Budgeting

Brittanyp1992

Hey guys,
I just got engaged on our 3 year anniversary in September, my Fiancee and I are both 19 but are planning the wedding for October 13/2013 so we will be 21 when we get married.

I was just wondering if there are any of you who could give us some pointers on how to save money! Our budget is $15,000-$20,000.

Thanks!
Brittany

souptin

Hi Brittany,

thats my budget as well. Making that number work depends on a few things, how many guest do you want and where are you planning the shindig?

We are hosting 80-90 guests and having the ceremony and reception all in the same location which saved some money.

we are not having a giant and way over priced wedding cake (seriously they can cost over 1k alone!)  insted we going to have either cupcakes or slab cake.
 we are not spending a lot on a guest book-honestly you may look at once or twice after the wedding but really how often do you really think you will look through it?
We are limiting our bar ( it will be totally open for our guest to drink as much as they want) we just dont want our guests drinking top shelf booze on our dime, in addition we are limiting the wine selection.
Negotiated the venue to throw in linens and some decorations for free.
 we really wanted a photobooth so we got one on a sweet online deal and are using it to double as a favour ( you can customize the prints to say your names and dates somewhere on the printout)
I bought my dress at The Brides Project (my dress was valued at alomst 2k but I only paid $800!)
I am skipping big expensive flower arrangements on all the tables and am using small votive candles to line the middle of the tables.
We are only buying a small amount of invitations and opting to email all friends/family that are internet accessiable (some printed ones are needed for more old fashioned less tec savvy guests)
Our venue is very transit accessable so no taxi chits or charter bus' necessary
So far we are looking at an overall bill of about 14-16k so we still have some wiggle room if something pops up.

I hope this helps, Happy Planning

LILIPAD27

To save money: Don't eat out.  Make coffee at home before leaving for work.  Don't get out of whack with what you MUST have for your wedding.  Remember after your wedding, the bills won't go away.  Shopping!!  I'm in school and having a wedding, while I am still working full time, as is my fiance, I have not shopped for anything personally for a long time.  A new pair of shoes won't kill you to wait til after the wedding.  Since you are still young, you haven't had the luxury of working for too long and created bad spending habits but just remember it's only til your wedding day to be frugal.  It'll be all worth it and the day after your wedding will be just as satisfying know the bills are all paid for.

Kye042

Make a goal of how much of your paycheque you need to put away per week or per month. And track your finances.

Also, I'm a young bride too 22 - I am going to a banquet hall that includes everything! For $11,000 we are hosting 130 guest. Included in that cost is our ceremony room, reception linen, chair covers, centerpeices, lighting, chocolate fountain, dj services, cake and open bar! And our hall has a partnership with a nearby hotel that offers free shuttle service, and discount hotel rates.

Also a great money saver is getting married in the "off season" (winter). We are saving between 10 - 25% on everything.

amme5832

I recommend calculating how much needs to be saved between now and when payments are due. Our budget was 10,000 and we saved it up in a year, plus another 5 to 6,000 for the 2 week honeymoon (my half is saved, but my fiance is still saving his half up for the honeymoon). We have (had?) about 20 months to save, which meant we were able to still have fun and enjoy things, but I agree with others - you have to limit your expenses right now. Maybe that means staying at home a little longer, or getting a roommate, etc. After I pay my portion of fixed expenses, and things like insurance are accounted for, and all money goes to savings, I am left with between $100 and $150 a month for all wants (new clothes, going out with friends, lunches, meals out, etc). As for saving money with wedding expenses, we prioritized what we cared about most, and didn't second guess our decisions. There were a lot of venues we looked at online, and for any venue that was too expensive, or didn't meet our needs (such as ample free parking, convenient to get to by transit or driving, had space for ceremony and reception) we skipped over them. Then there were discussions over what we could live without. For example, I was ok with going even cheaper than what we decided on, but my fiance wanted things to be a little nicer, so the costs for venue, food and alcohol are a little higher. Also, having a venue where you an stock your own bar can help keep your costs down. One last thing, don't forget to account for taxes and tips in your numbers. Our available pre tax, pre tip numbers are closer to $8,000 for the wedding. I created a spreadsheet to review and plan for costs to help figure things out.

dokchampa

The easiest way is to cut your guest list. The more people, the more expensive it will be.

Jewel224

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_canada-toronto_budgeting?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:613Discussion:af95aef9-9591-4a5f-8285-7e8277d40675Post:fd1fff58-90e4-42f3-93a4-0634a3bf8079">Re: Budgeting</a>:
[QUOTE] And our hall has a partnership with a nearby hotel that offers free shuttle service, and discount hotel rates. Also a great money saver is getting married in the "off season" (winter). We are saving between 10 - 25% on everything.
Posted by Kye042[/QUOTE]

Hi Kye042 - out of curiosity - which hotel is this?  I've been trying to search for a hotel that has a free shuttle service to no avail.  Can you let me know?

Thanks!

Jewel224