Money worries..

I worry about this too!

I panic because its not yet in the bank as its with the inlaws still and it doesn't half make me worry. I need to know its there! I've actually asked the OH to ask for it this week so then I can actually see exactly where we are and I don't have to worry about it going astray for some emergency or whatnot.

You need to write down everything you want / will add expense to your wedding, including 'the little things'.

Make yourself a spreadsheet and if you don't know exact costs put rough costs in there and update them as soon as you have decided what you are going to go for.

What 'little things' have you not thought of that keep adding further costs?

Sometimes the little things can be things you really don't need...

Well its things like the centre piece for the table, i know we dont have to spend a lot but we still haven't decided what we want so can't put a price on things. Everything is just so expensive, I mean I can't believe how much photographers are! We are very lucky we have some in the family. And the thing is we dont actually have all the money yet, we are still saving and so are our parents so I'm always worried that some emergency may happen and we won't have enough.

To be honest I think I'm just getting myself worked up because I know we'll have the money for the things we truly NEED.. but hearing how much some people spend makes me worry as we certainly do not have that, but it's not like we're having a small do either. We are having a 3 course sit down meal for over 100 and an evening party with nibbles, so the price we're paying almost seems to good to be true compared to others..

I guess I just didn't anticipate how expensive a wedding can be!

I think you can make guesses on how much you would spend though?

I knew I wouldn't spend anymore than £15 on flowers for each table, so thats what went down.

You can also plan how much your going to be able to save. Yes an emergency might happen, so whats the back-up?

Ours is we would have to use a credit card for said emergency and pay it off after the wedding, or go with less disposable cash to cover the emergency shortfall.

I honestly think you need to do a money sheet, I think it will make you less concerned as you will soon see where your planning to spend too much and can cut back etc.

Its also helpful to work from in terms of what do I still need to price up etc.

The good news is that you've got time to pay in installments and divide up paying for separate bits of the wedding If you go for the essentials first, it won't matter so much if you run out of budget towards the end, as all the important things will be paid for. Don't worry, it sounds like you're doing well!

I agree with what 2013_Bride_ has said, the best thing is to write everything down, all the extra things you can think of and how much you are willing to pay for them.

Do you have your heart set on flowers for centre pieces, there are cheaper alternatives - candles etc?

Thanks its so nice being able to talk to other people who are planning their weddings about this! We have done money charts but not properly, I think we'll sit down at the weekend and work out exactly what we need to spend.

I know we will be okay but everything is quite overwhelming!

Mine is just a basic spreadsheet that adds up everything up, then another sheet in that spreadsheet with payments.

I just thought of everything I needed (and I mean everything) and then looked up rough prices, and updated as I went along and had confirmed prices.

Every time something come in more than I thought, I'd look to see where else I could claw back to keep the total amount spent the same.

Similarly if things come in less expensive, I looked to see where else needed a bit more money.

It will help loads, I work from it now to work out what I still need to plan as I've put 'confirmed' next to any prices that are no fixed so know what prices aren't etc.

It is overwhelming, I cried when I first did the list because I couldn't believe what it was adding up to.

We knew how much help we were getting from others not long after doing the list so could work out how much we needed to contribute.

I think we'll be going for something like candles on a mirror with table sequins. Not entierly sure but don't think we'll go for flowers.

Yeah I think this weekend we will sit down and plan everything and try to decide on things like centre pieces so we can get a rough idea, thanks so much for the help!

Hi MrsW2Bxx

I kept worrying about how much we were spending as well and kept waking up in the night fretting. 1. that we wouldnt have enough for what we want/have booked and then 2. that I was forgetting essentail things.

I now have a spreadsheet with everything on it in order of importance. ie at the top venue food and drink, registrar, dress etc, so if we do run over budget or an emergency crops up all the important things to us will have been paid for.

We have also decided to start paying off the balances for things every month now until the wedding while still paying into the saving account. I now feel a lot calmer about everything. I think I kept worrying that we seemed to have booked lots of things and then what if we didnt have enough money to pay off the balance the month before the wedding but now everything that we have booked so far apart from the venue and food which is just before when we have picked the food has been designated a month to pay the balance off if that makes sense.

Me and my other OH also reached an agreement that if we decided that we really wanted something after reading about it on-line or seeing something at a wedding fare that we would wait a minimum of 5 days before booking instead of booking while I was super excited about the particular thing as some things after sleeping on it we decided that actually it wasnt going to be essential to us having a great day or in the cold light of day was not that practical.

I dont know if that is any help or not now just think I have rambled on a bit (just wanted to reassure that you are not alone in how you were feeing ?) x

You've already had some good advice here, but just to say I think it's really important you sit down and work out what you priorities are and then you can work out how you can pay for the things that are really important to you. For example. I knew good photos were really important to us, so spending a good amount on a tog was important to me. Although, I really liked some big, fancy, centrepieces, I decided they were less important and weren't worth the money in the end, so will go for a much cheaper alternative.

Hi,

I would suggest to write everything on a spreadsheet and total up what you want to spend (include a pie chart). I have a great excel spreadsheet with costs, things to do and deadline times, including amount of money my OH and I will need and money we will be getting from parents. This helps allot especially as my OH and I have a budget amount each, we list down exactly what we have paid for deposits etc

Just think most payments for the wedding i.e catering/venue/TOG/Videographer/Florist etc will not need to settle the bill until near the time.

Our wedding is in October this year and we have decided to save our money each month and keep a list of what we have paid off. So last week i paid for the other halve of my wedding dress, in January my OH paid Deposits for Videographer/Car/MOC/Entertainment i then calculate in my excel spreadsheet and we both know how much we have left to pay off. Also we have family putting towards our venue and that does not need to be paid until 2 weeks before the wedding.This is working very well and we are doing amazing with our budget.

Remember to offer cash (nearer to the time) to exclude the VAT on some items this will not include flowers as there is no chance you could get VAT off.

Honestly this works you just need to make sure you take a couple of hours out of your week to update and make sure you stick to your guns with the budget, you can have an amazing wedding on a average budget i mean look at the weddings on DTTB they have 12k budget and its great what is incuded in this.

Good luck i am sure you will do fine. Have faith and stick to your guns on the budget xxx

Thank you all for the advise it has really helped! We will sit down this weekend and make a proper spreadsheet this weekend. I'm glad i posted on here, it's so reasurring to hear from other people that have had the same experiances and worries!

I know how you feel. We're not getting much help from family so 99% of the costs are down to us. I'm having a bit of a flip because on one hand i'm trying to keep it under 10,000 but on the other hand i keep wanting to add things like a string quartet and horse drawn carriage!! Fiance isn't fussed either way to be honest, he keeps saying "whatever makes you happy, we're only doing it once, i don't care about the money" which is sweet, but he's terrible with money so the need to keep to budget probably hasn't registered in his head. Don't know what to do

I have the same worries and made a spreadsheet but now can't bear to look at it as it makes me sad so I just hope it will all be alright on the day.. We are paying for our whole wedding ourselves but have had offers from the rents to pay so I figure if worst comes to worst I can ask them for some money later.. Just make sensible money decisions ( no you don't need a helicopter to land you at your reception . ) and I am sure it will all work out x