but I know you 08'er girls are wonderful and wont mind helping me out...
but FH and I are unsure how to set a realistic budget for our wedding-- we dont have anything booked yet. We want to get married May 24th 2009 it is the Sunday before Memorial Day so we can have it at night which is great. But we are still unsure we might end up getting married August of 08 (but not too sure cause FH will be in Japan till July of 08 and I will be planning alot of it on my own- so we have to check out prices and decide which is best for us)
anyway- sorry for the tangent lol
we were thinking around 30,000-40,000$ budget hopefully. we are pretty much paying for it ourselves but have a good amount saved up already....
we are inviting around 150-175 people and we are thinking 100$ pp is a good price and our hall would prob go for 25,000$ the most and still have a good amount of $ for other vendors- so besides the hall the photo/video are the next most important thing to us but we are so confused on how to budget (flowers/dress parents are buying so we are covered there and FH's parents =RD)
help please!!!
sorry i know it is long
Teamhurldon
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Sounds to me like you'll be in great position.... Really! We figured out a realisic amount for our financial situation and we are sticking to it so you say between 30 and 40 k, make it like 32 and don't go over, trust me it can be done...
Teamhurldon
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
I havent bought yet, but friend of mine suggested this software you can get ant barnes and noble thats really easy to use better than spreadsheets for breaking everything down and calculating as you go.... maybe check that out
LuvMyAlfonse
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Well - everyone's budget is different but I know how you feel so I'll tell you ours...
we budgeted 5-6K for photo and went over
we budgeted 1500-2K for DJ and will go over
we're budgeting 3K for flowers (we have about 16 CPs, 6 BM boks, 7 bouts, MOG, MOB corsages, and my bok) - we're not decorating the church
2K for BP gifts
1K for invites
and 1K for favors.
we're also having about 150-175 people.
HTH!
Espo22
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Ok this is the best way to do it...Don't just throw out a number and say hmmm this sounds like a good budget, and just throw out a number, bc you know you wouldn't want to go over it...get a realistic budget. Alot of people do this and although what seems like a reasonable budget and the average doesn't mean its something that can always be achieved.
What i did was this:
Take the amount you make a month, subtract all your monthly expenses from that and see what you are left, take out money also for personal things and what the average amount for you to spend is...See what you are left with. Multiply that amount by how many months are left until your wedding...So lets just say for example you are left with $1000 each month and theres 12 months until your wedding, multiply $1000 x 12. See what amount you come up with... Then do the same with FH and see how much he has.
Then make a list of what you will need for the wedding...Such as Dj, flowers, photo, favors, dress,invitations and so on.
Put next to each thing around how much you are willing to spend, you are better off over estimating rather than putting an amount you HOPE to pay but is unrealistic. Find out what the average price is for these things, or look at vendors you are interested in and see how much they are.
Of course the RH is where alot of the money goes, so see how much you are able to pay per person based on those calculations.
cbcf
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by Teamhurldon
I havent bought yet, but friend of mine suggested this software you can get ant barnes and noble thats really easy to use better than spreadsheets for breaking everything down and calculating as you go.... maybe check that out
thank you soo much i will def check it out
i need to make sure we dont go above 35,000 well atleast thats what FH and I really only want to spend...
i dont see the need to spend 70,000 on a wedding cause even though it only happens once it is only one day- we would rather buy a house a year or so after getting married lol
thank you!!! i am definitely planning to sticking to the budget- it will be FH who would go over
ant n tilde
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
an easy way to do it - that has worked for me anyway
take your RH price and double it - that extra amount is for all other vendors AND HM. allocate an amount to each vendor and like Denise said - overestimate.
subtract out what people are helping you with and that is your budget!
for me - i am going to end up spending twice my hall price - i am including things that my parents are helping with in there (dress, flowers etc) bc i dont want to start thinking 'well they are paying for this amount so i can spend that elsewhere' instead i want to keep it reasonable.
good luck!
Teamhurldon
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by Espo22
Take the amount you make a month, subtract all your monthly expenses from that and see what you are left, take out money also for personal things and what the average amount for you to spend is...See what you are left with. Multiply that amount by how many months are left until your wedding...So lets just say for example you are left with $1000 each month and theres 12 months until your wedding, multiply $1000 x 12. See what amount you come up with... Then do the same with FH and see how much he has.
QUOTE]
Thats exactly what we did to figure out our total budget, lol you're good with words...
Espo22
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
by doing what i did above made it so easy for me...I know exactly how much I HAVE to put away each paycheck...then i also know how much i have to spend freely and not worry. No matter what i have to make sure to put that money aside or i know just one thing that gets screwed up is a decent amount away from how much our total will be
Espo22
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by Teamhurldon
Posted by Espo22
Take the amount you make a month, subtract all your monthly expenses from that and see what you are left, take out money also for personal things and what the average amount for you to spend is...See what you are left with. Multiply that amount by how many months are left until your wedding...So lets just say for example you are left with $1000 each month and theres 12 months until your wedding, multiply $1000 x 12. See what amount you come up with... Then do the same with FH and see how much he has.
QUOTE]
Thats exactly what we did to figure out our total budget, lol you're good with words...
It really is the best way though...hahaha no i just talk too much thats it lol. But honestly some people say i think $35000 is a decent amount for a wedding, that doesnt mean that you can make all the payments just bc its a good amount...whats a good amount for one person is not for another.
Its better to see how much you are actually able to put towards the wedding.
ant n tilde
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by Espo22
by doing what i did above made it so easy for me...I know exactly how much I HAVE to put away each paycheck...then i also know how much i have to spend freely and not worry. No matter what i have to make sure to put that money aside or i know just one thing that gets screwed up is a decent amount away from how much our total will be
another tip that is working out for us. that money that we are saving is untouchable EVEN for wedding stuff at this point. We each put in a certain amount each month - or more if we can. All unexpected money goes in there ( like tax returns etc)
so now - we have to pay our deposits and every few months a few grand to the hall - we do NOT touch THAT money - we scrimp and save and get that money together completely seperate from what we are saving.
that money is only for the big final payments. so i know right now i can pay my final payment for the hall off - and then when i get some more in there i think of it as: final payment for hall and DJ etc. it is really motivating to think of it that way!
cbcf
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
thank you sooo much denise and jenn...
you are lifesavers...
well FH and I set the budget of 30,000$ that we would spend after much thinking and going over expenses and seeing how much everything costs...but FH said lets extend our budget to 40,000$ so we will have $$ incase we do go over with certain vendors - so we believe we will end up spending around 35,000$ with the prices i have been looking at lately...
cause i know photo and video will be a splurge as well as a band cause i think FH wants that more. but i feel confident that we can save 35,000$ for the wedding- we already have a good amount of $$ saved and i once i get a new job in sept (cause i will be able to work mon- fri cause no more commuting into the city for school on mon and wed) i will have alot more $ coming in and be able to put more aside...and if we wait until May of 09 we will definitely have the $$ saved all up but if we do get married in Aug we might be a little short of 35,000 but definitely not under 30,000 so we will just be realistic when booking vendors and making appointments this June and stick to the budget!!!
thanks again girls!!! you are such a big help
truelove5803
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
I used the budget thing on here. I put in how much I was looking to spend on everything, then I added in all the things I am willing to spend on certain things. As it changes, I change it. It seems to be working for me.
Mizzdimple
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
What we did was price two of each vendor to get a ruff Idea., I looked around LIW for some quotes and then created a budget from there.
We knew what we wanted at the wedding was going to cost around 45-50. We are putting away what we are able to for from paycheck.
cbcf
Posted:
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by ant n tilde
Posted by Espo22
by doing what i did above made it so easy for me...I know exactly how much I HAVE to put away each paycheck...then i also know how much i have to spend freely and not worry. No matter what i have to make sure to put that money aside or i know just one thing that gets screwed up is a decent amount away from how much our total will be
another tip that is working out for us. that money that we are saving is untouchable EVEN for wedding stuff at this point. We each put in a certain amount each month - or more if we can. All unexpected money goes in there ( like tax returns etc)
so now - we have to pay our deposits and every few months a few grand to the hall - we do NOT touch THAT money - we scrimp and save and get that money together completely seperate from what we are saving.
that money is only for the big final payments. so i know right now i can pay my final payment for the hall off - and then when i get some more in there i think of it as: final payment for hall and DJ etc. it is really motivating to think of it that way!
thats a smart idea....i think FH and I should do that...but i feel bad cause FH makes more than me right now cause I cant work every day because of school thankfully i make good money still and can put aside a decent amount per paycheck i just feel bad cause FH puts aside more...but i guess it will all work out in the end and when i graduate this May we can open another ING account and make that the untouchable account!!!
Espo22
Posted:
Member since
Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by ant n tilde
Posted by Espo22
by doing what i did above made it so easy for me...I know exactly how much I HAVE to put away each paycheck...then i also know how much i have to spend freely and not worry. No matter what i have to make sure to put that money aside or i know just one thing that gets screwed up is a decent amount away from how much our total will be
another tip that is working out for us. that money that we are saving is untouchable EVEN for wedding stuff at this point. We each put in a certain amount each month - or more if we can. All unexpected money goes in there ( like tax returns etc)
so now - we have to pay our deposits and every few months a few grand to the hall - we do NOT touch THAT money - we scrimp and save and get that money together completely seperate from what we are saving.
that money is only for the big final payments. so i know right now i can pay my final payment for the hall off - and then when i get some more in there i think of it as: final payment for hall and DJ etc. it is really motivating to think of it that way!
EXACTLY!!! the money we put aside cant be touched or used for other purposed. And whatever we can put extra we do so...FH is using half of his tax returns to put towards the flowers...anything extra we get we put towards our payments
Espo22
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by cbcf
thank you sooo much denise and jenn...
you are lifesavers...
well FH and I set the budget of 30,000$ that we would spend after much thinking and going over expenses and seeing how much everything costs...but FH said lets extend our budget to 40,000$ so we will have $$ incase we do go over with certain vendors - so we believe we will end up spending around 35,000$ with the prices i have been looking at lately...
cause i know photo and video will be a splurge as well as a band cause i think FH wants that more. but i feel confident that we can save 35,000$ for the wedding- we already have a good amount of $$ saved and i once i get a new job in sept (cause i will be able to work mon- fri cause no more commuting into the city for school on mon and wed) i will have alot more $ coming in and be able to put more aside...and if we wait until May of 09 we will definitely have the $$ saved all up but if we do get married in Aug we might be a little short of 35,000 but definitely not under 30,000 so we will just be realistic when booking vendors and making appointments this June and stick to the budget!!!
thanks again girls!!! you are such a big help
thats great that you two already have money saved, will definitely help alot.
You know when people go over their budget, i think the biggest thing isn't that they paid more for a vendor, for some yeah but mostly i think the biggest problem is the hidden expenses and expenses the couple did not think of. Especially when it gets closer to the wedding all these things come up that the couple did not budget for
cbcf
Posted:
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by Espo22
Posted by cbcf
thank you sooo much denise and jenn...
you are lifesavers...
well FH and I set the budget of 30,000$ that we would spend after much thinking and going over expenses and seeing how much everything costs...but FH said lets extend our budget to 40,000$ so we will have $$ incase we do go over with certain vendors - so we believe we will end up spending around 35,000$ with the prices i have been looking at lately...
cause i know photo and video will be a splurge as well as a band cause i think FH wants that more. but i feel confident that we can save 35,000$ for the wedding- we already have a good amount of $$ saved and i once i get a new job in sept (cause i will be able to work mon- fri cause no more commuting into the city for school on mon and wed) i will have alot more $ coming in and be able to put more aside...and if we wait until May of 09 we will definitely have the $$ saved all up but if we do get married in Aug we might be a little short of 35,000 but definitely not under 30,000 so we will just be realistic when booking vendors and making appointments this June and stick to the budget!!!
thanks again girls!!! you are such a big help
thats great that you two already have money saved, will definitely help alot.
You know when people go over their budget, i think the biggest thing isn't that they paid more for a vendor, for some yeah but mostly i think the biggest problem is the hidden expenses and expenses the couple did not think of. Especially when it gets closer to the wedding all these things come up that the couple did not budget for
i can only imagine...cause you have to think of bridal party gifts and parents gifts and hair trials and makeup-- ughh wedding planning is more stressful than getting ready to graduate this May
Espo22
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
Posted by cbcf
i can only imagine...cause you have to think of bridal party gifts and parents gifts and hair trials and makeup-- ughh wedding planning is more stressful than getting ready to graduate this May
i know exactly...also hotel stay, tips and all that
SoinLoveRwe2
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Re: Kinda clueless...sorry its long
We guestimated how much we thought we'd spend on certain items and we were very generous with the numbers. Then I took the date of the wedding (this is before we booked) and I divided it by the months to go-- when we figured out how much we would have to save to do it on a certain date- it worked for us. We know exactly how much we have to save a week. Nevermind extras like tax returns or bonuses-- that's what we did-- hopefully it will work for the next year and a half!!
