DG and I finally sat down to take a look at the numbers last weekend, and I have to say, I was surprised. All this time I have been utterly shocked at the idea that anyone could spend $25,000 on a wedding. Seeing as it is ONE day out of an entire lifetime, that extravagance just seemed completely unreasonable…but after sitting down with my nifty little wedding binder and going through all the suggestions for how much to allocate for this and that, what seemed like tons and tons of money began to feel like only a handful of pennies. It's already starting to stress me out just a tinge.
So here's the basic breakdown…
Where the money's coming from:
My parents have graciously offered to contribute about $7,000. Between a few investments DG is planning to cash in and the money we've already been stashing away from each paycheck, we have about $7,000 to chip in ourselves. So the grand total…to include wedding bands, our honeymoon, and the rehearsal dinner…is $14,000
When you filter out the $3500 we've budgeted for our honeymoon and the $750 we'd like to have for the rehearsal dinner (We're hoping to include all of our out of town guests.), there are 965,000 pennies left for the wedding itself. In an effort to keep a little reserve for any unexpected expenses, we're planning with a budget of $9000. So when there's something extra we just have to have, as we all know there will be, we'll have a few dollars to pull from. Hopefully with the cushion, we won't end up spending more than we intended.
Where the money goes to:
According to our wedding planning buddy, The Knot, here's how it all shakes out…
It's not hard to see that we have a challenge ahead of us. Some of those numbers are frighteningly small. Luckily, there's some wiggle room in there because all of these categories don't apply to us. For example, neither of our families drinks, so we can allocate $720 reserved for beverages to other areas. I'm going to get to work customizing the budget to fit our needs. For any of you who need a good starting point, I'd definitely recommend this little exercise on The Knot. (Just sign in and click "My Budget.") You can play with your figures according to your budget, guest list, and number of attendants. It will even let you add and eliminate categories to fit your needs. Since I am a bit of a spreadsheet queen at work, I'll be working up some Excel magic to help us figure out what we want to spend and how to stay on track…specialized just for us. This wedding is going to be an awfully creative venture. I have a feeling it's going to include a whole lot of DIY trickery…but I'm game, and I know DG is too. I hope we can pull it off!!
So here's the basic breakdown…
Where the money's coming from:
My parents have graciously offered to contribute about $7,000. Between a few investments DG is planning to cash in and the money we've already been stashing away from each paycheck, we have about $7,000 to chip in ourselves. So the grand total…to include wedding bands, our honeymoon, and the rehearsal dinner…is $14,000
When you filter out the $3500 we've budgeted for our honeymoon and the $750 we'd like to have for the rehearsal dinner (We're hoping to include all of our out of town guests.), there are 965,000 pennies left for the wedding itself. In an effort to keep a little reserve for any unexpected expenses, we're planning with a budget of $9000. So when there's something extra we just have to have, as we all know there will be, we'll have a few dollars to pull from. Hopefully with the cushion, we won't end up spending more than we intended.
Where the money goes to:
According to our wedding planning buddy, The Knot, here's how it all shakes out…
It's not hard to see that we have a challenge ahead of us. Some of those numbers are frighteningly small. Luckily, there's some wiggle room in there because all of these categories don't apply to us. For example, neither of our families drinks, so we can allocate $720 reserved for beverages to other areas. I'm going to get to work customizing the budget to fit our needs. For any of you who need a good starting point, I'd definitely recommend this little exercise on The Knot. (Just sign in and click "My Budget.") You can play with your figures according to your budget, guest list, and number of attendants. It will even let you add and eliminate categories to fit your needs. Since I am a bit of a spreadsheet queen at work, I'll be working up some Excel magic to help us figure out what we want to spend and how to stay on track…specialized just for us. This wedding is going to be an awfully creative venture. I have a feeling it's going to include a whole lot of DIY trickery…but I'm game, and I know DG is too. I hope we can pull it off!!
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