Budget

Trip -1950$ (we have 1 free ticket because we booked more then 21 guests)

rings- 800$ (does not include my e-ring)

my dress- 1000 $

My alteration- 200 $

BMdress - 660$

GM suit-200

Tierra - 130$

BM gift- 120%

Wedding favors - 100$

Shoes - 90$

Photography - free ( my FI aunt will take the pictures, she is pretty good)

IM estimating at least 1500$ for the decoration, reception, flowers)

and i'm sure i'm forgetting thing I already bought

my parents give us 3500 to help for the wedding.

So I'm estimating around 4k...so it's not bad at all

This is what we have so far.

Dress: 350

His ring: 800

All-inclusive package 2 weeks: 6000

Wedding package: 1850

Music: 240

Photographer: 2500

Invitations/STD/etc.: 300

Itinerary: 30

Favours: 500

Gifts: 350

Spending Money: 2500

Total: 14970

This does not include:

Engagement ring: 11000

Wedding band 1200

New total: 26170

That's a lot of money.

~~

OK here is mine. We will have about 28 guests for a wedding in Riviera Maya in June of 08. I've been keeping up with every dollar, so I tried to condense it.

My budget was set at $5,000. I was under budget for most things because of all the DIY projects I learned from the forum. Then I went over budget for some things when I realized they meant too much for me to skimp on. Is skimp a real word?

The biggest struggle for me was photography. I was trying to set too low of a photography budget for myself. I love pictures & should have known that was an area I would have been OK skimping on. I should have set a more realistic budget from the beginning. I am perfectly happy with all the other places I've cut corners. But, I'm so glad I will now have awesome photography.

I guess I would say my tips for having a wedding on a budget is to figure out what really matters to you. Allocate more money for those things & cut corners on the rest. I'm really happy with my cheap dress, but I really care about having great photography. Mike & I both also wanted cheap rings. For someone else it could be swapped. Just figure out what matters to you. Keeping things cheap made me get more creative & I had a lot of fun with it. I also love all the personal touches DIYing puts into my wedding.

I'm also saving by not having a private reception. I've talked it over with my guests & I think it will work for us. I'll report back in 2 months if I feel like I should have spent more in some places & less in others.

I am really excited to be taking our guests on a Coba excursion.

Photography is the one thing I left off my budget below. With prices always changing I think it's better to contact the photographer directly for current prices.

OK here we go. I hope this copies correctly:

Dress (Macy's)230

alterations (just hemmed)30

Mike's clothes100

shell sandals (kohls)10

hairflower DIY10

Starfish necklace (Kohls)15

earings (already had them)0

bracelet- pearl from grandma0

hair 100

total clothes495

Save the dates (100 vistaprint postcards)12

Save the dates postage14

Thank you cards (leftovers from Sarah- sent money for shipping)10

prewedding brochure (25 vistaprint)7.45

20 invitations (vistaprint)9

40 invitations (vista print)21.45

20 invitations (vistaprint) + 100 postcards with website & TA info11.45

invites cardstock (AC Moore)9

invites envelopes17

invites postage30

website (weddingannouncer.com)0

invitation total= 97.9

stationary stuff total141.35

OOT bag postcards10

OOT bag cups 152 cups (for AHR too), 2 paint pens, 4 pages rub ons30

OOT bag first aid kits (14)15

OOT bag 96 immodium (made pouches)10

OOT bags advil (made pouches)5

OOT bag SPF chapstick (30) (ebay)7.57

OOT bag misc printing10

OOT bags master locks (16) ebay36

OOT bag chapstick label vista print3

OOT bag stuff from oriental trading (24 coin purses, 24 totes, 50 carabeaners)40

OOT bags glasses wipes sam's club8

OOT stuff from lauren7

OOT bag total (16 bags with stuff left over & stuff for AHR)181.57

organza bags for petals (ebay)6.5

real petals when we get there20

starfish for bouquet15

36 multicolored hand fans (asianideas.com)25.6

Hotel ceremony fee (symbolic)360

Ceremony total427.1

Our flight & hotel2086.12

trip to coba for guests300

travel & fun total2386.12

guestbook (shutterfly free except shipping)8

photobook gift for gma (shutterfly, free except shipping)4

hankies for mom's DIY8

tips (very few vendors)150

misc total170

Mike's wedding band tungsten from wholesale website20

my e-ring (no wedding band) $700~not counting in budget

wedding band total20

Grand total3,821.14

plus the cost of photography

I honestly feel like I'm having a million dollar wedding. I have loved every bit of planning for it. I am so excited for the group vacation, the great time with Mike, and the awesome pictures when it's all over.

If you want more details about my stuff, look at my BDW blog. I tried to include links to everything to show how I made it & what it costs.

Morgan that's awesome! You're my idol for being able to do a wedding on such a great budget. Ugh :S I don't even want to think about ours so far...its at home and I don't like looking at it..haha!

Overall I went over budget on many items, especially photography and video, but also my dress as I had hoped to find a used one, and my husband's clothes, and rings.

1 week Vacation package & insurance (2x1500 + 2x60) = 3120

Spending money = 700

Wedding package = FREE (didn't even get charged for the little extras!)

Blood test & Judge's transportation (150+50) = 200

Wedding Photography (brought our own = travel + 800) = 2400

Wedding videography (Playaweddings 2 hours) = 840

Dress and alterations (675 +175) = 850

Grooms suit and alterations (350 +65 ) = 415

My accessories: veil, shoes x2, purse (75, 45, 12, 23) = 155

Groom's accesories: shirt, sandals, belt (43, 90, 43) = 175

Hair up-dos me and 2 bridesmaids: 130

Make-up (did my own but bought a lot of stuff which I will obviously re-use): 150

2 Bridesmaid dresses: 170

Bridesmaid shoes and necklaces: 35

Flowers: 225

Decorations (parasols=50, fans=10, tulle=30, starfish=25) = 115

Favors 10 guests (beach bags=50, stuff for bags=70, DIYmugs=60, DIYshirts=85, DIYluggage tags=15) = 280

DIY Invitations (only 5!) = 5

Wedding bands: 1500

Total wedding: ~ 11 500

*that sounds a bit high for only 10 people and not a private reception, it's a very inclusive total (I didn't leave anything out besides the stuff below). Obviously if you have more people the costs would be higher, but the biggest items for me (vacation, photo, video, clothes) wouldn't change so I don't think it would have made a big difference (private reception at our resort would have cost about 3000$ for 50 people but I might have just gone for the buffet for free)

E-ring: 4000

Engagement photos: 200

Total Wedding + Engagement 15 700

We are having 2 at home receptions, as our family are in totally different parts of the country. Each one will cost about 2000-2500$. One is a backyard bbq (75 people) but still costs a lot for rentals of tables, chairs, dishes and linens (600$), alcohol (500$), steak (500$) and other food (500$). The other is at a golf course in a small town (50 people) which charges only about 20$ per meal + alcohol. Each set of parents are paying for that (they did not contribute to the actual wedding besides my parents buying me my dress). I will pay about 500$ for invitations, decorations, etc for both receptions.

AHR total = 5000

Grand total (engagement, wedding, AHRs) ~ 20 000$

Definetely more than I thought but overall pretty reasonable as I would have spent a few thousand more on a wedding here + honeymoon vacation (not much more though, just the receptions I think would have been a bit more expensive, but maybe not as I would not have gone super high class).

Wow! I'm hoping to get away with under 6000 for 40 people! But I'm not having my reception at a resort but a restaurant...so there's no extra fees for the rental......just the food and alcahol....I think i can pull this off! Wish me luck!

When I was looking at local options in the DC/MD area the budget was like $28k or so assuming we would have hosted at least 75 people but I doubt we could have kept the guest list that low as the FI has a very large family locally and I have a zillion local friends that it would be hard not to invite and it would likely have ended up being more like 100-150+ guests and over $30k.

Now it is about $24k at Lake Las Vegas to host about 50 people. It could be $20k if I do not do the VIP room rental at the 40/40 club.

Includes dinner reception for 50 on a chartered yacht cruise, open bar, ceremony package (which includes minister, chapel use, florist, 3 hrs photography and pics package), wedding bands, 1st silver dress that I decided against and am trying to sell on ebay, new dress and alterations, guest transportation from the Vegas strip, Hawaii honeymoon, our airfare and hotel in Nevada and Hawaii for just us, my mom's dress, a camcorder, engagement pics, a trip to Vegas in June to preview places and taste cake, VIP room rental at JayZ's 40/40 club for after party, invitations, cake, and thats it I think.

If I didn't save as much money as I thought by going away I did save a lot more stress and work. The local wedding would have needed a coordinator or I would have had to find all my individual vendors on my own as the venue money just got me the empty venue and food with nothing else in the package. In Nevada everything is packaged and I have much less to do, which is worth a lot more than money to me as I am a busy legal executive that works a lot of hours and can't take the time to do all the stuff that would have been required locally.