[[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Original post by MrsK2008

Feb 06, 2008 01:27 PM

Seriously, how many of you are staying within your wedding budget?

Did you and your FH have a budget, or are you winging it?

GinaZ Posted: Feb 06, 2008 01:50 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

we are winging it, however, we are doing everything as economical as possible! We were giving a number to try to stay within and we are doing a pretty good job. However it def helps that FHs aunt is paying for the ceremony music as a gift and his mom is paying for the cake as a gift. And his sister paid the deposit for our DJ as a gift. these are things that would have brought us much more over the number my dad gave us.

msflesch Posted: Feb 06, 2008 01:52 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Posted by Espo22

same we are in budget

GinaZ Posted: Feb 06, 2008 01:52 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Posted by Espo22

Posted by MrsK2008

Posted by alissa5517

We are trying very hard to stick to our budget. We are over on a few things but, cutting on others.

I enlisted the help of a budget analyzer, like so many of the wedding websites have, and I found their percentages to be random as well as ridiculous.

my dress was far less than what 'the budget analyzer' suggested I should spend, and the % of money allowed for entertainmanet and food was grossly undercut IMO.

How does one figure this out?

its hard to go by that...some things are more important to some than others. Plus you cant go by a budget that is suggested for ALL brides...all brides have different budgets and not every bride will spend the same amount on everything. The best way to set a budget is to just go by what you and fh can do. Figure out how much time youhave until the wedding, how much you two will make until then(after taxes) minus all bills you pay regularly such as rent, mortgage, utilities, car, insurance and so on and see what youre left with and leave some of that for spending.

Plus many of those budget analyzers are for all states and what things cost here are different in other states

i agree. the budgets they give online and in magazines are not for LI and NY weddings. They usually make you budget for drinks and appatizers etc and that stuff is all included here. its rally best to make one up for yourself. And then you can also prioritize things to how it best suites you.

gabbie83 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 01:55 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

we had a budget - we came up with an amount for all the vendors (since my wonderful parents offered to pay for the RH) and we are a bit over
:(
but i guess in the end we will exactly how much over we went!

But its not too bad b/c i went under with my dress - so then we went over with our wedding bands

you win some you lose some

MrsK2008 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 02:01 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Posted by GinaZ

we are winging it, however, we are doing everything as economical as possible! We were giving a number to try to stay within and we are doing a pretty good job. However it def helps that FHs aunt is paying for the ceremony music as a gift and his mom is paying for the cake as a gift. And his sister paid the deposit for our DJ as a gift. these are things that would have brought us much more over the number my dad gave us.

My Mom is paying for most of the reception and ceremony costs...........it would have been covered by what she gave us if we didn't add upgrades.
= (

I have found I am becoming reclusive of people who will be attending our wedding. Everytime we have dinner with friends or colleagues we are beaten over the head with what they think makes a GREAT WEDDING. So I start feeling like a redneck hillbilly and we add stuff........what the H@LL IS WRONG WITH ME?

FH boss's wife told us she thinks people are cheap if they don't have seafood and sushi at cocktail hour.

we are not having sushi and we have limited seafood, it was just too much money...........I cried myself to sleep. My FH thinks I am insane.

Mici n KC Posted: Feb 06, 2008 02:01 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

We had no idea how much anything cost so we met with several vendors for different things to get pricing on different packages and just went from there. Our RH is paid off and we're paying off our other vendors now so we dont' have huge balances right before the wedding.

novia26 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 02:03 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

we are on budget

snwb08 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 02:06 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Posted by Espo22

i estimated about right.

me too. our budget isn't blown by any means.

indiva Posted: Feb 06, 2008 02:40 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Not only do we have a budget, we meet about the budget regularly to see where we stand, what can be cut, what needs to be added, etc!

We'll end up going over but at least the budget prepared us for it.

I guess it's the Accountant in me and his financial savvy...

Sunset Renee Posted: Feb 06, 2008 02:44 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

We're kinda wingin it...but trying to stay at a round about amount. I'm trying to just be reasonable with everything - The wedding is only the first day of the rest of our lives together - look at it like this:
Do I really want the extra stretch bmw limo - or would I really rather have the totally awesome stove I saw?!? I'd even rather go extravegant on the honeymoon for me and my honey instead of going wild with invites and favors!!

SparkyandAng Posted: Feb 06, 2008 02:46 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

We had a number in mind originally until we started pricing things...we were off by about $15K but so far we are within our newly recognized budget which is still a ridiculous amount of money

emirem Posted: Feb 06, 2008 02:46 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

We thought of a budget but when we went to vendors had no idea how expensive it was. Especially they show you something nice and you don't want the cheaper stuff anymore. so we are way over our budget.

angl2001 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 04:20 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

right on budget!

LauraD419 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 04:21 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

My parents are paying for the majority of the wedding.. (well all of it except a few things!! They are the best!!) I know that it is more than they WANTED to spend..but I think we're in the ballpark of what we expected. Some things have been more..some have been slightly less. It's the last minute extra stuff that is adding up!!

MrsD71208 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 04:26 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Put it this way..........FH and I were clueless about how much anything wedding-related costs....we said, 'Let's try for 20k and if we go under, great'......little did we know that we'd spend that and more on JUST THE RH!!!! So with that said, no budget from that point on...we just did what we liked and that was it.

MrsK2008 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 04:27 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Posted by LauraD419

My parents are paying for the majority of the wedding.. (well all of it except a few things!! They are the best!!) I know that it is more than they WANTED to spend..but I think we're in the ballpark of what we expected. Some things have been more..some have been slightly less. It's the last minute extra stuff that is adding up!!

last minute stuff ruins everyones budget!

I don't know about you ladies, but we have had a 2 year engagement, predominantly to save money and pay off this wedding.

I told FH that if he wanted a wedding we had to save for a house as well.

This worked out to my advantage and better than I anticipated!

MrsK2008 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 04:28 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Posted by MrsDtoBe

Put it this way..........FH and I were clueless about how much anything wedding-related costs....we said, 'Let's try for 20k and if we go under, great'......little did we know that we'd spend that and more on JUST THE RH!!!! So with that said, no budget from that point on...we just did what we liked and that was it.

that sounds very much like the convo FH and I had

and I can laugh about it now!

minibride08 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 04:36 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

We are right around budget... I voted about 10% over- b/c we forgot to add in a few things (hello- wedding rings & rehersal dinner- lol) Some things were higher, some lower than we anticipated...

MrsK2008 Posted: Feb 06, 2008 04:49 PM

Re: [[ my first POLL ]] wedding costs

Posted by minibride08

We are right around budget... I voted about 10% over- b/c we forgot to add in a few things (hello- wedding rings & rehersal dinner- lol) Some things were higher, some lower than we anticipated...

i never added our rings, I never considered them as a part of the 'budget'.