Hey guys, so last night I was updating my wedding spreadsheet,mainly to keep track of our expenses, and a quick question popped up. Have you stuck to your budget so far, or are you over your budget in certain areas? If so, what are you cutting back on to stay within your budget, or are you stretching it a little to get your 'must haves'.
FH and I went way over our budget for invites and photography, but we're cutting corners by limiting the amount of people at our rehearsal dinner. Are parents are footing the bill, but its really up to us to plan everything/balance our budget. We initially were going to include a good amount of our friends/parents friends, but now we're limiting it to out of town guests and our wedding party. :)
flynn14
Posted:
Member since
***QOTD 2/4/14***
We didn't really start out w a budget. We compared prices for services of vendors and quality and decided from there. That being said personally I think we kept the cost down. Some expenses that came up were doc and our coach bus is more than what I expected as we r shuttling our guests to and from hotel to venue and TIPS! The only thing in I'm scared about is our upgrade w cake and what the final florist budget will be. Since our proposal from florist
futuremap
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***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
Our 'budget' is not set in stone... We took a spreadsheet that my sister had created from her wedding 5 years ago with the prices on there and guestimated the new prices they would cost 5 years later. There are some vendors that have been cheaper than we expected and others that were more, but we feel as though it will even itself out and we will be ok.
KTF11
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***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
We have been tracking our budget for every expense. Right now we are under budget for items we have booked versus what we budgeted and hoping to keep it that way
Jocelyn1977
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Re: ***QOTD 2/4/14***
FH and I started out with a general budget. With that budget, we calculated what we were willing to spend on each major vendor (as a percentage of the total budget). A couple items cost a little more, while we saved big time in other areas. Like, we spent an extra $600 on having a steel drum player added to our DJ package, but we don't need any sort of guest shuttle or limo service, since the Fox Hollow has their hotel right next door. Florist and photographer were right on budget. Honestly, after all is said and done, we will probably go over our initial budget by $2-4K, which isn't too bad. Most of that money is for gratuity, which we neglected to factor in back in the beginning.
cets1290
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***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
we went way over on music.. in addition to booking just a dj/mc package, we ended up adding a cocktail hour band, a live singer that sings during the downtimes, the cake cutting, first dance, etc. at the reception, uplightging, and a string duo for the church lol... we booked wayyyy more than we originally planned for
we also added a videographer after initially saying we would skip out on that
luckyerialc
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Re: ***QOTD 2/4/14***
Posted by cets1290
we went way over on music.. in addition to booking just a dj/mc package, we ended up adding a cocktail hour band, a live singer that sings during the downtimes, the cake cutting, first dance, etc. at the reception, uplightging, and a string duo for the church lol... we booked wayyyy more than we originally planned for
we also added a videographer after initially saying we would skip out on that
LOL I like the way you operate! Which live singer did you go with? and WOW, i never thought of having a string duo at the church... man, you're giving me some new ideas now!
luckyerialc
Posted:
Member since
***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
We never had a 'set' budget, just a loose idea of what we would ideally like to spend. We knew from the beginning that we would likely be spending a TON on photography since that is important to us. We went a bit over on DJ as well but that will also be worth it. As for everything else, I have been putting in the time to look up various options to ensure we're getting a good deal (invitations, transportation, etc). I think it also helps that my parents are helping us out a TON so we were able to splurge a bit on the bigger vendors we are handling.
Alimm729
Posted:
Member since
***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
We didn't really have a budget. Since we booked an all inclusive venue, we allowed ourselves a little extra for add ons to the packages included. And so far, we're on track. We know how much money is in our account (we have a separate account for the wedding fund) and we add a little to it each pay check. As things come up, we just mark down, ok we have to add this much back into the account.
coffeeisgreen
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Re: ***QOTD 2/4/14***
Like a few others said, we didn't go in with a set budget but just a rough idea of what we wanted/didn't want to spend. I'd say the one thing we went a little overboard with is the honeymoon but we're making that work somehow.
cets1290
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Re: ***QOTD 2/4/14***
Posted by luckyerialc
Posted by cets1290
we went way over on music.. in addition to booking just a dj/mc package, we ended up adding a cocktail hour band, a live singer that sings during the downtimes, the cake cutting, first dance, etc. at the reception, uplightging, and a string duo for the church lol... we booked wayyyy more than we originally planned for
we also added a videographer after initially saying we would skip out on that
LOL I like the way you operate! Which live singer did you go with? and WOW, i never thought of having a string duo at the church... man, you're giving me some new ideas now!
We did everything for the cocktail hour/reception through Bravura.. They had a Jazz trio that we booked for cocktail hour, the uplighting looked awesome, and the live singer is also the jazz singer from cocktail hour. He sounds like frank sinatra when she sings it's wonderful :) I can't wait to have him sing me and my dad's dance!
For the church, we booked a violin and harp duo through the capriccio ensemble
MrsDtoBe
Posted:
Member since
***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
We're unfortunately over in every single area except for flowers and DJ Oh well…only a month to go. No sense is crying over it now!
Brunettelizzie29
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Member since
***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
We had a starting point with his brother's budget from his wedding last year and so far we have stayed under that budget as of now..it's still early
Vilardi82
Posted:
Member since
***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
I don't think I was exactly sure what everything was going to cost when I began planning so we never really had an exact budget. I did have a 'number' in my head of what everything would cost when all is said and done and we are def over that number lol. Overall I think we got some great prices but I underestimated what the per plate cost would be at our venue (and all the other venues I was interested in) which is obviously the bulk of the budget.
bridejackson22
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***QOTD 2/4/14*** - Long Island Weddings
We had a set budget we wanted to stay in and what we absolutely couldn't go over. So far we are right on point.
msj288
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Re: ***QOTD 2/4/14***
Posted by MrsDtoBe
We're unfortunately over in every single area except for flowers and DJ Oh well…only a month to go. No sense is crying over it now!
Like a few others said, we didn't go in with a set budget but just a rough idea of what we wanted/didn't want to spend. I'd say the one thing we went a little overboard with is the honeymoon but we're making that work somehow.
THIS! so far i think the honeymoon was the only thing we went a little crazy with. Other than that, it's all pretty much within budget.
msj288
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Member since
Re: ***QOTD 2/4/14***
Posted by futuremap
Our 'budget' is not set in stone... We took a spreadsheet that my sister had created from her wedding 5 years ago with the prices on there and guestimated the new prices they would cost 5 years later. There are some vendors that have been cheaper than we expected and others that were more, but we feel as though it will even itself out and we will be ok.
We're kind of in the same boat. My FH's best friend's wife gave us her spreadsheet from their wedding last yr, and boy what a difference a yr makes price wise. The vendors they used almost doubled their costs. Either way, looking at their budget was a big help to us in gauging what everything costs, and how to sort of formulate our budget.
maine1981
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Member since
Re: ***QOTD 2/4/14***
Posted by futuremap
Our 'budget' is not set in stone... We took a spreadsheet that my sister had created from her wedding 5 years ago with the prices on there and guestimated the new prices they would cost 5 years later. There are some vendors that have been cheaper than we expected and others that were more, but we feel as though it will even itself out and we will be ok.
This... We worked off of a friends recent wedding pricing. We have prioritized certain items which we were willing to spend more and cut back in other areas.
