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I’m kind of a jealous person, it’s true, and this is most true in the realm of finances. Everyone wishes they always had more money than they have…after all, isn’t that the point of life? (That’s a joke people—chillax.) I really do know what it’s like to not have money and be broke. Like, digging-through-the-car-for-change-to-find-enough-money-to-get-to-your-unpaid-internship kind of broke. Or, growing-up-always-wearing-your-older-brother’s-hand-me-downs, living-in-a-trailer, not-having-transportation kind of broke.
Poor upbringing + working hard myself to pay for school and start a real career + expensive tastes x label whore tendencies = screwed when it comes to wedding planning.
Now we are lucky enough that both sides of our family are contributing some financially, and Mr. Magic and I are trying to save and put in some money too. But weddings are ridiculously expensive and have about 4,597,326 hidden costs. OK, maybe not so hidden, but not always things you’d think about beforehand.
Like, chairs. We’ve got 100 chairs included in our venue rental. They are the ugliest chairs around. So if I’m gonna use these chairs, I need chair covers. Those are $2.50 minimum x 100 chairs = $250. But I’ll need to rent 50 more chairs for the reception (and chair covers for those) and 150 chairs for the ceremony. I mean, all this adds up to like $1500* just for friggin’ chairs.
*Note: I actually did not do the math because I feel kind of nauseous from all this money talk, and I can’t do math when I’m sick.
Also, I just read a blog post where someone said their “budget” wedding costs $25,000. I mean, yes, I’m sure she has a budget for her $25K wedding, but that is not a “BUDGET wedding.” At least, it’s not in my judge-y little book.
I’m being a grump, I know. I should focus on the BIG PICTURE and not compare my wedding/life/financial means to others’, even if that is the American way.
Did thinking about the budget make you nauseous or want to bite off all your fingernails or eat a box of Velveeta Mac ‘N Cheese…or is it just me?
Not just you. Our budget is $6,000 (given by my parents) with the option of an extra $1,500 (added by us). Keeping everything in budget is not fun. It makes me eat chedder cheese pringles.
Not you at all. I thought I had plenty of money set aside for our wedding, and it turns out I’m short by about… 10,000. It’s not like I have crazy expensive tastes or am renting a horse-drawn carriage or anything, it’s that venues and catering in NoVA for 125 people is freaking expensive!! I haven’t even figured on extra costs like chair covers! Good luck, we’ll get through this some how…
We have about 10k to work with but DON’T have it yet…so the whole, “we require half down now and the rest the month before”..is freakin me the heck out! I’m tring to DIY but guess what…that’s not always cheep either! My darling man just informed me that while we don’t have a money tree, we also don’t have a time machine and that I need to start thinking about finding people to hire for some of the things are are making me crazy. I’ve been super luck with a few things that would have made me go wwaaaaay off budget, another bee has helpped desing my stds (they look awsome) and is going to help me with the invites too.
It’s not just you. I’d be thrilled to have 25k to work with.
Definitely not just you, I find myself with pizza and sour patch kids when I think of what we are going to spend on one day and what it could pay off on my school loans. It is hard to know what the term budget is supposed to mean anyway, some people say $5000, some people say $50,000. I think it is time for some pizza now…
I agree! I almost fell out of my chair reading some of the budget numbers.
mine is at $10,000. I dont even like it being THAT high.
I suppose it depends on where you live and the cost of everything. If you are in Los Angeles, I am sure things are waaaay more expensive than if you are in a not so populated place.
Eh well, it depends on where you are. In NYC, a budget wedding is about $10k I think. It depends, most of these things, the more folks you have, the more expensive it will be. I have lots of aunts and uncles and cousins that I’m close to. My guestlist is OUTRAGEOUS!! I’m hoping someone gives me money but I doubt it. HOWEVER, I am in my 30’s and have been working for quite a while. It does make me sick to my stomach the amount of money I’m paying when I could be paying down grad school loans 
@MassageBee: Lady, I feel you. I’d rather pay someone to do some things than drive myself crazy… and DIY is not that cheap anyhow. Especially when you are like me and you won’t use the stuff you bought after the wedding!
@toshella - I’m also in NOVA and it’s rediculous here. Unfortunately $25K is like a totally average wedding for about 90 people for us. No big purchases, totally normal vendors, etc. It adds up in the little things like ribbon, paper, cake topper etc. I still kind of regret not eloping…
The chairs at our place are also hideous. I worried about it for like ten minutes, and then decided not to care, because there are much more important ways to spend our money. People will be sitting on them, not staring at them.
Oh, I feel you! I try so very hard not to get jealous, but when you are paying for it pretty much entirely yourselves, it is so hard not to! It’s difficult for me to bite my tongue when people who are not paying for ANY of it themselves complain about not having enough money or things being soooo expensive. Yes, weddings are expensive, especially when you are paying for it yourself!
I’m basically skipping the DIY route as well. I think DIY touches are amazing and usually really personal but I really lack the skills and the time to pull them off. And in a lot of cases, I do wonder if they end up being that much cheaper.
Math makes me sick too! :p But I hear you about the whole $25,000 “budge” wedding….ummm that’s like a down payment for a house! I was a $6000 budget person and sometimes you have to give up the fancy stuff. Just have to keep it all in perspective.
Yeah, it’s hard not to have the green monster come up when you see things you’d love to have and just can’t. But it really is relative, I’m in the Northeast — chair covers here average $5 - $7 each for example. An average, no bells and whistles wedding is going to start around $30K here. Most spend a lot more. It’s mind-boggling to think that’s what it is to have a vanilla, no frills wedding, AND I’m doing a lot of DIY.
Amen! Our budget was $10,000 and has inched up to $12,000. That feels like a crazyinsaneperson amount to spend on a single day (sole exception being FI’s ring and suit, which he will wear again). And when I hear people say things like “$20,000 is a budget wedding” I want to bite something. That’s just ignorant.
Velveeta Shells n’ Cheese was my warm little happy place in the middle of wedding budget nightmares lol I was ethically opposed to wedding planning because of the money involved. I wanted to elope to Vegas, Mister wanted a wedding (what? you may say… strange, but true). I relented and we even splurged on the venue, and I embraced the glorious stress of wedding dress shopping on the teeny amount of money left in the budget, 8 weeks before the wedding, and am glad I did. However, I can empathsize with you on the green-eyed monster that emerged when hearing people talk about seemingly-endless wedding budgets. We’re human. 
Budget wedding is definitely relative…my wedding “budget” was originally 10,000, but we ended up spending about 15,000. The average for weddings in my area are about 30-40k - and people were truly SHOCKED when they found out how inexpensive mine was because looking at it you would never know - I had a sit down dinner, draping, lighting, chivari chairs - etc…It really is just a matter of shopping around…and I DEFINITELY recommend a really good wedding planner…they can broker deals like no other…
Thinking about the budget made us want to go to Vegas and call it done, but we settled on a non-alcoholic sandwich buffet in a park. Some nice touches added in, my dress, and all that too. Plus we’ll be selling everything possible after we’ve used it at the wedding to get back ~30% of what we spent, especially on decor.
@Falcon: Did you have to mention sour patch kids? My favorite! All this budget talk makes me want to find some…
I think this every time I watch Rich Bride, Poor Bride. They are ALWAYS over budget by like $20,000 and the whole time they keep adding this stuff to the wedding, I just wonder WHERE the money is coming from?? Like there is no option for us to be $20,000 over budget because THERE’S NO 20,000 TO BE HAD! The concept of budget is such a joke on that show; just once I’d like to see one of the couples or planners MAKE themselves stick to the “budget.”
Oh this subject makes me sick i’m looking at at “deal” and its 100 bucks a person but what is sad is that in CT that IS a deal, i cringe when i think that our reception will be $15 to $16k so yes my “budget” is around $30K we are lucky, in that his parents are giving us around 10K and my my mom is giving us 6K, hoping my father helps out if he can. but that still leaves the other 1/2 by us ahhhh makes me sick I’d really rather buy a house…
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Mrs. Magic, Chapel Hill, NC Age and Occupation: 30, Licensed Clinical Social Worker Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Researcher Engagement Date: December 1, 2009 Wedding Date: October 2011 Venue: Barn at Valhalla About Me: I’m a tall drink of water (5’10”!) and a Southern bride with an enormous appetite for Mexican food, good deals, anything French, and all things wedding! By day I am lucky enough to work with individuals with autism and their families. By night, I’m even luckier to be able to spend time hanging out with awesome friends, crafting, shopping, thinking about exercising, and kicking it with Mr. Magic and our two cats. I tend to have sudden, intense cravings that will not be denied (seafood enchiladas! new jeans!) and I’m prone to being a disorganized mess of anxiety and stress. After waiting (and waiting!) to get engaged, I am finally planning the colorful, fun, fabulously awesome Fall wedding of our dreams. In an effort to share the fun and craziness that is wedding planning, I’m gonna blog about it for y’all---the good, the bad, and the pretty!
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