Wedding Budget
September 12th, 2006 @ 3:12 pm by Mrs. Butterfly
I’ve mentioned a few times that both Mr. Butterfly and I are huge Excel geeks. Seriously - we do everything in Excel. My personal budget is on Excel, our guest list is on Excel, our school and work is in Excel, etc. In fact, the only other program that I use as much (aside from the Internet and email of course) is PowerPoint.
Anyway, back to Excel. On Sunday, after we finished our registry, we updated our budget spreadsheet. The one we have is slightly complex, consisting of actual costs, payments made to date, payments due, when the expenses go out on a weekly basis, whether it’s cash, credit or check, and the balances of each type of money on a weekly basis. Ok - that made it sound way too complicated.
This is an image of what my budget looks like. (Mouse over the bottom righthand corner and click on the arrows to expand the image to original size.) The next page groups all of the expenses together into cash, credit and check to see how much cash I will need vs. what is being charged on the credit card. Then I can see how much cash I have to pay off the wedding charges on the credit card.
I’ve blanked out all of the amounts on here for now. But I promise to post this complete version, with formulas and amounts, and make it downloadable after my wedding.
I will say this though. Once I finished adding up my expenses, I realized that I went about 15% over my original budget. It’s not that much considering that I added other expenses that were not included in my original budget (i.e. personal trainer). But I’m starting to think that no matter how much you try, you’re going to go over.
What do you think?
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13 Responses to “Wedding Budget”
my fiance is a total excel geek. but yes, no matter what, you are going to go over somewhere…whether it be unrealistic expectations on cost or things you think of later! i’d be surprised if many can come in under.
i hate looking at my budget. went over long tiem ago.
planning a wedding & buying a house/home ALWAYS seem to go over 
This is exactly what I needed! Is there a template I can access somewhere?
Me too!! Can I have a copy of the template, pretty please…
that’s a great way to keep track of your budget and spending. i’ll have to borrow that when it comes time to plan my wedding.
I went under budget by 30 percent…….. I’m pretty sure it’s possible. I actually would have spent LESS if I’d had my “dream” wedding rather than meshing my deam wedding with MIL’s ideals….
I’m excel freak too! I’m always over the budget =P So hard to be fugal! Thanks for sharing!
not related but my fiance keeps an excel spreadsheet of the gas he buys!
DAMN~! Your spreadsheet looks intimidating. But props to you for being such an organized expert in this.
We’re the same way! Our budget document is very similar . . . but I think you’re being unfair to yourself by allowing personal line items like your trainer to count towards your event budget. If I started adding up the beautification costs, I would be DOUBLE my budget. (And exaggeration, but it would definitely be ugly!) Give yourself a break!
I believe in going over. We orignally started with a number and that number has nearly doubled. More if I count all the DIY supplies, which don’t end up in the budget. My fancy paper cutter, supplies for things I tried and then gave up on.
I didn’t even include my glycolic peels and other beautification items.
15% to me is mild, but that is because I am looking at myself.
Mrs. Butterfly, New York
Age and Occupation in 06: 27, Bridezilla in training
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Making me happy by saying "yes dear" to everything related to wedding planning.
Engagement Date: February 3, 2006
Wedding Date: November 18, 2006
Venue: Twenty-Four Fifth
About Me: Our wedding will be small but fun. I want a whole range of music including cheesy 80's music! But we'll see how that works out��‚��
I’m an Excel freak too. Mr. Lily thinks I am in love with Excel more than him sometimes!