 |
Home | CHARMing Dresses | Bridal Bust | My 2 Cents | Where to Wed | Blog | Contact |
|
The first problem many couples run into when they plan their wedding is
to define a budget. Without creating a budget, expenses can quickly run
amuck and add up to more than imagined. With resources like
The Knot, the
process of making a wedding budget has become simpler than ever! By
joining the free community, brides and grooms can use the budget
tracker. The nifty tool breaks down the cost of the wedding into neat
sub sections like the cost for the reception, ceremony and bridal party
dress ware. Using a formula, the tracker takes into account the number
of people in the bridal party and the guest count to provide a rough
estimate of what the couple should be spending. As a bride, I was shocked at the individual breakdown of costs. For instance, in my wedding I have seven bridesmaids, six groomsmen and 125 guests. Broken down, I should only be spending $3,000 of my $10,000 budget on food. This roughly works out to just over $24 per person. The venue my fiancé and I booked is a hotel so we only have the option of using their in-house catering service. The typical cost of a seated dinner there is just under $100 per person (the price includes the cake, too). My fiancé and I decided we really wanted this venue so we tried the negotiation game. The venue as it turns out was willing to work with our budget. After negotiations, the cost of buffet style dinner was $38 per person. In this case, because our wedding date is “off peak season” and on a Friday night, the venue had more room to be flexible with pricing. While the end price is still higher than what the tracker says we should pay, we saved almost $8,000 just on food alone. A venue that began out of budget’s league was attainable once we negotiated with the facility’s wedding coordinator. |
 |
 If you like this article, you may also like: I Now Pronounce "A CHARMed City Wedding" DIY planning wrecks the mind before the wedding Wedding Meets Social Networking Business Social Networking  |
|