Ways to stay within budget

I would really appreciate any tips that people can give me to help me stay within budget. I am getting very caught up in the whole wedding thing. It is just so hard to remember that this is one day. I feel like I am spending so much money but I know that things on LI cost so much more than other places. Just looking for how other brides made decisions and saved.

Ways to stay within budget

Prioritize! I have found this to be the only thing that has kept us in budget. We decided early on what was most important, somewhat important, necessary and the would like to have items we then allocated our budget accordingly. For example on the early like to have list was a firework display, wll after getting a quote for five thousands of dollars for a five minutes display we crossed it off the list.

I feel the same way!

I`ve just started booking some vendors, and I already am wondering if it`s all worth it??!! When I left the florist, although they had beautiful ideas, designs, etc., I could not help but think - it`s going to be wasted after the wedding. All of that time, money, etc. However, I know that if I didn`t have a typical 'Long Island wedding', I regret it afterwards. Going forward, I plan to stick to my budget, and really take the time to decide what I can and cannot live without. (Like Fran mentioned with the fireworks!!) Good luck

Ways to stay within budget .. Also

I forgot to add - use a budget tool like the one on theknot.com. or wedding channel.com. The prices they come up with don't work for LI but the listing of items to budget for is very extensive and easy to use.

How do you 'give-up' a vendor...

I did use a budget tracking tool last night. That is what has caused me so much stress. It was much easier when I just had the numbers roughly in my head. Have any of you had to not sign with a vendor that you really, really wanted because of $$. How did you feel afterwards? Do you regret that decision now?

My experience and thoughts...

I too got so caught up with the whole wedding (and it's one day in your life) one of the MOST Important... well I was married a little over a month ago and I still don't know how I feel about the whole money issue. We went way over what we said we would ever spend on a wedding (you know the whole down payment on a house) A lot of people make back what they spend we didn't and new we wouldn't (that was our choice) It has probably pushed up buying a house at least a year... is it worth it Looking back I can't say I could change anything so I guess it was. But (I'm crazy) if I was you I would try and cut corners (I didn't go crazy on our invatations, favors, and I didn't get the napkins or any of that stuff) and I only had a 6 piece band - I wanted Creative Compositions but found Fine Art gave us more so we went with them - but my sister spent half of what I spent and was just as happy with her pictues so it really depends on your personality. I guess I wasn't really that helpful. Sorry. I'll probably have a better answer in a year.

How do you 'give-up' a vendor...

We recently went through the same thing. Originally we decided what we wanted and would work to save that much money. After weeks of trying to work the numbers we realized we have to decide how much we are going to spend all together, how much we are committed to under contract now, what was on our wish list then go from there. We recently found out that there is a silk flower warehouse in Lancaster, PA that is roughly half the cost of silk flowers in NY. I love the idea that they will last much much longer then real flowers which makes it easier to spend the money and if it is discounted, all the better. I think it will all come together. i spent some time researching about how much we can realisically budget for certain items (limo, invitations, costs that are pretty fixed) and combined it with the unknowns (dress, rings, etc). We did have to downgrade our honeymoon from Hawaii to California. Cost wasn't the only reason, but it was one of them.

We gave up.... (long)

...a band in favor of a DJ. For years I kept a business card from NY Swing after I heard them at an event I helped coordinate. I always wanted them at my wedding. When it came to budgeting though, I realized that since Hubby hates to dance I probably wouldn`t spend much time on the dance floor and it just wasn`t worth spending the extra. And guess what! I had to ask people if the DJ was good because I was so busy and distracted I didn`t even NOTICE the music!!! So I guess the band really would have been a waste because it was something special to ME, but not anyone else, so a DJ did the job just fine. I also gave up Bubbles or Flower Petals at the church and it was SO WINDY that anything thrown would have been gone in seconds - before the phototgrapher could snap a shot - another good decision, although I made the decision based on the thought that the expense would have been wasted if it was a rainy day. I agree with others - prioritize. Think about: What`s important to both of you, and why. How can you achieve the same, or similar effect for less, or by being creative. What will you notice that will enhance the day and what will your guest notice that will enhance the day. What is lasting and what will be gone in moments. Some budgeting ideas: I got little glass holders and votive candles at AC Moore for about a dollar each and put them on the cocktail hour tables instead of paying the florist $12.50 each for floating Gerbera Daisies. I still have the glass holders to use in the future. Instead of Caligraphy I did a similar font on my computer to address invitations and was very happy with the results I hot-glued little flowers into the corner of a standard place setting card to add a special touch - it looked very 'Martha Stewart' and I loved it. We considered a town car instead of a limo since we only had to travel 4 miles from the church to the reception. We would have done that except my FIL gave us the limo as a gift. I decided that between 2 dresses I was considering, I really didn`t love one of them a thousand dollars more than the other and I ended up being totally in love with my dress and my decision. I made my own favors, searching out the best price on fancy boxes (romanticflowers.com), buying ribbon in bulk (papermart.com) and chocolates at wholesale from my parent`s country club. Total cost under $2.50. Skip the Pew Bows - I had to ask if the florist had even brought them because I never noticed them and you hardly see them in the picture. In short, find ways to get the same effect by researching the best price, coming up with a creative alternative and skipping the things that are a nice touch, but not really necessary. By saving on some of the little stuff you can also afford to spend a bit more for what is really lasting, like the video or photographer. Good Luck!

How do you 'give-up' a vendor...

There are so many great vendors for everything on LI. Again its all a matter of prioritization. We didn't 'give up' any vendors on our Must Have list. We also booked those vendors 12-13 months out. Vendors that we considered secondary - Florist and Limo. We took our time on. As a matter of fact I still haven't booked our limos and our wedding is in 7 weeks. It is on a Friday night, there are tons of limo companies on LI/NYC. I figure the money is better in my pocket than theirs for months in advance. We have narrowed it down to two companies and the one that will give us the best will win. Once you set up a preliminary budget call vendors for pricing prior to visiting. Why waste your time, and possibly get your heart set on something if they are charging double what you plan to spend? Just be realistic from the start, perpare to be open minded and flexible and dont be afraid to tell people that your budget wont accomodate the amount they are quoting. You'll be amazed at how creative some vendors can be with pricing. Good Luck

Advice form someone whos already done it (long)

The best thing you can do to stay on budget is to make a list of your priorities. I`m sure we can all agree that we all want the best of everything, but that means lots of cash. We ended up spending the money on the things that were our priorities: Site/food, pictures and honeymoon. I also bought the dress I wanted, which was more than I had thought I would have spent. We got the photographer we wanted, which was expensive, so to make it work in our budget, we got a smaller album and less pictures. We get to keep the proofs and if we wanted to spend more after the wedding, we could have. We opted not to spend the money now, but since we got phenomenal pictures, we can get a bigger album for the five-year anniversary. We also spoke to our parents and they said they didn`t want albums, so we got them folios. We were surprised, but they knew how much more that would have been. We didn`t do video, but had a cousin record the ceremony, which was the one thing we really didn`t remember AT ALL!!! We cut costs on things like flowers and limos. We didn`t have a bridal party, so that cut the expense of flowers and we didn`t upgrade from what the site had included. We ended up spending about $250 on all the flowers. The tables looked beautiful and elegant with 1/2 dozen roses in a bud vase. We didn`t rent limos, just rented a car for us (we only drank the toasting champagne, so were fine to drive). The night of the wedding, I`d researched all the expensive hotels - which ranged form $300/night and up. We ended up staying at a local hotel, which was perfectly fine since we were staying at a five star hotel for the honeymoon. Invitations are another place to cut. I had also stressed about that. Although I would have loved to order Cranes, we ended up getting Rexcraft. The paper is not of the highest quality, but they nice. We got simple invites that cost us $100 plus postage. We did the envelopes on our computer with a nice font (Lucinda calligraphy) and they looked beautiful. cost: Free! I never looked at any of those budget helpers, because each situation is different and I knew it would stress me out. We ended up spending under 20,000 for wedding and honeymoon. We had a small affair with only 75 people, but if we`d really tightened our belts, we could have done it for a few thousand less. Remember to keep your eye on the ball. Think about what you want, how long it will last, and how much it`s worth to you. DO NOT count on money you will make from the wedding to pay anything off, because you may not make what you think you will. I saw someone post once that they were cashing one of those credit card checks the Friday before the wedding to pay vendors any paying it off with the money they made from gifts the next Monday. What if they got a bunch of candy dishes! Yikes! Your day will be memorable whether you spend a lot of money or not.

Thank you so much for all of your suggestions

Once again...I can count on brides to help and give advise.

Thank you so much for all of your suggestions

If you haven't booked your hall yet, that I think is the biggest expense and the best way to cut back on money. I have a friend getting married next week that is getting married for under $15,000 on Long Island... We, on the otherhand, booked an expensive hall and made sacrifices on having a band, favors, top of the line photographer and invites. When I was deciding on the hall, we looked at the amount of money my parents were going to give us and how much we could save minimally a month and hopefully we'll be able to pay for it all.

I booked for $85.00/pp

So my hall is not a huge expense. I got a great deal. I am going to do the top of the line photographer and a $4300 band (which is a good price I think). I am going to go small of favors about $3.00/piece and go with nice but not too expenisive invites. Plus I plan on doing my own church flower baskets and having the florist do small , hand-tied flowers for my girls. Limos are not super important to me. I have a 15 minute ride to the church and a 10 minute ride to the reception site. So needless to say, I would rather have a great photographer and a regular limo instead of a rolls.

Other factors...

I agree with all of the brides about priorities but there are other factors to consider. I think that the first thing you have to do is accept that if you want a traditional wedding reception in the NY area it is going to cost you (whether 15K or 50K). And it will be a 'waste' of money. Logically, I know this to be true but I have always wanted to have a great wedding I will spend the extra money to have one. The second thing you need to find out is: What can you really afford? I would have liked to spend less than I will be spending but both of us make enough money to cover it. I know too many people who put themselves into ridiculous debt to have a great party. That doesnt make too much sense. But if we have to wait another year to buy a new car or something like that - I can deal with it. Once you have have accepted the 'waste' factor and the budget you can afford without dire financial consequences - go as big as you can b/c you only get one chance! You don't want to regret a cost cutting measure later (like at least one of my good friends did!)

If I knew then what I know now...ah, wisdom (long)

When I first *set* a budget, it was not realistic - I basically *guessed* at many of the expenses not having a clue as to what the cost was. I was off by almost $10,000 (honeymoon and rings were not included in that budget). I`m 35 and FI is 39, first marriage for both. All of my friends were married 8+ years ago and I based many of my estimates on what they paid. Big mistake! You and your FI need to decide what`s most important to you both. We`re sacrificing alot (and still 10K over budget LOL), our wedding is at Coral House - not my first choice. I`ve heard nothing but positive feedback about it, but still, it has a 'reputation' of its own. No limousines, the centerpieces are not what I dreamed they would be (flowers were important to me until they were the last thing we booked!), and I got my dress on-line for under $500. I also ordered Rexcraft invites for $300, when the ones I loved the most were $900. The things we decided we`d go into debt for: (thankfully we`re covered) Photography, Videography, Gifts for all of my 8 siblings, our mothers and our bridal party, our pre-wedding dinner for 35 people, which is neither required nor expected, and my 2nd wedding band (cuz he loves me that much)... I have no regrets (except that I can't stick to a diet). 73 days to go!! Best of luck!! :)

Make Your Own Favors!

We just saved about $700 by simply making our own favors instead of purchasing them already assembled! You can get tons of ideas by looking online. Then you can go to a craft store and buy the supplies in bulk. It is a fun 'craft' night with your FI and you will save tons of money!

Ways to stay within budget

We are only $99 over our budget and we have booked every vendor. We made it simple. Set one price that we would spend on every vendor, figured out how much we needed to put in our joint account every paycheck to accumulate that set budget and stuck w/ it. For ex. we said we were only going to pay $XX for the reception including open bar, cake, tips etc we searched for places in that price range w/ those accomodations. You really have to be dedicated and do your research. If you have other obligations, like us were moving to Florida and buying a house after the wedding then you really need tos tick w/ that budget. Even if it means giving up calla lillies and going w/ roses.

Ways to stay within budget

That is good advise. Glad to hear that you are only $99.00 over. You do not hear stories like this too often. Thanks.

Ways to stay within budget

I was also stressed when I started looking and asking what other people were spending on things. But don't feel pressure to spend what others have. Try looking at non-prime time weddings. We are having a Saturday day wedding in March and it was ALOT cheaper per person compared to a Saturday night in May. We are getting beautiful flowers for $1,000 and phototgraphy for $2,000. Go for a DJ instead of a band. GOOD LUCK!!

Tina- What did you make? *NM*