Budget Headache :(

nlott03 · August 2012

I am a week into my engagement and trying to develop a wedding budget. My fiance and I are expecting that we will have to foot most of the bill ourselves...which is fine if it means we can tell those who aren't contributing monetary donations to keep their opinions to themselves. I was thinking that maybe a good way to start to write out a budget is to get a sense of how much venues, flowers, etc. cost so we are realistic in what we are planning to spend.

Is there a better, less stressful way to make a budget? How should we start off? and most importantly...how can I not let this task of making a budget overwhelm me to the point that I may just get eloped at the end of the month to avoid doing this?

Any feedback is welcomed and most appreciated

Psych819 · August 2012

I started calculating my budget by coming up with a mock guest list and how much that would cost.Cal la few vendors to try to get an idea of the price you would be paying per plate. Once I had a rough estimate on my reception and ceremony space, I just figured I would allot an extra 10-15 thousand to cover my vendors and etc. Hope this is helpful. Happy planning and congratulations!

nlott03 · August 2012

GREAT! Thanks! It seems like I might AT LEAST have the right idea. We have already drafted up a guest list and know we may need to add forgotten family memebers and ultimately cut some

We'll be looking at potential venues this weekend to help with ideas of pricing

THANKS!!!!!

cchermoine · August 2012

I would go as far to say finialize your guest list right away! My fiance and I thought we would have about 140 at our reception. Turns out that we really love a lot of people so we had to cut about 70 people and we're still at about 165 right now. I've been told that you can estimate that 15% will not come/not RSVP, but you don't want to count on that!
Also, try and find ways to get favors in. For the rehearsal dinner, my MIL is calling in a favor for noodle dishes. We have a friend that got a Master in communication and can make an awesome wedding video for us. A family friend who does hair will be doing mine. If you can get those little things, they will add up!
If you're really into watching for sales and deals, you can find some great stuff! I got 8 ties from Kohls for about $55 amongst other deals! It just takes some time and dedication.
I totally understand the want to elope

It will be worth it though!
Hope this was helpful!

gsg717 · August 2012

We did our guest list first, then came up with a solid number as the max we'd be willing to spend for everything, and what we could realistically afford. From there, we chose what things were most important to us (food and drinks were more important than flowers, and therefore took most of our budget) and researched costs in those categories first. Once we got an idea of what we wanted and the true cost, we tweaked our guest count to make sure our guests would have the experience we wanted to provide, even if that meant having less people.

We also found articles and budget tools that break down the wedding budget into suggested percentages for each category. The budget tool on this site was helpful in the beginning since it automatically breaks down the total amount in suggested amounts for each category. Good luck!

catwine · August 2012

We were fortunate that our parents offerd to pay for everything, but we still wanted to have a small budget. We came up with a figure that we would be comfortable with (money wasn't an issue to our parents) and then just made decision to reflect that.
mind you, we wanted a very simple, small wedding. we ended up cutting a lot of people from the guest list for a few reasons, one being to keep numbers down.

we, too decided what was the most important (photographer and reception venue) and went from there.

good luck!!

nlott03 · August 2012

This is ALL VERY helpful!! We are starting to look at who we can get to help that will save on money..for example, one of my best friends got married 2 years ago. She's very artsy and creative so she made her own bouquet. I'm considering asking if she could do the bouquets for my wedding to save cost on flowers. Hopefully our venue search this weekend will be successful in that if we don't book a venue, we can at least know how much we may have to spend towards our budget. I've taken my guest list from paper to a spreadsheet on the computer. We are at 114 but I think we are going to try our best to stay as close to 100 as we can.

wrigleyville · August 2012

We sat down and said, "Okay. How much can we save up in X amount of time, and are we willing to spend that much?" Once we came up with a number, we drafted an initial guest list that included everyone we'd want to invite.

We researched venues and started comparing prices. We want the reception to be the biggest part of the evening, so it's the biggest part of the budget. We decided we could get my dress, flowers, invitations, etc for X amount of the budget. That left X amount for the reception. Let's say our pretend budget is $20,000. We decided we could do everything else for $4000, so that left $16,000 for the reception.

From there, it was easy. We took the X amount ($16,000) for the reception and divided it by the per person cost. That gave us X amount of people. From there, we cut our guest list, making sure to give single guests a fake SO just in case they start dating someone before the wedding. (If they aren't dating anyone by the time invitations go out, then we can add a few more people back in. It's just a good idea to have that wiggle room initially.)

We found it easiest to list our guests by "type". We have our VIPs, who absolutely have to be there (parents, siblings, wedding party, etc). Then we listed our closest friends. Then aunts and uncles. Then first cousins. And so on. That way, when we chopped the list, it was easy to just remove a group of people instead of searching for specific names. My list is in Excel to help with the numbers/budget, so it's easiest to just delete a chunk.

Big tip: when you're plugging in numbers, don't forget the service charges and tips for your baker, officiant, limo driver, etc. Our venue charges 21% for service and 7% sales tax. So, if the initial venue charge is $75/per person and I invite 100 people, that's $7500. Once service and tax is figured in, however, it becomes $9710. That is a HUGE difference, and I've seen all those little charges completely destroy other brides' budgets.

gottadance64 · August 2012

We started off by a) determining an approximate guest list and b) visiting venues and getting costs for those based on our head count. I created an excel spread sheet that includes everything from dress and accessories to band and flowers. (talked to a DJ friend of mine and a big band about costs, asked some people in my local community here on the knot about flowers) and came up with an estimated cost. We deliberately estimated high, figuring if it turns out to be less, great! Right now we're at $20K, not including honeymoon.

TinaSweeney · August 2012

I agree with everyone else. I started by getting my guest list together. That is really the basis of your budget. Then start thinking about what kind of venue you want to have the reception at, and if you're looking to use one of their caterers or bring in your own. I have been engaged for 2 1/2 weeks now, and I've found that it will be cheaper to find a venue that will let me bring in my own caterer.

Budget Headache :(

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