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My top 5:
1. Florist. GULP.
2. Photographer.
3. Dress transport and alterations. Holy mother, that was expensive. International shipping ($600 all by itself, though the dress shop told me when they shipped it that it would only be $50. *facepalm*), a carry bag, a 1" hem, some minor nips and tucks, steaming, and a neckline alteration cost nearly as much as the dress itself.
4. Car to take me to the church and then DH and I for pics and to reception.
5. Gifts. All those little touches like OOT bags, bathroom baskets, and favours added up!!
@UK Bride: 1. Invitations-$500...no DIY, just ordered online-ridic!!!
2. Alterations....$265.00 and counting
3. Accessories (garters, guestbook, candles, floer girl basket, etc....almost 500 bucks!
4. Airbrush tattoo coverage-$200 and up...I may just let them show:-/
@19801111: ahh!!! Dermablend makes a foundation that supposed to be great for tattoo coverage.
http://www.dermablend.com/foundations/foundations-severe-flaws/leg-body-cover.htm
1. DH's outfit. Budget: $250 (thinking he'd rent). Actual: $2500 (buying a tux, shoes, shirt, bow tie, cuff links) - sheesh!
2. Alterations: my dress didn't need that much work, but my bustle was 24 ties at $15 EACH. It ended up being something like $555 (plus the slip - which I hadn't figured in - another $60). So, it was about $600 I really wasn't planning on (I thought it would be more like $200).
....that's all I can think of for now... I'm sure there were others. I'll update as things come to mind. :)
Well given that Im getting 1500-2000 Limo quotes,Im gonna go with Transportation!!
So far,
Photography - We had a great deal and then our photog backed out so now we have to pretty much take what we can get...which means more $$ - I am still livid about this.
Lighting - Holy cow does it cost a lot to have some lights put up for a few hours.
We meet with the florist soon and I have a knot in my stomach already about how much that will cost. *Shudder*
@Westwood: Four words: Sams. Club. Wedding. Collection.
You order them online, they deliver to your door, you would NEVER know they came from Sam's club. It is saving me a couple grand.
This is the whites collection. They have whites, brights, pinks, greens, ect.
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod800006
Costco also has something similar
Yes, yes, and yes. Reading these makes me remember even more things that caused budget anxiety. Biggest one I remember now is that DH's wedding ring was super expensive--like, 5x more expensive than mine!
With our florist quote, the kicker wasn't the flowers, but the candles! We wanted the whole place to be candlelit, which ended up being waaaaaay more than we thought it would be. Candles seem cheap until you bung 750 of them into one room. Yikesola.
@jackndiane: Seriously??? That is like the most awesome thing I have heard all week!! Do you know if BJ's has something similar? I would love to do this!!
1) The veil. Crazy expensive if purchased in a salon. The fingertip veil I originally tried on with my dress was $700, and it was nothing special. They were even expensive at David's Bridal--a fingertip lace veil was $350. I ended up going with an Etsy vendor.
2) Food. We had trouble finding a caterer that came in at less than $120/head. We were originally thinking we could do $50/person, but were flat-out wrong.
3) The add-ons that you might think would be included in your venue but aren't. If you have to rent chairs, tables, a dance floor, and av, these things add up really quickly.
4) Alterations. I thought the shortening and taking in would be costly, but didn't realize the cost of the bustle.
5) Hair and make-up. The cheapest bridal updo I could find was $150.
But, on the bright side, things that were cheaper than expected:
1) Florist. My wedding was in a garden, so I didn't need extra flowers for the ceremony. We came in well under budget.
2) DJ. We got a really good one for much cheaper than we thought, and he threw in ceremony music for free.
3) My wedding band. I went with a diamond and saphire eternity band that wasn't really supposed to be a wedding band, so I didn't pay the "wedding premium."
Definitely flowers and transportation! Getting those quotes is scary- I see who the email is from, and I'm afraid to open the attachment.
I had no idea photographers would be so expensive. theknot.com planner said, with our budget, $1k was reasonable. HA HA HA. As if. I found two photographers for that much whose work looked like point and shoot cameras were used. PASS. We ended up getting a steal at $1,800, but it was still a hard pill to swallow.
@jackndiane: YUP! we did the same thing! we also got our cupcakes and mini cake topper from them in plain white frosting and had a friend decorate them the way we wanted for a total of $45! best money saving idea ever!
@atomlins81: OMG, hair and makeup were horrible, not to mention all the pre-prettification stuff like facial, mani/pedi, body scrub, etc.
Oh lord, I was in for a rude awakening when I started planning
1. Photographer ($5500)
2. Hair and makeup (quoted price was going to be more than $500 just ofr ME!) I booked elsewhere though, will be around $350, still crazy.
3. Transportation $1000 (Originally planned limos, have changed to 2 SUV's for 3 days, and still cheaper than the limo for day of only)
4. Dress (Purchase price was $350 over budget of $1,000, plus the extra $100 for the corset back, plus the veil at $150) I am sure once alterations take place it will be over the $2,000 mark. OUCH!
5. Accomodations- We are semi destination so the hotels are costing a fortune!
So far, the only thing that blew my mind was the florist. We got quoted at $7,000! Oh and the Chiavari chair rentals, but I kinda knew that going in. Linen rentals too, but I think it's going to be cheaper to buy than rent, so I'm going that route.
Um. EVERYTHING. talk about sticker shock. I am very ok with the mental stress and axiety my DIY is costing.
Centerpieces. The ones I choose retail $139 each and up. I am DIY for $50 each...for 25 tables!!
I am nixing the idea of a limo for after the ceremony for now. too much...$1200-1500 range. I am DIY for everything else so it is all coming in at 50% off for me. But i do want a cake=$280 for a small 6 inch, 8 inch 10 inch round and then we are getting sheet cake for everyone else. If we could get the guest list DOWN from 256 that would help with everything but I gave up long ago on that...
OMG PHOTOGRAPHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I fell in love with a ladies work, I went and had a chat to her $4500!!! And that was without an album. It included an e session, but if I wanted those pics on DVD, add another $500. I seriously contemplated it, because I loved her work that much. But had to be realisitc, I just could not afford it. So am meeting with a guy that charges $1,990 next week. His work is nice, but nowhere near as stunning as the expensive photographer.
My other big one was Transport. Cheapest I could find was $1600, and that was for a bog standard limo, which I did not want. My reaction? Oh, we don't need you all day, only about 2 hours. Yep, still $1600. Forget that! My Dad has a Holden HSV Grange, very nice in immaculate condition. We are going to use that intead.
As for dress alterations?? Well, I've been told my Dress will take 9 months to come in, so 7 months left on the wait. So I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it. ALthough if it is outrageous, I may just take it from the bridal shop and find a local seamstress. See what happens.
Edited to add
CAKE!!!!!!!!!! Two tear cake, minimum order $800. The place I went to do gorgeous work. But I can't justify that. So I am putting together a desert table myself. Three small cakes - 1 chocolate and raspberry Pavolova, 1 small cake for us to cut (probably red velvet, but that may change) and a gluten free orange mudcake for my gluten free guests. Plus I will have things like Macarons, Gingerbread, Ferrero Rochers and the some other goodies as well. I think I can bring all that in under $800!!!
1. Photographer.
2. Photographer
3. Photographer
Haha, yeah, I about died when I found out the average price. We're spending most of our buget on photography (we're trying to keep costs low).
Although, the flowers and accessories (veils, tiaras, etc) gave me a shock too.
this thread terrifies me. I have not called any of these kinds of people for quotes yet and I have my first bridal show this weekend. I'ma skeerrrreeeddd.
1. Florist. Isn't it funny that you can buy a beautiful bouquet for $50 and the EXACT SAME ONE called a "bridal bouquet" is $200? The only flowers we need are for bouquets and bouts, so I'm still debating silk flowers, DIY (I have a month off before our wedding, so lots of time to practice), or whether or not to suck it up and blow the budget.
2. DJ. I seriously budgeted $500. My FI laughed at me. So did the 7 DJ's I contacted.
3. Cake. I truly did not realize that even a simple, SIMPLE 2 teired cake would be upwards of $300.
4. Photography. I knew it would be expensive, but the average price in this area for 6 hours is upwards of $2500. I got an awesome deal at almost half that and I am THRILLED!
5. Centrepieces. I tried to be cheap. I have come up with 200 or more ideas, but I cannot find something that is both cheap and my taste. I finally gave in and ended up looking at about $40 a table.
I think my best advice for someone planning a wedding is to take your budget and set aside 25% for "overage"-- cause, frankly-- you are GOING to go over!
I was shocked at the photographer quotes, too. The nice thing is that there is a huge range of prices (I was quoted everywhere from $1500-$7000), so there are some options for most budgets--you can cut back on hours, number of shooters, and, sadly, quality to stay in your price range. I paid about $1800 for my photographer (no album)--the one I really wanted started at $5500.
@snow00774: Don't panic! In the end, we all have to make sacrifices to say in budget. You just figure out what's worth spending money on and what's not. You'll figure it out!
ALTERATIONS... I spent almost $500 on them... for my $1000 dress. CRAZY.
decorations. I chose a venue that looked like it did not need to be decorated, but then I wanted to add all these things and it really added up.
rehearsal dinner: instead of a dinner at a mid-price restaurant, we decided to do a small party with heavy hor's douevres, and we wanted to invite all of the "out of towners", not just the wedding party. we rented a small venue that included an open bar and catering. it ended up being $2,500 for 50 people (and I think that was before the tip). YIKES. but it was really pretty and really fun.
The belt for my dress. Geez, that was $400. For one day. On one dress. Nuts!
The cake. We paid $700 for a simple three tier cake. The middle tier didn't make it to the wedding. Wow...
The catering. I would have gladly cooked the damn meal myself! They used my recipes anyway.
Candles. Teal was one of our colors, and teal is stupid hard to find. For six pillars and a dozen votives, I paid about $100. For candles.
We didn't do flowers beyond the bouquets, and MIL did those. The other things, I expected the crazy cost.
Any Canadian brides know if Costco does something similar to Sam's Club? I never really thought about it until I saw this thread, but the Costco website doesn't list bridal flowers and I don't know if they have a florist on site.
ugh.... all this for one day... my stomach is starting to flip flop!!
I am just starting on the planning.
so far I was shocked to find out classy horderves are still going to cost 20.00 a head so 2000.00 and I would like a limo at our dispose for our guest for the evening and our ride to the venue and it will be a 1000.00 fi thinks its too much but I really want the limo!! : (
1. MAILING invitations and well the invitations themselves
2. Videographer
3. Rehearsal dinner
My dress hands down. The cost has climbed to well over $1000 when I originally just wanted to spend $600 or less.
Alterations and cake were the two things that I under budgeted for. I still ended up with an okay deal. I paid $250 for alterations which was basically just a bustle, and getting cups and velcro sewn in. Then I paid $300 for the cake which had 75 slices but was able to serve all 175 guests.
We're using strands of (faux) pearls in our centerpieces, and we thought we could buy them in bulk for cheap. We can't, and they're going to cost us more than anticipated. Also, adding long sleeves to my gown is going to cost close to 800, which I didn't expect.
@atomlins81: Thank you- good reassurance!!
@takemyhand: I went running to costco.ca too!! Going to ask when I'm there tomorrow!
I was really suprised at the cost of hair and makeup and the fees that officiants charge. OMG. $375 for a 15 minute ceremony? uh, no.
@Snow00774: I emailed them, but if you can PM me what you find out I would REALLY appreicate it! I let my membership expire, but if I can get everything I need (2 BM, 1 bridal, groom, 2 GM, 3 parents) for $200 I will cry with happiness!!!
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