Was your initial budget realistic?

We live in a pretty expensive area (Boston metro) so we knew our budget had to be realistic for where we were. We have a range that we'd like to stay in and a hard number we need to stop at. So while we don't have an exact number, we are trying to stay as low as possible. We are cutting some things to make this happen but I don't know think they were must have's for us anyways.

Yes! We originally planned for $10K and about halfway through our venue tours we realized the vision we had did not line up with our budget. It was either change the plan or reevaluate the budget. We were fortunate that financially we were in a position to raise the budget. So we did our research and did a proper cost estimate for our dream wedding, then decided what we could spend and what we want to spend. Right now we’re looking to end up at $25K

We originally thought about $15k - but we are now expecting that to be the cost of the venue alone - no add on is. Adding on wedding dress, tuxes, DJ, Photo Booth, Save the Dates, Invites, Officiant, Hair & Makeup, & florist we are looking at another $7k. The venue is all inclusive, so that covers food, drinks (including open bar), cake & centerpieces.

We had originally set on 20k. I think in the end we'll be pretty close to it. We splurged on some things but the splurged I mean went over the allotted budged by a couple hundred dollars. I think we may end up closer to 23k after all is said and done.

Ours started at 10k...that was all taken after Venue, catering, dj, officiant, photographer and Honeymoon😱
After my dress and veil ...he said firm $1,200 I went over $ 50 when I went back for a cathedral veil. Alerations are still needed. As well as groom and groomsmen, make-up and hair, rings , gifts, flowers and decorations( I'm doing these so just cost no labor) and whatever I've forgotten...?
Fingers crossed that we come in at his firm 15k or below🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

Thankfully we are actually under budget by about 20K. We were gifted a lot of things and since we have family in the business we got everything at very discounted rates. Also helps that my sister and I do event planning so we were able to DIY invitations, other paper goods and the decor.

We're more than double that very first draft of a budget, but that was made purely using guesswork. Well I THINK a cake should be this much, I THINK we'll pay a photographer this amount... It was created a couple of months or so before I started contacting vendors.

We're about 2k over the first budget we created after we had a better sense of what the things we wanted in our area would cost us.

I’m usually very frugal and spend money very carefully, so when I was hypothetically planning my wedding (before we were even engaged), I thought I could do it with $15K. Then I broke down some numbers and realized we’d probably need closer to $20K for me to get what I wanted. Then once we got engaged, and my hypothetical planning turned into real planning, I decided I’d be ok with $30K. Now, I’ve completely thrown the budget aside and am not worrying about it. We’ll spend what we’re going to spend and as long as it’s all paid for in cash I’m not going to care.

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Same here. I originally thought $5k. After researching venues, realized we would have to spend at least $7k. We will come in right around $10k.

We are definitely over our budget - we had zero idea what weddings cost in the area we're getting married in and how many people we were inviting which was an absolute adventure - that said we'll have a decent amount of savings left and we feel for the most part happy about the decisions we've made wedding wise - I laughed a lot when we got some of our floral budget quotes back and they were $4,400 when I thought it was going to cost a cool $800 to do all the flowers - lots of good lessons learned that's for sure!

Omg. .Our original guesstimate was so far off!!! We both had no idea of the cost of things! It was price shock for us!
We had to regroup big time! It is costing us about $7000.00 more than we had originally thought it would, and that's not counting the rings, attire, honeymoon, attendant gifts etc!
A destination wedding would have been less expensive, but would not have included all family and friends, which we both wanted.

Umm nope! We were hoping to stay around $10k-11k. Right now with Everyone on our wish list we’ll be over about $4k-5k. This is partially because I now want really flowers for center pieces and he wants prime rib 🤷🏽‍♀️

Our initial budget was $5000, but some personal things happened, and we ended up knocking it down to $2000. Currently, we are at $1500 total! The only things not paid for at this moment is the alter that fh and my brother are building, the marriage license, and few other last minute details.

Im in northern NJ which is pretty pricey. Our venue alone is 20k. Our initial budget was 25k . We’re looking at close to 40k. Its so stressful.!

Our initial realistic budget was 12,000 and we’re at 12k at the moment. I’m expecting the final budget to be around 15k, so 3k over. We’re having a destination wedding so I expected to go over somewhat. Hopefully 15k will be the cap!

View Quoted Comment I’m really impressed you were able to stay under a 10k budget! That was my initial target and I’ve come close but don’t know what I could’ve cut to go under

View Quoted Comment That’s super impressive that you stayed under 10k! We also didn’t include our honeymoon in the budget since my fiancé's parents are covering that.

View Quoted Comment How were you able to find such a good deal on your dress?

I guess we initially thought we’d spend between $30k-40k max since we did destination in Tulum, but now we’re at close to $75k not including our travel or hotel costs. This is for a wedding of 50 and I think I’m paying $12k for photo/video.

View Quoted Comment I bought it off stillwhite.com. Many of the dresses are pre-worn, but in most cases it's just a few hours, and many of them have been cleaned and preserved. They also have tons of samples and new-with-tags (usually they seemed to be brides had a change of heart and bought a second dress). It was a chance I was willing to take for that price. The website is insistent that sales go through PayPal, giving you protection.