One of the fun things about getting wedding gifts is that you never know when you are going to get one.

We received several in the months leading up to wedding, the majority of them at the actual wedding, and a few trickled in a month or two after the wedding.

Then last weekend, (over three months after the wedding) Bird and I received an email from Netflix stating that someone had purchased us a 6-month gift subscription as a wedding present.  When we clicked through, we learned that it was from Bird’s brother and what a fun gift!

Bird and I have discussed getting netflix several times in the past because we both really love movies but we were wishy-washy, always pushing off the decision to another day.   So really it was nice to have our hand forced and it came at the perfect time as we enter into the deep chill that is the Minnesota winter when we will spend most of our time inside.  Once the free 6 months is up, we will have to decide if we want to keep on paying.  I think it’s about $9 a month for the cheapest option.

Well friends, we just received the final wedding bill yesterday and after I wrote out the check, I decided to run through all the numbers and see how we did.

Wedding Budget:  $25,000 

Wedding Expenses:  $25,689.55

Results:  $689.55 over budget

Let’s take a look at the actual numbers:

Budgeted/Actual

RECEPTION – $15,000/$15,132.46

• Rental – $1,000 / $1,100
• Food – $9,000 / $7,423.35
• Beverages – $3,000 / $2,886
• Cake – $900 / $961
• Service/Tax – $1,000 / $3,275.61
• Audiovisual – $100 / $20

ATTIRE AND BEAUTY – $400

• Wedding Dress and Alterations- $0 (Thank you Bird’s parents!) / $0
• Veil – $200 / $200
• Hair and Makeup – $100 / $123
• Shoes – $100 / $0

CEREMONY – $1,050

• Church Rental – $850 / $750
• Officiant – $200 /$250

FLOWERS AND DECOR – $1,000

• Ceremony Flowers – $900 / $836.55
• Centerpieces – $100 / $100

MUSIC – $750

• Ceremony Musicians – $200 / $450
• DJ – $550 / $650

PHOTOGRAPHY – $2,000

• Photographer – $2,000 / $2.035.85

PHOTO BOOTH – $1,300

• Rental – $1,275 / $1,275.67

PAPER – $750

• Invites and Replies – $420 / $465 
• Postage – $0 – Mom paid for all postage
• Programs and placecards – $230 / $130

RINGS – $975

• His – $25 / $25
• Hers – $950 / $1,233

TRANSPORTATION – $400

• Limo – $400 / $0  (Didn’t get one)

HOTELS – $175

• Wedding night – $175 / $210.03

GIFTS – $300

• Groomsmen – $100 / $146.71
• Bridesmaids – $200 / $200

MISCELLANEOUS – $250

• Random stuff – $250 / $0 

REHEARSAL – $500

• Park rental – $116 / $116
• Food and Beverages – $675 /  $599.34

As I mentioned, we had budgeted $25,000 but we had an additional $5,000 cushion, so while we were slightly over budget, we just used a bit of the cushion to cover the extra.  There was no need to go into debt or hit up our savings.  The rest of the cushion would be spent on our honeymoon which is another future post.

I’m getting married right now.  I prescheduled this post to publish right when the ceremony is beginning.  In an hour, I’ll be married.  In two hours, I’ll be eating dinner and having a really really really fun time at the reception!!!

Also, today is a no spend day!   ;)

Okay, folks, 3 days until the wedding.  I’m sorry I’ve been a bad blogger.  I’m sorry I will continue to be a bad blogger.  I have no intention of posting again before the wedding (final details!) and then I’ll be gone on the honeymoon for another 2 weeks.  Will I post when I get back?  Yes, of course.  But maybe not until I have moved my stuff and opened gifts and wrote thank you notes and gotten settled in to my new life.

So, in conclusion, I will be back…but not anytime soon.

On a PF note, I spent about $7,500 today on wedding expenses!

I’m getting married in one month.

There is still a lot to do and there is still a lot of money to paid out.  But still, the end (of planning) is in sight, and that is exciting.

I like to ask for help on this blog so here’s my latest question.

I’m totally stalled on what to get my groomsmen for gifts.  I know all about the traditional gifts, but ideally I would like to do something a little more unique and meaningful…but seriously, I’m drawing a blank.

Any ideas?

Things are coming along and we are now under two months to go!

Invites

The latest and greatest thing has been getting the invitations out and starting to get the RSVPs back…so fun!  I’m so jealous that they all go to Bird’s house and I have to wait to hear from her about the latest RSVPs.

Total cost for 175 invitations including paper, printing, and envelopes was $426 This came from the wedding fund.  We had budgeted about $750 for invites and programs so we will probably come in under budget in this category.  My mom generously offered to pay for all postage.

Shoes

We used the wedding fund to buy shoes for all the bridesmaids.  This will be Bird’s gift to them.  $50 each x 4 = $200

Tuxes

I went with my guys on Saturday and got fitted for a tux.  Groom’s tux is FREE when you rent more than 4.  The boys each had to pay $135 for theirs.  I was happy with that.  We were expecting it to be about $150 each.

After the fitting, we talked over bachelor party plans.  Sounds like it will be in late August but what exactly we will be doing will be a surprise to me.

Shower/Bachelorette

Bird had her first wedding shower on Saturday.  After the shower, she had her bachelorette party.  A fun time was had by all.  The next day I went over to her place and it looked like Macy’s had exploded in her living room.  I can’t believe how many shower gifts she/we received.  We have very generous friends but it was all a little overwhelming.  It also seems like they bought up almost half our registry for the shower!

Two of her college roommates had flown into town for the weekend, so we had a good time hanging out with them.  We went out for dinner Friday night and I picked up the bill.  $120

Honeymoon

Probably about a month ago, I asked Bird if she would allow me to surprise her with our destination.  I figured it would be less stressful for her to not have to have one more thing to worry about.  What I didn’t figure was how hard it was going to be to plan a honeymoon on my own.  Maybe hard isn’t the right word, but there were so many options…I just couldn’t make up my mind.  However, as of this weekend, I’ve not only made a decision, I’ve booked flights and as of today, I’ve booked hotels.

Now, I can’t tell you where we’re going because it’s still a surprise to Bird and I know she stops by the blog every now and then. Let me just tell you that I think it is going to be perfect and I can’t wait to tell you all about it when we get back.

As for honeymoon finances, I moved some money around and fully funded the honeymoon fund at $5,000.  I think we will be very close to this for our trip, if not under just a little bit. It probably depends on how many souvenirs we buy!   For now, I’m putting everything on the Rewards credit card and will transfer money from the HM Fund at the end of the month to pay for it.   It’s a really nice feeling to have that part of the planning pretty much wrapped up and now I’m just totally looking forward to our vacation!

Still to Do

As soon as we sent the invites out, we really felt like we had hit the home stretch…you know, like no turning back now.  We are so close to the big day.  But of course, there are still things to do.

- I’m currently researching readings for the ceremony.  If anyone has any great ideas, please share!

- We still need to figure out what we are doing for cake.

- We need to work on our cocktail hour playlist and also make final decisions about ceremony music.

Hmm, that’s all I can think of right now.

Let’s just check up on that wedding to do list I made in June.

Wedding tasks I want to tackle in June:

• Pay photographer’s second installment Done!
• Purchase my wedding ring Done!
• Start shopping for her band Done!  Bought hers on 6/30
• Invites – a vague goal - maybe make some decisions re: color, format, etc. Done!  They go to the printer next week
  
• Collect all addresses for invites Done!
• Book a florist Done
• Start gathering pictures/music for the slideshow Done!
• Start tux process Done!

So I batted 1000% on my wedding goals for June.  Way to go me!

Here’s what I think I should work on in July:

• Plan honeymoon
• Work on slideshow
• Work on playlist
• Line up transportation (limo?, etc.)
• Get measured for tux
• Marriage license/paperwork

Here is the preliminary budget for my wedding in September with approximately 250 guests.

RECEPTION – $15,000 (This is on the high side, hopefully will be less)

• Rental – $1,000
• Food – $9,000
• Beverages – $3,000
• Cake – $900
• Service/Tax – $1,000
• Audiovisual – $100

ATTIRE AND BEAUTY – $400

• Wedding Dress and Alterations- $0 (Thank you Bird’s parents!)
• Veil – $200
• Hair and Makeup – $100
• Shoes – $100

CEREMONY – $1,050

• Church Rental – $850
• Officiant – $200

FLOWERS AND DECOR – $1,000

• Bride’s Bouquet – $150
• BM Bouquets – $340
• Boutonnieres – $190
• Corsages – $140
• Centerpieces – ?
• Candles – ?
• Miscellaneous – ?

MUSIC – $750

• Ceremony Musicians – $200
• DJ – $550 (accurate)

PHOTOGRAPHY – $2,000

• Photographer – $1,900
• Misc. – $100

PHOTO BOOTH – $1,300

• Rental – $1,275

PAPER – $750

• Invites and Replies – ?
• Postage – ?
• Programs – ?

RINGS – $975

• His – $25
• Hers – $950

TRANSPORTATION – $400

• Limo – ?

HOTELS – $350

• Two nights – ?

GIFTS – $300

• Groomsmen – $100
• Bridesmaids – $100
• Parents – $100

MISCELLANEOUS – $250

• Random stuff – ?

REHEARSAL – $500

• Park rental – $116
• Food and Beverages – ?

So there you have it.  There’s the initial $25,000 budget for our wedding.  There’s a lot of explaining that could be done for each and every item and maybe eventually I’ll get to that, but for now, this is good enough.  We have a $30,000 wedding fund set aside in an ING subaccount, but of course I’m hoping that we manage to come in either on budget or better yet, under budget!  I want to be able to use that cushion for my honeymoon!

Let me know what you think.  Any concerns or suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

And thanks to Stacking Pennies for posting her wedding budget which inspired me  to finally post ours.