Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Budget Woes

The title to this post may be a bit misleading, because it's not woes as in we can't possible plan a wedding on what we had planned to spend. Which is true. But this post is about the fact that I feel completely stumped trying to figure out how much things cost. I mean I have my Real Simple Weddings budget sheet that tells me what percentage I should spend in each category. So, I know my target. But what I don't know is how much will alcohol for 150 people cost if we bring our own and can get it at a discount. It makes it hard to figure out what budget we are working with for catering when I am at a loss to plug in a number for alcohol. Or centerpieces, if we DIY. Am I just being too detailed? Should we just build up individual elements as we get estimates and just work toward our targets. Has anyone else had this problem?

1 comment:

sera said...

I realize you wrote this ages ago, but Seriously!

I'm now 7 weeks in to planning the wedding and I still haven't written a budget with the exception of putting the arbitrary 10k cap on it. I welcome any further price updates. And I offer you what I have so far:

I know how much the venue will cost (they gave me an estimate $6500), which includes the venue for five hours of event plus one hour set-up (although they promise me we'll have all day), ceremony charge ($400 just to reset the room!) the food (not the cake), the service, the bartender, parking (really?), linens, dishes, glassware, silverware, cake server (the fact that I'm supposed to care about a cake server is just beyond me) and day-of-coordinator (which is awesome) and estimated tips and taxes.

Ahem. I bought my dress and a separate sash for $375, but still need shoes and undergarments ($$$) and if I do a hair thingy - which I'll probably make for under $20.

And I'm making my own invitations - $84 in postage alone for 100 guests (although that's not taking into account that I can send quite a few at 1 invite per household).

Save the dates are $38 so far - haven't received them from good ol' vista print yet, and haven't bought postage (if not $42 then $30?).

If I do the simple dahlia in a bud vase that I want to do - how much for three vases and seven to nine flowers per table when I don't know how many tables we need? And a bouquet for me and the corsages for the ladies of the family (no bridesmaides) and bouteniers for three or four. So what like, $200 for flowers? $300? Ack! not a clue.

We're getting keg from a friend ($80?) and we figured 40 bottles of wine (25 red, 15 white) and 25 bottles of champagne for toasting at under $7 a bottle is what? Like $400 for liquor.

And photography? I can't spend over $1k for that. I just can't despite the fact that I'll never remember the day without the photos.

And what am I forgetting???