My FH and I are trying to put together a general budget, would you guys mind sending me general average prices for things such as centerpieces, photographers, dj...etc.
Thanks for your help!
Tori9299
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Re: Budgeting...
We save about 1000 a month, and it's still not going to be enough. We have money taken out of our checking and put into savings.
Dana57
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theknot.com and weddingchannel.com both have budgeting tools. Input the amount you want to spend on the entire wedding and they break it down, showing how much should be spent in each area to keep inside your budget. You can play around with it and see the differences in price for different areas when you increase and decrease your budget.
It's very helpful in deciding how much you can afford to spend on things like reception and dress. I'm sure in the end I'll go over budget, but we can pretend for now ;)
Good luck!
meg193
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Re: Budgeting...
This is a tough question because the cost of things can vary a lot. I think the best thing to do is figure out how much each of you can save from now until the wedding and that is your budget. Then you can take the number and put it into a wedding budgeter on any of the online wedding sites and that will tell you about how much you can spend on each thing. hth
skinny237
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just sent u an FM.
npwedding
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Elegala.com has a budget calculator - if you put in the total amount you are working with, it will break down how much you should allot to each category. It's really cool!
Cacarina
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Posted by Dana57
theknot.com and weddingchannel.com both have budgeting tools. Input the amount you want to spend on the entire wedding and they break it down, showing how much should be spent in each area to keep inside your budget. You can play around with it and see the differences in price for different areas when you increase and decrease your budget.
It's very helpful in deciding how much you can afford to spend on things like reception and dress. I'm sure in the end I'll go over budget, but we can pretend for now ;)
Good luck!
Maybe I was using it wrong, but I didn't love the budget tool at theknot.com because they are for everyone all over the US, and it doesn't really account for the higher prices of Long Island. Everything is so much more expensive in Long Island. I think it budgeted about $3,000 for Photo/Video for me, and I can't find anything at that price!!!!
Mici n KC
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Everything ranges so it's hard to say a budget. You can spend $2500 on flowers, $3000 on a photographer, $1500 on limos, etc. but it could also be much higher. Set some realistic amounts you know can be spent on things. You can cut corners in so many places. Good luck!
Future Mulligan
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Re: Budgeting...
try and figure out how much you want to spend for your wedding first......at first we thought that our wedding would cost around 35K.....but for the things we wanted that was an unrealistic budget....now after booking some things and picking out things that we like, we know that we absolutely don't want to spend more than 60K including everything - bridal party gifts, the honeymoon, hotel suite, etc - for us 60K was a more realistic budget than 35K.....hopefully we'll be under budget at the end of it all! i am trying to cut as many corners as possible in areas that arent so important to me like flowers and my wedding dress - and spending more on my wedding band, our photographer and the RH.....its hard b/c we thought that we'd cheap out on everything but once you start planning its hard not to get carried away!
good luck and happy planning!!
ratherbealeper
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Re: Budgeting...
When we did our budget, I found out what the typical percentages of budgets are... (i.e. some places say that the reception should be 50% but we adjusted that to a higher percentage.) We took what was a realistic total amount of money to spend and then broke it down into the percentages/categories... As we went through the planning, if there was something that was outrageously awesome but above budget, we took money away from what we would spend on something else. We came in just about exactly within our budget and actually splurged on a few things.
Honestly, if you say 'well my budget says I can spend $1000 on flowers but I cant find anything I like for this' then you are going to go over budget again and again and again. Its not really a budget if you keep adjusting it higher and higher for each vendor or project. If you are okay with spending more money, thats fine then.
Look for the percentage budgets because it is applicable to a wedding anywhere and doesn't revolve around specific dollar amounts.
Dana57
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Re: Budgeting...
Maybe I was using it wrong, but I didn't love the budget tool at theknot.com because they are for everyone all over the US, and it doesn't really account for the higher prices of Long Island. Everything is so much more expensive in Long Island. I think it budgeted about $3,000 for Photo/Video for me, and I can't find anything at that price!!!!
I agree, theknot.com was pretty vague and somewhat unrealistic in some areas. I would try a few different budget sites just to give you an idea of what you should aim for. You could try to compensate by putting in a lower budget and applying the difference to areas you know will cost more than the website thinks (ie photo/video).
I have never met anyone who has been able to stay within there budget, it's so hard not to get carried away!!! At least you know you are only doing this once
beram63
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Re: Budgeting...
i like the brides.com budget calculator. you set your total budget, and it gives you an estimated break-down for each category, which you can change and lock in place, and the calculator will re-adjust the estimates in other categories until you lock & adjust those too. good luck
Inkedupkitten
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we save just over 2grand a month....
Hawks Nest
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We are trying to keep the wedding at $60,000. At first we did not want to go over $40,000 but after the guest list was put together and we started to go to look at RH we realized that was unrealistic. So hopefully we can stay under $60,000. I would like to buy a house somewhere in this too. It is not fair not many other states have weddings that have to be so high. I was talking to my aunt in Texas the other day and was telling her what this wedding was going to cost me and she almost lost it. She said you can not even find a wedding that would cost that much. I guess it is all worth it in the end though....
Inkedupkitten
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60grand.. wow!!!! Cant wait to see the outcome. I am sure it is going to be everything you ever dreamed of......
AllJoy
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Its really hard when you already have lots of bills, and aren't big wage earners. We gave up going out to dinner, etc. and shopped only for neccesities, but we did it. Just remember you can still have a great wedding without going crazy. FM for futher details.
Also, you can use ING.com I did that every time that I got paid they automatically deducted it online from my checking account.
ratherbealeper
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Re: Budgeting...
Posted by AllJoy
Its really hard when you already have lots of bills, and aren't big wage earners. We gave up going out to dinner, etc. and shopped only for neccesities, but we did it. Just remember you can still have a great wedding without going crazy. FM for futher details.
Also, you can use ING.com I did that every time that I got paid they automatically deducted it online from my checking account.
i love ing... its really convenient to set up accounts specifc to what you are saving to (i.e. home sweet home and bitchin' camaro accounts for a house and car resepctively) and automatic deposit makes it a no brainer
