Ok, someone please look at this preliminary wedding budget

and PLEASE tell me I'm overestimating something! No really, tell me what I'm missing and if I'm bieng realistic..this is just a rough idea, because I wanted ti sit down and try to estimate how much this was going to cost . I haven't booked ANYTHING yet, so i really don't know.

Ceremony: $3000
Ceremony site - $1000
Rabbi $750
Priest $750
Chuppah Rental $250
Ketubah $250
Unity Candle $100
Sign in Book $50

Flowers: Is it possible to get this for under $3000?
Bride's bo-k
2BM Bo-k
throwaway bo-k
bo-k for special offering
FG bo-k
Groom bout (2)
GM, dad, grandpa bout -8
corsaes for moms and grandmas (4)
rose petals to throw
2 arrangemnt sfor ceremony site
a few pew bows
15-20 low centerpieces

Reception: 20,000
(150-180 people)
Full cocktail hr
appetizer, salad, maybe pasta course, entree
venetian hr.

cake- $750
favors $750

Photography and Video- $8000
At least 2 photographers B&W and color, albums, all negs and proofs

Stationery - $750
As much DIY as possible including
200 invites, response cards, envelopes, 'at home' cards, directions, programs, placecards, menus and STD magnets

Transportation: $1000 (is this possible)
Limo for Bride and Groom
2 Limos for BP

Music $4000
String quartet for ceremony
harpist for dinner hour
DJ for reception
something for coctail hr if possible

Attire
Bridal gown, shoes, undergarments alterations, veil, tiara - $5000

Groom Tuxedo -$200

Bride hair, nails, make up $200

Rings $3000
Plain for Fh, maybe eternity or partial for me

Bridal party gifts $750
Rehearsal dinner $1200

And then you figure I guess $5000 for take and gratuity, it's like $52,000 w.o honeymoon.

PLEASE tell me I'm over estimating something, or just tell me if these numbers are realistic and where I can cut or where I estimated too low! Thanks!

We are having about the same size wedding and my total costs ( everything is booked) came in at half of that.

eta. but I didnt have to put my dress, favors into the budget.

Your hall (reception) might be more than $20,000 if you're having 150-180 people. I would think Photo/Video would be less than $8000. Other than that, that's a great list.

I think its a great preliminary budget. As you look at vendors you may decide to splurge on one and hold back on others so I'm sure things will change.

A few small things I noticed, there is nothing big I'd change though:
most halls will include your cake

$200 for hair, makeup and nails seems a little low (usually 100 + tip for hair, 100 + tip for makeup, and depending on what kind of nails-real or wraps, I'd figure 50 between manicure, pedicure and tips)

I wouldn't spend $100 on a unity candle

For all that you want with video and photographer you may have to go over 8k depending on who you book. I spent 8k total and got all of that, but I booked them in 2002 so prices were lower then.

ETA: I just saw your post about what you could cut: I'd cut the favor amt by @$200, I'd cut out the cake amt, I'd lower the stationary, I'd lower your attire amt (I spent $1500 total)...

My thoughts:
Cake is usually included with your reception

Photo/Video seems v. high to me (I was at a well-regarded p/v place this week and they had a pagkage like what you want for under $5K)

Limo seems a little low, but that depends on how big your bp is and how long you want the cars

Music seems high

Dress seems high

Invitations seem really high, especially if you want to DIY this

Bride hair nails and makeup seems a little low

You may want to include the tax and service charges in with your vendor/reception costs

good luck!

OK...heres what I think ( I took what you wrote and added my comments)

Ceremony-
YOU do not need to pay $100 for a Unity Candle...I would try to get it as a gift, maybe register for one as well as a guest book. You can get a guest book for less then $50 too....we are getting the Polaroid book and camera and film for about $80...so thats very do-able... I would cut those in half , especially the candle

The Rabbi and Priest estimate seems high too? Our priest ( at the church) is $175. I dont think that will be as high as your quote.

Flowers: Is it possible to get this for under $3000?

YES! You can get those flowers for under $3000.....look around, get lots of pics and send them to the florists on here for quotes!

Reception: 20,000

WHERE is your reception? That seems high? Also..why do you have to pay for your cake? Can you get it included? Thats a lot for a cake. And if you need to save a little more, I say ditch the venetian hour...its over rated.

Favors you can spend less as well. We are doing scratch off lotto tickets( one per guest, wrapped) and CD favors wrapped...both together comes out to less then $300 for 150 people

Photography and Video- $8000

WAY too much..even with a high end album , you can get this for about $5000-$6000 ( even less if you shop around, depends on the vendor)

Stationery - $750 ( seems about right)

Transportation: $1000 (is this possible) YES...again look around, but do-able!

Music $4000 -( about average)

Attire
Bridal gown, shoes, undergarments alterations, veil, tiara - $5000
This depends on your dress. My price for my own for all of that is at about $1500..thats a BIG difference.

Groom Tuxedo -$200- GET IT FOR FREE! Have all the guys go somewhere where the tux is free for groom!

Bride hair, nails, make up $200 ( this may be more...mine is about $300 plus tips)

Rings $3000 ( about average if yours is etermity with diamonds)


Bridal party gifts $750 ( seems right if you have a lot of people in BP)

Rehearsal dinner $1200 - VERY high...Are you paying for it yourself?

Tax and gratuity is added to a lot of things already so $5000 is WAY , WAY too much. Even the reception tips are only going to run you if you tip WELL about $1000. (ours is much less then that)


So this all depends on your wants and needs, but if youare trying to cut costs, I could say you could easily reduce your budget by like $20,000. Get more opinions...

IT all depends on your vendors and mainly your reception...we are having 125-150 people and paying half of what you estimated...thats a big chunk of money.

GOOD LUCK!

ETA- for Stationary, we bought STDS online for about $75, we bought our programs for $10 ( print ourselves), Our menus we are doing ourselves( $20 tops), our Invites we are doing pocketfolds and doing ourselves and are about $300...so my own ( mostly DIY) is about $400 plus postage ( thats $350 less then yours, and that $350 is something like my hair, make-up, tanning, nails...)

I think you may be overestimating but it's better than underestinating and falling short.
I think you can definitely get your flowers for that price. I think you can also get video/photographer for a little less too.
And for invites remember that you send one per family or couple so you'll probably need less than 200 if you expect to have 150-180 coming.
Our DJ and string quartet were $1500 and $1250 respectively.

I think you are overestimating a bunch of costs.
ceremony site and costs should be well under that amount. i think my church is $400.

You can definitely get flowers for under $3000 and you can spend more if you want them really plush.

Your photo/video for 2 photographers would be around 5000-6000 unless you go with duet who is around 4000 for that package.

Wedding usually comes with the reception hall.

YOu can definitely go under 5000 on your dress. It just depends what type you want.

I think you are overestimating costs and can definitely do it for less. If you have the money to spend then go for it but otherwise you can get most of the items on your list for well under what you estimated.

I think you are overestimating for the ceremony - our 'donation' for the church is $500. I think if we wanted the ceremony at our hall it would have been $1000.

I also think you can get photo/video for less.

You might be overestimating the amount for your dress and accessories - I think my total will be close to $1500.

Okay, I am figuring out a budget right now too, and I have a few questions for you...

1-Where is the ceremony going to be that the cost is so high? Our ceremony is going to be at the church, we were told $800 for church and priest. My FH's brother was married at the reception site, they had to pay the priest $300.

2-Flowers, YES it is possible to do for UNDER $3000. I got a quote for $2600 from Pedestals for
1-My bo-k and throw away
4-BM bo-k
1-bo-k for presentation
10-Bouts
4-mom/gramma corsages
17-18- Tall centerpeices w/ votives and petals at base
2-alter flowers and 6 pew bows
petals for flowergirl
petals and votives on placecard table
flowers for cake and petals for cake table
I initially wanted all roses, then changed to roses, gerbera daisies and green hydranea, she said-same price.

3-to have a reception for 180 at $20,000, you'd need the cost per person to be $90 BEFORE tax and service.

4-Cake--many halls include it. The most I have seen the upgrade charge is $250-$300 for fondant.

5-Photo and Video...not sure but I think $8000 is overestimating. I have seen an avg of $4000-5000.

6-Limo...$1000 MAY be possible, if you did a basic limo, not the specialty ones, Jaguar, Hummer, etc.

There are many ways (I am learning as I go) to cut costs, and do things yourself. I am planning on making my own invites (custom designed) that will cost me $1.10 per invite, as opposed to 1 quote I have received of $600 for 100 invites.

Just my view on things. It all depends on how extravagant you want things to be. I know my FH and I are paying for 95% of this wedding, and have set a MAXIMUM budget $25,000 for EVERYTHING! Our reception hall is $13,250, so, we don't have much more to do everything else with.

Good Luck from a fellow '06 Bride!!

-Jill

It looks like you have tons of flexibility in your budget.

Invites are high for DIY plus you will only need about 125, not 200.

If you are flexible about the time of year, day of week, time of day for the wedding you can get a great price. Most places include the cake and some even include flowers. Also, inviting 180 people doesn't mean you will have 180 guests. Elminating the vienneise (sp???) and reducing the guest list would greatly reduce your costs here.

Depending on the number of people you need to invite, the RD can be lower. We had about 20 people in a restaurant for about half of your budget.

The ceremony prices seem very high -- we hired an officiant for $450.

The flowers are flexible -- our florist asked us what we wanted to spend per table and worked from there. They might also throw in some things like the toss bouquet or rose petals.

Your attire can be much lower if you want it to be. Just some advice, if you don't want to buy an expensive dress don't try one on. I had on a lovely $750 dress then tried on a $3000 gown -- guess which one I got


Check ebay for things like favors, unity candles, veil, head piece, etc.

Your photo/video could be a little lower, but it's the last thing I would cut.

I think you over-estimated the ceremony costs. Verify whether the donation fee includes the costs of the officiants. $4500 on location and officiants seem high to me.

If you are going for a high-end designer dress then $5K+ is reasonable. But you could definitely get something cheaper if you shop around and are open to other designers

If you plan to make your invites yourself then your estimate is too high. I spent $800+ for about 300 invites (ILs insisted on sending invites to people who we knew wheren't coming).

Depending on how many people, where and type of food, I think the rehearsal dinner estimation is on the low side. I believe my MIL spent approx 4K on our dinner for about 65 people (we invited OOT guests and spouses of our large BP). We wanted something real casual, so we had it in a private room at Jillian's in Westbury

But I think you have a good start and once you start researching/booking vendors you can adjust where you need to.

Thanks for all of the help! I knew you'd all be able to help me get a handle on this as I finally start lanning! 50K is actually twice as much as we can really spend, so I need to find ways to cite corners. I made the dress and the photo high estimes because the photo is the one thing I want te BEST of because it's the one thing that lasts forever. For the Dress, I don't really want to spend that much, but if I fall in love with a dress that's expensive, and it's 'The* dsress, I don't want to have to give it up b/c it's not in the budget, so I'd rather overestimate those two.

Flowers, stationery and trasnportation are areas that i really want to try to save money on. I want the flowers to be beautiful, but simple is ok, and I don't need them to last for 2 weeks or anything. stationery, I MAY make my own invites, but I still want to have the lined envelope, etc. I'm definitely going to make my own menus placecards, programs, and STD magnets, so maybe I can revise that # to $500. You're right about not needing that many invitations. We're going to invite about 200 and hope for 150.

Thanks for the advice. Definitely keep it coming. I'd LOVE to be able to save $$. I don't know how to come up with $50 for this wedding , much less $50,000. Thanks for all of the tips!

Register for the Unity Candle and Sign in Book....

Have the Reception Site throw in the Cake, placecards...

The tuxedo store will throw in the groom's tuxedo for free when you have groomsmen...

You are overestimating on hall...

why is the ceremony 3000.00 and the site 1000.00?????

teh $3000 was the total for the stuff below.

Site $1000- we're looking at CW post chapel and historical chapel. I know CW post is $750, so I put in extra in case whatever we choose is more $$, I know some halls have $1000.

And I figure the rabbi and priest would be more $$ than usual because they have to travel.

I'm not Jewish but a kettubah is 250.00???



P.S. If you hire a DJ they can play background music for the cocktail hour, make them include it.

I think for a Friday or a Sunday, maybe a Saturday in the off season, you can get a hall for that price. If you want a Sat. night in May or September though, you will be paying more. Especially if you want a Viennese hour.
I also think you estimated a little too low on the hair and makeup. If you book early, you might be able to get someone for that price, but I was getting much higher quotes when I was looking.
Also, limo, I don't think you can get 3 separate cars for less than $1k. Again, maybe if you search, but I didn't find a company that I would consider booking for a price that low.

Also, just a comment on this:

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Posted by marymoon
For the Dress, I don't really want to spend that much, but if I fall in love with a dress that's expensive, and it's 'The* dsress, I don't want to have to give it up b/c it's not in the budget...

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If you want to spend a lot on a dress, and you have the money, more power to you. Just a small bit of advice, DO NOT try on the expensive dresses first. You WILL fall in love with a beautiful silk dress, and you won't even want to try on a cheaper dress. Start out with the cheaper dresses, you can get a beautiful gown for less than 1k, if you look in the right places. If you are not loving the cheaper dresses, then go shopping in the higher end stores. A friend of mine started off trying on the silk dresses on a whim one day, and spent 3x what she had planned on spending, just because she could not see herself wearing anything but a silk, Reem Acra. Was her dress beautiful? Yes, of course. Does she regret spending that much? You bet.