Blowing The Budget

Such important, 'budget blowing' parts of the day, they get their own capital letters

One man's 'budget blowing' is another man's 'thrifty'. It's really difficult to gauge.

I'm not sure I really understand what you are asking? We have chosen things that we want without price being a factor - some things that we have chosen are what many would consider to be expensive, whilst others have been much less. But we haven't 'blown the budget' because there wasn't really a budget to start with and I certainly wouldn't spend money just for the sake of it.

Congratulations on having 'excellent jobs' and all, but I find your post slightly distasteful and boastful.

Ha, I hadn't even noticed that I capitalised those words, what a fool.

I completely agree with one persons thrifty being another's splurge. But since we have a healthy budget in all areas plenty of what we have chosen would be considered blowing the budget for many budget brides. This was why my question was mainly aimed at big budget weddings

Well we spent more on wedding suits and shoes than many people spend on their whole wedding.....whoops!

We have made savings in some areas and been a bit more extravagant in others. The one thing we are spending quite a bit of money on is that we are paying for all of our guests to stay over at the venue the night of the wedding.

None of our guests quite believed we were doing it and some questioned if they had read the invitations wrongly lol - it also means that no-one needs to go home early and we get to have breakfast with everyone the following morning so the wedding will last an extra 1/2 day for us so makes it last longer!?

xx

Again this depends on what people class as a 'big budget'. I think I have a rather healthy budget, and will also be having a free bar and have put a lot of importance on the food.

However just because I have a larger than some budget doesn't mean that I am blowing money either, my venue is the cheapest (still my favourite one bar far though and would have paid more just to use it!) and I am also getting married on a Friday to save costs.

I also still try to save money where I can (habit I guess ? ) as I feel slightly guilty spending so much on one day (regardless of whether it is my one and only wedding day)

x

I must admit, I'm not really sure what you're asking either. While you may consider that you've spent a huge amount on something, that amount may be peanuts to someone else.

There were things that we set out to have regardless of cost and other things we saved money on. We certainly didn't set out to 'spend a huge amount' just for the sake of it.

What I mean is: the concept of 'big budget' is entirely subjective, so it's difficult to know who you're aiming your questions at. You could be someone who thinks £40k salary is excellent, you could be someone who thinks £100k is an underachievement. Similarly, for you, 'big budget' might be £20k, it might be £50k.

So, rather predictably, you're going to have to start with a ballpark value for something, before anyone can comment.

I disagree, I think the minute large budget figures start getting tossed around people start slating. I would perhaps class a bigger budget wedding as over £25000 excluding honeymoon, e-ring etc. Certainly a budget of this size gives you lots of scope to save money in areas and still get decent suppliers and still be able to splurge in other areas.

Ha you'd do what I'd do, food and drinnnkk

To clarify a bit more, I mean budgets that aren't really budgets and they will cost 'what they cost'. A similar view that many brides take on their dresses in that when you know what you want, then you have to pay that price as ultimately going for something else leaves you underwhelmed .... We've rolled this idea out across the whole budget

It's diffucult to say when budget is a subjective term. I would mention however, that once you start palnning and putting the word 'wedding' in front of everything, that a fool and their money are soon parted.

That'll be "my partner and I have excellent jobs".

I'd blow my budget on proof reading!

I didn't blow my budget on anything. The term suggests spending for spendings sake and feels rather throw away. No matter how much money you are spending you should do it because it means something and will add to the wedding, we could have afforded a nice car for my husband to arrive in but it wouldn't have made any difference so he just got a taxi.

Im sorry that by my saying that we do well for ourselves this offends you. There is nothing boastful or show offy about anything I do, I merely wished to gain opinions on where people with a larger budget decide to aim the bulk of their budget, nothing more. I'm not blowing money on a horse drawn princess carriage or jeroboams of Cristal Champagne, we are simply paying for quality across the board and this always costs more than high street buys. Again, if this offends you then I apologise, but I don't feel ashamed about talking about luxury items or purchases

Any chance you could chuck some money my way? I'd like to blow some money on a new car.

I didnt really have a budget, I got exactly what I wanted without needing to scrimp on anything. Whole wedding still came in under 10k. I'm assuming this is not what you're talking about though as to you this would be low budget. I just happen to live in a world where hotels and other venues don't take the eyes out of you for mentioning the word wedding.

There will be no 'chucking of money' anywhere, everything we book or buy will be what we consider value for money and well thought out, I suppose everybody puts a different value on different items.

You seem to have it all on hand then! Good luck.

*in hand

I don't consider your budget low or small at all, it's a hefty sum by any standards, including my own. We went along the same line and it's just ended up that certain things ended up coating what they have. We could have halved our venue fee by choosing a cheaper menu choice, cutting out canapés, reducing the guest list from 100 to less, but we didn't want to, or have to.

I do hope you'll be arriving by unicorn. Helicopters are so passé. ?

Have you thought about favours? Rolex for the gents, some thing from Tiffanys for the ladies perhaps?

I HAD to giggle at that, would be amazing!! ?

x

Reading this thread is hurting my head. I can't understand a word of what you're saying, OP, sorry.

OP, Not a great start it would appear.

Tell us more about your wedding, the venue food etc we are nosey bunch and like lots of flashes

I'm still a little unclear on what you want to know...

You don't want to talk in absolute values, fine. I have often suggested, when people compare budgets in an "idle talk" kind of way, that values be considered as proportions, rather than as absolutes. This removes a lot of the discomfort that comes with talking about cold hard monetary value.

For example, a dress can cost £500 and represent Person A's entire annual savings pot. Person B may spend £5k on a dress, but only require a couple of months of unmissed disposable income to cover it. Person A has spent more on her dress than Person B, albeit not in absolute terms. Indeed, I would regard Person A to have "blown her budget" on a dress, but not Person B.

But if both Person A and Person B have spent £5k on venue/food/drinks, then it might be considered that Person B has spent a disproportionate amount of money on her dress, placing it on equal value to something conventionally assumed to be the biggest chunk of money in a wedding budget (50 %). In this case, Person B has "blown her budget" on a dress, even if the purchase of said dress didn't really hit her bank account in any significant fashion.

See what I'm saying? Do you want to know where people might have spent disproportionately, in the context of their entire budget?

Good for you that you can afford a nice wedding and not cut any expense - you work hard for your money and deservedly so. Not all of us who post on these forums are skint and trying to pull together a wedding on a shoe string budget.

But most of us don't want to be taken advantage of by suppliers.

I am by no means flush but I did splurge on my dress - but my shoes will be budget. Our venue is 5k which includes the usual first bit of fizz, canapés, the meal - we aren't having an open bar or putting any money behind it.

I would like to arrange some entertainment for our guests whilst we are off having our pictures taken so I am looking into that. But again I wont pay for something over the odds because I have added the word 'wedding' after it.

I do honestly believe though that you can spend any amount of money on a wedding, that the best ones are the ones that haven't cost that much.

Is it really "blowing the budget" if you don't have a budget? ?

I've typed a reply about 3 times but I'm not sure I understand what you're after - for us our biggest expense is the venue/food, followed by photographer and my outfit. We've not blown the budget on any of those as we've not really set one, we're working within our means. What we're spending will cost more than some peoples weddings, and others it will be vastly under.

Like Footers has said, it's really all relative.

This pretty much sums it up, which area of your wedding did you decide justified spending a larger percentage of your budget than the accepted norm.

I was thinking of jet packing into the venue. No, in all seriousness I'll probably drive myself to the venue in my own car, or grab a lift off the best man. We'll be staying in a hotel close to the venue the night before

I wish you had just said that in the first place!

Reading back now it does sound a bit boastful, apologies. The intention was to see where those with a larger budget are spending the bulk of their money, with the extra flexibility a large budget allows. I knew the type of post would attract Mickey takers, it's all par for the course as far as I'm concerned