Budget

cnf2013 · May 2012

I'm asking this mostly because out of curiosity I just plugged rough numbers into TK's budget tool and was a bit shocked at the outcome... Did you guys all set strict budgets? How are you paying for things/is anyone contributing?

FI and I are lucky that both our parents are well off and paying for our wedding. They're pretty much following the traditional roles of which side pays for what. Neither side ever gave us numbers in which to stay within. They basically just said don't put us in the poorhouse. I mean, they obviously have a budgets in mind because my parents ruled out our first choice venue based on price (I ruled it out actually out of respect, knowing they would have said no, which they did when I mentioned it later). I was going to guess that the wedding, total, would be in the 15-17K range, for everything. But I just put rough numbers in TK's budget thingy and it's actually like 20K. And that's not including the rehearsal dinner or our honeymoon. I also left some slots blank, like the groom accessories, which is going to be covered by an additional 5K his mother just offered up a few days ago. It's going to end up being over 20K. That blows my mind! And that's the actual total, it estimated we should expect to pay 31K, which is outlandish, I mean... that's a third of what we paid for our house.

We are paying for a few things ourselves... the DJ, lighting, favors, save the dates, invitations, wedding party gifts, small miscellaneous things like that.

Sorry if I sound totally ignorant or like a snob because someone else is forking over the cash, but no one whose paying ever gave us numbers, so we've just been trying to make respectfully priced decisions and if somethings above what our parents are willing to pay they've spoken up.

About a month ago we were at my dad's car dealership because FI was buying a new car and we were sitting with my dad in his office and his phone made a dinging noise and he was like "hear that sound? That's the sound of $3500 hitting my Subaru account. You know what that money's for? Your wedding." And FI made a joke about going to see him more often if money was just going to appear for us every time. He's such a butt sometimes.

SugarFoote · May 2012

My parents are paying. I intend to pay for part though just because I hate not doing things myself. 2Kish. Our venue is only $75 for the whole day and its completely awesome. So we got lucky there.

Our budget is 2K just because things are cheaper in my area (probably the South in general) and I don't like the idea of spending a too much money on 1 day. It's not that we "can't" spend more, its that I refuse to have my parents spend anymore than that on a one day event. If it goes over 2K, FI and I will pay.

I would rather spend money on something that will last longer. Like a house or car or something.

cnf2013 · May 2012

It wasn't our intention to spend that much, it just added up! Our venue is the big budget buster. It includes all the food, the ceremony, tables, chairs, basic decor, a hiding room for the bridal party, complimentary room for my and FI, servers, bar tenders, open bar, and a day of coordinator. The minimum buy out is 7K, but once you add in tax and 18% gratuity it's more around the 11-12K range. I know I intentionally over esitmated numbers and we have some areas where I but number in even tough we'll be saving money there, like flowers. We're doing very few real flowers. Most will be fake and given as a gift from my moms florist friend.

wright944 · May 2012

My budget it 15K and I am having a hard time getting everything in that. My parents are paying and his parents are doing the traditional groom part that is outside of the 15K budget. I was shocked by how much everything cost. My venue, like yours was my budget buster, but I had my mind set on that. Luckliy I am doing a lot of DIY'ing, my dress was only $360 (it was a rack dress, which I found out after I tried it on and fell in love with it) Also, I am doing a smaller cake and having a friend make homemade cheesecakes for me, and my DJ was only like $475 for 6 hours. I also do not have to pay extra for the ceremony because I am having it all in one place and my uncle is marrying us. You just have to prioritize what is most important to you and what you are willing to splurge on and what you are willing to cut back on or cut altogether. The venue and photographer was the most important to me so those are what I am spending the most on.

Good luck....try not to go into too much sticker shock.

cnf2013 · May 2012

Yeah, we tried to prioritize. Our officient will be free (FI's cousin), we went with an up and coming photographer instead of an established one for cost reasons and that's why we're nixing real flowers. Our DJ could have been cheaper, but I insisted I wanted uplighting, so we're spending the extra $200 for that. It's just going to be whatever it's going to be I guess, which is a horrible way to look at it really, but that's just how it's shaking out.

SusieSunshine2 · May 2012

My parents are giving us a certain dollar amount towards the wedding and told us that anything extra could go towards our savings for a house. His parents have offered and most likely will pay for an open bar and shuttle service to/from the reception site.
I wish we could have a whole wedding for 2K, but that's not really going to happen in the Greater Boston area. We will probably end up spending about $25K and that's with no favors and a good amount of diy projects.

bar10521 · May 2012

We have a budget of about $15k and it's way more than we wanted it to be. We were hoping for under $5k then realized it was unrealistic for what we wanted and put it at $10k then realized that our caterer is going to be like $7200 so we've decided $15k and it's a little sickening/daunting to be honest. My parents are giving us $5k for the wedding, bought my dress and they're paying for our photographer which I am so thankful/thrilled about. We're also DIYing as much as humanly possible to try to keep the costs down. Although I know it goes against etiquette, I've seen enough people ask about it, but we're not providing alcohol even during cocktail hour. It's just more than we can afford since it's something like $15/person and we have 150 guests invited so it'll be an extra $2250! Well that and both of our families have some issues with alcohol so I'm not paying for them to get trashed at my wedding. Thankfully we're not the first people we know to be getting married either so we're getting a lot of referral discounts by using the same vendors as others which has helped us save a lot of money. But the budget and overall costs are already stressing me out and it's only just begun lol.

anastassiiat · May 2012

I think it all depends on where you live. We are in Boston area, but our venue will be in New Hampshire since it is a bit cheaper there. Our minimum for the venue is 5K, but that's because it's on a Sunday. Our parents are giving us 15K, FI's mom is giving us 2K, and if we need (want to) spend anything more then that it's pretty much on us. So far we've spent all the money that FI's mom gave us on the photogrpaher, and we are spending 1K on the DJ, 1K on the videographer and around 2K on my dress (that's all coming from my parent's money). I think the rest of my parent's money will most likely go towards flowers, transportation and liquor (we are thinking of doing a full open bar), and FI and I will have to pay for our wedding bands, FI's attire, favors, invites, STDs and whatever else I'm forgetting about.

ashlidie · May 2012

Our budget is about 15k for 175 people. FI and I will be coming up with about 70% of it, and then my dad, mom, and his parents have offered to help with the rest.

Basically I just saved my little butt off. I stopped spending on useless stuff and just thought, wouldn't I rather have X for the wedding than these cute flip flops, or whatever toy he wanted lol. Honestly FI and I have already saved our portion AND what we will need for the honeymoon, basically just waiting for the parentals and it will be paid off. But that was why we had such a long engagement (will be almost 2.5 years), to be sure we and any contributors had the time to come up with the money.

Obviously since we were capable of saving the money, we could spend more and get our dream venue but I just can't see us spending any more than this on one day, it's ridiculous. We want a house and a decent "Oh sh!t" fund so that is more important for us to save for.

iloveu4ever · May 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2013-weddings_budget?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:f30b0bfc-508d-415c-bf59-ab83e327da37Discussion:4607fd11-fe36-4050-8f9e-41533fbc6eb3Post:c38cbb98-654e-4d61-9afe-e9edc39316c4">Re: Budget</a>:
[QUOTE]My parents are paying. I intend to pay for part though just because I hate not doing things myself. 2Kish. Our venue is only $75 for the whole day and its completely awesome. So we got lucky there. Our budget is 2K just because things are cheaper in my area (probably the South in general) and I don't like the idea of spending a too much money on 1 day. It's not that we "can't" spend more, its that I refuse to have my parents spend anymore than that on a one day event. If it goes over 2K, FI and I will pay. I would rather spend money on something that will last longer. Like a house or car or something.
Posted by SugarFoote[/QUOTE]

I wish my parents would help with moneywise but my parents are helping me with food.

kellyeliz · May 2012

Thankfully my parents are paying. FI and I are paying for things like STDs and favors. In Boston wedding prices are out of control! Our venue gave us a minimum of 22K that we HAVE to spend. We looked at a few venues and that was middle of the road... I felt really guilty about the price but my parents saw how much I loved it (I actually cried when we toured it because I loved it so much). My mom loved it equally and I know my dad won't admit it but he was sold from the tour as well! FI and I discussed parent gifts and I think we will be getting my parents a gift certificate for a cruise or something! After all of this planning (knowing they have to do it 3 more times for my sisters) I think they will deserve a vacation!

SugarFoote · May 2012

I completely agree with it's where you live. Things are so much cheaper here. I guess that's why I can't fathom the idea of spending more than that on a wedding, but I'm sure you guys can't imagine spending only 2K.

I don't know our guest list yet so I can't put a number of people with it. But I would guess around 125-150.

belle7fl · May 2012

We originally started out thinking our budget would be about 15k but when we looked at venues everything decent wasnt going to fit in our budget. Our venue includes a lot, the ceremony, one hour open bar, all the linens and chairs and two bottles of wine per table, hor' douerves (not sure if I spelled that right) a late night snack and more but its about $100 pp for 130 guests so thats most of budget. We're trying to stay under 20k but that is even proving to be difficult. We are paying, well I am paying for almost everything myself with some help from FI but he pays all the bills including the mortgage for two houses so it's only fair I put the money away for the wedding. He plans on contributing but he's also paying for the rehearsal dinner (if we have one) and the honeymoon, plus a trip to Oregon next month for the Olympic try outs so he has his hands full. I think my mom is buying my dress but she won' t tell me cause it's supposed to be a surprise lol. Sorry for the long post but you ladies are the only one who wants to listen to wedding stuff right now. I am thankful to part of the group.

sssdee · May 2012

I agree that it is all about where you live.

Where I am things are CRAZY expensive. It just blows my mind on the varying prices.
FI & I are paying for it all. Neither of our families are giving us money and we're A-OK with that. Just means they have very little say in the details since it'll be coming out of our pockets (which is good since our family is very vocal with their opinions)

We are also having 200+ people which drives up the cost greatly. I have a very large family and alot of that is my very close family and friends!

blueikaos · May 2012

We wanted our budget to be 10k but we upped it to 15k.
That isn't easy to do in NJ

We are paying most of it, but our parents are helping out here and there.

Mstellah · May 2012

My fiancé and I met with our wedding planner today (or what will be once we sign the contract) I too was shocked at the price of things. Up until today my mom refused to tell me the budget so I didn't even know where to set my expectations. One venue I told the planner I was interested in, I found out today has a $20,000 food and bev minimum!! Like, wtf?! Anyways, my parents committed $50,000 to wedding festivities and stated my dress and shoes would not be included in the budget. The planner alone is $8,000 - so I see how things will quickly add up. At some point I kinda want to say screw it id rather spend that $ on a house not one night of partying.

Anordo · June 2012

I too had a budget in mind, 10k and then I used the budget tool and now we're sitting a 20k. My FI and I are paying for everything except the rehearsal dinner and the flowers. I really had Bo idea everything that goes into having a wedding. We live in Montana and have no sales tax and things are generally less expensive. So it was a surprise. Thankfully we have very good jobs and this won't be a problem but it's still not fun to spend 20k for a day! Weddings are sneaky expensive!!!!

Budget

Re: Budget

Choose Another Board

Search Boards