, since she was a neighbor) for her August 2004 wedding, moving the after-party to her mom's nearby retreat. Rather than renting tables, she draped an assortment with second-hand sheets — colorful and eclectic, plus they hid the mismatched table legs.

Other offbeat-appropriate sites: the Seattle Aquarium (cheap, and there are cute critters) and local theaters (cozy for winter, and lots of seats).

Food, drink

Mid-range: $30 to $50 per guest. Standard buffet — maybe chicken and pasta — plus beer, wine and one signature cocktail. Most sites offer their own food; you might save a buck if they'll let you bring your own specialty hors d'oeuvres or desserts.

High end: $65 to $100 per person for a seated dinner. That spendy seafood really adds up, not to mention deluxe wines, themed martinis and premium booze.

Offbeat: Stallings "hired" a personal-chef friend from Los Angeles by flying her and her husband to the wedding. They whipped up the all-vegan dinner in the bed-and-breakfast's big kitchen.

"We did the vast majority of grocery shopping ourselves, at Costco, Cash & Carry and Pacific Food Importers, and I'm not embarrassed at all to say we had Shasta soda and the cheapest food we could find."

Including wine and beer: $5 to $6 per person.

Flowers

Mid-range: $1,500 to $2,000. Quantity more than type determines price, although orchids almost always equal big bucks. Brides dig Caroline Patrick Floral Designs, Fleur Amis and Fleurish.

High-end: $5,000 to $10,000. More flowers, bigger arrangements and fancier accessories, from shops such as Athena Flora, Bella Rugosa and Fiori Floral Design.

Offbeat: Stallings picked her bouquet from the inn's garden (how you can tell she's an offbeat bride: She liked the spider hiding in one of the lilies). Other offbeat, or just frugal, couples get creative with blooms from Pike Place Market, Costco, the grocery store or online "wedding in a box" packages.

Favors

Mid-range: $2.50 to $5 per favor. Maybe a souvenir CD of the couples' favorite tunes.

High-end: $5 to $10. Personal-label wine and glasses, blown-glass place-card holders.

Offbeat: Meet the "Muglies," more than 100 used (and washed) mismatched mugs, with notes explaining they were unique — just like the guests. "It worked, but only by sheer force of will," Stallings says. Cost: maybe $50.

Music

Mid-range: $1,500. Think singly: one guitarist, organist or pianist; one DJ for dance music.

High-end: $2,500. A string quartet for the ceremony and a separate reception band.

Offbeat: Free, in Stallings' case. Friends were DJs; family and friends sang for the ceremony.

Photos

Mid-range: This is one competitive business; packages can run from $1,500 to $8,000 from experienced pros such as Starr Photography, Red Fish Blue Fish Photography, Rosenstein Photography, Della Chen Photography and Cheri Pearl Photography.

High-end: $5,000 and up. Think Stephanie Cristalli Photography, Daniel Sheehan Photography, Bradley Hanson Photography and Robin Layton. For artsy, above-and-beyond digital-to-DVD video, plan on $2,000-$4,000. Bogle Productions and Bootsy Holler Studio are faves.

Offbeat: Here Stallings wouldn't scrimp; she hired a photojournalist friend for about $1,000. Other offbeats, or penny pinchers, enlist camera-armed friends or family.

The cake

Mid-range: Cupcakes are cute and chic at about $2.75 apiece (add $1 each for frilly add-ons such as gumpaste flowers). If you need real cake, though, a three-tiered number averages $6 per serving (B&O Espresso, Creme de la Creme, Sugar! Cake Studio and Trophy Cupcakes and Party).

High-end: $8 to $11 per serving, thanks to upgraded intricacy. Cake-loving brides go for Hollyhock Cakes, New Renaissance Cakes and Mike's Amazing Cakes.

Offbeat: Another freebie! Stallings' best friend from high school made her two cakes as a gift (one was even vegan, for her groom).

Honeymoon

Mid-range: $3,000 to $5,000. A relaxing but not-so-far-away beach, say Hawaii or Mexico.

High-end: Think Tahiti, or maybe Europe. Then think $5,000 to $10,000.

Offbeat: Stallings and her husband had planned to work the harvest at a friend's vineyard in France but were stymied by tough French labor laws. Instead they couch-surfed their way through France and Spain for three weeks. Airfare and train tickets totaled about $1,500.

Feeling overwhelmed? You could always hire a wedding coordinator for another $2,000 to $5,000 — or more.

Sources/resources: Wendy Wojcik, Seattle's Weddings with Wendy, www.weddingswithwendy.com; Ali Basye, editor of Seattle Bride magazine; www.myseattlewedding.com; Keri Cooper of Bliss Events, www.blisseventsnw.com; http://offbeatbride.com; www.theweddingreport.

Sandy Dunham is a Seattle Times desk editor. She can be reached at sdunham@seattletimes.com