Splurges

Pepperally

So going into this whole thing, my plan was not to spend much on pretty much any/all of it.  Now, I'm having a small 40 person wedding at a restaurant, so that cuts out a lot of things.  I didn't go for some grand photographer package, only 3 hours of coverage was fine for me.  Both sets of our parents are covering a lot of the costs, but I've paid for the little things. 

One area that I didn't plan on splurging on was the stationary products.  I totally got suckered in on that one!  I was on Wedding Paper Divas and decided to order some free samples...not really paying attention to prices that much (but also they say starting as low as $X, which is really only if you are buying like 500 invites, and I only needed 30).  But really, I was going to just print my own from some kit from Michaels or something like that.  Then I got the samples in the mail.  UGH...I loved them all.    I laid them all out on the table and had FI look at them and we both loved the same one, it totally matched our colors and "feeling" of our wedding vision.  And bam...that was it...splurge.  Then, I got a discount with WPD when I registered at Macy's so I thought...matching place cards...so splurge #2 on those.  Then, I got an email from them yesterday that thank you cards were 50% off for just yesterday (I planned on going cheaper with those)...splurge again!

 

Ok, so long story short...I'm a sucker for stationary I guess.  What was your unexpected splurge(s) thus far?

 

ETA: added pic of the invites

kebebb

My dress. Not that my dress itself was expensive, but the alterations are going to SUCK because of the beading and the hem. My $600 dress is about to turn into a $1000 dress.

Pepperally

@kebebb- aww, that sucks!  Just when you think you got yourself a deal...bam...alterations! 

Actually my dress was a splurge, but for my mom, not for me.  I felt bad, but she loved it on me so...yeah, spent about twice as much as I had in my head.  I went in thinking I was just going to get a bridesmaid dress in ivory.  Nope...couldn't do that!

beachyone15

I also spent more on my invitations than I thought I would. There were actually very few invitations I looked at that I liked so it made the decision easy (albeit expensive! Lol)

The only other thing I feel a little guilty about is the sign for our cookie bar I got off Etsy. It was more than I wanted to spend but the way it is written, we can use it in our kitchen after we get married. Plus I'm a little relieved I don't have to DIY the banner I was initially thinking of doing!

labro

I feel like I've gone OTT on a lot of things. We ordered our invitations from William Arthur (goodbye money!) and I just ordered matching accommodations card inserts (goodbye more money). They were super nice paper and the font was done in thermography and everything. I also went with the more expensive caterer because I really loved how they get all of our food locally and if it's not in season/not available then it is not on their menu. I'm really happy that most of our menu is locally sourced, organic, and seasonal. Our second choice caterer was slightly cheaper and the food was excellent, I just felt I had more of a connection with the one we ended up hiring.

Flowers are definitely a splurge. I budgeted extra because my venue told me about what other brides typically spend so I made sure to have the money in the budget but I never planned on using ALL of that budgeted amount...and yet...here I am. But I don't really care because my floral is going to be SO gorgeous! My florist did a centerpiece mockup for us and I am in love!

Our DJ was a splurge but our first choice (who was also cheaper) wasn't available so I went with him even though he was significantly  more expensive just because it's important to me to have someone who can throw us good party.

Dignity100

It feels like I'm splurging on everything along the way!!
Dress - I went WAY over budget.  I talked it over with FI though, we had the $$ so it was ok.

Special Guests - We decided to "invite" Mickey & Minnie, of course it comes with a large cost for 30-minutes.  This is one place if we HAVE to cut, we will.

Dinner - We decided to treat our families to a more expensive dinner.  It was hard to find something that would please everybody, so we decided on a steakhouse.

Dessert Party - This is one thing I wasn't willing to compromise on (well the dessert menu I am).  I just wanted to make sure everybody felt a little Disney magic with an Illuminations Dessert Party.

Places we did NOT splurge:
Floral - I'm going to upgrade my bouquet, but no floral decorations.
Cake - We will be paying a slight upcharge to have 2 flavors in our cake only because my dad does not like Peanut Butter.  I don't consider $25-50 to be a splurge though.
Ceremony Site
Music/DJ
Invitations/Stationary
Hotel Room - I went back and forth on this, we decided to stay in a Moderate resort so we could do more for our guests with the money we saved from not booking at one of our ceremony site's hotels.

wajohnson09

I splurged slightly on the dress -$200 over budget, so $800 instead of the $600 I was going for, but I got accessories, shoes, and veil on sale so I'm still pretty much on track there

My huge splurge was flowers. Right away I was going to do silk everything. Then I was going to have real flowers in bouquets/corsages/bouts and silk flowers or non floral centerpieces and nothing at church. Now we have real floral centerpieces, real bouquets, 2 real altar arrangements and a unity candle arrangement.

FI's splurge is the cake. We were going to have a small 3 tier from bakery and sheet cakes from Costco. After the tasting at the bakery we ended up with a 4 tier and an order with sheet cakes from the bakery. His logic is we don't have to pick anything up the day of (which is nice)

Depending on our final guest count, we will be about $1500-$1750 over budget. We can still afford it, so we're ok with it

sarawifenow

We also splurged on our invitations. I was planning on spending about $150 on them. Well I tripled that when I fell in love with our invites. Gotta love stationary!

JasperandOpal

I would say we splurged on suit/suit accessories for FI because he is really particular about what he likes and we figured the suit is something he will definitely have opportunities to wear again.  The other splurge was the DJ... I say splurge but I couldn't find anyone any cheaper so its more that is the thing that cost more than I expected it to. 

But everything else except food is coming in under our initial budget estimates which is awesome.

Emily104

Our band - we decided to go with a band instead of a DJ, and we love them, I'm still happy about the choice.

Our ceremony - we moved the ceremony to a different location (still at the venue, which is a nature conservancy), so the new location doesn't have electricity.  For this change, we are now renting 200 extra chairs so we won't have to move them, and we got a violinist for music, because there is no electricity or anything, we needed acoustic music.

I don't think we're really "splurging" on anything else, it's just that having a venue where we literally have to bring everything in (tables, chairs, tent, food, alcohol, etc) means that we are spending a lot in a lot of different places.

Jean0715

My dress…..$3000 later. Whoops. 

We also didn't want to spend ANY money on transportation, but then we decided to offer a guest shuttle so friends and family didn't have to drink and drive….2,000 later. 

des9724

Our splurge was our DJ/Ceremony musician.  He did double-duty, which was great.  The DJs in my area are very young and wear those Brittney Spears mics, which we weren't fond of. He seemed the most professional and cost a bit for it.    Transportation was also a big expense for just 4 hours of rental, which I wasn't expecting. 

Pepperally

Oh yeah, kinda forgot about the flowers...we weren't going to do floral centerpieces but... we did.

Kerigirl9

We splurged on the photographer. We had actually hired someone kind of "on the cheap" and then I saw some additional work that he posted online and I started getting really nervous because it was really not impressive work. So I found someone that I LOVED but she was 2.5x as expensive as the other guy. I talked to FI about it. I said, "Honey, I just don't want to be looking at 'that one photo'.... the best one that we blow up and put somewhere in the house where we see it every day... in 2 years and think "WHY didn't we go with the good photographer'"? I asked what he thought and he said, "I just want you to be happy". Done.

ashwise

So I've been super good in the budget arena until recently.  I had mapped out everything and was actually coming in under budget....until we decided we wanted a videographer.  OOPS! this was a totally last minute thing, and something we had hummed and hawwed (sp?) at during this whole process.  So we totally decided to splurge on getting one (technically 2 videographers come as part of the package) and I'm super happy that we did. But other than that everything's coming in under budget. :-D 

rsbloom

We splurged on a suit for FI, he wanted something he could wear other times instead of renting a tux. We ended up buying two because there was a sale and and then they sucker you into all the accessories. But he will use them often. We splurged on a custom cake topper that FI really liked. I was surprised he had an opinion about it, but he hasn't asked for much. We are also splurging on our sweetheart table decorations, we're having a backdrop behind us and the silver glitz tablecloth. We weren't going to do anything fancy, but it looked so gorgeous and we had room in our budget, so we went for it.

JennyColada

We are mainly splurging on venue. I suppose I am "splurging" on stationary too (as they are like $2.14 each...but I only need 4 invites so it's not a big deal).

LeftyKatie24

I splurged on my Dress and our photographer.  30 years from now all we are going to have to remember this day will be our memories, which I heard fade over time, and the pictures and I better love the dress I'm in in those pictures. 

Lauramae980

We splurged on photography, but he has since become a friend and he threw in engagement photos and a head shot session for my FI, who needed them for the Fringe Festival. 

My dress also was about $300 over budget before alterations, but it's amazing.