Soon after Colin asked me to marry him, my father took me to the bank and opened a wedding account. In this account he put a specific amount of money (that was very generous I might add) and told me that this was what he and my mother were contributing to the wedding. Since that time, my mother and I have made every effort to adhere to that budget, however as we sat with our caterer to iron out the major details of our reception dinner this week, I had the uneasy feeling that hidden expenses are going to blow our budget!
According to theknot.com here’s the breakdown:
Reception site & rentals 8%
Food, Drink, & Cake 40%
Bride & Groom Attire 11%
Flowers & Décor 6%
Photo & Video 8%
Music & Entertainment 8%
Invitations & Stationary 2%
Ceremony Site & Officiant 3%
Wedding Rings 3%
Attendant Gifts 2%
Transportation & Parking 1%
Rehearsal Dinner 3%
Extras 5%
Okay, that’s all fine and good, but not practical for this reason – every bride is going to have different priorities. For me, from jump street I knew that photography was the most important thing to me. I love taking pictures, and my home is decorated almost exclusively with my own photography – and I want tons of artsy pictures from the most special day of my life! I was willing to dedicate more than 8% of my budget to photography. So, when looking at the budget schedule that theknot.com provided I thought, that’s fine, I have an extra 5% to play with, all will be fine…..boy was I wrong.
Here is my warning to you: Don’t touch the 5% for Extras! To prove that I’m right and all-knowing, I’m going to share with you some of the, “extras,” that I’m currently encountering.
Cake Cutting – Yes, it’s true, even though you’re paying your caterer a shit-ton of money to nourish your guests, they are still going to charge you a per person fee to cut your cake. In my case the fee would be 1$ per person (an extra $200.) To put this into perspective, I believe the individual cupcakes that we’re having made in place of cut cake (mostly because I think they’re cuter) are $1.50 each…therefore I’d be paying nearly as much to have the cake cut as it costs to have individualized servings.
Valet Parking – I thought it sounded so regal when the caterer mentioned valet parking this week as we were finalizing some details – that is until she told me that it includes a mandatory fee of $40 per 50 guests. Yes, that’s right, PER GUEST, not per vehicle, and you can’t elect not to have it – it’s required. Maybe this isn’t too outrageous, but it annoys me that she didn’t tell me until now that this was a required fee. ($160)
Tax & Gratuity – Yeah, I guess I knew we’d have to pay tax and gratuity for everything, but I assumed since the prices of food were already so high that these fees were included. I was wrong. The reception venue mandates 20% gratuity and 6% tax on top of the final expense…therefore if we spend $5,000 on food (which is low-balling) we have to add on another $1,300 for these fees. And remember, this is before we tip the DJ and the Photographer (not sure if that’s etiquette or not), and the trolley driver – sigh…
As you can see, it doesn’t take very long for these unaccounted for expenses to add up – we’re already at almost $1,500! Therefore, I will once again say, please remember to save that 5% for unexpected charges!
That’s my advice for this week. The next few weeks are going to be VERY exciting…I’ll be receiving and sending my invitations, having my bridal shower and bachelorette party, doing my first wedding dress fitting, and wondering what Colin is up to for his bachelor party…I can’t wait!
Yours,
The Bride
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