(Closed) Budget cuts! Help!

• BrandNewBride
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: May 2013

I’d cut the brunch and the wedding planner!

• Footballwife
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: November 2014

Oh Girl!!! I jsut had to do this!! My parents are spending $22,000 just on food and drink alone, my Fiance and I are spending $12,000 for everyting else (DJ,photos, flowers, candles, attire, seating charts, hotel rooms etc) and his parents are spending $4,000 for the rehersal……..while everyone else is spending their money Fiance and I are getting less and less excited to be spending $12,000 on our wedding. So we went through our list of expenses for the wedding and had to cut way back in a lot of places. I cut my dress budget in half, I took $500 off the flowers and decided to DIY for a total budget of $1700, I cut out extra paper products like menus and place cards and am doing a really pretty seating chart now. We informed all our vendors of our budget, and most of them were willing to drop a hundred or two. If you dont ask they wont do it. Every little bit counts. So while we didnt save a lot we knocked a solid $3,000 off our total so we are only spending around $9,000 now not inculindg a honeymoon.

The $5,000 for attire is that just for you? or your and your Fiance. Maybe that could be cut a little.

I would definitely remove the welcome bags, and reduce the cost of the brunch. You can still do a really nice breakfast just maybe re work the menu a little?

• canadajane
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: March 2014

Looking at your budget, you can easily shave hundreds of dollars here and there, but in the end, big cuts means big changes. 

Have you already put down a deposit for the summer camp? This is a big chunk of your expenses.  Considering there is probably a beautiful hall you can rent for a third of that price (or an ugly hall you can beautify for a third of that price), that’s the first thing I would cut.  Not having it as this camp also means you can save on rehearsal dinner and Sunday brunch, by only inviting the bridal party.  You could save 400$ by skipping the welcome bags, or over 4,000$ by changing your plans.   

• JessicaJupiter
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: October 2014

@oneofthesethings:  Just a suggestion as I wouldn’t want to do it myself if someone asked, but if they were willing to give me some money to compensate me then I’d be all for helping out with the planning.

• MsJ2theZ
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: August 2012

@Hayley_N:  NO I don’t think 34 pp including all of that is bad either, it’s pretty decent actually.

That service charge is 20% if you add the other items up without it. I think that’s pretty standard HOWEVER, I dont think it’s standard to charge you to pay the staff AND the service charge, the service charge should cover paying the staff THEN you tip on top of that. If you are paying staff fee’s, and service charge, why tip?

I’m not sure I believe in their rental cost either. Is this the caterer charging you to bring their stuff? Do they allow you to use a different rental company? I’d do some cost comparison on that,and make sure you aren’t renting things you really don’t need, like Chargers etc… It’s in the woods so it doesn’t have to be “fine china”, and that they aren’t inflating the cost well above what a rentals only vendor might charge.

The music cost…. I don’t know, it doesn’t seem awful? But we paid half that for a DJ for the entire afternoon/night. 

Breakfast buffet again I would cut, or DIY. Bring a couple of casserole’s some croissants, and some fruit salads, that should be enough. All you really need (and you don’t even really NEED it) is some food for everyone since it’s expected they will all spend the night.

I go back to the 5k budget. Especially for an outoor camping wedding. Have you already bought ad ress that costs that much? I bought mine for 1200 and it was a beautiful Allure gown. And even that could have been less.

Seriously consider wether you really need a wedding planner. That seems like a very high unneccessary cost. Your catering company should do all of the rental and food set up if they are providing all of that, and you just need someone (family, yourself, etc) to set up the decorations.

• Footballwife
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: November 2014

@Hayley_N:  You can save a lot if he rents! I know wnating to buy a suit is great, he can use it again and its a nice occasion to need to buy it for ;)…..let me start this off by saying it hate DB, but mens warehouse does amazing tux rentals, the black by Vera Wang collection is really nice. I wanted my Fiance to buy a suit, but we won free tux rentals at a bridal expo so hes renting the Mens Warehouse ones now and thats saves us a couple hundred to a couple thousand! Just an idea, of course you guys can do what you want.

People rembmer two things from weddings the food and the fun. If guests are well fed and having a good time they wont remember any other detail or miss any detail you decide to exclude.

Yeah our prices were $55 per person for cheese and veggies display, 6 passed appetizers, salad, bread, three entree choices and ice cream with the cake cutting. Then the tax, house fees and gratuity add another 33% to the bill plus $8,000 just for the bar plus bar tip. We invited around 200 people though, so depending on how many RSVP the $22,000 may go down. Fingers crossed.

• jdhall89
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: July 2014

@Hayley_N:  We’re doing a camp wedding too, and your prices and our prices look preeeeetty similar.  Suggestions are based off of our wedding.

I’d cut down in attire.  $5000 is a lot.  There are a ton of good dress options in the $1000 range, including many new dresses and once-wed designer dresses.  You could get a very nice suit for $1000 that your Fiance can wear again, or a really crappy suit for $160 that would probably still look good with $75 worth of tailoring.  There is no reason why you couldn’t cut down to $2500 including your dress, alterations, hair/makeup, and your FI’s suit.

 

I’d cut your flower budget in half.  We’re doing dahlias instead of garden roses, a lot of greenery, etc.  Ours is $950 for bridal bouquet, 5 bridesmaids, 7 groomsmen, 4 moms and grandmas, 3 dads and grandpas, and 10 centerpieces.

I’d ditch the DJ, unless you are big dancers and this is very important to you.  How successful your ipod wedding is has a lot to do with how much time you spent preparing it and how organized you are, but it can be done.

And I would reduce the duties of the planner to a day-of-coordinator.  Should trim you down to $1000.

I assume our areas and prices are a little different, but shoot me a pm if you want to compare budgets–we’ve got a lot of similar fixed expenses!

• wanabeabee
• 7 years ago

@Hayley_N: because your doing a camp style your food menu could be so creative!! We got a quote (granted Im from boston) for a claim bake/pig roast with all the sides and open bar and bartender for $6000! We are planning a backyeard BBQ type wedding.

And because you already bought your dress your a little stuck there but def price out Fiance suits and you could stay under.

also for the venue and stay for 75 people are all 75 people staying for free because of that cost? Im a little confused

• JenGirl
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: August 2013

First I’d cut the welcome bags entirely. Nobody will miss them and they’re kind of a hassle.

Second, It sounds like you can easily cut down on the attire catagory if you’ve already got all your major stuff for $2k. Honestly, you should be able to get your shoes and undergarmets pretty cheap and it may be a bit expensive to buy his whole outfit but well under $1k. So you can save $2k right there.

Next I’d consider cutting back/doing some DIY for the catering and brunch. The rentals seem a bit high. I spend just under $1000 on tables, chairs, and cocktail tables for 160 guests. And you list china, could you just do nice disposables? We also did a mix of DIY appetizers and did our breakfast DIY. For appswe had 2 hot apps provided by the caterer and did DIY veggie/cheese/crackers, chips/salsa/queso, meatballs, and nuts. That might have been a bit overboard, but it was all eaten except the veggies and it was pretty cheap and easy. breakfast casseroles or crock pot meals are also good options for the breakfast.

I would not cut the wedding planner. You could scale back to a day of coordinator (weekend of coordinator) if you’ve got a full fledged planner who is finding you vendors and such. But for an event like this I would definitely recommend at least a DOC.

You could also likely cut the flower budget, especially given the casual, camp atmosphere.

• icanhearyousmile
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: November 2013

I wrote this blog post about money saving a long time ago. 😀 I don’t want to reiterate it here, but it may help you:

Update! And Wedding Money Saving Tips!

• Misswhowedding
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: May 2014

@Hayley_N:  I would get a full break down on the rentals for tables, chairs and linnens.  I would also see if the camp that you are renting has tables and chairs (possibliy linnens)  Since they have a mess hall, they likely have something for seating.  Maybe not to die for, but for a camp wedding, you can continue that feel.

There has also been a lot of great pinterest posts about mis-matched china.  Maybe you could find some awesome things at local thrift shops for cheep. 

My freind also found that it was cheaper for her to buy her table clothes than to rent.

PPs on the attire situation are right.  There are great options for under $5000.

Brunch can be done for less money. 

You are paying for lodging for an entire weekend.  That should be more than enough for your guests!