A Wedding Budget: How We did Ours

When it comes to planning that budget for the wedding you have to know what it is you really want. What did I want when I was planning my wedding July 2015? How many of you are thinking "I wanted the princess, white dress, church, family, etc. wedding" Basically a I want it all thought process. Those were my thoughts when I was planning my wedding. It was hard not to feel this way. I wanted everything to be perfect. I felt as though I had one of the hardest childhoods, chaotic family's, and overall I just was asking God for this one perfect day....that isn't too much to ask for right? So when setting my budget I made a list of all the things that I "needed" at my wedding and I highly recommend you do the same if you are the bride, groom, or even the parents. Now this is the point that many wedding people will tell you to look at the list and your budget again and decide what you really "need" and what are additions that you could have in the end. I am not going to be that wedding planner! My suggestion is quite simple...do your research. I knew my wedding dress was of course very important. I also desperately wanted to feel like a princess...thus my tiara, and beautiful jewelry combo. I also wanted shoes that stood out and so they were red with jewels (our wedding colors were silver and red). However, I didn't care about the cost of my shoes or jewelry. So I did research online. If you are wanting cheap shoes (they have lasted to this day still also) that won't break the budget when paying for things I suggest websites like www.10dollarmall.com I bought my shoes from the discount section for $5. This way a way for me to still get gorgeous shoes but at a lower price so I could spend more on other things. I also bought my reception decor (we had the reception in the gym of the church-it is also a school-for free) from dollartree.com and saved a bundle. If you want pew bows search online. You can find them for around 50 cents each on some websites. All you have to do is take them out and fluff them and then you don't have the high cost of flowers on each pew in the church. Another recommendation is to go to bridal shows! I know it takes up time...which sometimes is difficult with your schedule. But the earlier you go to a bridal show the more money you are likely to save. I did NOT sign with anyone when there except my DJ though. Really listen for the deals and decide because sometimes you can save more money by holding out and just accepting a coupon from the event. However, there will be groups there like my DJ that just offer you an astounding deal if you book early and sign there. Don't rule it out as an option but again do your research prior. 1st Most expensive item in our budget was: The alcohol +My husband's family really wanted to have an open bar and I was okay with it but it was definitely our highest ticket item. Rolling in at about 1K per hour we had their service. 2nd Most expensive item in our budget was: The Catering (Dinner and Cake) +The food for the reception was very important to my husband and I. We wanted the food to be something we would want to eat and that represented us in a way. We had Jugs cater with baked chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits and jam...conveniently this is all I remember...probably because those were my favorites! :)

For the cake we used Classic Cakes in Carmel as well as Laura's Bakery in Greenwood. Both cake places are great but for different reasons. We had Classic Cakes make our 4 tier wedding cake that consisted of apple cinnamon cake, white cake with strawberry filling, caramel with caramel filling, and then the top tier was apple cinnamon again for us to save for our 1 year anniversary. There flavors were amazing. We chose a white, red, and silver simple cake design, but put a little flare on it by adding a fondant Batman coming out of a cave. This was where we lost faith with C.C.'s a bit because I took months to get the licensing approval for batman and when I finally reached someone at the batman company they agreed to fax an approval to CC. I don't know what happened from here because I could never get in contact with the Batman lady again and the CC bakery said they couldn't make it because it wasn't sent.

So I reached out to Laura's Bakery for the cupcakes. They agreed to make the superhero cupcakes for us and felt bad for all the trouble we had went through. They made us a fondant Batman which we then took to CC and put on the wedding cake. So although it was all hectic both bakeries were great to us for one reason or another. Beyond these two items nothing was specifically too expensive we watched our budget and planned cautiously and did lots of research online finding things that were less expensive in order to save money for the items that were more important to us. This is what I recommend every couple do. Don't feel like you have to give up the wedding you dreamed of just figure out what things will matter more and what matter less and ALWAYS stick to the budget.