Weddingbee boards

I wanna cry, I wanted to keep my budget at 15,000 and vowed I wouldn't go above it; now it's reaching 22,000.

People keep adding guests, vendors keep going up on their prices, My bro just told me his 2 kids may come after all; I asked him 4 weeks ago!!! I already added more friends, he could have told me I wouldn't have added those friends. My first cousin said he has to see what his son's schedule is; I didn't invite his son it said Mr. and Mrs. there was NO Aand family; now my  FI tells me his dad's girlfriend might come after all; she wasn't on the LIST!!! They could have told me; I already have an alloted number; the maximum is 70 but I wanted to keep it at 50 and keep it simple and elegant; now it's ballooning and I have to shell out my money to pay for all  these people; they could have told me beforehand

rule of inviting; invite family first and send out friend guestlist later, I want to cry, I never wanted to spend a lot of money that's why I kept the guest list small; 4 people

  easily runs it up to an extra $1000; not cheap, not cheap indeed; now these are people who are legitimately should have been included; but they should have told me beforehand, I could have bumped others off the list to make up for it
 

A videographer vendor originally agreed to $250 now they jacked it up to $750; my dress budget was $300. I got one, but now the alterations are as much as my original dress budget; if I'd nown alterations were thta pricey I don't think I would have gotten it

each  dollar is hard for me to spend, I'm covering this wedding, my FI is covering the English wedding, I didn't want to spend this much I wanted to save some for our house

my FI is helping his family with hotel and the rings, he's going to take care of our reception in England, I have nothing to contribute to that after this, its all going to our house.

it's overwhelming; don't people know it costs a lot of money when they add people and don't tell me when I ask them?? I'm freaking out because I never wanted to spend this much money for one day. 

My FI just told me he needed 3 more invitations; aw, I could have chopped off from my own friend's list I can't deny him coz he doesn't have many because they're all from Europe, but I could have added less friends

 feel stressed and bummed now :(

if I could have done it all over again, I would have invited friends last 

my friends say I'll be getting cash gifts but I dont want to depend on that, and It's not nice to look forward to the cash gifts, a bit mercenary if you ask me; another friend told me not to stress, she spent 20,000 and got 10,000 back in gifts and cash 

is anyone else stressing out about expenses? or am I the only one hyperventilating, (breathe in...breathe out...)

the videographer didn't have a contract when we negotiated I thought that was weird, turns out they were looking around for more business, two weeks later, they said due to the volume they had to increase their price..that's a lo of bull, they just want to make more money and do not honor their orginal agreement 

I don't want to keep the videographer, it's still a good price for NYC, but I am so bummed because I thought I could have paid only $250

I haven't signed a contract yet; I don't even know that I want to because they do not honor their word, I can't trust them, they said if I find a better price elsewhere they would "understand'

I'm alreayd getting neighborhood discount, it's $30 for make up,  $80 for updo, $30 for  ablowdry; but 30 here and there add up

I negotiated with my hotel from 300 to 250; I htought I was only having 50 guests well within my budget now it's 66 if every single person comes

I can't say no to my brother's kids, it's just upsetting because now it messes up my budget, they had spots but my bro said no when I asked him  too expensive, they live in Alaska and I only met them once because it's hard for them to comeover because it's expensive, but he could have told me and now he changed his mind, I would have bumped off some friends!!!!!

I may write my cousin to not ask his son because of budget constraints, I may tell my FI not to invite the father's girlfriend, my FI doesn't even like her and wasn't even on the original list he's sending a few others to friends bit I doubt would come 

but  a guest here and a guest jacks up the budget bigtime!!!! It's the guestlist that's killing me 

breathe in breath out

Yes, I am as frugal as frugal can be, it's just my reception that's the biggest expense because I want to treat my family well, it was only going to be  a very small affair with our nearest and dearest

cake--free, comes with venue 

invitations--$20, I did my own 

veil, tiara, favors, jewelry-- free, my mom bought in the Philippines

flowers--DIY red roses, 10 centerpieces, bouquets for only $150 (compared ot 2000-3000)

dress--designer duds from Kleinfeld on sample sale for 599

guestbook, headdresses, flowerbaskets---DIY, cost $16

hair for bride--free friendor

violinist--free

photographer $1000 (friendor compared to 2000-5000 packages in NYC)

BM gowns--on sale $79, I only have 2  I have 1 MOH and 1 BM and 3 flowergirls; except I have to help my sis because shes broke and her two kids are FG, one kid already has a dress

shuttle--$175 for 2 1/2 hours(compared to 900 for  a double decker, 600 from my work shuttle)

transport--$50 friend fee, to drive us in my spruced up red car, no fancy limo for me 

church $1175 non-negotiable

Video--was $250 but they jacked it up; i was going to scrap it but my FI really wants one

Accomodations for my family of 14--$650'3 nights, I'm splitting with my bro, a lot cheaper than getting a hotel room for each family; I found a great 3 BR apartment to house all 14 of them at 199/14 people a night

DJ in progress --looking at 600 (compared ot 2000 NYC prices)

 hair and make-up for BM and mom-- neighborhood discount $30 make-up, $80 updo; I'm only having  my sis have updo; my niece just updo, my mom just make-up but now she wants her hair done too! grrrrr

so I was doing well with bargains and DIY, my reception is the biggest expense but when people start adding guests, it adds up in the thousands; that's my biggest splurge reception, I can afford it if it's a  smaller party, but people keep adding and adding

breathe in breathe out

yeah I negotiated as hard as a I could he brought it down by $50, I asked them to throw a cake and the dancefloor and free honeymoon suite, it's a  5  hour open bar including champagne toast and they are adding votive candles free and are going to arrange my placecards since I don't have a planner

I could manage it if I kept my numbers small but now that people keep adding, I'm freaking out!!!

I'm thinking of scrapping the video; it's a less than 30 year old custom anyway, you watch a few times then it gets dusty, I never really wanted one, my FI does

okay, I'll conatct my ocusin and let him know, his son didn't make the cut; now I have to see how I can have my FI not invite his father's girlfriend, I don't even know her, and my FI doesn't even like her!

One of my cousins is iffy, I'll encourage him to save money and stay put :) hehehehe

I'll have to hope and pray my aunt in the philippines is not coming; everyone else is immediate family, cousins and my local friends, so the show rate is very high; it's just all these extras grrrrrrrrrrrrr, now I can understand brides' vents when people start adding guests grrrrrrrrrrr 

I wonder if I can disinvite a friend's husband I've never met, is that tacky? I don;t like to disinvite; but all the extras not on the original  list I'm going to have to build my courage, face the wrath and do the unpleasant task of leaving off the list  

yeah my reception was originally $11,000 manageable and doable but with guests being added here and there its quickly growing to 15,000, I could manage if these guests don't keep being added on I had just wanted  small wedding that was elegant but bigger and bigger list means more and more expense 

I decided to just go with the flow and not stress, I just let it go the main thing is I am marrying the man I love; I should feel blessed many people want to celebrate with me; I am blessed both our immediate families are coming and I should feel blessed we can still have a beautiful elegant wedding keeping it on the smallish side

I only have a week left before the wedding and we had a similar situation with a DJ of ours.  We got an extra free hour out of the wedding venue, but according to the DJ he wanted an additional $150 for the extra hour and seemed like he was doing us a favor by giving it to us for that rate.  So we decided to look on Craigslist and honestly we were glad we did.  We got a person to do it for almost half the price in cash and he'll also have strob lights put up with a fog machine.  Can you believe it?  I think it's going to be great.  Things do work out for the best if you relax and do some homework.