A Battle a Day…

A Battle a Day…

September 30th, 2009 @ 11:22 am by Mrs. Parfait
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… keeps the debt away! *Fists up*!

One sunny Saturday, I was having an all-out brawl with our budget. Meanwhile, Adam was having a Super Soakers war with his little cousins. I think that means we were pretty much in sync that day.

That morning, I created a budget worksheet to keep track of our wedding expenses. I made four columns: Item, Percentage of Budget, Expected Cost, and Actual Cost. I put in the numbers for catering (food, drinks, cake), and it came out to 70% of our budget! That basically left tiddlywinks for the dress, suit, photographer, DJ, florist, invites, gifts, rings, ceremony, and the 20+ other items on the sheet.

So I asked myself, while typing intently at my laptop, Carrie Bradshaw-style:

Is it possible to have a weekend evening reception for 200 guests
on a reasonable budget?

We could buy a shiny new car with our wedding budget. Alas, it’s not enough. What are my choices?

Well, at first, I considered making a few changes:

Switch from an evening to a daytime reception. Goodbye, sunset, stars, and moonlit glow. I would’ve loved to see you through the gloriously large windows of our venue.
Switch from a weekend to a weekday, which may be troublesome for our guests.
Skip dinner and have a late evening desserts-and-cocktails reception.
Cut down our guest list. I tried this. It’s already down to only our closest family members.
Have an alcohol-free wedding. That’s what I always expected, and at $20/person for open bar at most places, it could save about $4000. Whoa mama.

If I were being smart-Parfait, I would have made any of the above changes lickety-split! However, the wedding brings out the hopeless romantic, dreamy-Parfait who shyly shakes her head at doing any of the above. I don’t think dreamy-Parfait is getting me anywhere in this battle.

Since then, we signed our contract with the reception venue/caterer that’s closest to home, yet still affordable. Our food, drinks, and cake won this fight, taking over the hefty 70% of our budget. Here’s hoping we find bargains for everything else!

Do you ever feel like your budget is more of an opposing force than a helpful guideline? What’s threatening to take over your wedding budget?

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35 Responses to “A Battle a Day…”

1 2 Last

Bee

Mrs. Mouse (message) 5,821 posts, Bee Keeper

Yikes! I’m sure you’ll find a way to save on the other items on your list. You can buy a secondhand dress and find an up-and-coming photographer on the cheap. Good luck!

9/30/09 @ 11:29 am (reply)

Member

Mrs. Sparkle (message) 37 posts, Newbee

Our photographer & videographer were the biggest things that ate through our budget, but it was also the one thing I wouldn’t compromise on. I figure everything else I can DIY or find a less expensive way to do it, but I won’t sacrifice our memories. I’m very happy with our decision, although it was more than we had initally intended to spend.

9/30/09 @ 11:30 am (reply)

Member

Newport Nuptials (message) 1,230 posts, Bumble bee

Our venue and food costs are 70% of our budget as well, which makes for tough decisions with every other aspect of planning. It’s definitely teaching us to prioritize. We’ve made a lot of sacrifices in other areas to get our dream venue.

9/30/09 @ 11:31 am (reply)

Member

Miss_Carmel (message) 316 posts, Helper bee

I’m in the same boat. The worst part is that each time I get a quote for a new vendor (florist, DJ, etc.) I know that it’s not in our budget. Time to start haggling, I think…

9/30/09 @ 11:33 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Frozen Yogurt (message) 2,685 posts, Sugar bee

Our venue, food and alcohol also ate away at our budget. It wasn’t 70% but it was a lot.

9/30/09 @ 11:34 am (reply)

Member

Dragonsus (message) 1,196 posts, Bumble bee

We had to cut it down to just beer and wine with a champagne toast, but we kept venue, food and drinks to only 50% of our budget. Thank heaven the FMIL is picking up the photographer or we wouldn’t have one!

9/30/09 @ 11:36 am (reply)

Member

alohababy28 (message) 468 posts, Helper bee

Our reception venue and photographer make up the bulk of our budget. However, the venue includes so much, and we apparently way underestimated what was “typical”. We’re having a Friday afternoon (4pm)ceremony, and evening reception. It was never an option for us to have a Saturday wedding- for us it’s not worth the premium pricing every vendor adds. We also were very strict with our guest count: our max is 75. That works for us, but I know it doesnt work for everyone. Good luck!

9/30/09 @ 11:37 am (reply)

Member

moderndaisy (message) 6,803 posts, Busy Beekeeper

The reception food and alcohol will be about 50% of our budget, maybe a little more. I felt very fortunate we were able to keep it that low. I’ve managed to keep the other expenses down to not eat up too much of the budget, but the flowers/decor are what could potentially turn my slightly-bigger-than-average budget into a platinum wedding! I never knew it cost $5,200 to drape a room and that’s what I was hoping to spend on all flowers and decor.. sigh..

9/30/09 @ 11:39 am (reply)

Member

Champagne Wishes (message) 1,187 posts, Bumble bee

Our venue, food and alcohol are taking the bulk of our budget. We are actually cutting open bar down to just 2 hours so we have more wiggle room. My mom just offered to pay for the cake so that helps us make an upgrade!
I agree with you on the budget guide. It’s just smart to keep track!

9/30/09 @ 11:40 am (reply)

10.

Bee

Miss Parfait (message) 1,755 posts, Buzzing bee

@Miss_Carmel: Yep, sounds like it’s time for us to bust out the negotiation skills!

@alohababy28: Thanks! Our venue is pretty all-inclusive, too, so that makes me feel slightly better.

9/30/09 @ 11:45 am (reply)

11.

Guest

Sarah

We took the budget guidelines ultra-seriously, which meant whenever we came in under, even just a little bit, there was celebrating, fist-pumping, etc. Take THAT, budget! W00t!

9/30/09 @ 11:48 am (reply)

12.

Guest

turtl

Your guests will appreciate that you spent the money on them– food, booze, time of day, day of week, are all considerations that involve the guest. I know I really appreciate it when I see the bride has forced herself to cut back in areas that may have been more important to her– dress, decor, paper etc.– in order to throw a great party. good for you.

9/30/09 @ 11:49 am (reply)

13.

Member

whitesonnet (message) 1,345 posts, Bumble bee

I am having a 200 guest evening weekend wedding in June under the “buying a small car” budget.

Our hall/food/drinks will be about 50% of the budget. Because of the guest list size, we looked for something in a neighboring county where the household income is a little lower. It’s not my dream venue, but it’s well within budget. I got a SWEET deal on my photographer by finding an up and coming photographer from a smaller town, but who travels for free! Invites are a huge money saver by being DIY and the flowers will be at cost because my step-mom is a wedding florist. So, the flowers are essentially DIY too.

9/30/09 @ 11:53 am (reply)

14.

Member

ColoradoBride12 (message) 165 posts, Blushing bee

Our food, drinks and cake were apx. 60% of the budget. That was the most important part to us. We are doing beer and wine not cocktails. Some other things were more expensive than I had budgeted - photographer, invitations. But other things we just aren’t doing - limo.
I DIYd my veil, presents for bms, jewelry for bms. Found a very affordable florist.

I forgot to budget things like OOT bags (not expensive but still), premarital counseling (we went to a real counselor which is expensive but definitely the MOST important thing).

9/30/09 @ 11:57 am (reply)

15.

Member

mskalinin (message) 664 posts, Busy bee

Is there any way to change the venue? The fact that we only paid $50 to rent a city park for an entire weekend gave us a lot of budget freedom (including being able to provide our own alcohol).

Good luck!

9/30/09 @ 12:04 pm (reply)

16.

Guest

Shaina

We cut a lot out by having just beer and wine, plus a signature cocktail (we were married last November and went for hot spiked cider - a huge hit!). We skipped the champagne toast and nobody seemed to notice…and my husband and I still had fabulous champagne flutes that we filled with white wine!

9/30/09 @ 12:12 pm (reply)

17.

Bee

Miss Spaniel (message) 6,809 posts, Busy Beekeeper

Ouch! Ours also came out to about 70% of the projected budget… which means we went over-budget. Oops!

9/30/09 @ 12:13 pm (reply)

18.

Member

RecessionistaBride (message) 5,018 posts, Bee Keeper

Our food & drinks are taking up the majority of our budget… we’re planning on a lot of DIY and budget-friendly items so we don’t go too much over budget

9/30/09 @ 12:25 pm (reply)

19.

Member

texasmeredith (message) 2,130 posts, Buzzing bee

Our venue/food/alcohol is about 50% of our budget.

Our biggest issue is the guest list. My parents are paying for the wedding and therefore feel entitled to invite everyone they know. Its getting insane. We’re going to have to cut the guest list to keep everything to 50% of the budget.

I feel like every single vendor is way over our budget. The photographer was twice what we budgeted for, and everything is adding up so quickly. My FI feels like we have plenty of money left in the budget and I think we’re going to go way over at this rate.

9/30/09 @ 12:31 pm (reply)

20.