Making a wedding budget ...

[lovehersomuch]

My soon to be fiance and i are trying to be proactive and want to start planning our potential wedding next spring. we have decided upon having a 2 day ceremony - one a formal westernized wedding and the other a pakistani semi-traditional one to please both sides of our families and ourselves...

obviously planning a single wedding is a lot of work for a couple but planning 2 is twice as hard!! I''m putting together a excel spreadsheet so i can start putting down different expenses. does anyone know if something like this already exists or do you all have one that you''ve used as far as formatting etc... obviously its not hard to create my own from scratch but i want to make sure i dont leave anything out.

thanks again!!

 

[Independent Gal]

Hi there! I''m having a two-part ceremony too, taking into account different traditions. I stayed sane by basically leaving most of the planning for one of them to my mother. I just nod or shake my head occasionally at stuff she asks or e-mails, or tell her to do what she wants.

Is this an option for you two?

Alternatively, you could each plan one!

As for a spreadsheet, I have one in excel. I''ll paste the line items in for you with the ''recommended'' % breakdown I got off the net somewhere. Midn you, we didn''t stick to the ''recommendations'' but it was a helpful as a starting point. OK, hold on...

 

[Independent Gal]

OK, here it is:

Expenses % of total budget

Ceremony Location fee, license fee, officiant fee and decoration 3%
Food and Drink 48%
Brides gear, Hair, make-up, etc. 10%
Groom’s gear 2%
Rings 3%
Centerpieces, Bouquet and boutonieres 8%
DJ, ceremony musician 8%
Photographer 12%
Invitations, response cards, thank you notes, postage, calligraphy, guest book 3%
Favours, Bridesmaid and groomsmen, parents, welcome baskets for out-of-town guests 3%

Other items: plane tickets? Hotel? legal fees? ??

 

[Italiahaircolor]

I would suggest purchasing a wedding planner from your local bookstore. Although they wont give you percentages, they will give you a great soup-to-nuts itinerary of everything you''ll need to think about, plan for, and do!

I think Indy''s percentages were pretty good...but I always think that you should decide on your budget and subtract and inital 10% for incidentals that you may come up and that you cannot pre-budget for.

 

[Gypsy]

theknot.com and weddingchannel.com both have budgeters a lot of brides use. We are using that losely, but our own excel sheet more closely.

 

[lovehersomuch]

Date: 2/28/2008 12:42:59 PM
Author: Independent Gal
OK, here it is:

Expenses % of total budget

Ceremony Location fee, license fee, officiant fee and decoration 3%
Food and Drink 48%
Brides gear, Hair, make-up, etc. 10%
Groom’s gear 2%
Rings 3%
Centerpieces, Bouquet and boutonieres 8%
DJ, ceremony musician 8%
Photographer 12%
Invitations, response cards, thank you notes, postage, calligraphy, guest book 3%
Favours, Bridesmaid and groomsmen, parents, welcome baskets for out-of-town guests 3%

Other items: plane tickets? Hotel? legal fees? ??

thanks for the information this is every useful!! for the percentages does this mean its the overall percentage of each expense for the total wedding?? this could be very subjective since every wedding costs vary.. definately know that the rings and "grooms gear" in our weddnig would not be almost the same percentage

 

[lovehersomuch]

Date: 2/28/2008 12:36:36 PM
Author: Independent Gal
Hi there! I''m having a two-part ceremony too, taking into account different traditions. I stayed sane by basically leaving most of the planning for one of them to my mother. I just nod or shake my head occasionally at stuff she asks or e-mails, or tell her to do what she wants.

Is this an option for you two?

Alternatively, you could each plan one!

As for a spreadsheet, I have one in excel. I''ll paste the line items in for you with the ''recommended'' % breakdown I got off the net somewhere. Midn you, we didn''t stick to the ''recommendations'' but it was a helpful as a starting point. OK, hold on...

hopefully our families can help plan it as well but my gf and i want to ultimately do something that we both want and plan both together with some insight from our families.. esp if they offer to pay for some of it!

 

[Independent Gal]

Oh, it''s definitely subjective! Our food and drink costs for WP2, e.g., are now projected at 65% while the cost of my dress and hair and stuff works out to more like 2.5% and his tux cost about 5%

I don''t think you need to buy a wedding planning book if you''re handy with excel. I really hate the way the wedding stuff makes you feel like you need to spend way more money on cr@p than you really need to. Just pull a handy to-do list off the net, make a spread sheet, and away you go. Martha Stewart''s site is handy with practical tips for weddings like to-do lists.

 

[lovehersomuch]

Date: 2/28/2008 12:55:20 PM
Author: Italiahaircolor
I would suggest purchasing a wedding planner from your local bookstore. Although they wont give you percentages, they will give you a great soup-to-nuts itinerary of everything you''ll need to think about, plan for, and do!

I think Indy''s percentages were pretty good...but I always think that you should decide on your budget and subtract and inital 10% for incidentals that you may come up and that you cannot pre-budget for.

my gf has mentioned wanting a wedding planner - ive been skeptical because i feel that we are doing most of the work and paying her for nothing - i could be totally wrong tho..

she wants maybe the day of or month before the wedding so that on the days of our wedding she can handle the diff situations that may arise instead of us or our family on the wedding..

how much would a wedding planner like that cost? what about one that you work with start to finish?

thanks

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Date: 2/28/2008 1:35:00 PM
Author: lovehersomuch

Date: 2/28/2008 12:55:20 PM

Author: Italiahaircolor

I would suggest purchasing a wedding planner from your local bookstore. Although they wont give you percentages, they will give you a great soup-to-nuts itinerary of everything you''ll need to think about, plan for, and do!


I think Indy''s percentages were pretty good...but I always think that you should decide on your budget and subtract and inital 10% for incidentals that you may come up and that you cannot pre-budget for.

my gf has mentioned wanting a wedding planner - ive been skeptical because i feel that we are doing most of the work and paying her for nothing - i could be totally wrong tho..


she wants maybe the day of or month before the wedding so that on the days of our wedding she can handle the diff situations that may arise instead of us or our family on the wedding..


how much would a wedding planner like that cost? what about one that you work with start to finish?


thanks

Hello! I think the ones that work with you from start to finish are typically around $4,000-5000. And like I said, that of course goes up with the more exclusive the planner is. And they do do EVERYTHING for you. They even set up your appointments for your vendors for you. I think you probably wouldn''t even have to go if you didn''t want to. I''m sure they''d encourage you to. Personally, I enjoy it, so I don''t want that.

 

[Octavia]

If you have Microsoft Excel, there is a "wedding budget" template on the website. I downloaded it and have started modifying the line items -- taking out what we''re not using, putting in new ones. You just have to make sure the formulas stay correct (sometimes when you delete/add lines, it doesn''t show in the formula, so you have to adjust the formula as well).

I think that a recent post on http://www.weddingbee.com mentioned a VERY comprehensive spreadsheet found on Indiebride, but I haven''t checked it out yet.

 

[cara]

The knot budgeter is also a good place to start. If you put in your estimated goal budget it will split it up into percentages for each category. The difficult thing will be modifying the template to your specific needs and location. Given the 2-day thing, you will also have to add in a lot of double expenses. And, just cause the average is to spend, oh, 5% of your total budget on a ceremony location, doesn''t mean you can actually find one for that price in your area that meets your requirements. Or you are going to use a friend as a photographer and want to put that money to the bride''s attire or something.

So you need to use it as a planning tool but extensively modify it with quotes and information from your area, as well as your specific needs.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Date: 2/28/2008 2:59:15 PM
Author: Octavia
If you have Microsoft Excel, there is a ''wedding budget'' template on the website. I downloaded it and have started modifying the line items -- taking out what we''re not using, putting in new ones. You just have to make sure the formulas stay correct (sometimes when you delete/add lines, it doesn''t show in the formula, so you have to adjust the formula as well).


I think that a recent post on http://www.weddingbee.com mentioned a VERY comprehensive spreadsheet found on Indiebride, but I haven''t checked it out yet.

I have to say I don''t think I''ve been to Weddingbee before and I love it!!

 

[Italiahaircolor]

Not a "wedding planner" as in a woman who comes and takes care of your plans...But rather, a BOOK/BINDER (hence the bookstore comment).

Our wedding planner (the lady) was helpful and cost a pretty penny...but was worth every dime!

 

[lovehersomuch]

Date: 2/28/2008 2:59:15 PM
Author: Octavia
If you have Microsoft Excel, there is a ''wedding budget'' template on the website. I downloaded it and have started modifying the line items -- taking out what we''re not using, putting in new ones. You just have to make sure the formulas stay correct (sometimes when you delete/add lines, it doesn''t show in the formula, so you have to adjust the formula as well).

I think that a recent post on http://www.weddingbee.com mentioned a VERY comprehensive spreadsheet found on Indiebride, but I haven''t checked it out yet.

thanks!!! the one on ms excel is great!!! im going to try that! thanks again for the idea!