Money, Money, Money

Money, Money, Money

December 27th, 2011 @ 7:06 am by Miss Opossum
Share

I’m writing a disclaimer to this post because it’s a personal topic. My opinions about the cost of a wedding are based on my current financial situation. Each person that plans a wedding has a different financial situation, and my intention with this post is NOT to pass judgment on anyone who spent or plans on spending more or less than us on a wedding. I recognize that everyone has different priorities, and I completely respect each person’s right to those priorities. I firmly believe that every person should have the wedding of their dreams within their personal means.

Let’s get real for a second. Weddings cost money. LOTS of money.

Money, Money, Money : wedding budget tallahassee Wedding085 wedding085

Image via Times Union

According to the costofwedding.com wedding-cost calculator, the average amount spent on a wedding in my area is $27,338. That. Is. Insane. Because I don’t have that kind of money. If I did, I’d probably be buying a house right now.

My parents do have that kind of money. But my dad wants to retire eventually…and even if he were offering that amount of money to me I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to take it from him. I’ve been blessed with awesome parents who have provided me with more than I could ever need for well over 18 years, and I can’t personally justify demanding any more.

That being said, my parents are going to help me out. They are paying for pretty much everything, within a budget. The most difficult thing about planning a wedding on a budget is figuring out what things really cost.

If your wedding budget it $4,000 total, you can’t have a traditional wedding with the flowers and DJ and ballroom and ball gown and plated dinner and cake. You just can’t. In my area it is not physically possible to get all of those things for that price. What you can have is a lovely at-home wedding with a potluck-style dinner and casual flowers that you order in bulk. If you have no idea what businesses in the wedding industry charge for certain services, you may have to quickly change your expectations for the type of wedding you will have.

I learned this quickly while looking at venues. There are so many gorgeous venues in town…that cost a significant chunk of change to rent. There were some venues that I let myself fall in love with for just a second. And then I let them go. I had to allow the practical side of me takeover; otherwise I’d be spending the remainder of my wedding-planning process trying to figure out how to feed our guests, and the stress is not worth the venue. Because we chose to get married on a Friday, I was able to find something I love that could fit within out budget and still leave room for a dress and food!

The fiance and I have made plenty of other decisions that are helping us save money in the planning process. We’re not having a wedding cake—we’re planning a special DIY surprise instead that I plan on sharing in a later post. We’re also not renting tuxedos. We’ve decided to buy him a nice suit that he can reuse instead. If I get to spend a ton of money on a dress I’ll only wear once, then he should at least get to reuse his suit, right? And I got a great deal on a dress. It was on sale, and it was the very first dress I gravitated toward when I entered the store. We’re also cutting down on floral costs by only having half of our tables be done in flowers.

I am considering posting a budget breakdown at the end of this entire process, because I do think it is helpful to see what things really do cost…but it is a hard decision because it is such a personal topic.

Hopefully, as we get closer to the date we’ll be able to find more ways to cut down on cost. Anyone else have a strict budget for their wedding? Where did you cut costs?

Tags: budget, tallahassee |

Share |

Latest Gallery Pics

Hot Pink and White with Zebra 36" Lighted Spandex Ostrich Feather Centerpiece

14 Responses to “Money, Money, Money”

Member

MaggieL (message) 168 posts, Blushing bee

We’re definitely on a strict budget! We’re hoping to buy a house soon- so cutting back for the wedding was necessary.

I really wanted to have a barn or outside reception- but the cost of renting those spaces, as well as filling them (tables, chairs and all that)- it just wasn’t practical. Where as the church reception hall came with everything we needed…at a super reasonable price.

Friendors will be doing the photography, hair for myself and bridesmaids, and the band. My mom and her friends are all growing huge patches of wildflower and sunflowers. My parents are paying for food. AND my dress was one sale.

12/27/11 @ 7:16 am (reply)

Member

janaeesiss (message) 261 posts, Helper bee

remember this as well ladies, Have a MONETARY WISHING WELL at the wedding instead of a gift registry, that way hopefully you will recoup some of the money spent.

12/27/11 @ 7:47 am (reply)

Member

StarIzInkd (message) 335 posts, Helper bee

Great post. It’s a bit devestating to me to see what things cost because we will both be doing whatever we can to give ourselves the wedding of our dreams… within reason. My dreams mainly just mean the “traditional” wedding in a hall with a DJ and dancing and good food. There are things we are not including in our budget such as my dress (which I will pay for on my own), his tux, rings and our honeymoon. If I include all these I think we may have a heart attack. But we also don’t really consider those to be items that are the wedding… the rings we will have forever, the honeymoon is seperate from the wedding so why include it and my dress well… I want a huge ballgown and if we went by budget, I would only have $1-2,000 for my dress and that just won’t happen.

12/27/11 @ 7:58 am (reply)

Member

arielle (message) 442 posts, Helper bee

We have a small budget too and in my area it’s hard to do. I realized quickly I would have to DIY a lot if I wanted certain things and call upon friends. One being the flowers and even then I spend hours looking up the best prices on websites/flowers for the season. Plus, my family is only contributing about 50%.

I was really shocked at how much halls charge, food per plate, photographers etc. And some people think their services are worth much more than they are.

12/27/11 @ 8:16 am (reply)

Member

gmcurtis (message) 346 posts, Helper bee

We don’t exactly have a budget, just spending as little as possible. Flowers are silk and will only be for bouquets and boutonniers, venue is not a ballroom, but it also cost $200 to rent for the whole day, plus the $300 deposit they put toward the catering (which is $15.50 a head).

Your wedding planning style sounds a lot like mine!

12/27/11 @ 8:30 am (reply)

Guest

We aimed for a $10,000 wedding. I wanted floor length tablecloths, real dishes, and a nice photographer. My fiance wanted 250 people. I thought it was going to be impossible, but we’re making it work. Without making too many concessions, it looks like it’s going to be about $12,500 when it’s all said and done. I’m not going to get my pretty wood dance floor but I haven’t had to make too many other concessions. We found a hall where we can bring in a cater, and we know a fabulous cater that can do our wedding for $12 a plate. We are buying plates from the dollar store and getting silverware from an online food service supplier. I bought glasses at menards on black friday (I got some funny looks with 24 cases of glasses on a flatbed cart, but hey it was worth it!) If you have a longer engagement (we had 20 months total) you can price out things and look for better deals over time, and you also have more time to save up!

There are always unexpected costs, but there can be unexpected savings too. I budgeted $500 for a dress. When I shopped, I found a dress at Davids bridal that I loved and then put a search out for it on ebay - it took several months but I got an $800 dress for $200!

This helped me justify my pricey photographer to my fiance!

12/27/11 @ 8:40 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Fox (message) 859 posts, Busy bee

A budget breakdown would be great! We are paying for the wedding mostly by ourselves, so we are constantly wiggling and reworking the budget and our expectations and what we can actually get. I’m hoping to do the same with the breakdown after the wedding.. I always found them to be such helpful posts!

12/27/11 @ 9:13 am (reply)

Member

anna4041 (message) 226 posts, Helper bee

You sould be my planning twin! We are very fortunate to have the wedding on the family farm, so no venue rental, but we do need tables, chairs, etc. Our problem is we wanted a big wedding…and we got it. Our guest list is up to 499. Everything else, we got very creative on. Brnaches and tea lights are going to be most of the decorations. We are also buying a suit, my dress was half off at a sample sale, and I am doing the silk flowers myself.

12/27/11 @ 9:32 am (reply)

Member

EricaC07 (message) 1 posts, Wannabee

I am in the same mindset! My fiance and I have twin daughters, whose needs come before our wedding expenses. We have budgeted everything to the penny and are paying for almost everything ourselves. We are relying alot on the DIY process and perhaps may be using artificial flowers. In the end, we want to remember our day for the marriage we began and not for the amount of debt we went in to make it happen.

Kudos to you for telling the truth about wedding expenses in the REAL world!

12/27/11 @ 11:34 am (reply)

10.

Member

milissae (message) 142 posts, Blushing bee

I feel the budget crunch. Our budget is about $4,000 total. Luckily I found a Oleg C. dress for $150 because it is 4 seasons old.

I am DIY a lot of stuff and hope to sale some after the wedding.

We aren’t planning on a honeymoon right now, which is a total bummer. But maybe one day.

12/27/11 @ 11:43 am (reply)

11.

Guest

nina

we had a 7k wedding that ended up costing closer to 10k in the end. those last-minute costs will happen, and they add up, so definitely budget for them!

My family is conservative, so we did lunch at our hall with no alcohol, then held an afterparty in my friends back yard with flamenco performers, self-catering, and some hired servers.

Our parents married us and I wore my mom’s wedding dress, we used peonies from my mom’s garden for flowers, and the wedding centerpieces and vases were the glasses and dishes for our new life together.

most everyone at the wedding pitched in and it had a wonderful, community feel to it. it was a small wedding

12/28/11 @ 8:05 am (reply)

12.

Member

oatmealpie (message) 152 posts, Blushing bee

“If your wedding budget it $4,000 total, you can’t have a traditional wedding with the flowers and DJ and ballroom and ball gown and plated dinner and cake.”

It’s helpful to keep in mind that none of these elements are actually traditional. A couple of generations ago, weddings were traditionally held in people’s homes. The bride wore her best dress, and they may served punch or have a picnic afterwards. There was no ballroom, and there certainly wasn’t a DJ.

Unfortunately, weddings have become insanely expensive, mostly because of tacking on unnecessary and non-traditional things like favors and chair covers. If you want great inspiration for crafting a personal, beautiful wedding on your budget, check out the Practical Wedding book and blog (http://apracticalwedding.com/). They’ve helped me immensely.

12/29/11 @ 1:27 pm (reply)

13.

Bee

Miss Opossum (message) 63 posts, Worker bee

@oatmealpie: I could not agree with you more…. I was actually going to write a post about this!!! Haha. It is amazing how many things we associate with weddings were not part of weddings even as recently as 50 years ago… Also, I love a Practical Wedding. I’ve referenced it in past posts.

To all you other ladies out there, I LOVE that we are all working within a budget! Makes me feel fantastic to know that I am not alone in this process

12/29/11 @ 4:03 pm (reply)

14.

Member

Future Army Wife (message) 1,102 posts, Bumble bee

We’re on the “spend as little as possible” budget. One way to help this is to use the 40-50% off a regular price item at craft stores. Also check to see if they’re doing a percentage off the total purchase coupon or sale. It might be tedious to buy items one at a time, but if you’re buying enough, it can pay off. And feel free to scope the Dollar Store. Little things like candles are the same quality as Wal-Mart or Michael’s.

1/7/12 @ 6:25 pm (reply)