The Joeys' Final Budget Breakdown

Thanks to everyone who voted on how I should tackle the daunting task of recaps. It looks like I'll be starting with thebudget, then what I'd do different followed by the week before and the recaps.

Right, now to the task at hand, the budget break down.

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A few months back, when I was a new Bee, I shared with everyone our budget. We were hoping to pull off a wedding AND a honeymoon for $15,000. We originally invited 130 guests which eventually ballooned to 162 guests. Opps! In the end, our final count was 116 people. Children under 5 were free and kids 6-11 were half price. If I had to guess, I'd say we had 130 people including all the kids.

The first number listed is the amount I budgeted as of April 5th (my last budget post). The second number (bold) is amount we spent. If there is only one number listed, then I spent the exact budgeted amount. I'll try to explain significant over/underspending below. If anything is unclear, please feel free to ask!


Reception:

• Food/Venue/Tax/Tip: $6000/$5455.45 - The fact that our numbers dropped really helped us here. We also didn't have to pay for a second bartender.
• Beverages: $700/$747 - We overspent here because I didn't want to run out of wine. That said we had A LOT left over. I could have spent about $600 and still had leftovers.
• Cream Puffs & Cupcake Paper : $115/$88 - We found a local Pho Restaurant that sold cream puffs for $0.50 a piece. We had SOO many leftover. I could have also spent $60 and had leftovers.
• Music: $0 - We went the Ipod route
• Flowers: $175/$141.78 - a friend had the hook up with a wholesale distributor. We ordered too many flowers and only used about half the order.
• Centerpieces: $197.50
• Wedding Favors: $100/$87.50 - we had enough for 150 guests
• Banquet License : $10
• Reception Parking : $250
• Other decorations: $46

Ceremony:

• Church Fee: $250/$150 - The chapel coordinator works at the High School with Mr. Joey and refused to take the money.
• Breakfast Bar: $150/$100 - Fewer people, fewer goodies though we again had too much. We would have been fine with half the amount of food.
• Ring Bowl : $10/$29.25 - Our bowl will double as a Christmas ornament
• Flower Girl Basket: Not budgeted for/$30 - This will double as a place for us to put our memory corks.
• Bouquets: $30
• Unity Candles: Not budgeted for/$15 - We picked out fun candle holders to reuse in our new house.

Wedding Party:

• Wedding Dress: $266/$286 - I needed to have it taken in. Apparently I lost some weight. I did find an amazing tailor who has my business for life! She did all the alterations for $20!!
• Accessories: $100/$91.91 - This includes my hair piece, purse, shoes, eyelashes
• Hair and Make-Up: $115
• MOH Dress & Accessories : $80/$85 - My sister's dress didn't fit and we had to but a new one. It actually came to $105 total, but I had a gift card from Nordstroms we used for the difference.
• Mr. Joey's suit/tie/shirt/vest: $241.95/$264.95 - We originally budgeted $500 but found a deal at the Brooks Brothers Outlet. We added a grey vest to his look late in the game.
• Ties for Ushers & BM: $60/$57.57
• Boutonnieres/corsages for Mr. Joey, all parents, BM & ushers: $92
• Fabric for ring boy's tie and flower girl's sash : $19 - We only used half the fabric.

Photography:

• Photographer: $300
• Prints: $25
• Photo for Parents: $25/$12
• Photo Book: $20 - We got a gift card to Blurb to supplement the cost of a wedding book

Stationary:

• Save the Dates: $25/$28.54
• Invitations: $500/$233.18 - I had no idea how much this would cost so I guessed
• Thank Yous: $25/$15.55 - I designed and printed the postcards myself
• Postage for STD, Invitations & Thank Yous : $200/$125 - We did postcards for the STD & Thank Yous to save on postage. We also hand delivered as many invitations as we could.
• Programs: $20/$11 - I had all the paper leftover from other projects
• Reception Signage: $10/$4 - Goodwill for frames

Miscellaneous:

• Gifts for all wedding participants and friendors (16 people total): Not in original budget/$250 - Most people got fun t-shirts. A few got more elaborate gifts.
• Guest Book : $25/$8.75 - We used our poster invite as a guest book. We bought the perfect size frame at Ikea.
• Premarital Counseling: $250/$0 : We had 2:1 sessions through the Campus Ministry department at Seattle University. After I set up the sessions, I found out they were free to Alums from my high school

Wedding Day Total : $9421.93

Cost per guest (116 people) : $81.22

Other Expenses:

• Mr. Joey's Wedding Band : $250/$179.95
• Mrs. Joey's travel wedding band: $150/$85
• Honeymoon: $5000 + any leftover money/$6000 (includes leftover money plus $400 in gift money and $300 in ebates rewards from online wedding purchases) - This covered our entire 2 week trip. All the international and domestic flights, food, drinks, excursions, AMAZING hotels, overnight trains, souvenirs (including 4 bottles of wine) and birthday gifts for both Dads (they have the same birthday!)
• Rehearsal Dinner with wine & beer for 38 people : $1200 - Mr. Joey's parents paid for this but I arranged it and made invites

Grand Total Spent : $15,000 (not including the gift and ebates money we used on the honeymoon)

Looking back, there are actually a lot of places we could have cut. I'd say, we could have saved an additional $300-400 if I had stuck to some of my original estimates on booze, food and flowers. Oh well, you live and learn. We could have went on a shorter honeymoon somewhere else, but it was really important to us to do a big-ish trip.

I'll Toast to That!

Like Ms.Gloss, the Joeys also held a little wine tasting last weekend. We had 10 random friends over to try the 7 bottles of white and 3 bottles of bubbly we managed to gather the weekend before. I wish we had pictures of the night. It was a lot of fun. I also wish I had pictures of the tasting sheets. We numbered the bottles 1 to 10 and then gave everyone a sheet of paper with the numbers 1 though 10 on it. We asked everyone to comment on each wine they tasted. Some did the simple Yay or Nay, while other were really descriptive of what they tasted and liked about it. It worked really well.

Despite everyone's palettes, we have an overwhelming winner for the White and the Cava. We initially were looking for a $7 bottle of white and $10 bottle of Cava. When our Red selection came in super cheap ($5.91 including tax), we decided we could look at $9 Whites too.
And the winners? Everyone loved the 2008 Barnard Griffin Fume Blanc. It was the most expensive wine in the lot, but it was really good. We were told that we would get a 15% discount if we paid in cash or by debit card, so that brought the bottle down to $8.28 including tax.

The Cava we selected was a 2000 Freixenet Cava Brut (sorry, I don't know how to list it's name).

It was a $12-15 bottle of Cava that local wine wholesaler, the Wine Outlet, was selling for $9 a bottle. It was totally doable. When we purchased our sample bottle of the Freixenet, the salesman told us that if we were buying, we'd have to purchase by June 14th because it was going on sale that day. They had quite a few cases in stock since December and the bottles were not moving. We think it's because not too many people have something to celebrate in this economy. We'd actually had this Cava at New Years and really liked it. I almost bought our wedding bottles then but then changed my mind. Where would we put it?

I'm so glad I changed my mind and this turned out to be the favorite Cava of our 3 samples, plus we got a steal of a deal during the sale. The $9 bottle went down to $5. Yes, FIVE DOLLARS!! Seriously! We ended up buying 33 bottles and it only cost us $180.84 including tax!

Why 33? We bought bought 2 cases for the wedding. I had originally budgeted for 1.5 cases at $10 a bottle. I figure we'd just use the Cava for the toast and not give guest full glasses but at $5 a bottle, we could get 24 bottles at $120, and still be under the $180 I budgeted for 18 $10 bottles. We also got 6 bottles for the rehearsal dinner and 3 extra bottles for us; 1 to celebrate getting our building permit (if that ever happens), 1 for our 1st anniversary and 1 just cause. You never know when you should pop open a bottle of bubbly.

In addition to the great deal on Cava, we also picked out 9 bottles of Magnificent Wine's 2007 Chardonnay. It wasn't the winner at the tasting, but it was in the top 3. Why did we pick up 9 bottles? Because they were selling them for $3 a bottle. Yup! Including tax, it came to under $30. We figure we'll either use it at the rehearsal dinner, shower or bachelorette dinner.

Right now, I think we'll be right at budget or under for our beverages.

Budget: $720
4 bottles of Pimm's - $74.25
24 bottles of Cava - $131.52
18 bottles of Red - $106.53
18 bottles of White - $150.91

Total left - $256.79

Left to buy (these are estimates):
4 bottle of Gin or Rum - $80 (buy at PX - no tax)
4 cases of beer - $22-26 each plus tax
Assorted sodas and mixers (lemonade) - $30

I can't believe the deal we got. Seriously, I almost feel guilty. What wedding steal are you most proud of?

P.S. This is our Red option

Unexpected Expense

If you looked at the Joey budget, you'd see that we tried to budget for everything (accept the thank you gifts). We have parking listed, alcohol license accounted for and even put a little money away for signs.

Turns out we already have an unexpected cost. What is it? This….

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No, we're not having a baby but a lot of our friends and relatives have and are. So what does that mean for us? Well, we're having to budget for these:

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Yes, high chairs. The Lake Union Café has two booster seats but we have 4 little ones attending who will need high chairs. We also have about three kids 2-3 years old. This wasn't something I was expecting. I'm not complaining, I just wasn't expecting it. Yes, we could make it an adults only party, but that does seem right to us. My family has always included kids in events. I can't imagine what it would be like to get married and not have some of my cousins there. We're 11 years apart, but we still get along and during family gatherings, I'd much rather hang out with them than the adults.

So now we're renting high chairs. I've been looking around and I think I found a place that will rent high chairs for $4.50 a day and deliver them to our reception site. Not bad. We have an extra $50 we saved from our church and pre-marital counseling fees. That still keeps us on top by $30.

Have you been surprised by some unplanned expenses? What were they and did they dent the budget?

Budget - the details....

Before you look down and see the numbers, I want to say that this is obviously not a budget wedding. I know people have gotten married for a lot less. This is our budget and we feel like it's pretty small considering the number of people who are invited and the expectations of our parents.

This is a budget in progress as we're not married yet. If a number and line item is in italics, that means the category is closed and we've spent all we needed for it. All bolded numbers are the original estimate for the line item. All money leftover in one category was applied to the honeymoon or another category.

Obviously there are categories we could have eliminated to save some money, but everyone has their priorities.

Reception for 130 people

-Food/venue space $6000/$4000 - My parents weren't happy with our original. Wrote about this.
-Drink $700/$400 - We have 32 people who don't drink and we get to bring in our own booze for an open bar. $400? What was I thinking!?
-Cake $115/$400 - 200 cream puffs for $100!
-Music $0/$200 - we're going with the ipod but will have some live music.

Wedding Party

-Wedding dress $266 - I have a friend who can do alteration for free if needed
-Accessories $100 - This includes shoes, hairpiece (this one and my new one) and eyelashes.
-Hair and Make-up $115 including tip
-MOH dress and Accessories $80/$75
-Mr. Joey's clothes $241.95/$500 - This includes a new suit, shirt and tie.
-Ties for ushers and BM $57.51/$60
-Boutonnieres/corsages $92/was not in the original budget - includes Mr.Joey's, BM, ushers, ring boy and both sets of parents
-Flower girl & ring boy $19/was not in the original budget - fabric for her dress and his tie

Ceremony

-Church fee $250/$0-500 - We got 2 different quotes and now it has been finalized.
-Breakfast bar $150/wasn't in original budget - This is just an estimate and it may come out to a lot less
-Ring bowl $29.25/$10 - It a bit much for a ring pillow but it will double as our first Christmas tree ornament.
-Ms. Joey and MOH bouquets $30/$5 - We are going to get something simple done at Pike Place Market. Summer is amazing for flowers there. We were going to grow the flowers ourselves.

Decor

-Reception flowers $175 - we may only need about $100 because we're doing single stems for centerpieces.
-Reception centerpieces $197.50/$100 - We bought fabric and vases. It may seem like a lot but we have a post wedding project for the fabric and think we can sell most of the vases afterwards. Plus flowers won't cost us much with our arrangement.
-Other decorations $100 - I'm sure we'll need a few cake stands (we're hitting Goodwill) and a few other things we can't think of right now.

Photography

-Photographer $300 - A bargain for over 8 hours of shooting plus extra time touching up pictures
-Prints $25 - Shutterfly here we come
-Photo for parents $25 - we're going to give both our parents a frame picture of the wedding.
Ross and Marshall's has some great deals on frames.
-Our photo album $20 - we're headed back to Ross or Marshall's
-Guest book $8.75/$25 - It's a surprise but you'll read about it soon.

Stationary

-Save the Dates $28.54/$25
-Invitations $233.18/$500 - this includes my mess ups, the tubes and everything else
-Thank Yous $15.55/$25 - I bought the supplies already
-Reception signage $10/was not in the original budget - frames for drink/food menus. Probably Goodwill again
-Postage $125/$200 - this includes STD, invitations and thank yous
-Programs $20/was not in the original budget - I have paper left over from the invites and I might need some ribbon or something

Rings

-Mr. Joey's Ring $250/$150
-Ms. Joey's Ring $50/$150 - I have a post explaining this

Misc

-Reception favors $85.75/$100 - for 150 favors
-Wedding License $64
-Banquet License $10 - for alcohol
-Venue Parking $250 - there is a lot of street parking but we may rent the lot next door for convenience
-Pre-Cana/Marriage Prep $225/was not in the original budget.

Honeymoon so far $4469.65/$4000 - that's how much we have but we haven't spent even half yet. We bought out tickets and have 4 nights hotel booked already. The trip is 12 days long.

In total that comes to around $15,000. Yes we've invited 150 and have budgeted for 130. By our count, we have about 13 people we know won't come. Because it was my parents that kept adding people, they have said they'd pay for the extra guests.

The Lake Union Cafe fee includes the food, most of the set-up, the clean up and there is no cake cutting fee. It was about the same to go with them as a local community center because we didn't have to buy insurance. If we wanted to get married on site at Lake Union Cafe, it would have cost us $500 extra which the same as the church.

Also, no wedding night hotel wasn't mentioned because my aunt is giving us a night in a hotel for free. My uncle works at a lovely hotel in the city. Any music we don't own we'll get from the library or friends. 2 of my sister's friends have volunteered to be the day of wedding coordinators for free.

We know that gifts for the wedding party aren't included. We don't know what it will be and we're trying to come up with fun, handmade options.

I know we'll probably be over by $1000 but I guess that's what our tax returns are for. Although if we get just 125 people, we'll be under budget.

The land down under

So I did it! I bought our honeymoon tickets today. I've been monitoring ticket prices to Sydney for a few weeks now and slowly they have been going up a few bucks everyday. Mr. Papaya Dog and I were talking about it last night and he suggested that I just buy the tickets now. We know we're going and we know the dates, what's stopping us? So I did it. I bought the tickets.

Actually, I think I got a pretty good deal. I was told tickets to Sydney from Seattle usually run about $1300-$1400 each for a round trip ticket. I found a great deal on Expedia that will get us there for a little more than $1300 each and includes a 3 night stay at a 5 star hotel in Sydney. It's going to be winter when we're there in August, but it's shouldn't be colder than 50 degrees in Sydney and up north it will be in the 80s.

Now that I got the big purchase out of the way, I can just sit on the honeymoon planning until April/May or until I'm sent away on another work trip and need something to do as I pass time in the airport.

We are on a budget but I don't want to scrimp too much on the trip. We've been doing a little creative money making to pay for the trip. We've been making all our online purchases through ebates. I know other bees have mentioned it before, but they have dozens of stores they work with and if you enter a stores website through the ebates site, you get a certain percentage of your purchase back in cash every quarter. It's only a few dollars here and there but it adds up. We have almost $200 already.

We're also selling stuff we don't need on ebay and craigslist and putting that money towards the trip. It's amazing how much stuff we've found laying around our apartment that we no longer use or have never even taken out of the packaging.

The last place I've been earning money is through my per diems. I travel a lot for work and on average don't spend all the per diem I've given. I usually have about $100-200 left over after every trip. Last year I went on 4 trips for work. That could be $400-800 towards the honeymoon.

How are you raising extra funds for the wedding? Part-time job?

Money, Money, Money

Ah the budget. What can I say but ARH! We're working with a very small budget -- $15,000 for the wedding AND the honeymoon. An intimate wedding for $10,000? Doable right? What about an intimate wedding with 130 guests for under $10,000? A little crazy? That's what I thought.

We saved a lot of money on my dress since it's pretty simple and hand-made. In total, it only cost me $265! We're committing wedding blasphemy and not doing engagement pictures and not really having a professional photographer for the ceremony or the reception. I have a couple friends and friends of friends who are amatur photographers and looking for work to beef up their portfolio. I'm meeting with a few of them next week and hoping that someone would work within our measly budget of $400. We're really just not picture people.

Like many of the other bees, I'm DIY-ing the invitations myself. The invitations require a separate post, so I won't go into the details. I made the Save the Date postcards with Photobooth on our Mac and InDesign on my work computer. They came out pretty good and only cost $26 to produce. We've gotten a lot of compliments about them. We're trying to do our part to save money where we can.

We got hit hard in a few places. Mr. Papaya Dog works for a Catholic high school in the area and we were told we could use the chapel for free since the wedding is in the summer. When we met with the priest to discuss details, he let us know that he wasn't charging us for his services but we'd have to pay the teacher discount for the chapel - $500. We're trying to see if we can get around that. We also didn't plan on paying for the mandatory premarital counseling. I heard it was between $200-500.

We also planned on using my frequent flyer miles for part of our honeymoon airfare and my Aunt's timeshare for one of our weeks away. We couldn't get reservation for any of the 10 properties in Greece we wanted to stay at so we change our honeymoon plans to Australia (the Joey's -- get it?). That seemed OK until I realized I didn't have enough miles to get even half of one of our tickets to Sydney covered. We could pick somewhere else but we both have our hearts set on Australia and you only live once right? So instead of saving money on the moneymoon, I mean honeymoon, we're using everything we budgeted. It may be time to come up with a budget cutback plan.

Some of the first things to go would be the favors and the music. We plan on making limoncello and bottling it for our guests. While we can get the lemons for free and the Vodka at a reasonable price but it's the bottles that wouldn't come cheap. Actually, they aren't too expensive but getting them shipped would be.

I have a little money budgeted for a band, but in the end we may have to go with the trusty ipod. Not as exciting, but it's better than nothing. We're still hoping one of Mr. Papaya Dog's many musician friends will "gift" us their services.

I'm trying to come up with other places to save money. In the end, I think it will come down to turnout. We've invited 150 people. If 25 of those people don't show up, it will be a huge help. We've got a lot of family members we were asked to invite.

What elements are you will to change or scrap to stay within budget and which ones are considered no fly zones?