I'm the logistics person between me and my husband, and this is what I would do:
1) Get a prediction of your wedding expenses based on head count and other peoples' expenditures. Cast your head count early and try to keep it low. Plan on a weekday morning wedding (cheaper venue and food) along with a low season and perhaps cut the bar. I ended up with a dry wedding simply because I think it's tacky to drink before 5PM, and my wedding ended before 2. Having things on a weekday will also mean some people can't make it because of work, which again trims down your head count (but don't rely on that).
2) Get an outside florist for as much as you can. I did one for all bouquets and boutonnieres, which saved me at least a couple hundred dollars.
3) Hunt now for a wedding dress you like (or a few) to get an idea of the price range you're looking at. Grab an estimate for tailoring as well, so this is all in your budget.
4) With your predicted cost in hand, estimate for inflation and add that in.
5) Now figure out your everyday budget. How much do you need for groceries, gas, and bills? Medical expenses? Look at your past expenses and see if there is any way to cut back on smaller things like going to the movies or eating out. If you don't have them, get the free point systems to grocery stores to save yourself some cash. Some grocery stores also have gas pumps that will use saved points to give you discounts.
6) With the everyday budget in hand, try to figure out how much money you can comfortably save each paycheck. Stash that money away in your account somewhere and track it separately so you can watch it grow. MAKE SURE YOU REALLY DON'T NEED THAT MONEY ELSEWHERE!
7) Cast a future prediction at the rate you have. If you're saving $100/month from now til a September 2016 wedding (just using an arbitrary month), will you have saved enough? Will you be close? How much more would you need to save?
8) Even if your prediction cast is a little short, don't worry too much. You might find one of the dresses you wanted on sale in the intervening time. You might get a windfall, or one of you might get a better-paying job. If that happens, recalculate how much you can afford to save and see if you can reach that number!
I hope this helps you with your predictions. This is how my husband and I were able to afford to visit Japan (and the Disney there!) last year, and we had a great time. We even ended up with some money left over, so our next big trip might be sooner than we thought.
We've been working on the guest list. We have a rough draft, but need to talk to both sets of parents to see if there's any must have relatives that we're missing. I'd ideally like to keep the head count low, since I'm well aware that f&b is the highest chunk of the budget. Yay for working in food? We also discussed the timing of the wedding while we were on our way to my parents' house today (having dinner with them... whenever they get home) and have pretty much determined that we want either a 10am or 12pm ceremony on a weekday. I'd prefer early in the week, since those are cheaper, but he's undecided. So that at least has kept the cost low so far.
Honestly, I'm thinking about just giving them a budget for the floral and telling them to just make it pretty. Like, $800 or whatever. We'll figure it out. With the reception location we like, I'm not sure we could use outside floral anyway (we're leaning toward ADH for the reception and YCG for the ceremony).
My mom actually offered to buy my dress for me, since they're not going to be helping cover any other costs. We're going to Alfred Angelo in early November, since they have a few dresses that I really like, but I know David's Bridal has one that I like for pretty cheap. I'd rather not go there, given the way they tend to treat plus size brides, but if I have to, I have to.
We're working on the budget. We just moved in together about six weeks ago and I had a job change with a pretty big pay cut (the new job is better for my mental and physical health), so we're still figuring that out to begin with. Once I'm done with school, I'll be able to get a job paying a minimum of 30% more per hour, so it's really just a matter of finishing. Not to mention being able to work full time as opposed to part time.
Thank you for the advice! I'll discuss it with him later and we'll go from there
I use mint.com for every day budgeting. It has helped me sooo much. It will tell you how much you are spending on food, clothing, transportation, bills, etc. You can set up goals to see how long it will take you to save up a certain amount of money. It also helps you clearly see where your money is going and where you have wiggle room to really cut back.
I have an account on Mint, which has been pretty useful. I'll play with the functionality tomorrow, since I've got the time then. DF is hesitant to use it because he worries about identity theft.
Think carefully how you want to handle floral. If you have your reception at one of the convention center ballrooms, then you can use outside floral, but then you also will have to decorate more. If you use a themed area such as Atlantic dance hall or Ariel's, then you can't use outside floral but you won't have to decorate much. We're at about $700 for disney floral, including personal floral.
Yeah, that's what I thought. We'd like to use ADH for the reception, but we can probably go with a ballroom if our guest count drops too low to use it. So we'll likely just stick with Disney for their floral. Thank you!
This is important- because it still cost $950 to bring in an outside DJ. A family friend working for free would save money, however if you hire an outside (non-Disney) DJ in Orlando, you still must pay the $950 outside vendor fee, plus your DJ's fee. This would put you over the amount you would pay Disney in the end.
Also, should you hire an outside DJ, remember what you pay the outside DJ will not count toward your Disney minimums. Just a few things to keep in mind!
Hope this helps
Honestly, we'll probably just stick with one of Disney's DJ vendors. It's cheaper in the long run and one less person we have to seek out on our own. Thank you!
Hi,
Were currently saving too. If possible, have you thought about living on one of your wages and saving the other? It would help to ensure you have a specific amount you save. Maybe getting a tin to save in that can't be opened without a can opener?
Or giving set amounts of cash to the parents to put in a safe (if available) and make a note of how much you have saved?
Cut down on Christmas and Birthdays, only the essential people and explain why to everyone. Save any money you get from Christmas's and birthdays too.
Look at the memories collection and the escape collection? They are packages and can help you save a fortune, especially if you can get rid of select people in your wedding party by stating you have a limited number of guests and you had to pull names out of a hat
Mon/Tue/Wed morning and a small brunch somewhere small
We are also cutting down on things we don't need or use ie. downgrading sky, getting rid of un-needed direct debits ie. Gym and insurance for a laptop we barely use
We're currently basically living on his wage with mine supplementing. He makes at least double what I do a month, so he insisted on taking care of most of the rent. Unfortunately, I've also got my own personal bills, which are my own responsibility to take care of at this time, so that's where a lot of my income goes right now. He's talked about picking up a second job and saving that for the wedding, but we're not sure.
If I were to give my parents money for safekeeping, I'd never see it again. My dad and I do not have the best relationship, especially where money's concerned.
We've pretty much already decided to cut down on holidays as much as we can. We're working on it
Unfortunately, neither of us are particularly thrilled with the idea of having that small of a wedding. We both have a lot of people we'd like to have there, so the Wishes option is really what works best for us.
Neither of us have a gym membership and I don't have insurance. We have cable internet because he's an online gamer and I need to have access for school. The only revolving payments we really have, aside from rent and the one utility we pay for, are my cell phone bill and the Netflix (downgraded to just streaming, and we use it ALL the time). We've pretty much cut back on everything we're willing to do without.
We did some of this, especially the Christmas gift/Birthday gift thing. Cancelled Cable (except for football season) and just really getting rid of non-essentials. Totally worth it.
Yeah, we've pretty much already done that. We didn't have cable TV to start with, but we got a pretty cheap internet plan when we moved in last month. It's hard to figure out what else to cut when you don't have much else you CAN cut without making yourself miserable.
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), but I'm also eligible for a lot of financial aid through the state, which has been helpful. But yeah, his income is pretty steady, since his hours only vary by maybe 2-5 per week. He's looking into getting a second job, but it depends on if his full time one will work with him on it. Once I'm done with school, I'll be working full time (and, if everything goes according to plan, for Disney). It's just getting through these next six and a half months.
