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Haha. I know how you feel! I definitely had the dress in my budget though. That's a big part of it.
I didn't include buying all those little samples of invites. Or any DIY thing that I ended up NOT using, I didn't count. I don't want to know how much I spent on all that.
we have like 8 different budgets going. i have a full budget with EVERYTHING that we're buying, because i'm curious how much the wedding will cost. then i have one that i'm not including the things that people are gifting me, like my dress, shoes, jewelry, alcohol, etc, because that's how much it will cost for us. and then my fi is keeping track of only things that my parents have paid for. they offered us a certain amount and if we don't spend it, we keep the rest. so what they don't pay for, we get to keep after. but a lot of things we just have been paying for, so my fi isn't really counting that as our budget for some reason because it's already gone and paid for... he's more worried/excited about the money we'll be getting.
We aren't including BMs and GMs gifts, shoes, jewelry. Kind of any of the little stuff we just randomly buy!
The following aren't included in our budget:
1. BM/GM gifts
2. Honeymoon
3. Tipping
4. Probably a million other things that I didn't anticipate.
Oh, BTW, @flamingred - If you've got any leftover decor stuff that happens to fit our colors, maybe I'll buy it off of you! :)
My parents are paying for the wedding but wanted me to just give them a list of all of the expenses after the fact. I am not including our rings, honeymoon, wedding party gifts/bridesmaids' hair, candy buffet (because it was an extra that I wanted to add), and tips (I feel like that is my thank you to our vendors).
There's lots of little stuff that I have just paid for throughout the planning too. I feel bad giving a list of $5 here and $20 there, although I'm pretty sure that's how budgets get out of control sometimes
My parents are paying for the wedding at a "set budget." So, my budget is my budget! :-)
OUT of the budget:
I'm paying for the photog because there is no way catering and him fit together :-)
I'm personally just taking care of little things as time goes on because frankly, I don't care :-) I've paid for the cake toppers, garter, my shoes, and i'm sure more of the "little doodads" that have to be bought.
Our budget is percentage wise from highest to lowest
I planned on being totally honest with myself on my budget (afterall the only one looking at it was me!). But I ended up not saving any of our receipts from the honeymoon and I just generally ignored the whole thing after the wedding. The numbers were too embarassing/mortifying. I thought we were having like a $5k wedding, and after all was spent and done, that wasn't even close!
I'm being honest with my budget and because of that we didn't have room for a professional photographer and we asked my FSIL to shoot the wedding (She's an artist/art teacher/photo teacher) so we're paying for her hotel room and flash so she's about $500.... wow did that save the budget. :o)
I included EVERYTHING. Soup to nuts: dress, suit, shoes, shirt, tie, honeymoon, rings, party, license, shipping on returned items, lipstick that didn't work out ... everything. But it was our budget, we chose it as an appropriate amount to spend and were committed to it. I kept an excel spreadsheet throughout the process, which really helped to keep me honest. Knowing that I would have to document the cost and subtract it from my tiny budget really helped to keep me in line when I was drooling over some perfect little must have.
But did we go over? Sigh, yes. We went over by 520$ when we added an afterparty with friends. Even so, I am proud of our budget / money strategies....I posted about them on the money board ("money tactics -- money strategies") because our process really helped us clarify our wedding priorities and keep us on track to achieve our vision.
* Attendant gifts
* Those random things like guest books, programs, STDs and the like that you buy at random. I'll probably end up buying those and not bothering to put them on the special wedding credit card from the parents.
My mom is paying for the wedding and she is including EVERYTHING in our budget spreadsheet, including all the clothes for herself, my stepdad, and my brothers. I bought my own veil and she put that in there too. So the budget is more tracking what gets spent on the wedding than a guideline, but it will be nice to see what the final total was and for it to be pretty accurate! Still, I think when we say we went "over budget", it won't mean quite the same thing as people who don't include every little thing!
Like previous posters, I divided up our budget into several categories just to keep tabs on things and get a better perspective on costs as we planned. But I also had the "Big Daddy" budget tracking along the way.
All those little things that I purchase for ME (hair accessories, jewelry, shoes, bra, lingerie, etc.) I pretty much scratched from our Budget. We were engaged for almost 2 years so I had a long time to sort of 'collect' a lot of little things.
I also did not include our rings into the wedding budget. The rings were purchased almost 1.5 years before our wedding so, by the time the wedding came around, that purchase was long forgotten ;)
Everything else was included. However, I will say this. In the 2 weeks leading up to the wedding, we ended up spending a lOT of unaccounted for money with unexpected expenses that just sort of add up. SO be careful what you choose to leave off the budget just for good feelings :)
I am not including anything that we consider "life-long" investments and not just the wedding day investment, such as:
I have an overall budget, and then items gifted to me I take into consideration and adjust the budget I get to work with :-)
I'm using weddingwire.com's budget tool, which I really like, I just wish they allowed for such "multiple budgets"
We are, however, making sure that those other items we are not including we can still afford to our daily living budget (as we stick to a budget all the time).
currently EVERYTHING is in our budget. From gifts to honeymoon to attire to paper for DIY stuff it's all in there. The number looks crazy to me and I don't tell anyone else what it is, but it makes us feel better knowing exactly what we plan to spend.
Like Superbrook, everything is in our budget. The downside to this is that it keeps growing, and growing, and growing, and growing. . . . but how else can I calculate the true cost of this shindig?
I feel the same way about being frustrated by this, and it feels like an endless amount. Every month I save XXX out of my checks, and then the first of the month comes and XXX is due from the purchases I made - 90% of which are wedding related. I have realized that I'm not saving any money this year. It's hard to see the beautiful forest from the trees but I just have to keep reminding myself what my vision is here.
Does that sound too bridezilla?
I'm including everything from the rings to the tuxes to the misc to the housing for my parents for the week. It is important to me to have an actual picture of what we are spending. Part of me hopes that more people cannot make the wedding... yikes...
We are paying for everything ourselves. I am not leaving out anything wedding related. I will include everything because I really want to know. The good thing though is that we are paying cash for everything, so we won't have any after wedding related debt. I have been able to get some really good deals by booking early and being persistent. And I am doing a lot of DIY stuff.
Since me and DH were paying for most of the wedding I had to include everything. The only thing my budget didn't include was the honeymoon.. but that's because we are taking a delayed honeymoon (4 months after our wedding).
not on my budget: jewelry, dress, shoes, favors, runners, FI clothes, invitations, flowers...
I'm just thinking rings won't be part of the budget. And we are going to have a very simple wedding (I know, I know, there is NO such thing as a simple wedding)! But seriously we aren't going to have limo, valet parking, an expensive venue for either service or reception, and only having one attendant each. I have other things I am still paying off (not wedding related), so going BIG on the wedding stuff isn't really an option. I found a great bridal rental place here and look forward to seeing if they have my dress, I can rent any dress for $150!
OMW I am so glad I'm not alone!!! J looked at our budget this weekend and was like, "Isn't there stuff missing?"
I was in a bad mood the rest of the day, because money REALLY stresses me out (I work overseas for a humanitarian venture and basically make exactly what my living expenses are every month - I am SO looking forward to moving back to the States in July and getting a 'real' job in some ways).
Not in our budget:
-rings
-his attire (he said once casually, "Oh my suit doesn't have to be in the budget; I can just buy it." oh yes you can, Mister.)
-anything and everything I'll be wearing that is NOT my dress or veil - crinoline, long line bra, shoes, jewelry...
-hair, make up, nails. I am assuming I can cajole a friend to do this for me. Maybe by assuming, I should say hoping. I don't own any make up/nail polish or ever wear it, so I guess I should at least budget for buying some... how much does make up cost, ya'll?
-alterations - because my mom told me once that she knows a lady. *crosses fingers* let's hope that works out.
-officiant fees - again, we're hoping a family friend will do it for us. We'll gift him a bottle of wine or something.
-tips - crap I didn't even know you had to tip people. what the heck, I'm already paying them too much money! (look for a frantic "who do I have to tip?" post in the next ten minutes....)
-flowers - well, okay, the budget says $100 for flowers. That means I'm DIY'ing my bouquet and the 3 BM bouquets. Hopefully for $100.
-centerpieces/linens/chairs/etc. - YAY the venue does this all for us.
-other decorations - is it a wedding crime if I don't make any pomanders? I had never even heard of a pomander before wedding bee.
-our Engagement shoot - yes, it's part of the package, but YES I cut it out so I could feel like our photography budget was smaller (aaaaah! not okay!)
I THINK that's it. It's probably not. I probably forgot something. Or a lot of somethings. Ugh. The budget stresses me out!
We're in a similar situation, but we're keeping track of EVERYTHING so that at the end, we can look back and actually see how much was spent on the wedding, down to the last detail (scary, scary thought.)
Things we're not including in the main budget:
-honeymoon
-hair/makeup
-some supplies for invitations (my mom is DIY-ing, and while the main paper was included in the wedding budget, I know she's buying tons of supplies and not adding it in)
-jars for centerpieces
-cake topper (this was a Vday gift to my FI!)
-attendant gifts
-bridal suite for wedding night
I'm sure there will be other things. I'm a little scared to see what our final total is...I didn't want to go overboard, but with 18 months to plan the wedding, that's a LOT of time to spend money!
We're not including our honeymoon, but pretty much everything else is in our budget. I use the Martha Stewart budget tracker, which I'm finding really useful.
Our rationale for not including the honeymoon is that in the average year we'll take one or two holidays abroad -- one to visit my family in Australia (expensive flights, cheap everything else) and one over the summer to somewhere in Europe (cheap flights, expensive accommodation). We're taking no holidays this year apart from the honeymoon, so it's our usual annual holiday budget -- an expensive holiday, sure, but it probably works out to about the same.
Things that aren't included in the main budget:
- My jewelry for the wedding day
- Gifts for parents, ring bearer and flower girl
- My engagement ring
- Shower dress/rehearsal dress/bachelorette party dress (What can i say, I like dresses)!
- Postage for invites/thank you notes
There's probably some other stuff I'm not thinking of. I allocated an extra $1000 for all "other" expenses, but that amount may need to be increased...!
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So we are going over our budget and I'm just thinking of all of these things that we aren't including, and probably are not going to make an "offical" part of the budget so it looks like we spent less. These are the following not included:
Dress,shoes,hair/makeup,tux,gifts for wedding party,valet parking,tipping,bridesmaid brunch,jewlery for me,DIY decorations for the bar,and probably a few other little things...
This is coming to like $4000 worth of stuff I'm not including-a lot of it is paid for but if I added it to our offical budget, well, the number would look insane...and I still feel like I don't have enough. Does anyone else feel this way? It's really overwhelming and stupid that I keep thinking we need to spend more and more to have a good wedding. GRRR. stupid style me pretty.