Miss Pineapple, Pittsburgh
Age and Occupation: 24, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Student Affairs Administration
Engagement Date: August 4, 2007
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: April 14, 2008
Venue: The Rivers Club
About Me: Being a transplant from sunny south Florida I am learning to live with all four seasons while playing with our cat collective, line dancing, and doing a ton of DIY projects for our wedding (seriously, like a thousand)!
The Begrudging Budget
April 19th, 2008 @ 1:02 pm by Miss Pineapple
So this is a bit awkward, maybe.
Brides have budgets that range from a penny to a million pennies. The Pineapples’ budget is much closer to just one penny. Our parents are giving us gifts to help with some of the wedding costs, but the majority of it we are paying for on our own. When first laying out the budget I had no clue how much everything cost and how much we should plan on spending. My goal was to cut out as many little expenses as possible and hope they added up to something big. Our final budget is about 60% of the average wedding (which doesn’t really mean anything since that number varies across the country).
The Knot gives recommendations on what percent of your budget should go to each part of the wedding, at first this was helpful, but I ended up not using their recommendations at all because Mr. Pineapple and I have different priorities than The Knot. But their budget tool has still been extremely helpful with keeping track of expenses.
I know many readers are curious about budgets, but sharing numbers can get tricky. So, here is our budget breakdown based on the final projected total. These numbers don’t yet include Mr. Pineapple’s attire (because he is still unsure what that will be), my engagement ring or our honeymoon.
Venue, Food, Drink and Cake: 48.84%
Bride Gown, Alterations and Headgear: 6.72%
Bride Accessories: less than 1%
Bride Hair and Make-up: less than 1%
Ceremony and Ceremony Accessories: 3.2%
Flowers: 2.03%
Reception Decor/Centerpieces: 1.34%
Photographer: 16.02%
Invites and Stamps: 1.23%
Wedding Bands: 16.02%
Hotel Room: 1.34%
Gifts/Favors: 2.14%
Rehearsal Dinner: 2.5%
DJ/Music: 0%
Transportation: 0%
Officiant: 0%
Wedding Coordinator: 0%
The rings cost as much as the photographer! The food and drink is almost half! Not at all what The Knot recommends, but we are still planning the perfect day for us. More to come on what we are doing to save on a lot of the typical wedding costs. Also, after all is said and done I will let you know what the final percentages ended up being. I have a feeling there will be some extra costs along the way.
Image source - icanhascheezburger
How “typical” is your budget?
21 Responses to “The Begrudging Budget”
I’m gonna be honest and give you a real number. Keep in mind this does not include ceremony (free and close friends & family only), reception venue (free but ugly- we are going to have to decorate VERY strategically), any rings, the honeymoon, his attire, or bridal party flowers.
Ready?
$4500.
Give or take.
Not very much.
So we are not doing favors, a DJ (using an iPod instead), or expensive food (finger sandwiches, fruit, cake & punch!)
Oh, and we’re also probably going to send out somewhere between 300-350 invitations to the reception, which will be around three hours long in the afternoon.
TMI? Maybe, but I wonder how many other Mrs-to-be’s there are in this kind of situation!
So yeah, I’ve also tried to use the Knot’s budget calculator and it doesn’t really work for those people on a tight budget. Oh well.
Elinelson, don’t worry, you aren’t the only one!
I’m about to graduate from college into a great job and my FI is in the process of getting a Master’s, which will also likely get him an equally great job.
However, neither sets of parents will be contributing and given that we’ve been in school, neither of us have significant amounts of money in savings. Also, we have a big new apartment to furnish…gah!
So, we could wait a few years and throw an extravagant affair. Or, we could do it next summer on the cheap and have just as much fun!
We haven’t settled on a final budget since we need to find a site that we love, but it will be between $5000-10000.
Things we’ll save money on:
Photographer (his sister is a professional and is doing it as a gift; we’re lucky on this count)
Flowers: I don’t care much and will DIY
No attendants
DIY as much as possible (I have til next summer!)
Ipod DJ
Wedding bands (we both want something super simple)
Casual, afternoon affair with things like frisbee and croquet
I totally agree with the other two on their recommendations! I had a dance mix prepared with a friend to just press play for the dancing, no favors (no one even pays attention to this part!) we only had the top layer of the cake to be real and just used the wedding venue’s free dessert (not a lot of people like cake anyway) we made our own centerpieces, and had a cash bar the whole night. Honestly, I don’t think people really notice these things and we got no complaints! Especially if you’re young, your friends don’t really seem to notice what’s typical in weddings since they’ve only been to a few.
One mental note we always did was to over estimate everything, so in the end we ended up spending less than we thought because we always over estimated like crazy. It’s a nice surprise to have more money than you thought. =)
I wouldn’t worry about how the percentages come out, but rather rejoice that you’re working things out in your own way, based on what matters most to you. (Those budget calculators seem only useful for people who are just starting out and have no idea how much various items usually cost…..)
Then again, maybe I’m just saying that because so many of our numbers sound so much like yours. Food/drink/venue was about 45%, photographer about 20%. We had a 0% on the same 4 things you did. And rings, though we didn’t count them as part of the official “budget” would’ve been about 20%.
We are planning on spending no more than $5000 on the wedding. Our two biggest budget items are food/drinks (afternoon reception so appetizers, wine, and beer) and photography (I designed the photographers website, so I’ll be spending $600 on that).
Our church is beautiful and we only have to pay a fee for the custodian. We are having our reception there as well (free!) in a beautiful chapel. We are growing calla lilies for the bouquets (if those don’t bloom we are going to the flower market the day before the wedding) and we’re making everything ourselves. We are growing wheatgrass for our centerpieces.
I’m a graphic designer, so I’m only paying for printing costs for the invitations.
Oh, I forgot to mention that my fiance plays on a string quartet, so we’ll be paying very little for music for our ceremony. And for the reception we are having a jazz pianist for $150.
We ended up budgeting sooooo much for food and drink (in relation to our total budget) because I really wanted a particular venue and I wanted great food - and this came at a high cost. I think we’re dedicating almost 70% to food/beverages/location.
In order to accomplish this I cut back on other things - got a 2nd hand dress off ebay, DIY invites, centerpieces and bouquets. I am also not doing floral centerpieces in order to cut costs.
It’s all about what’s important to you and what’s not. And I really am a true believer that a well planned (and budgeted) $5,000 wedding can be nicer than a $50,000 one. It’s all about making your money go as far as it possible can, and having personal details that express you as a couple. It’s also all about DIYing as much as you can - which weddingbee is such an inspiration for 
My budget is very typical for my area (northern california). My parents are paying for about 2/3 (they just wrote us a check and said…thats it, anything else you want you have to pay for yourself) and we (by we I mean I haha) am paying for the remainder of the bill. I think the “average” cost of a wedding is disgustingly high….yet here I am! Paying for it! But there are occasions where I sit and think about how glad I am that its all happening the way it is…so hopefully its worth it
Our budget is about 2/3 of what the average budget is for our area… and almost 50% of that is the caterer!
Real numbers are tough. Originally, I came into my wedding thinking with ALL the bells and whistles, I could totally do it for $50,000. That is very wrong. I am currently hitting the just over $70,000 projection (I use a nifty excel spreadsheet for allotments for things I haven’t paid for along with what I’ve already signed a contract for). In total, I am sure this will be closer to the $80,000 mark and I’m okay with that. All the things you *think* you can do for less end up being hard because it may mean you’re compromising. I tried to go as cheap as possible on the flowers (about $7,000) but sure enough, when my fiance came to sign the contract, he easily added on almost $2,000 more because he was more concerned about getting the right look and feel than thinking about a budget.
Now does that mean I believe all brides should go out and spend whatever the hell they want on their wedding? Absoultely not! My parents and his aren’t paying for a dime of it. I think brides should consider only what they can truly afford. For my fiance and I, $80,000 is a number we can live with as long as we and our guests thoroughly enjoyed it. And if we count the engagement ring in the picture (I didn’t realize people counted the engagement ring as a part of the cost of the wedding… I thought it was just the bands?), then we’ve blown over to the $100,000+ mark.
And in case you’re wondering why my wedding is so freakin’ expensive? We decided on a nine course meal + cake + dessert bar for our wedding of 400 people. We’re far more social than we’d like to be. Oh well…
There are a number of things that I don’t generally think of including in the cost. For instance, the rings - if I add up my e-ring and our wedding bands, they total about 150% of the cost of the actual wedding and reception. I am also not inclined to include FI’s suit, as even though he is buying it for the wedding, he will get a lot of wear out of it. The honeymoon (and even our wedding weekend mini-moon) I also leave out, because quite frankly they are totally optional, only for us, and we could do without them if we needed to.
At the end of the day, we will spend between $10k and $12k on the actual wedding day - flowers, photography, live music, catering and hosted bar, my dress, cake, favors, and other decor.
I am curious as to how you end up with $0 for your officiant. We refer to our officiant as practically free; he is a retired pastor and a friend of a friend, and his “fee” for our premarital counseling, helping us to come up with the ceremony we want, and conducting the ceremony is $150 (plus the invitation for he and his wife). Because they are retired but he still works, his fee is actually smaller than the customary donation to a church would be in this area. But surely you are at least getting your officiant a gift of some sort, even if they don’t require a fee or donation?
right now, for what my parents are paying for, we’re looking at something like:
food, drink + cake, 45%
ceremony/reception venue, 30%
linen rentals, 10%
my dress, alterations, shoes, 5%
flowers, 5%
invites, 2%
music, 2%
i paid for the rings, my boyfriend’s paying for his suit, and my grandfather is paying for the photography. those would be like, 5%, 5% and 15% of what my parents are paying. and my bf and i are paying for the honeymoon, but it’s a road trip to where he lives, so we’d basically be paying for that anyway, we’ll just stay at slightly nicer places than we might otherwise.
and, full disclosure, we’re in northern vermont, so the prices are much, much lower than most of the country.
my parents will prob end up spending like, 10-12K. we’ve definitely done some (pretty regular) stuff to cut the budget down (i got an off the rack dress that just needed hemming, we’re substituting cakes for flower centerpieces, using speakers and a computer instead of a dj, buying our own beer and wine and not serving mixed drinks, no favors, i made the invites myself), but in terms of food and flowers, there’s only a few options, and they’re all around the same prices ($20-30 per person for food, for instance).
Great post! We are paying for the wedding ourselves with the exception of a couple of items (noted below).
The biggest part of our budget is going to the reception, which includes the cost of renting the room, the food, drinks, and cake: 60%.
Our ceremony rental cost is 18%.
Attire for both of us is 13%.
Invitations, about 5%.
Reception music, about 2%.
Favors, 2%.
Music (Ipod): 0%
Transportation: 0%
Wedding Coordinator: 0%
Photography: 0% (a friend is taking our pictures)
My mom is covering the cost of importing our officiant and for the flowers.
Miss GB 2.0 thinks the hotel for our wedding night shouldn’t count in the budget since we’ll already be married. Haha. Along those lines, we are postponing our honeymoon until the end of the year and are not including that either :p
We’re just waiting till we can contribute more.
our whole wedding cost just over $7000, and that included a sit-down lunch that had steak,chicken or salmon and 75 people.. we found a lovely place in Toronto, that did 2 weddings on a Sat so we chose the morning/afternoon one which worked out cheaper than the evening one, our mutual friend did our pictures as her gift, i did my own flowers and centre peices and we had a computer/ipod dj. ( my dh is still in college, and we have a 22 month old, so we really needed to budget ) but it worked out so amazing i wouldn’t have changed anything even if i could.
We still have a lot to add in, so I don’t really have percentages yet. (Can you tell we’re doing this the wrong way around?) The reception venue and catering/rentals/drinks will definitely be over 50% . . . probably closer to 60%. I actually liked this one suggested breakdown from Real Simple Weddings — though of course every single wedding will be different. But I think this kind of thing is helpful, especially at the beginning, when you’re just trying to sort out your priorities for the wedding as a couple.
Reception (including venue and rentals, food, service, drinks and cake) 50%
Attire (both partners and including hair and makeup) 10%
Decorations and flowers (including lighting) 10%
Music (including ceremony musicians and dance-floor rental) 10%
Photography and video 10%
Favors and gifts 3%
Ceremony (including site fee and officiant but not music or programs) 2%
Stationery (including invites and RSVPS, STDS, programs, place cards, menus and thank you notes, postage) 2%
Rings (not including any e-rings) 2%
Transportation 1%
i read that for the area we’re having our wedding in, the average is $35 thousand!! that’s more than my brother is paying for a whole year of college at a private university next year!
so because we are poor, our budget is going to be very atypical we’ve already nixed alcohol, a dj, dancing, a videographer, save the dates, and a sit-down meal (all of which works out fine since we’re having an afternoon wedding). some of these things are luxuries that we just won’t be able to afford, but honestly, i don’t want anyone else deciding what music we’re listening to, and drunk relatives in the afternoon is not so much fun.
i think it all comes down to what you’re willing to give up. if there’s something you KNOW you can diy, my philosophy is, why not just do it?
Ok, you got me curious. Heres how my $5500 budget currently breaks down:
Venue, Food, Drink and Cake, site insurance: 56.76%
Bride Gown, Alterations and Headgear: 6.71%
Bride Accessories: 1.41%
Bride Hair and Make-up: 2.24%
Ceremony and Ceremony Accessories: 1.34%
Flowers: 2.50%
Reception Decor/Centerpieces: 1.25%
Photographer: 11.63%
Invites and Stamps: 2.92%
Wedding Bands: 5.37%
Hotel Room: 0.00%
Gifts/Favors: 3.40%
Rehearsal Dinner: 0.00%
DJ/Music: 0.00%
Transportation: 0.00%
Officiant: 4.47%
Wedding Coordinator: 0.00%
Weddings have never gotten simpler; they just keep getting more complicated and more detailed by any business that can fit its way into your wallet. Do what works for you and not what a bride is supposed to do, especially during these times of recession.
We are spending $25,000 on the wedding, including $750 for the day-of wedding coordinator. It’s expensive and annoying, and I morally object to spending so much but… sigh.
The major things are the reception ($12,500), flowers ($2,000), photog ($2,400), bridal dress and accessories ($1,500), DJ ($1,250), etc. etc. We live in DC so the prices are above average here! I think the average wedding cost here is $35K-$40K, so at least we’re pretty far below that…
We are cutting corners in some areas by doing all the paper goods ourselves, some of the flowers/decor, no guest favors (we hired a shuttle bus to bring them back to the hotel at the end of the night instead). It just all adds up!
Sorry, my percentages don’t quite add to 100%, but you get the idea:
Location: free!
Food: 30%
Drinks: 20%
Photography: 13%
Dress, alterations, accessories: 11%
Wedding rings: 8%
Live music: 7%
Dessert: 3.5%
Wedding party gifts: 3.5%
Hair/makeup: 1.5%
Tux: 1.5%
Flowers (DIY) & Misc Decorations: 1.5%
Invitations (DIY, including postage): 1.5%
Officiant (judge): 1%
I was a little alarmed when I found out that our “simple” wedding was going to cost as much as it is. I easily could have spent more if my tight fist would have let me. While I sometimes have panic attacks about the cost, I also know it’s the only wedding I will have!
