I just went a little crazy commenting on A Practical Bride's blog. Thanks so much to Meg for her post on the pitfalls of the wedding budget. Read on for a small snippet of what she had to offer, or go here to read her full post.
"There are times when things that didn't top your "priority" list end up being things you spend more on, and that is fine. It seems to be a common mis-perception that I think that the "practical" option is always the cheapest one. Heck no. Their are times in wedding planning where you will think, "I do not care about this thing, and I will rip out my eyes if I have to think about it for one more second. Hence, I will throw a bit of money at the problem to make it go away." And you know what? That's the sane part of my mantra.
And sometimes, as each of the wedding graduates have reminded us, the things that you care the most about are the things that cost the least. A dress that you made yourself. The toasts people make around the table. The time you spent with your mom putting together your flowers.
So, think about your priorities with your wedding, think about what you care about and what you don't. But be very careful when to assign a dollar amount to those values, because that just may miss the whole point."
And here is what I had to say in her comments:
Thank you so much for this. While I have already spent what I consider to be a ridiculous amount of money on our venue and catering, I still have not actually written a budget. I know I want to come in under 10k and I think I can pull it off because I have axed many things from the typical budget, but the thing that always gets me is the advice:
"First, set your budget."
Except that, being new to wedding planning as many of us are, I had no clue how much to anticipate things would cost. And as much as I love the blogs of the Style Me Pretty and Snippet & Ink sort, no one really wants to let anyone in on the real cost of things. Once I start tallying things up, I'm going to start posting exactly how much I have spent on everything, if only for the four people who might read my blog.
So, for anyone else out there reading this comment on this amazing post, can we all just start telling each other how much stuff costs? And down to the flowers on each table too - because it's great if you only spent $100 on flowers but if you only had six centerpieces and a bouquet, that's a factor that changes everything.
And sorry that I left a ridiculously long post in your comments Meg, but thank you so much for your post.
"There are times when things that didn't top your "priority" list end up being things you spend more on, and that is fine. It seems to be a common mis-perception that I think that the "practical" option is always the cheapest one. Heck no. Their are times in wedding planning where you will think, "I do not care about this thing, and I will rip out my eyes if I have to think about it for one more second. Hence, I will throw a bit of money at the problem to make it go away." And you know what? That's the sane part of my mantra.
And sometimes, as each of the wedding graduates have reminded us, the things that you care the most about are the things that cost the least. A dress that you made yourself. The toasts people make around the table. The time you spent with your mom putting together your flowers.
So, think about your priorities with your wedding, think about what you care about and what you don't. But be very careful when to assign a dollar amount to those values, because that just may miss the whole point."
And here is what I had to say in her comments:
Thank you so much for this. While I have already spent what I consider to be a ridiculous amount of money on our venue and catering, I still have not actually written a budget. I know I want to come in under 10k and I think I can pull it off because I have axed many things from the typical budget, but the thing that always gets me is the advice:
"First, set your budget."
Except that, being new to wedding planning as many of us are, I had no clue how much to anticipate things would cost. And as much as I love the blogs of the Style Me Pretty and Snippet & Ink sort, no one really wants to let anyone in on the real cost of things. Once I start tallying things up, I'm going to start posting exactly how much I have spent on everything, if only for the four people who might read my blog.
So, for anyone else out there reading this comment on this amazing post, can we all just start telling each other how much stuff costs? And down to the flowers on each table too - because it's great if you only spent $100 on flowers but if you only had six centerpieces and a bouquet, that's a factor that changes everything.
And sorry that I left a ridiculously long post in your comments Meg, but thank you so much for your post.
A friend of mine got engaged after I had already booked many things, and she was floored when I started telling her how much individual line items were running on average. The kicker-- she was an event planner 3 hours away before moving here and year ago and still was clueless! I think everything depends on your region, but it IS good to hear everyone being honest about how much everything does cost.
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