How is your budget??

[KLC77]

We don't have a budget either. I actually tried to set one when we started, but my fiance said "its going to cost whatever it costs" so I'm going with that until he says it is costing too much! lol I will say tho that the most important thing to me is photography so we splurged on that and the rest of the details I'm pretty willing to go with the basics. Other than the photog, our trip is the bulk of the cost since we have decided to stay in Mexico for 2 weeks.

[NewOrleansbride]

Photography and our trip is going to be the most expensive expenses (if you combine them together!). I looked at what I was spending money on and it's really not that bad. I've only spent $1400, not including my dress, and that covers my STD's, invites (and postage), the majority of my decorations, and OOT bags. So, I think I'm doing really well, especially considering most everything I've bought has been exactly what I wanted. I really haven't had to compromise on anything because of price... yet.

 

In all honesty, I have just begun having a blast planning this wedding. Prior to the last couple of weeks I had had so many dips in the planning that I had really regreted even having this wedding - I wished we had just had a planned elopement. And really this past week I was in full force bridal mode- trying to finish everything. I am so happy that I made it through my dip and am now in turbo planning mode.

 

I think that why I had my "scary" moment in regards to money is because it was sooo much at once, and not spread out over a few months. But, I've got it, and I'm not hurting financially, so I'm HAPPY!

 

Plus, I have a lingerie shower on the 12th! My MOH (and only BM) is coming in town from Boston - I can't wait!

[Tara]

We are still in the somewhat early stages, but we are also paying cash for everything. The whole shabang will be under 10k though. We consider that a deal since had we done an AH wedding it would have been in the neighborhood of 25k with all our family and a honeymoon (and that was doing an outdoors laid-back wedding, too).

 

We are still planning to do an AHR but it is more of a BBQ and the whole thing will be under 2k.

 

I am very budget conscious on a day-to-day basis which has helped us with planning the wedding. Poor Hiram has spreadsheets to consult for any major purchase, but he said he appreciates that our finances are in order. The last thing we want to do is start our marriage with a huge dollar-sign shaped cloud over our heads.

 

Like everyone else has said, I think it is a matter of picking the things most important to you and compromising or finding less expensive ways to do everything else.

[NewOrleansbride]

I agree with being "budget conscious". We registered at Target today (our first major registry) and we were even trying to be budget conscious then. I feel like our guests don't need to buy us gifts since they are already paying so much to come to our wedding, but I've had some people ask about our registry and what we want as gifts, so I figured we need to do something. If we get gifts... I'm so appreciative, but at the same time, we have so much stuff already that we really don't NEED anything more. We do need a new blender. But, that's about it.

[aeroo]

We came in under budget. We didn't want to spend more than 10K, and ended up spending 9k. This included absolutely EVERYTHING, including our rings, gifts, hotel, airfare, getting legally married at home, etc, and even the after-wedding costs such as dress cleaning, thank you cards, and photo gifts. We had 38 guests and a private reception.

 

I really didn't feel like we skimped on anything either; we just didn't do a lot of the extras such as DJ (we hooked up our laptop to the sound system), OOT bags, programs, etc, and we stuck with what the wedding package offered, nothing more, which was more than sufficient for us.

 

I kept track of everything we spent mostly because I was curious as to how much the whole thing would cost. We paid everything on cash, so I wanted to keep track of it all. It also helped that we anticipated for after-wedding costs.

 

I agree that you have to prioritize what's important to you and let the not so important stuff go. It was so easy though, to get sucked in to all the little details and want to have the best of everything. One of my moments was when I received my invitations and envelopes. I found the envelopes to be cheap-ish, made with thin paper, instead of that nice thick paper. I was going to go out and buy better quality envelopes, but then thought to myself, "Is it worth the extra effort and expense for ENVELOPES?! Are people going to really care? Or even notice? And even if they did notice and thought it was cheap to have thin envelopes, do I really care that they care? Not at all! I have more important things to think about. Use the freakin' envelopes and move on with your life, lol!" Not that envelopes would break the bank by any means, but these little upgrades here and there do add up, and you always want more! So yea, I had to say that to myself on a few occasions when I almost splurged for something unnecessary.

 

Honestly, what I remember from the day was not the centerpieces or favours, etc - it was sharing in the moment of marrying my love with our close family and friends.

 

Staying on budget felt really good too, lol!!!

[NewOrleansbride]

I just spent more money! I bought paper parasols - who would have thought paper cost so much! Ok, I'm addicted now. I think I've bought everything I want (all in one weekend!)! This wedding better turn out great! JK - I know it will be the best party of my life!

 

I'm having way too much fun planning this!

[Celina]

I am not even sure we have a budget! Like everyone else, our largest expense was the trip itself - we are staying at an AI for 10 days with our 2 kids (Who we paid full fare seats for).

 

Like we do in the rest of our life outside of wedding plans, FI picks up the big ticket purchases and I handle the details. It probably comes out to be the same $ amount, I just buy a little at a time.

 

All I heard last week was, "for someone who is so broke, you sure have a lot of packages coming every day". I just laughted and said "Yeah, but when you look back at your wedding day and see that it was the most beautiful day of your life, you'll thank me".

 

I have really cut a lot of corners and still got what I wanted. I haven't bought much that wasn't on sale. I've been planning since last year. The only big expense that I'm not backing down on is the cost of mariachi's for 45 minutes which is $600.

 

I am a planner by nature and planning so far in advance has really helped to catch some great sales!

[Kristin113]

Well, originally when we first got engaged we though that we could have our wedding for between $10-15k......needless to say I was in for quite a shock when I found out how expensive weddings are in Aruba!! The prices for the reception (food & drinks) alone is almost double the price per person we would have paid in NYC for a wedding, but we really had our heart set on getting married in Aruba. So, probably by the 3rd month of planning we decided to throw our budget out the window and just focus on having everything we ever wanted, after all...we'll only do this once

 

Now that almost all of the planning is done and once we buy a few last minute items, our total is probably right around $30k. It is still cheaper than a wedding here in NY, so we really aren't too upset with going over budget.

[DanielleNDerek]

Ugh, budget what budget. We still have a lot of pay for and we are almost maxed out right now. the thought of what we have to pay for still makes me a little queezy. I feel your pain!

[JennyK]

my FI didn't give me a budget.. but I was trying to keep it under $30K total. So far I'm nearing $20K..