Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Dresses on sale

At David's Bridal until December 1. I know, I know. David's Bridal gets really mixed reviews. Personally, I think if you're strong enough to ignore the sales pitch of the rep helping you and bring a friend with you to give his or her honest opinion, you'll be fine. Some complain that the quality of the dress isn't that great, but they seemed fine to me. I can't imagine that it wouldn't hold up for one day -- which is exactly how long I plan on wearing it. At $350, I couldn't really beat that price for what I wanted (I didn't want a previously worn dress because I'm superstitious like that and couldn't shop the samples because dresses in sample sizes are about 8 sizes too large for me).

Also, if you purchase your dress from David's Bridal you can save your bridesmaids some money ($20 off each of their dresses) and get a discount from Men's Wearhouse for tuxes as well.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

What the budget includes:

Everyone has a different definition of exactly what is included in the wedding budget. We have decided that our wedding budget includes:
  • Venue rentals (for both the ceremony and reception site; including clean up fees, permit fees, insurance if required, etc...)
  • Food
  • Alcohol (but we will limit the types of alcohol we serve and likely cap the time we host the bar)
  • Attire for the bride and groom
  • Entertainment (i.e., music)
  • Decorations
  • Flowers
  • Marriage license fees
  • Invitations, reply cards, postage, programs
  • Wedding photography
  • Transportation on our wedding day (transportation for the bridal party; discussing possibility of transportation for all wedding guests between ceremony and reception site as well)
  • Hair/makeup
  • Gifts for the wedding party and favors for guests

What our wedding budget does not include:

  • Honeymoon
  • Wedding rings
  • Engagement photography

You can find a useful (and free!) budget worksheetat Real Simple. We nixed a few things from the worksheet (as well as other items that wedding magazines/books/websites claim you need) that we decided we really didn't need at our wedding:

  • Corsages (bridesmaids don't need boquets and corsages!)
  • Ring bearer pillow (no ring bearer; best man's going to hold onto those)
  • Flower girl's buds and basket (see, neither of us have nieces or nephews or anyone else close to us with children in the ring bearer/flower girl age . . . turns out, we don't mind because it lets us cut a things from the budget!)
  • Cocktail hour musicians and DJ/band (we're going the iPod route, though we are entertaining the idea -- budget permitting, of course -- of having acoustic music for our ceremony)
  • Videography (I certainly am not going to watch my wedding again and again . . . I'd rather allocate this money for a better photographer)
  • Welcome gifts for out of town guests (the vast majority of our guests are out-of-town and there's no way we could afford welcome baskets for everyone; we are trying to do some other cost-effective things to welcome them, including transportation services between the hotel and wedding day events, hosting picnics, etc...)
  • Save-the-date cards (saves not only on the cards themselves, but also postage which adds up!)
  • Seating and place cards (sit where you like! Also, we're probably hosting a more informal cocktail-type reception so place cards are really unnecessary)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to "A 10K wedding." By way of introduction, I am a 24 year old living in one of the most expensive metropolitan areas in the nation with a whole lot of student loan debt and a goal of buying a house within the next year. Because of what seems to me to be a better use of income and savings (paying off said loans and saving for a down payment), my fiance and I have a goal of spending no more than $10,000 on our wedding. Actually, because we know that everyone goes over budget, we're trying to plan for a $7,000 or $8,000 wedding in hopes that we'll be able to keep it under $10,000.

We're expecting about 80 guests total (including our guests' dates) and it'll be a challenge given how expensive everything is where we live. Our goal is to have a classy and fun wedding that is stress-free on the big day (so, yes, we have decided to use a day-of-coordinator)! We want it to be budget friendly, but not look cheap. Wish us luck!