Wedding Budget

[*Diane*]

I don't want to know how much you spent on each category (okay, I do but that would just be rude to ask. :blush: ) but would you show me percentages? What percentage of your budget did you spend on each area; dress and accessories, wedding site, reception site, flower, invitations, etc.?

Thanks! :hiya:

[rowanmayfairs]

We don't forsay have a "BUDGET" but I look for this whole thing to cost around $3,000-$4,000 . And we are having a SMALL SIMPLE wedding.

$175.00 Dress
$24.95 Petticoat
$50.05 shipping
$250.00 Rings
$200.00 Church/Reception
$90.00 Alteration my dress
$60.00 Aleration my sisters dress (MOH)
$60.00 Cost of MOH dress
$135.00 x 2 = $270.00 for two tuxes & shoes
$100.00 Flowers (3 bouquets, 2 bouts) APPROX (maybe less?)
$250.00 Photographer
$32.00 Veil
$50.00 shoes
$140.00 cake
$100.00 Sandwich trays
$40.00 Choc Fountain
$30.00 drinks?
-----------
Total $2052.00

Cake Server
Cake Topper
Bubbles
Garter Belt
Toasting Glasses
Disposable Cameras
Candle Holders
Center Pieces
Rose Petals (all flowers are fake)

This wedding gets more and more expensive everyday.. and its won't even be as fancy as most wedding.

No DJ
No Dancing

[carolinalady67]

Diane, here are the %'s that my wedding planner gave.

Ceremony 5%
Attire 10%
Photography 9%
Videopraphy 5%
Stationery 4%
Reception 35%
Music 5%
Bakery 2%
Flowers 6%
Decorations 3%
Transportation 2%
Rental Items 3%
Gifts 3%
Parties 4%
Miscellaneous 4%

[Angela]

I don't even know the percentages (you're asking an English major to do math, and that just isn't going to happen :lol2: ) but by far, we're spending the most on our reception and photographer--about $4,000 at the max on the reception, and almost $3,000 on our photographer.

[Theresa]

Ok, out of about $58,000
49% on reception (everything included)
7% on photographer
3% on videographer
6% on florist
8% on church/ceremony/music at ceremony
7% on gown
2% on jewelry, veil, tiara
3% on DJ
2% on transportation
8% on invitations
2% on favors
4% on rehearsal dinner

[*meghan*]

35% Site rental/Reception/catering/alcohol/cake
24% Photographer (I know, it's crazy, but we want high quality!)
5% DJ
5% Videographer
2% Invitations, accessories (toasting flutes, napkins, etc)
3% Bride's apparel
1% Favors
11% Flowers
2% Officiant fee/accommodations
8% Wedding rings
31% honeymoon

That's about where we are now, and I don't know my actual budget (I'm just guessing!). I wouldn't follow mine as example because it's pretty uneven :lol:

[MsJessica07]

For us, catering is the biggest expense, followed by the location, photog/videog (if we have one), then the florist and other miscellaneous things like the dress.

Our total budget is looking to be about 15,000 with catering being around 50% of that, because Kosher food is more expensive.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Our total budget is $15,000, and here's our little chart.
http://www.ultimatewedding.com/galleries/data/500/wedding_expenses.JPG

This does not include our honeymoon or the rings, which we consider to be seperate from the wedding budget.

[*meghan*]

Holy pie chart, Batman! That's awesome Kellie! :) I haven't made a pie chart since like 6th grade math class :lol:

[Sk8ermaiden]

Holy pie chart, Batman! That's awesome Kellie! :) I haven't made a pie chart since like 6th grade math class :lol:

Lol, our budget is in Excel, so all you have to do is click the little chart tool and it makes it for you. Plus FH is a super Excel nerd, so he's dying to get into the spreadsheet and add all these crazy advanced features.:lolroll:

[*Diane*]

Nice, very nice!

[angie]

I don't know about overall percentages, but our reception is about half the cost of the wedding. This includes cake, open bar and use of the place. Photography is a distant second.

[KathyandJer]

Okay, our budget is pretty modest, but like everyone else, the reception/catering is the biggest chunk - about 40%. Now, we've purposely gone super-cheap on certain things, because their are other things that are more important to us. Can't say exactly what the next most expensive thing is because not enough is finalized yet :lol:

I think that's the key - whatever is the most important part of your wedding is where you should concentrate the biggest part of the budget (with the exception of the reception - always the largest piece of the 'pie').

[*Ashley*]

Our budget is $25K which doesn't include my dress and accessories, so that brings it closer to $30K when all that is added in. The majority of it is going to the reception and the open bar at the reception :) We got a GREAT deal on my flowers, photographer and everything else :)

I have the distinct feeling once it's all said and done it'll be around $30K for everything, which is a lot, but reasonable in the opinion of my parents because weddings are so damn expensive and we both (Michael and I) have SOOO much family. Our honeymoon is being footed by, well us, haha. But Michael really I suppose since he's taking ME on the honeymoon. Ahh I can't wait.

Anyway, the rings are separate -- basically anything WE pay for isn't part of the budget.

I can't really break it down beyond saying our reception is about 60% of our wedding budget.

[*Diane*]

I don't know how much we spent on Kate's wedding (kinda scared to know :lol: ). We only spent $800 on the flowers because we did them ourselves. Kate's dress was only $250 because we scored a huge deal. On the other hand, we spent a lot on rentals and locations and food and alcohol. It was worth every penny! Probably 60-70% went on the reception and ceremony.