Vent -- Cost

angelsong21 · May 2011

Before I started planning a wedding, I thought it should be so simple to have a traditional wedding for under $10k in the Dallas area. I was clearly dilusional.

I have busted my butt trying to keep costs down. Photography was our splurge ($2400) but this came after booking an $850 photographer that COMPLETELY blew up in our face (the guy was nuts). Food/alcohol is the other big expenditure, which came in at $3900 + gratuity + taxes for 100-115 guests. We are having a very nice buffet dinner and an open bar. Other than that, everything else has been kept to a minimum. My goal is to purchase a dress under $500 and spend no more than $200 on alterations; floral budget is $500 for all centerpieces, bouquets, and bouts; we are not providing transportation for ourselves or our wedding party; we went with the cheapest cake package we could find, etc. And the total of all of this is $13,000.

I had to send an Excel spreadsheet of our projected expenses to FMIL as FMIL/FFIL are wanting to contribute. FMIL e-mailed me back and said they had planned on paying for some of the honeymoon but seeing how expensive this wedding has become, that likely won't happen. I don't care about the HM, but I feel so crappy about the statement of "how expensive this wedding has become." I have busted my ass to plan and make the best decisions. I have spent countless hours researching, e-mailing, and making phone calls. I have only ever been to traditional weddings so I didn't know that there were other options.

I am feel really guilty and really frustrated right now.

I have worked really, really hard on all of this but I just feel like no matter what I do, it's just not right. Whether the FIL's contribute or not, we can pay for the wedding ourselves and with my parents' contribution. We'd have to put $1500 on a low-interest credit card, but its not that big of a deal. Had I know there were other types of weddings that we could have opted for, maybe I would have gone that route -- I don't know. But I didn't, and this one is already planned, and now I just don't know what to do.

Tlongo · May 2011

I know how you feel. Despite trying to keep costs down, everything just seems to add up to more than I had initially budgeted. To some extent I was probbly naive about a lot of costs early on.

FutureMrsSheeler · May 2011

Don't feel guilty! It is hard to plan a wedding and keep costs down. Your pricing for everything does NOT seem out of the ordinary. Just go with that budget do the best you can, and your parents should understand. I was also thinking.. invitations are a pretty big expense also to figure into the budget.

angelsong21 · May 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_may-2012-weddings_vent-cost?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:f0ca0bc1-9255-4120-8042-b40e7f3e99c5Discussion:d0d9ea04-b4f0-4917-b4ef-047a5f50bdc8Post:2c569ae9-f252-48de-a430-012ee85338b1">Re: Vent -- Cost</a>:
[QUOTE]Don't feel guilty! It is hard to plan a wedding and keep costs down. Your pricing for everything does NOT seem out of the ordinary. Just go with that budget do the best you can, and your parents should understand. I was also thinking.. invitations are a pretty big expense also to figure into the budget.
Posted by FutureMrsSheeler[/QUOTE]

My parents are okay with it...just FI's mom who just seemed shocked at the total. Our invitations will actually be pretty cheap. FI is an advertising major and a PhotoShop whiz, so he's recreating the super expensive invites we found at a local store and we will print them through VP (I have a $70 voucher than cost me $10 to purchase). We're just going to get the RSVP postcards to go with I think. But you're right --- invitations can be REALLY expensive if you do the pocket folds and all the inserts, etc. I saw some on Etsy for $7 per invite...ouch!

Thank you for confirming that $13k doesn't seem out of the ordinary. I really do feel guilty about the total -- I thought it would be so easy to do it for less. I was clearly naive about what things actually cost for weddings...

gpapale1 · May 2011

I totally understand how you feel. I originally wanted a $10K budget, and at the venue we wanted, things just started adding up (also to around $13K). We couldn't invite everyone we wanted (we had to keep the guest list at about 100 people), and I felt like it was ridiculous to charge me $12/person/hour for just beer, wine, and soda! Not to mention the catering costs! Luckily, we hadn't put a deposit on the venue yet, so we brainstormed and came up with an entirely new plan. We are now having the ceremony and reception at a park building that allows us to bring in whatever food and alcohol we want. This means we can pretty much do EVERYTHING ourselves, with help from family and friends, of course. I think if you try to DIY as much as possible, that will really help to bring costs down. We are now right at our original goal of $10K, and our guest list is at 180 people. We'll be able to feed everyone a good meal and have an open bar, I can buy the dress I want (which is about $1K), and our biggest splurge is our photographer (~$2000).

You can do it!

leahstinson · May 2011

i think we all can echo the same feelings. no matter what the budget you will probably find obstacles. For us we cannot have a DJ but only a bands at our venue so it's going over our budget in that area A LOT. HOwever we found other areas to cut back in such as the guest list.

greeneke2 · May 2011

I know how you feel. My mom finally gave me a budget the other night of 12K. Well I was adding up everything that we had already either planned on getting or had already signed a contract for and we are already at 11,500. And we are no where near close to having everything we need. So it looks like FI and I will be picking up the slack on whatever we go overbudget. Its super frustrating. The most obnoxious thing to me is the though of spending 1K on renting plates. So ridiculous.

Mona8 · May 2011

Ditto what everyone else said. And 13K is not going overboard no matter what your FMIL says. The average wedding in the U.S. costs 27K so if you can keep it to 13K then that's pretty impressive. I'm planning a wedding in Connecticut- one of the most expensive states so I was pretty shocked when I started getting prices. I think most brides go thru this and then find a way to adjust their budgets. It sounds like you're already doing everything you can to keep cost down so just keep doing what you're doing and don't let anyone make you feel guilty

angelsong21 · May 2011

Thank you all so much -- seriously. I have been stressing out a lot about this and hopefully it will all be okay. I really appreciate everyones input though, I feel better about where we are at planning-wise.

mandi921vh · May 2011

This is exactly why planning a wedding becomes so stressful!

meganbouchard · May 2011

I think you're doing a great job. Our original budget for the entire wedding was around 20k.... The venue ended up costing 19,500. Budget fail. I can't believe how naive we were when it came to planning. I really respect you sticking to your plans, 3k over budget is a huge success, IMO!

spalko · May 2011

I, along with everyone else, am in the same boat! FI has offered up his army bonus to pay for the wedding and my parents are chipping in what they can (they have offered to buy my dress) and other small areas. Right now I've checked out prices for ceremony and reception site, caterer, photographer, bar service, photographer, and rentals (we also have to rent our dinnerware, grrrr!!!) and it adds up to about $400 below our budget. However, we still have to add in centerpieces, flowers, invitations, STD cards, favors, BP gifts, the cake, not to mention getting my hair/nails done. Needless to say its been a planning nightmare and with FI being gone it only makes things 10 times worse.

Sounds to me like you are doing a great job! Maybe take a break from number crunching for awhile and enjoy being with your FI for a night. In the end you'll be married to the love of your life and thats what really matters!!

kitkatbubblicious · May 2011

I set my budget kinda high so I would have some cushion for the "marriage mark-up". I'm DIYing EVERYTHING but the food, DJ, photographer, and dress. It's gonna be tough, but I've got a year. I set of budget of $10k and as of now, I'm right at $7k.

But even being under by that much, I keep blowing the budget I set for some things. I think everyone can agree that once you sit down and look at it, things just cost more than you originally expect. A teeny example of this is I budgeted $50 for the invites and so far I've spent $50 on the materials then add postage they'll be $100 total. Oops. And I'm probably gunna blow my gown budget too. I knew $175 wasn't gonna be enough but I was crossing my fingers...

But you sound like you're doing just fine. A fully DIY wedding is going to be a lot cheaper than one that's mostly vendors. Again, considering that the average wedding is $27K, you're doing fabulous!

Vent -- Cost

Re: Vent -- Cost

Choose Another Board

Search Boards