six hundred and sixty six posts. wow.
anyways.
i did some messing around on excel and created this thing. it's our expense pie.
the reception (food and drinks) for 130 guests took up 63% of our total expenditures. i wonder if that's average or not. i looked through wedding budget calculators and most of them allocate 45-50% for food and drinks.
can't say i'm not glad our budget leaned heavy towards good food and imbibementals. mm hm.
how much of your total are you allocating to the reception?
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
#666: pie.
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34 comments:
We're still a year out, so who knows what will change between now and then. For now, we're about on target with the "standard," with 46% of our budget purely for the party. We're having it at a friend's house, so no fees for that, but it's outside so we're renting tents, tables, chairs, port-a-johns. We're self-catering, and self-decorating.
I also bought a pretty expensive dress and that percentage doesn't include the photographer or rings.
Our food/drink is costing about 40-45% of the budget. Things that went over our estimate: photographer & venue rental.
Food and Drink is pretty important to us and originally we had budgeted about 60% but because we are doing the wedding on a friday night we got a bargain deal now its at around 43%
I love your insights and information, especially since you inspired my Lawry's reception (in Vegas). It looks like we're pretty much spending the same percentage as you on the reception and have also agreed to do the semi-hosted bar as well. We are prepared to go over our budget as well but as more people are continuing to RSVP, we are just happy that they want to come out to be with us on that day. I'd rather go over on feeding people than on photography or centerpieces anyday! :)
our breakdown is roughly like this....
reception venue/dj/food/drinks: 50%
attire/accessories/hair & makeup: 10%
flowers: like 2%?? haha
ceremony music and minister: again...not much...
rings: 10%
photography: 15%
invitations: same as flowers
decorations and favours: maybe another 5%
cake: don't care
transportation: very little
that's my super mathematical breakdown. ha.
that is BRIGHT pie! i had to squint.
Our reception food and drink is about 65%. I really saved so much everywhere else. The photographer was about 16%. But hey, good food/drink and photographs are key - the rest is icing.
looks like the reception is going to be closer to 60%. we're still 9 months out so who knows! but right now including venue, equipment, food and the estimate of how much booze we're going to buy for this thang.. yeah it's somewhere around 60 - 63% of our budget.. Thank goodness I found a dress for a STEAL.
no allocating for the reception, the place is going to charge what they're going to charge and there's no negotiating. seeing though as we don't have to worry about rentals, decorations, flowers etc.. we just tell them what we want, I don't really care what the % is. We'll adjust other places. I guess we just don't do percentages, is that strange?
I'm pretty sure our reception was WAY MORE than 63% In fact, that was the only thing that really cost us a large chunk of money at all. I'm pretty sure that if we skipped the reception we could have kept the entire wedding under $1,500! As it was, it was more or less around $10,000. So I guess that makes the reception 85% of our total spending?
(of course, I was lucky to have very close friends who were photographers, hair dressers, and our pastor. And that I found a perfect dress for $300 that seriously did not need one alteration.)
Ours is definitely going to be a huge chunk of our budget. I think that's perfectly legit though-what's much more important than food and drink, really?
When we set out on this wedding planning process we knew the one thing that was very important to us was food & drink - so it's where the bulk of the $$ is going. I have a feeling once everything is said and done it'll end up being about 60%.
I never know what to count when I'm working out what we're spending... does the engagement ring count? Does the gocco printer I just bought count? I like to pretend they don't so that I don't have a heart attack when looking at the final numbers...
Like, 90. Practically.
Wait, no.
15% Photographer
5% Flowers and decorations
5% Attire
5% Stationary and stuff
So I guess like 70. But we're getting a lot of our music for free (groomies are in a band) so if that weren't the case we'd spend a pretty penny on music too. But yeah, 70%. Holy jeezus.
i think this is great - it just shows you what was most important to you: your family and friends. thanks for sharing!
A lot .. but food and drinks are our thang, so we wanted to put most of our monies in that direction right from the start.
I like your pie chart, kinda wanna make one now too.
It looks like Pacman puking up the ghosts & pellets! I think your percentage is pretty accurate for LA weddings. Seems that here the venue/food & beverage is ridiculously more than everything else. (especially if you have many DIY projects)
omg i'm so glad i'm not the only one... hahaha i thought i was a budgeting mess, but i realize now that it's really a personal preference where you spend your money :)
hi. happy 666!
just dropping by to say hello...been off the blog world for a while. sending xox to you, married lady!
xox
Something like 54% for food and drinks (with 10% for the champagne which was a gift...). 71% if you include the venue (with 5 beautiful rooms in it).
We're at about 55% estimated, but possibly could go up depending on how many yes & no's and we receive.
Wow, I don't know whether its different in Australia, or whether we're just spending too much money on everything else! Our reception percentage (and we didn't exactly stint) is more like 35% of the budget. It does however come with the cake and the DJ (so we took that money and bought something else) and we are getting family to help out with the decorations.
We probably averaged about as much as you folks, but that's because we didn't have a lot of other expenses and we wanted to wine and dine our loved ones! Plus, I splurged on my cake while saving on my wedding gown.
Hi! As I mentioned before you totally inspired me to write a blog, so thank you :-) Oh I tagged you in my blog to blog about the 6 things that make you happy :-)
We are estimating that food & drinks will take up 70% of the total budget.
Wow, food and drink for us will only be about 26%, since we decided to go with Asqew grill instead of a traditional caterer, and as far as alcohol goes will only be serving beer and white wine at the reception.
here's my breakdown for our picnic luncheon/ ceremony and reception, we're a month away and are only $849 over our original budget of $8000!! Luckily we are crafty ex- art students and have musical friends to provide entertainment for us. Otherwise I envision we'd be well over $10,000...
venue rental + 3 nights stay $1700
food/ catering for 75 people $2000
drinks $300
cupcakes $305
cake topper (made ourselves) $4
dress fabric and notions(I made it myself!) $275
groom's 3 pc. suit (on sale at Ted Baker!)$500
my shoes $125
flowers $1175
event insurance $250
all paper/ stationary supplies (we printed ourselves) + stamps approx $200
decorations/ fabric and supplies (for fabric bunting I am making)/ outdoor games $180
photography $700
wedding rings $650
rentals (additional chairs and table linens) $300
favors (made ourselves) $100
marriage license $85
Grand total $8849, not bad for a Bay Area/ Wine country wedding!!
you've got your priorities right. what is more worth spending on but feeding and celebrating with everyone?!
It's almost crazy how expensive it is to feed and water the people coming to your big day. Makes me think about going into the catering biz!
Sounds average. :(
Ours worked out to about 35-38% of our budget. We splurged on photography. And our cocktail hour and wine with dinner bill was waaaaay cheaper than we'd estimated (we estimated for up to 50% of the bill). We provided champagne cocktails during cocktai hour, but it turns out most people ignored it and went to the cash bar. And nowhere near as much wine as I thought was consumed during dinner.
Meh, their choice. Free champagne cocktails or buy your own drink? I know what I'd have chosen, but obviously most people at our wedding did not do the same.
the key to a perfect party is to have a thorough budget planning, which includes the most important things to have in a party, exclude that is not very important in organizing party's and occasions etc. focus on the important parts of the occasion and you will see, how well things go in your way! budget! budget! budget! :)
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i'm doing a $10,000 wedding too :) our food/drink is about $4-5k, but that doesnt include his parents paying for open bar x3 hours. if it included that, the whole $10k would be spent :) it would be fun, but i'd be in jeans and a tank top.
I never know what to count when I'm working out what we're spending... does the engagement ring count? Does the gocco printer I just bought count? I like to pretend they don't so that I don't have a heart attack when looking at the final numbers...
Smarry
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i like your insights and thoughts. they are good for me.
MARIA
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that's very great man ...
Coming in very late to the conversation, but I imagine the % on food and drink goes up as your total budget goes down. I'm planning an $8K wedding, and we're looking at spending 75% on the reception food & beverages.
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