The total cost of your wedding is the amount spent to put your wedding together. The total cost of your wedding is not:
- The amount you spent personally. Mom's money is still money. Aunt Shelly's gift of flowers is still a wedding element that cost someone money. Imagine if someone tried to pass off a fully paid for reception as "free" because Dad picked up the tab!
- The amount spent after perks or discounts have been applied. Congratulations on getting recognized in a national magazine or online publication! You should be proud of your beautiful wedding, but you should not try to make budget brides believe that they'll get huge discounts on planning, photography, or invitations. Those people gave you freebies and/ or discounts because they would receive free advertising and publicity.
- The pre-tax/ pre-tip/ pre-service charge amount. These charges aren't fun, but they do exist and we must embrace them. Sure, I'd love to leave out those 8-30% add-ons too!
- The costs associated with the big ticket items alone. The details are easy to forget about, but $25-100 here and there adds up fast. Things like escort cards, personalized napkins, and flower girl baskets belong in the big budget as well.
Yours truly,
A bride that plans on counting every penny spent.
**Again, this isn't about any one person- it's about the new "trend" of budget weddings motivating quite a few brides to jump on the "wow, look how great my super-cheap wedding was" train... to the point where they might just try and show off a budget that is not so much grounded in reality.
Posts
4 comments:
Amen! This drives me crazy too.
I've been keeping track of every penny we've spent on our wedding and I plan on sharing it on my blog afterward. I think honesty is severely lacking in most "budgets".
Awesome vent! I totally agree. "Reception: free" hahaha.
Great point about the little odds and ends. If you're not keeping an eye on the accessories, you have no idea how much they're adding up.
Now to make you proud, one of my good friends is getting married in April and has actually been able to stick to her 5,000 dollar budget. It's a destination wedding and she's a professional interior designer, so needless to say she has fabulous taste.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how she pulls it off and keeps it from looking like a 5k wedding!
I totally agree!! I tried to be as upfront as I could when calculating ours (I didn't include the honeymoon, but it was pretty low-key - and fun :)), but even then, I don't know if it actually helps anyone, because it's so personal and wedding-specific. Once we figured out what we wanted to spend, I TRIED to stop comparing with every other "budget" wedding out there (and most call themselves that even when it costs what an "average" wedding costs - so relative!)
(if you do want to check it out, it's here: http://silver-sandalled.blogspot.com/2010/08/our-wedding-budget-touchy-subject-alert.html)
Post a Comment