How many of you went over budget?

I set a really conservative budget of $30,000 for 150 guests by looking at other people's budgets for my area online. It's looking like we'll come out around $22,000 so I'm actually way under budget.

We just cut back on a lot of stuff that we don't feel isn't necessary for our wedding. We're not doing flowers; not renting any decor, table cloths, chair covers; buying less expensive invitations, 100 STD postcards on vistaprint for $20, 100 generic thank you cards from Michaels for $30; gourmet doughnuts instead of wedding cake ($2 per doughnut and no cutting fee); etc.

So I had not realised initially how expensive weddings where .. we started at 15k .. somehow it's coming in around 25k for everything .. 15k was my ideal lol but it's not happening in Philadelphia area

We don't really have a set budget just an amount we do not want to go over. We have all major vendors booked, our venue is all inclusive (florist, DJ, cater, decorations, ceremony musician). I'm not sure that saved us money because we couldn't find deals but it definitely saved us the heartache. We did have to find MUA, photographer and videographer on our own and we spent a decent amount on those. I wasn't really willing to go the cheap route with those vendors. But overall it was easy to set a budget since we knew exactly what our venue was charging for all vendors included and we only had to research a few other things, I think we will still be in under our highest number we told ourselves.

Our original idea was $10,000 (actually my dad wanted to pay for my entire wedding for 5,000). But after shopping around and looking at venues and vendor fees we set a loose budget in the 10-15 range. I've been pretty thrifty with my vendors so far while still ensuring they do quality work. The venue was the most important thing to me and my dad gifted us money to pay for that and the catering. My FH father has been telling me that he wants to pay for a videographer, and my mom gifted me my dress. So we are very lucky to have such a generous family.

We originally set an unrealistic budget of 15k lol. After researching vendors and venues in our area, we bumped it to 20-25k. If we stay under 25, which at the moment seems like we will, we'll be happy.

We ended up close to $3000 under budget, not including my ring and honeymoon which were always separate.

Budget of $10K not including RD, honeymoon or rings. After thank you cards are sent out, we'll be about $1,700 over budget but that's definitely been offset by family gifts that I did not anticipate. So I think we did a much better than average job of sticking to our budget.

Ideally, we wanted to spend no more than 10K. However, when looking at photographers, florists, and venues, we knew that we were gonna blow that out of the water. I believe it was all in the low 30s.

I was convinced I could do it at $10k and realized it was actually going to be $20k for my ideal wedding for 80 people.

Before we scaled back, we went over FH's budget of 8k but were still under mine of 12k. Mostly because of my want of a videographer & full open bar vs beer and wine. So, after a heart to heart, we scaled back to a 8k wedding for 30 people with everything we both want.

We set a range 30-40 k. We're right at 30 now, but haven't finished ordering a few more things. I think we'll likely end up right in the middle of our range.

I get the sticker shock. We just got our wedding cake yesterday for little over a thousand (it'll be delicious though!).

Our goal was to stay under $30k but just booked our dream venue for $23k still need dj, florist, photographer, videographer, attire and gifts. I estimate we will be $5k over "budget".

Budget is $10k, I expect to be $2-3k over. We only have our venue (food/alcohol included), photographer and DJ so we still have plenty of other vendors to book.

We were incredibly naive and wanted to spend $6k on our whole wedding LOL Then we stepped into the real world and set a flexible budget of $10-15k. We'll finish at around $13k after thank you cards.

I'm not sure if we're going over, I think I'll be a little under.

Didn’t have a budget but TOTALLY are over what we wanted to spend. We honestly just had no idea how expensive everything was, especially these damn flowers!!

We started with a $15k budget, before realizing how expensive everything is! Now knowing how much our booked caterer, photog, and venue are, plus how much we'll probably spend on DJ, florist, etc., we're looking at $25k. Oof. Currently debating whether to cut my guest list by 2/3 to save a measly $5k, or keep it as-is and just suck it up!

We said we could spend 10k, my parents gave us 20k (anything over we pay for and anything under will be gifted to us), for a total of 30k. His dad offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner. I think we will end up around 15 to 17 k. FH and I both hate spending money and will look around for a good deal that is still quality. Plus we are only inviting around 50 people.

I have a 20k budget. With everything pretty much accounted for, it seems like I'll be coming in around 16k (assuming the max for my catering). So $4000 under budget!!!

One thing that helps: since my FH and I had an initial guest list around 100 and my parents and grandmother managed to add another 70 people to that, my Dad has offered to reimburse me for anyone who comes above the 125 count.

We originally thought we could do it for 10K. Then we actually played with numbers and talked to vendors. We had no major splurges and spent about 25k.