My fiancé and I set a $12,000 Wedding Budget.
There are several major expenses that I failed to budget for and other expenses that cost more than I anticipated.
Not In The Wedding Budget
The rehearsal dinner. I didn’t plan for this initially, because I wasn’t sure it was necessary, but isn’t it good etiquette to feed the folks participating in the ceremony? Thankfully, my guy and I may have a “sponsor” who is going to take care of this for us. If not, we may have to hit up the ‘rents.
Our hotel room. Where are we staying on the wedding night? It doesn’t matter if we stay at the Ritz or the Comfort Inn, I hadn’t factored this expense into the original budget.
Overbudget
Flowers. I haven’t purchased or contracted for any flowers or floral arrangments, but everything I’ve read and been told indicates that flowers are a mutha to pay for, even when you’re working on the cheap. I have some people helping me on research to keep this expense down (shout out to @RevancheGS), so I hope this won’t totally bust the budget.
Wedding bands. Holy crap! My initial online research led me to think we could get decent rings for about $200 total. After visiting several retail locations (yes, I know about the massive markup), that seems highly unlikely. The ring I fell in love with is $845 retail. The ring my guy really liked was $300 retail. I found the one I wanted for 62 percent less than retail, but still three times what I budgeted. I found my guy’s for 20 percent less. Way over budget here
Coming Under Budget
It’s not all bleak hand wringing though.
Reception. So far, this is coming in under budget. I negotiated a slight decrease in dinner expenses with the restaurant, which should save us about $300 or more.
Invitations. If it wasn’t for my mother and the old people in the family, I would have skipped this altogether and done it strictly online. But never fear, my cousin, a talented graphic designer, designed and printed custom invitations for us. We’re only on the hook for postage and that cost half was I budgeted! Thanks cuz!
Video. I planned to use FlipVids and tripods to make the video less formal, more fun, still capturing important moments. I bought two at Amazon.com, latest models, 8G, HD for about $100 less than I anticipated.
I’m not freaked out yet (well, I was freaked out; writing this blog post has calmed me down), we have some work to do, but I think we can still make our original budget… or go just a little bit over.
DH
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My sister-in-law saved on flowers by bulk buying a bunch of flowers and then having her sister make all the bouquets, corsages, etc. She wasn’t experienced and it didn’t look that difficult to do, but they all looked beautiful. Saved money I’m sure, though it was a lot of work the day before the ceremony