The B Word

The B Word

June 16th, 2010 @ 11:02 am by Mrs. Earrings
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Budget. I’m one of those people who has a waaaaay too in depth Excel spreadsheet that keeps track of every single wedding expense. It scares me. But at this point it seems essential to my sanity.

I divide expenses into overall categories like: Her (meaning me), Him (that is Mr E), Floral Stuff, Decorations, Food, Transport, Photography, Attendants, Stationery, Hire Stuff, etc… then within those categories I list what we will need to spend on, details about the item(s), where we bought it/ acquired it/ who we booked with, the estimated cost, actual cost, whether we have paid the full amount yet, what date I paid, what date the balance is due AND if I ordered something online I make a note of what date it arrived in the mail.

Type-A much?

I like to tell myself that I’m so perfectionist about this budget thing because we need to be. Which is probably true (but I should really stop ogling over that spreadsheet for hours at a time… it is like I am in love with the thing).

The thing is, we are both students and the word “student” automatically shows that we aren’t the most financially well off people on the block.

And neither are our parents, who will contribute as much as they can. But the reality is that for the majority of expenses we are on our own. The money allotted for these expense is not big. At all. So the Budget is my comfort blanket of a sorts, helping me feel in control of these scary numbers that have 0s where I don’t think they should.

Both Mr. E and I believe we can pull off an elegant simple wedding without going into debt. Blogs like 2,000 Wedding and A Practical Wedding and our very own Weddingbee are replete with examples of beautiful, meaningful weddings which don’t drag the couple into financial distress (on this subject… being stressed over debts is not a good way to start marriage, in my opinion). And many of our own friends and relatives have demonstrated this truth as well.

Still, the financial aspect of weddings is a scary thing. I might go poke at my spreadsheet for a few minutes now…

Do you keep close tabs on your budget? Does it keep you sane or drive you insane?

Tags: budget, new-zealand |

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16 Responses to “The B Word”

Member

ktisthatbees (message) 2,742 posts, Sugar bee

yep I am majorly stressing over our budget right now, which I feel puts me in the “majority of us” category. I know where you are coming from in the sense that you are paying for most everything yourself and having that almighty spreadsheet helps you to feel in control. Isn’t it simply amazing (disgusting really) how expensive something becomes when you attach the word wedding to it? “Oh you want a cake?, that will be $100. . oh its for a wedding?, then it will be $325″

6/16/10 @ 11:21 am (reply)

Member

amariem25 (message) 3,733 posts, Sugar bee

i was just like you. but then my computer crashed and i lost the spreadsheet. after that it was too hard to keep track of every expense.

6/16/10 @ 11:23 am (reply)

Member

Bride_Colleen (message) 627 posts, Busy bee

I have an Excel budget sheet as well but it is not quite as detailed. I just have our budgeted amount and the amount we actually spent. Otherwise, I have my wedding notebook to keep receipts, notes, etc. We are also a small budget wedding - $10,000.00. Not sure if everyone considers this small but I think in this day and age that is pretty cheap. And that includes open bar! So far we are doing well on our budget.

6/16/10 @ 11:52 am (reply)

Member

sapphirebride (message) 1,747 posts, Bumble bee

I thought I knew Excel well, but my fiance is a spreadsheet master. He has a spreadsheet that is broken down month-by-month by where money is coming in and out of what categories it is going out. It feels really nice to see the money for our wedding accumulating and seeing that we’ll have all the right funds at the right time. I think it’s essential to keep track of things when you are trying to make sure that you don’t go over budget.

6/16/10 @ 11:58 am (reply)

Member

misschristinec@hotmail.com (message) 163 posts, Blushing bee

I used to build excel spreadsheets for biologic research. I took those skills and softened up for my wedding budget. It’s called the Master Wedding Planner, there are 16 Worksheets in the WorkBook.
16 sheets for What you may ask-
There are techincally two components. What we estimated our budget to be and then what we really spend. One sheet is also our guest list/engagement part list/ shower list. Each list has a break down of childen vs adults and pricing for each and guesstimate column for whether we think they are going to come. I also have an invitation column so I can quickly tally up the numbers which feed into my Invitation sheet and help make those estimates.
Estimates vs Actuals - lots of over/under percentages . and my favorite sheet: “Overage Bucket” - basically this is the sheet that shows how well we are doing. How far under $63,450 are we going to be?

6/16/10 @ 1:15 pm (reply)

Member

caitkleib (message) 50 posts, Worker bee

I’m right there with you. My workbook currently has 10 spreadsheets in it and i’m only a month into planning. We have my guestlist, the fiance’s guest list - broken down from friends, fam and parents additions. I havent started on the addresses on there yet. That will be quite a feat. Also guest lists for engagement party/rehearsal dinner. There is a freakish budget down to taxes on everything and every little detail I can think of (knowing there will be more.) I also have a list whos contributed what when to the joint account we set up for this affair. There in an inventory of what we have, a recipe sheet for all the stationary and favors, and a list of what else we need/where to get it. We both have giant families (like up to 200 people on the guest list just with people related to us) and are both also students. We were aiming for $10,000 but realistically its looking like 13. yay student loans…..

6/16/10 @ 2:37 pm (reply)

Member

tea (message) 7,288 posts, Bee Keeper

i’ll be keeping an eagle eye on the budget! it actually helps keep perspective, that way i’m deliberating spending money, which is better than just tossing it in the wind at every little thing that i fall in love with

6/16/10 @ 2:49 pm (reply)

Guest

Sarah

I had a number in mind, combined online sources with Wedding Planning for Dummies to come up with percentage breakdowns, and put that into the spreadsheet from the Dummies book.

We had planned some splurges, so those went in first. But from there on, every other item in the budget was a personal challenge: Oh, you think I need $750 for flowers? Pfft, please. I can do flowers for $400. KAPOW!

It made me feel like a superhero every time I came in under these admittedly made-up numbers. I mean, for the dress, I was spending four times what I’d ever spent on a single outfit, but it was still a quarter of what Excel said I could spend, so BAM!

$4.50 per slice cake budget? SOCK. Try $1.75!

6/16/10 @ 3:12 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Socks (message) 1,323 posts, Bumble bee

Mr. Socks is an excel MANIAC! I’m not so much, but he treats his excel sheets like they’re his children. They need daily care & updating!

That’s great that you’re so organized! Those skills will definitely help in the long run for everything in life!

6/16/10 @ 4:53 pm (reply)

10.

Member

blondeeebuckeye (message) 1,083 posts, Bumble bee

i love it when people understand the beauty of “the wedding spreadsheet”. i’ve also got mine broken down into who is paying for what and who gave us money on what date

6/16/10 @ 4:59 pm (reply)

11.

Member

cecullaton (message) 627 posts, Busy bee

We have an excelt spreadsheet too… and I spend hours looking at it! FI and I get excited everytime we have to add prices or totals spent etc… total Type A geeks here!!!! Plus, I worked so hard at designing it, and formatting, programming and arranging it, that everyone around me is in love with it! MOH got engaged, second question out of her mouth to me was “can I use your spreadsheet”…. 6 months later, bridesmaid H asked the same thing! Then co-workers… it has now ogne out to 5 different couples other than FI and I!!!

6/16/10 @ 5:06 pm (reply)

12.

Member

Sunflower16 (message) 30 posts, Newbee

@Bride_Colleen:
I’m a $10k budget bride as well and for us that’s a huge amount, but for most that’s a really small amount, lol. I have my workbook (budget only) in 2 workpapers- PreCeremony, Ceremony and Reception. I get so excited every time a vendor or expense comes in under what I had planned! Glad to see I’m not the only one out there.

6/16/10 @ 6:03 pm (reply)

13.

Member

airythia (message) 344 posts, Helper bee

omg this is totally me! i just love how once everything is in excel it’s so easy to keep track of everything.
i take it one step further though and create vendor comparison spreadsheets. it’s been great to help me narrow down and select my vendors. i’ll include information about prices, what i’m looking for and what’s in their package, how the meeting went, etc. it’s great cuz for like photographers i was able to just look down and see which ones offered what i was most important to me and narrow down from there. it’s also been great because my fiance lives out of state so he’s not able to go with me to any of the vendor meetings. so i email him the spreadsheets narrowed down to my top three.

6/16/10 @ 6:22 pm (reply)

14.

Guest

Natalie

Small budget to me is under $5,000, which is a lot less than what most people spend.
My husband and I got married in October and we spent a total of $3,000. It was 75 guests, catered, alcohol served, and at a private art gallery.
You can have a FANTASTIC wedding without spending much at all! We received comments from almost every guest about how it was the “best wedding they’ve ever been to”. It didn’t feel cheap or like anything was missing.
On the other hand, my sister got married 2 years ago and spent over $30,000, and was totally stressed, has so many regrets, and didn’t enjoy herself.
It is so not about the money spent.

6/16/10 @ 8:15 pm (reply)

15.

Bee

Miss Elephant (message) 6,182 posts, Bee Keeper

Oh yes, every month there is an email sent out on our budget (my parents are splitting the cost with FI and me). It’s really nice to know where the money is going, and what amounts we have to pay and when.

6/16/10 @ 10:11 pm (reply)

16.

Member

farmersdaughter (message) 1,675 posts, Bumble bee

The budget has DEFINITELY driven me insane. We are getting generous contributions from both sets of parents, as well as paying for stuff ourselves. Its hard enough keeping track of one persons expenses…but 6? Insanity.

6/17/10 @ 11:36 am (reply)