I read a blog post the other day that inspired me to keep track of wedding purchases here, in the spirit of sharing what's realistic and possible in terms of wedding budget. I also think it will be good for me to keep a running list of how much we're actually spending, in order not to let it get too far out of control. I'm notoriously bad at tracking my finances, so it might just be that the only way I'll know how much we've spent is if I vow to blog every penny.
I was just going to include straight wedding costs, but my mom says we have to count rings and honeymoon, too. So far, this is what we've spent and what we've gotten:
8(ish? I'm too lazy to get up and count) strings of white twinkle lights on green cord (wah! haven't found any for cheap with white cords, but we're using the green ones for outside) -- $8.78 thrift store
3 sheets to use for diy photobooth backdrop -- $9.57 thrift store
deposit for church (ceremony and reception will both take place there) -- $150
shirts for the two younger boys -- $24.34 inc. shipping Children's Place
dress for the girl -- $38.65 inc. shipping Gap
shirt for Will -- $20.00 Macy's (sweet sale, 50% off original price + 25% off of that!)
round trip honeymoon plane tickets for BOTH of us (woot!) -- $265.60 Southwest
paying off my rings and Will's wedding band (not sure the exact total for all three rings, will update when I figure it out) -- $396.11
rental of 60 chairs, 50 tidbit plates, 50 dessert plates, 100 forks, 10 dinner plates (not sure of the exact breakdown, will update when I figure it out) -- $298.41
wine and ingredients for sangria tasting -- $40 (approximate, cuz I bought a bunch of other stuff at the same time and can't find the receipt)
dress for me -- $0 borrowing from a friend
jars for candles -- $0 asking everyone I know to save them for me
ring pillow -- $0 borrowing from a friend
invitations -- $0 free wedding website
candles -- $0 so far, I know we'll have to buy a bunch but friends have donated a few to the cause
fabric for napkins -- $5.95 thrift store
giant paper magnolia -- $0 but I will end up spending some $ on paper flowers, I'm sure
So we're at $1,248.63 and counting.
If you take out the rings and plane tickets, it's $586.92 so far for the actual ceremony.
You may have noticed a theme here; I love how saving the earth and saving money so often coincide! Green wedding strategy #2 is to borrow stuff as my first option, buy it used or rent as my second, and buy it new as a last resort.
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8 comments:
Ahhhh Seppie Woo, I notice you didn't include the ENTIRE amount for ring - just the payoff amt...
A honeymoon?! Now THAT is decadent LOL. ;-)
I think those paper flowers are not so green unless they don't cost you any money (reusing paper). Tsk. Tsk.
It's awesome you can borrow a dress. Nice you have friends that wear a similar size. Yea you!
I wish I would have known you were looking for strings of twinkle lights. We have TONS. (Will have to check to see if we have any with white cord so you can borrow those).
Candles should definitely be good borrow material. Maybe I should pack some to bring with us.
P.S. Maybe I'll go and dig through some boxes to see what we have for wedding stuff and ask you if you want to borrow any of it. Of course, that would require me actually LOCATING the boxes.
P.P.S. Register at Macy's or something if you need a cake knife and server...I think they give them away for free when your register. And you never have to tell anyone you registered there unless there is something you really want.
I *said* I would add the whole ring amount when I figured it out!
SM I would love it if you would dig up some stuff for us, but remember you're not going to have much room. Unless you mailed it ahead of you?
You're right about the paper flowers...still trying to figure out how to make that as green as possible while living up to the vision...
Sorry!! I misunderstood exactly what you meant when you said update, I thought you were going to update the payoff amount for some reason...
Not sure what kind of candles you're looking for, but for our wedding we found soy votives (from a lady in TN, I think) for cheaper than anywhere else I was able to find off ebay (but they were made by the seller, that was just the website she was using). If you're interested, I'll see if I can find it again...
Heather, that would be great! I remember packing up all those candles after your wedding, and I wish I'd known then that I'd need them in another year! But I know you found a good home for them.
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