Same as ours in 1981.Made my dress, mom and church people made food, MIL made cakes. Reception in the church basement. Marriage is tough enough without the stress of spending so much money.
Ours ran $500 total - venue, gown, flowers, cake, invitations, etc. Got the gown at Penney’s trunk sale. The cake was made by a lady who did them out of her house. The venue (fancy word these days) was at a B&B and was the first wedding they had. It was much nicer than my maid of honor’s who’s gown was $2000 which was a fortune back then.
It’s unbelievable how stupid people are to spend so much on weddings. Don’t go into debt. Put that money into a car or a house or pay off loans/credit cards. Blah, such high credit card debt is another soap box.