WTW: 3 Months and a Budget

Posted in Money, Wedding-Talk Wednesday by Kara

I’m getting married in about three months. THREE! Gaaah! The crazy dreams have started. Tuesday night is was my dress getting lost and me wearing a black slip dress down the aisle and a Welding Convention happening at our reception venue. At least it was on a beach? Last week it was the guys showing up late, they were wearing Carhartts and it was SNOWING. Oh lordy.

In the next three months we have to: make the favours, make the table number holders, buy stuff for centerpieces, get my gown fitted (which still hasn’t arrived!), get the guys measured up for the their tuxes, pick the rest of the music, buy the marriage license …. I’ m pretty sure this list could go on forever!

Now, onto the budget. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to display how we worked everything out. Really, we didn’t have a set budget. There was a bit on the news the other days that said that average cost for a wedding in Canada was about $25,000! Luckily, our total thus far is was under that – about $11,000! Not too shabby, right?

We’ve been using Microsoft Excel to keep track of everything:

Wedding Spreadsheet

Basically what we did was list everything that we needed and tried to figure out how much we wanted to spend on it. There were fixed costs, such as the marriage commissioner and license, that we have no control over, but everything else was somewhat flexible and under our control. From there, it was all estimates.

We budgeted high for everything, hoping that we’ll come under budget on most things, especially the liquor and decorations. And another important thing was making sure we included what we’ve already put money towards and how much we still owe on things, such as my dress, photography and the DJ.

Really, I’m horrible with budgeting and numbers, but having everything laid out in front of me like this really helps me remember where we are and what still has to be taken care of. Please, if you have ANY questions – ask! I’ll be more than happy to share any details on how we budgeted without budgeting. (Like the limo? Totally wasn’t on our list originally but we’ll be oh-so-gangsta! lol)

How do YOU budget for events?

16Feb2011

WTW: Anticipation

Posted in Wedding-Talk Wednesday by Kara

A couple weeks ago, I put together our wedding invitations. Buying a kit was probably the best idea ever, although there were times when I wanted to throw in the towel. Like, trying to figure out which way to feed the envelopes into the printer, or cutting zillions of blue ribbon because the black pre-cut ones that came with the kit just didn’t match our colour theme, or jamming the printer by feeding an RSVP card in too fast and mucking up three whole cards. Oy! But it all worked out, and it was cheaper than hiring someone to do them for me.

Last Monday, I mailed our wedding invitations away. Now, I’m worrying over whether or not people will receive them, RSVP on time, and actually accept. I know I can’t count on everyone I invite to tick the “Accepts” box instead of the “Regrets” one. As much as I’d love to have everyone we invited there to share our special day, it probably won’t happen.

That being said, there wasn’t one invite that was sent out of courtesy. Every single one of those invites went to people who we actually want to be there. Figuring out the final invite list was so. hard. It was a matter of where to you draw the line. Cousins? Great-Aunts & Uncles? 2nd Cousins? And then what about old friends – do you invite your best from from elementary school but had a huge falling out with, or do you invite one of your favourite coworkers instead?

I’m nervous to see who accepts our invitation. In fact, I’m more nervous about that than trying to figure out what to give our guests as favours. (Something I’m still stumped on, but we’re leaning towards something edible)

Do you get worried about who will or won’t RSVP to an event you’re hosting?

Quick post-schedule update: Tuesday we received four RSVPs in the mail. Four! I was so nervous to open them!