Has anyone stuck to their original wedding budget?

We started with a ball park number of trying to stay close to $5,000 total for the wedding. we are 10 days away and all said and done, looks like our grand total is $6,782, so not bad at all!! 130 guests invited, 100 said they are coming.. feeling great!!

Honeymoon budget was separate. but we found an air b'n'b for the week for $2,020 (not including eating out/ food budget for eating in/any tours we do)

Girl. No. LMAO. I find it hard for any bride to really stick to their budget. Once you start planning and go full speed into it, there will always, ALWAYS, be small little details that you thought would be part of cost, but end up being extra expenses. Also, those other little details you thought about that end up being more and more extra, with new decor and details being added in. It’s been great... 🙃
We had an original budget of 20k. It’s now like 25k 🤦🏻‍♀️🥲 not too bad, but being a teacher with not great income and other bills to pay for AND we’ll be buying a house soon, end up a lot.
Bur in the end, as long as you can afford that extra spending, it’ll be worth it because you’re married and celebrating your love!💜

Also when parents add like 50 people you don’t care about to your list it adds up 😒 lmao

Our budget was 15,000 yeah we are now 28k which we shouldn’t go over too much

View Quoted Comment Separate. I have a wedding budget and a honeymoon “this is what it costs” lol

I definitely did not. original budget i was hoping for somewhere around 10k. but i hiked it up another 5k cause i realized what i wanted wasn't going to be possible without costing more.

Haven't started booking anything yet, but already have a basic budget and expect to come in under it.

Reasons:

1. I know what a $10k versus $20k versus $50k wedding in our area looks like after working in the industry. I know what I want my vow renewal to look like, and I know about what it'll cost for that to happen.

2. I'm overestimating some costs. If it's a cost that is openly listed somewhere and it's a "non-0 or non-5" number, I round up. For example, if the published cost is $3200, I round it to $3500.

3. I'm accounting for additional fees. For example, the venue has a cost listed, but it also has a required refundable deposit of $500. I included this $500 in the venue budget, because it is effectively not in my wallet until after the event, so it can't be spent on anything else.

4. I'm including things I'm on the fence about. I figure it's better to decide later I don't feel like spending the money on it, than to exclude it from the budget and then realize I actually do want the $300 cape veil or whatever else.

5. Included extra guests in my roundabout food/drink budget. I'm budgeting for 50 guests, even though our current guest list is only 30 including us. This will either put us nicely under budget, or give us a nice buffer in case we add people - such as if our currently-single friends are not single when the time comes, or if we make new friends we couldn't imagine the day without (after all, we're looking at 2023 - I just met one of my absolute best friends in July last year, so I know how things can change.)

Nope... original goal was in the 30k range... I think in the end it will land around 40k. Admittedly, nearly 10k of that is custom rings (don't make the same mistake we did and order rings before you've even set a budget, LMAO), but yeah... all the little things add up. $125 for table runners?! $50 for a card box??

Our honeymoon budget is separate.

Altogether I'm wishing we had eloped like he wanted. Why did I want this...

Lol no. We’re like 6k over 😂

I was about $2000.00 over budget. There were some things that I purchased that were more than I wanted to spend but it was well worth it for our wedding.

Hahahahahaha no, lol. I'm jealous of anyone who was able to.

I'm so nervous about this! Before I ever got engaged, I thought a $10k budget (before honeymoon) would be totally doable, then we started looking into the actual cost of vendors in our area and we thought maybe $20k could work. Then we realized $25k was more realistic if we wanted it in the summer, but that was cutting out things we actually really wanted like a nicer photographer and videographer. We're going to be closer to $33k (before honeymoon) and we can realistically make that work, but because I come from a frugal background, that seems like so so much to me. I can't bare going over that amount.

And that's with already cutting so many things - we aren't doing real florals (just fake), I'm designing our invitations and printing at Costco or FedEx, going DIY on decor, we're not getting a big cake, we're going to have a partial cash bar, and we're going to try to keep the guest list to under 150 guests. I know people say not to spend so much on one day, but a good chunk of our budget is going to photo & video which we'll have for more than one day. That, and the food and DJ which I feel add to the experience for guests.

Would love advice from people on how to get over the mental hurdle of spending so much money. 😂

What budget? 😭😭😭😭😂

🤣🤣🤣🤣 oh my. See here is what happened. We chose to have a small wedding, we invited family and a few friends, most from out of town. I planned for 35 BUT all these people that I thought would NEVER attend are tired of being stuck at home and our wedding is there 1st VACATION since the pandemic. LMAO Now we have 52 coming and the budget is shot. However, I am so excited to have them come I will gladly figure it out. Not to mention now I want the photographer longer, and my dress was WAY over budget, and the little things just keep adding up. 🙂