Yesterday, Mary Jane talked about the the Big 'D'- well I'm going to talk about my personal evil - the big 'B'...budget.
Do I have one? Yes
Do I follow it? Not really
Will I put myself in debt? Nope
Does that make it okay to spend, spend, spend? Jurys still out on that one-
When Mr. Gloss and I first started discussing the wedding we said, it would be crazy to spend more than 12K on a wedding. After we did a little more research we moved the bar to 15K. Needless to say our wedding would not be extravagant, we are low key people and all we wanted to do was get married and throw a great party, we should be able to do that for 15K right? We were so naïve, enter me and add wedding blogs, all that inspiration bombarding me daily and me saying, ‘True, we don’t need that, but wouldn’t it be great!?’
Do I have one? Yes
Do I follow it? Not really
Will I put myself in debt? Nope
Does that make it okay to spend, spend, spend? Jurys still out on that one-
When Mr. Gloss and I first started discussing the wedding we said, it would be crazy to spend more than 12K on a wedding. After we did a little more research we moved the bar to 15K. Needless to say our wedding would not be extravagant, we are low key people and all we wanted to do was get married and throw a great party, we should be able to do that for 15K right? We were so naïve, enter me and add wedding blogs, all that inspiration bombarding me daily and me saying, ‘True, we don’t need that, but wouldn’t it be great!?’
Now, I know we could’ve gotten married on $12K, when you think about it we could really get married for just the cost of a marriage license, but that wasn’t the wedding I wanted-
So, this whole time, I’ve been trying to balance my vision with my budget….my ‘vision’ has a tendency to win. I’ve stopped adding things up – I’m scared of our total and we are still a month out. All our vendors fit within our budget (except that DOC I added). But it is all the little things I'm too terrified to add up that scare me. And rings and honeymoon most definitely do not count.
My financial goal in life has always been to have enough money that I don't have to worry about it. I am a worrier, living paycheck to paycheck would be a huge stress for me (not that it is not stressful for everyone, but we are talking about something that I would worry so much about it would make me physically ill). So we live well with-in (probably below) our means and in doing so I have extra money to buy whatever I want whenever I want. (Note: we are talking clothes and home decor here, not like cars and diamond jewelry). So knowing I have the funds to make my wedding happen the way I want it, without any financial strain makes do just that! It basically works like this: I find something I ‘need’ to have, I find the best deal I can, and go from there. We aren’t talking all out luxury here, but these aren’t necessities either.
How closely do you follow your budget? Would you spend more if you could?
2 comments:
We came in under budget. Our budget (which I do NOT publish on my blog, since so many family/friends read it) was $20,000. Canadian, of course. (When we started wedding planning, that was probably close to par, now it's probably $25K. But cost of living is lower here, I think.)
Anyway, what we spent: $17,500 ... a couple more costs to come in. For example, I'm going to get everyone in the bridal party a framed picture. But even if we spend $100 on them (which we won't), we're still 12% below budget.
I didn't hire an event planner or anything like that. I DIY-ed many things, but not all. And some of those DIY projects didn't really save me any money (like the silk flower boutonnieres I made).
If you like, I can send you a breakdown of where we spent our money. We tracked it religiously in an excel file.
Let me know! Drop me a line on my blog or send an email.
Congratulations for adding that Day of Coordinator. I know you'll be so happy you did!
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