Wedding Blog

Before you look down and see the numbers, I want to say that this is obviously not a budget wedding. I know people have gotten married for a lot less. This is our budget, and we feel like it’s pretty small considering the number of people who are invited and the expectations of our parents.

This is a budget in progress, as we’re not married yet. If a number and line item is in italics, that means the category is closed and we’ve spent all we needed for it. All bolded numbers are the original estimates for the line item. All money leftover in one category was applied to the honeymoon, or another category.

Obviously there are categories we could have eliminated to save some money, but everyone has their priorities.

Reception for 130 people

• Food/venue space $6000/$4000 - My parents weren’t happy with our original. I wrote about this.
• Drink $700/$400 - We have 32 people who don’t drink, and we get to bring in our own booze for an open bar. $400? What was I thinking!?
• Cake $115/$400 - 200 cream puffs for $100!
• Music $0/$200 - We’re going with the iPod, but will have some live music

Wedding Party

• Wedding dress $266 - I have a friend who can do alteration for free, if needed
• Accessories $100 - This includes shoes, hairpiece (this one and my new one), and eyelashes
• Hair and Makeup $115 including tip
• MOH dress and accessories $80/$75
• Mr. Joey’s clothes $241.95/$500 - This includes a new suit, shirt and tie
• Ties for ushers and BM $57.51/$60
• Boutonnieres/corsages $92/was not in the original budget - Includes Mr. Joey’s, BM, ushers, ring boy and both sets of parents
• Flower girl & ring boy $19/was not in the original budget - Fabric for her dress and his tie

Ceremony

• Church fee $250/$0-500 - We got 2 different quotes, and now it has been finalized.
• Breakfast bar $150/wasn’t in original budget - This is just an estimate, and it may come out to a lot less
• Ring bowl $29.25/$10 - It’s a bit much for a ring pillow, but it will double as our first Christmas tree ornament
• Ms. Joey and MOH bouquets $30/$5 - We are going to get something simple done at Pike Place Market. Summer is amazing for flowers there. We were going to grow the flowers ourselves.

Decor

• Reception flowers $175 - We may only need about $100 because we’re doing single stems for centerpieces.
• Reception centerpieces $197.50/$100 - We bought fabric and vases. It may seem like a lot, but we have a post wedding project for the fabric, and think we can sell most of the vases afterwards. Plus, flowers won’t cost us much with our arrangement.
• Other decorations $100 - I’m sure we’ll need a few cake stands (we’re hitting Goodwill) and a few other things we can’t think of right now

Photography

• Photographer $300 - A bargain for over 8 hours of shooting, plus extra time touching up pictures
• Prints $25 - Shutterfly here we come
• Photo for parents $25 - We’re going to give both our parents a framed picture of the wedding.
  Ross and Marshall’s have some great deals on frames.
• Our photo album $20 - We’re headed back to Ross or Marshall’s
• Guest book $8.75/$25 - It’s a surprise, but you’ll read about it soon.

Stationery

• Save the Dates $28.54/$25
• Invitations $233.18/$500 - This includes my mess ups, the tubes and everything else
• Thank Yous $15.55/$25 - I bought the supplies already
• Reception signage $10/was not in the original budget - Frames for drink/food menus. We’ll probably head to Goodwill again
• Postage $125/$200 - This includes STD, invitations and thank yous
• Programs $20/was not in the original budget - I have paper left over from the invites, and I might need some ribbon or something

Rings

• Mr. Joey’s Ring $250/$150
• Ms. Joey’s Ring $50/$150 - I will write a post explaining this

Misc

• Reception favors $85.75/$100 - For 150 favors
• Wedding License $64
• Banquet License $10 - For alcohol
• Venue Parking $250 - There is a lot of street parking, but we may rent the lot next door for convenience
• Pre-Cana/Marriage Prep $225/was not in the original budget

Honeymoon so far $4469.65/$4000 - That’s how much we have, but we haven’t spent even half yet. We bought out tickets and have 4 nights hotel booked already. The trip is 12 days long.

In total, that comes to around $15,000. Yes, we’ve invited 150, and have budgeted for 130. By our count, we have about 13 people we know won’t come. Because it was my parents that kept adding people, they have said they’d pay for the extra guests.

The Lake Union Cafe fee includes the food, most of the set up, the clean up, and there is no cake cutting fee. It was about the same to go with them as a local community center because we didn’t have to buy insurance. If we wanted to get married on site at Lake Union Cafe, it would have cost us $500 extra, which is the same cost as the church.

Also, no wedding night hotel was mentioned because my aunt is giving us a night in a hotel for free. My uncle works at a lovely hotel in the city. Any music we don’t own we’ll get from the library or friends. Two of my sister’s friends have volunteered to be the day-of wedding coordinators for free.

We know that gifts for the wedding party aren’t included. We don’t know what they will be, and we’re trying to come up with fun, handmade options.

I know we’ll probably be over budget by $1000, but I guess that’s what our tax returns are for (although if only 125 people come, we’ll be under budget).

Are you sticking pretty close to your original budget?  Are you surprised by how much more/less you’ve spent over/under your budget?