How far did you go over your budget?

Ive been hitting the wine this fine rainy afternoon, so I mostly skimmed the comments and will now chime in with an unfiltered opinion.

I admittedly judge those, a little bit, who go over budget. WHATEVER your budget is. Our wedding day is supposed to be special, but special is in the eye of the beholder. Special to one person may cost $500. Special to another may cost $250k. Whatever is your budget, whether it be from your parents, trust fund, hard work, lottery winnings....its your bag.

But going over that amount you decided is enough is, TO ME, just not smart. I wanted a photo booth but couldn't afford it. So I went without. I wanted invitations and thank you cards that had our pictures. But I couldn't afford it, so I went without. I wanted many things but they would have put us over budget, AND I didn't truly need them to make our day special. So I went without. And our wedding day was amazing, beautiful, and I'm so glad I didn't spend an extra $4k on it.

Glug glug glug

PS totally drinking leftover boxed red from our wedding. Budget friendly!

Mrs.T - I totally didn't understand that either. It must have been a typo and she meant 15k. No one with a 150k budget even shops at Michaels.

I just wanted to add that I think the location of your wedding plays a key role in your wedding budget. We have brides on here from all over the US and Canada. The prices of things are not going to be the same. I don't think anyone should make comments about people spending a lot of much money when they don't know that person's situation.

I've been away from the site for awhile. We had our wedding for around $4,000. We could have gotten carried away and spent more, but I'm proud of the fact that we were able to have our perfect day and were still able to put money in savings every month (on top of wedding costs). We had a professional photographer, caterer, plenty of alcohol, live music and our flowers were amazing. It was a DIY extravaganza. I just want to give low budget brides hope. It is possible to have a great wedding on a shoestring budget.

We haven't and don't plan on it. We are cutting things out so that we don't go over our budget. We are at about 15 k, and that floors me to spend that much on five hours. I refuse to go over more, so things like a videographer got cut out. How are you paying for your over budget stuff? We had a set amount from my parents, and we have to come up with the rest. It's one day- I don't believe in going crazy or spending over what you have

And also, I think the words "over budget" are relative. It's one thing to go over budget and not be able to pay for what you bought, but it's totally another to go over budget and be able to pay for it no problem

I read an article recently about people that spent a ton on things..... How do they feel later down the road in a few years. It was just a question.

Well.....that depends on how you prioritize things. I'm not a car person. I have enough set aside to buy a 30k car whenever it is I need to do it and even that seems excessive. I am still driving the car I bought 7 years ago with 106k miles on it. Would I regret buying a 50k car? Absolutely, because I view it as a bad investment. I'm typing on the laptop I've had for five years. It works fine, so I don't really see the need to purchase a new one. I don't own an ipad. I kept my phone for four years. But in general, I don't "regret" things. I make my peace with things and move on. If it was a bad investment, I say "I'm not buying another general motors car when I purchase my next one".

I have friends that put their kids thru expensive college (50 grand a year x 4) and the kids get out and 5 years later are doing jobs that didn't require that expensive education.

Well.....when it comes to my son, I'm going to tell him the amount that exists in his 529, and anything beyond that, he'll be on his own. And then I'm going to show him what student loan payments will cost versus his expected salary like my parents did with me. I was accepted to MIT. I would have loved to have gone there. But I sure as hell didn't want to take out 80k worth of loans to do it.

Lauren, we are paying for the over budget stuff with our savings, but it won't hurt us if we essentially "pull out a loan" from ourselves and pay ourselves back. For the most part we are taking a a few thousand a month out of our checks and paying that towards the wedding and anything we didn't pay for upright will be payed back to..us. if that makes sense lol

I can't believe some people spend so much for a wedding! Wow! My budget was $6,000 and I'm probably going to come in around $9,000 after it's all said and done... I try not to think about it much although I'm very cost conscious.

Our initial budget was only $12K, but then I found some money, which increased our budget to $25K. In the end it cost us almost $30K including our honeymoon. I'm not sorry for a dime or a minute of it. It was so worth it. Best.Wedding.Ever.

We have a 30k budget for the wedding and so far we haven't gone over. Our parents will give us a contribution which we will use to save.

Maybe 2-5k over at the end of the day including all the lodging and food and such.

WOW, I can't believe how 'judgey' people are being about budgets. When we made our first budget we had NO idea how much stuff costs. I don't know where everyone is from, but we are in Toronto and stuff is EXPENSIVE and we are inviting over 160 people to our wedding.

I love how people are judging so hard about how it 'must be nice to be so rich'. We are rich by NO MEANS. But if we were going to have a wedding we were gonna make sure we do it the way we want rather than wasting money to have a wedding did not reflect our style/tastes.

If that means spending $50,000 then so be it. We earned that money and SAVED it. No need to be snarky about how people choose to spend their money. We will not be in debt when all is said and done, and we will be buying a house after the wedding with all the left over money that we have worked hard to save for many years. Who are you to tell me how to spend my money?

Don't look down on people with larger budgets because you live somewhere where $5000 is 8 months of mortgage. LOL!! I wish that was how much a mortgage was here! I'd have a house 10 years ago. If you want a $5000 wedding then have it. No need to be snotty.

I don't think anyone said 'it must be nice to be so rich' did they? I think you're reading into things.

And I don't know what you're suggesting with the comment about the mortgage thing. That seems rather 'snotty' to me. And seeing as I was the one who made the mortgage comment I am going to assume it was directed at me. It seems to me that you're suggesting that because I am going to be living in a place with low house prices I am what exactly?

You are making just as many assumptions about brides with smaller budgets as you think are being made about big budget brides.

I think every bride on this thread has worked to save their money for the wedding, be it 5k or 50k.

Despite the fact that Janeen and I disagreed earlier in this thread, I actually agree with with her latest post about priorities and so on. Some smaller budget brides may just have different priorities. For me not going over my budget was a priority. I said 15-16k and I am doing everything I can to stick to it.

But again, this discussion wasn't about the size of your budget, but going over that budget. If your budget is 5k or 500k going over it to me seems like a bad idea.

@Nicola I think some people can afford more than others and a lot of those people have families paying for the wedding and many others don't so we have to stick to certain limitations. If I had 100k in the bank just for the wedding I would consider 5k pocket change. Our budget was 10k and I think we will end around 15k which is what I had been prepared for so no surprises. I actually started at 8k then realized in my city I would never get married with a budget like that a lot depends on your location. We are paying 90% of the wedding our families are putting in the 10%.

I'm still in shock over the $5000 covering 8 mortgage payments. I want that!! We are looking to buy a house this year and that would cover just over 2 mortgage payments, ugh.

You could buy a condo or a modest house in Phoenix and have a $625 a month mortgage payment. I know 3 people with smaller mortgages than that. Phoenix. Not Scottdale lol. Maybe Mesa too...

Here is one currently on the market: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5030-S-6th-St-Phoenix-AZ-85040/81990091_zpid/

!!! Crazy!! We are looking at at least $500k for a small older starter home. Location does make a huge difference.

I've been having the itch to buy a house now, but I know once the wedding planning is in full swing, I'll be freaking out lol. All I do is mess around on WW and look at houses we aren't buying lol