Wedding Budget

Two days before the wedding I lost my life.

That's right, the little USB that I carry around with me everywhere - it's always in my purse, always.  and...I.Lost.It.  Thankfully my mom and my Maid of Honor helped keep my head on straight and we figured out who I owed money too and what the itinerary was.  

Jordan couldn't find the USB back home and I was convinced that it was lost for good - so I kind of gave up on keeping track of the last few things we had to buy for the wedding.  I've gone through credit card statements and banking statements and tried to figure it all out.  So it's taken a little while but I've finally finished tallying all the numbers from the wedding and honeymoon. 

Honey Moon Spending

This picture is like straight out of a postcard stand...

but we actually took it with our new fancy camera.

Jordan and I planned on spending about $3,000 while in Vegas (not including our flights)....here's how we did:

The shows category includes tickets to see the Blue Man Group, Penn & Teller as well as front row tickets to Zoomanity - a Cirque Du Solei production.

Entertainment included going to Madame Tussauds wax museum, The Gun Store,  the Mandalay Shark Reef and even getting a couples massage!

Stuff included things we bought for ourselves that weren't clothes...things like: books, perfume, a suitcase, duty free alcohol cigars, and  tourist 'we did that' Tshirts among other things.

so...wow!  Are you surprised?  I actually am.  I thought we would have been somewhere between three and four thousand...I didn't think we'd topple four!  Wow!  Serves us right for not keeping track while we were there.

We have never been on a vacation (other than camping) together so this was an eye opener for how much cabbing and eating out everyday costs!

Part of my gift to Jordan was to not be so focused on money while we were celebrating our union together - I wanted to give us both a break from thinking and talking about money all the time.  We both knew we were coming back to a pile of debt and that things were going to be very tight for sometime...which means talking about money and saying no a lot.

I don't regret a single purchase and am so pleased with our trip, it was absolutely amazing!

We did even make some decisions that helped us save several hundred dollars and probably prevented us from going over $5,000.

 We didn't bring a single device with us, so no big cell phone bills to pay and we also went grocery shopping to supplement our eating out.  We ate breakfast in six out of the seven days we were in Vegas as well as cooking supper in twice.

Our accommodation was gifted to us by my grandparents which was a HUGE savings!  The bill we had was from a few meals charged to the room and one extra night.



So that's the honey moon spending...questions?  Comments?

Etiquette on Returning Gifts for Cancelled Weddings

While Jordan and I are honeymooning in Vegas, I've asked a few of my favorite bloggers to help me out by writing a few guests posts.  The first comes to us from Obsessive Compulsive Daniela, a 20 something Canadian blogger.

This past spring I received two wedding invitations from girlfriends. I used to be super tight with both of them, but due to physical distance, busy schedules, and a bit of laziness, we're not as close as we used to be. But they're both still the type of friend I can catch up with over a two hour phone chat. The weddings were less than one week apart – one on a Saturday and the other on the following Friday.

Weddings = wedding showers. One of my girlfriends had two wedding showers and a bachelorette (of which I could only attend one wedding shower) and my other friend had one shower. I’m not a huge wedding shower fan – I find them kind of boring – but sometimes you do what you gotta do, right?

I find it challenging to figure out how much to give, and how often to give, if you are invited to multiple events. I made a rule for myself that I would give the same total amount to each couple, regardless of the number of events each had. Since each of them had a shower, I decided to give $50 as a gift. I think this is relatively standard, as least for the showers I attended. They were both held at parental homes, so nothing hardcore fancy. I planned on giving another $200 to each couple for the wedding on behalf of myself and my guest.

Fast forward to five days before the first wedding. I received an email from my girlfriend explaining that the wedding was cancelled. I was totally shocked. I’m not going to get into the details around why it was called off, but suffice it to say, it was not an amicable break up.

I’m not proud of what I’m about to admit. My motives were totally selfish and self serving (and maybe a little bit human). Within a couple days of receiving the email, I thought to myself, so I’m going to get my fifty bucks back, right? I’d like to think that this was the pragmatic side of me coming out, my logical self that focuses on the numbers. Of course I was concerned about my friend. I wanted to know that she was okay, regardless of what had occurred, and we made plans to catch up with a couple of weeks. But that didn’t mean I stopped thinking about the $50.

Two months have gone by since the cancelled wedding. I have yet to receive a thank-you note or a refund (for lack of a better term). I’m normally a blunt person, and I’m comfortable asking somewhat uncomfortable questions, but this is one area I’m a little unsure of. It’s partially about the money, but it’s also the principle – I gave you X for a major life event, and then the event didn’t happen. 

What do you think is proper etiquette in this sort of situation? Do I shut up and leave it be, or do I voice my concerns? If I don't get the money back, do I not give a future gift? What would you do?  

VEGAS BABY

Today my HUSBAND and I are heading to Las Vegas for a week to celebrate!! 

Happy Wedding to Us!

We're getting married....TODAY!!! 

Upgraded

I haven't written much about it because I've been trying to stay calm - but as of July 27 we hadn't received Jordan's wedding band yet.  It was weeks and weeks late when it arrived on July 28th - but when it arrived....it was too small.



I got the call at work from the sales consultant who realized while on the phone with me that it was the wrong ring.  I called Jordan and asked him to swing by the shop and check it out - even though we had a plan to deal with this (which would be to buy a cheap replacement and then swap them afterwards), my anxiety level was pretty high.

Jordan at the shop chatted with the sales consultant - who by the end, upgraded Jordan to a ring that they had in stock!  No more waiting!  and this ring, has a beautiful diamond in it!

Check it out:

Loves it!

Roaming in the US of A

Our honeymoon is in Vegas...and for those of you that don't know, I'm from Canada and roaming in the States is brutal expensive!  I don't think that Jordan and I need both cell phones and the ipad when we're meant to be just enjoying each other's company ;)

That said, it's likely that we'll need a phone of some-sort to book tickets and to be available in case of emergencies - if anyone has any thoughts on that, feel free! 

I'm with Bell and Jordan's with Telus - so I figured we might as well compare the two and see which costs less.

I'm not 100% sure how much data/voice/text usage that Jordan actually uses - but from a quick glance at my  last two bills I'm using about 1000 minutes of voice, 400 MB of data and approximately 2000 text message....so lets just double that to be safe for Jordan's usage - then quarter it because we're going to be in the states for one week.

That would mean a need of 500 min, 200MB, and 1,000 text messages - that said, we really shouldn't need or want to be using our phones that much while in Vegas - but we're bound to use some.... I've listed all the options below and would love to know your thoughts.

Bell Mobility

Option One: Travel USA Package (includes voice, data, texts)

Option Two: Travel USA Bundles (includes voice, data, and text separate)

Telus Mobility

Option Three: US Travel  (includes voice, data, and text separate)

RSVPs

I was cruising post secret this morning and came across someone's secret that really spoke to me.  In case you don't know about the website, I stole this explanation from Wikipedia:

PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Select secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits.


I haven't talked about it much other than when I first got my grandmother's RSVP but am deeply saddened by it.  My grandmother RSVP'd no and I haven't made an effort to speak with her since.  I don't want this to be the catalyst that keeps me from her - but she's declined a huge opportunity for us to start getting close again.

I also don't know how to ask her why - because I don't think she'll tell the truth.

Nails

...I could get addicted to these

Jordan's mom took me to get my nails done last Monday as part of my birthday present.  She know that I wanted to get french tips done for the wedding and have never sported anything like it before.  They are longer then I think I like - but it's only been four days (when writing this) so I'm still settling into them.  Typing is the most difficult thing so far....that and pushing buttons.

I have some birthday money that i'm going to use to get them filled in/refreshed - whatever people call it, the week before the wedding - but after that, I'm not sure I want to spend the $40/month to keep them updated.

Do you get your nails done?  How much do you spend on personal care?

Jordan would like to see me spending more on myself - even hair cuts..which I only do once ever six to eight months.

Cost per Head

My maid of honor recently asked me what my cost per head was for the wedding - and it was strange to admit that I hadn't actually figured that out yet.  I promised that I would figure it out and write a post on it.

She thought it should include the venue, food, and alcohol costs.

Based on that - the cost per head is $51.80


If we included everything it took to put the party together...that was dependent on the guest count (stationary, cake, favors) - the cost per head would be $61.57

If we then include the other party essentials (photography, DJ, decor, officiator, license, ceremony music) - the cost per head would be $91.18.


If we got really crazy and included EVERYTHING sans the rings, attire and honeymoon costs - the costs per head would be $118.08

...annnnd if we included the rings (not the honeymoon) we'd be at $133.73


phew!  has anyone asked you married folks out there what your cost per head was?  Do they just mean the catering costs or everything else put in?

It's coming...help!?

July 21st... just 16 days until the wedding!

After the big day, Jordan and I will be spending a week in Vegas for our honeymoon!  It'll be so much fun!

I'm going to do my best to write some good content for the three weeks around the wedding, but I'm not convinced that i'll be able to make it work everyday.

If any of my readers would honor me by writing a guest post (with links to your own blog if you have one) I would be very appreciative! If you are interested, just send me an email with your post to jessiesmoney@gmail.com and i'll schedule it in.

~thank you,
Jessie

Wedding Budget Update

A few people have asked or made reference to our wedding budget so i thought that today was a good day to post an updated.  In the image below you'll see what we expected things to cost, what they actually cost,  what we've paid so far and what's left to pay.

Anything in red is either no longer applicable or we decided not to do it.

Some things, like stationary - were a lot more expensive then i had expected and some things - like grat/taxes wound up being build into our costs - so we saved there.

I have cheques ready to pay the rest of the vendors on the day of (that my momma has offered to hold for us) and there are a few items (like the bar mix) that we won't be buying until the week before the wedding.

I feel like a post like this is better suited to questions/answers if you have any rather than me going line by line explaining things - so if you have any questions - ask away.

Wedding Jewelry!

sooo pretty!

I picked these gem's up on Saturday morning at Mappin's Jewelry.  I didn't really budget for this...at all...but realized i really wanted some jewelry to wear on the big day. We went to over a dozen stores or so before finding these.

The total came to just under $170 including tax - the set is sterling silver with Amethyst stones.

ps. i desperately need to update my wedding spending spreadsheet and commit to doing so this week and then posting an update.

Quick Update

So things have been crazzy this last little while with the wedding planning.

My acoustic guitarist for the ceremony and cocktail hour bailed for a better gig (okay fine, it could be a career maker for the guy but i'm still cranky about it) and we still hadn't confirmed our bartenders as of late last week.

I'm very excited to share that we have both of those issues now resolved.

Our new guitarist is amazing!  If you what to check out his folk music on myspace here's a link: http://www.myspace.com/tonybellandhisguitar/music/playlists/tony-bell-s-playlist-1214512

Also!  My venue operator found us a FLAIR bartender - which is very exciting.  He's going to work with a friend of my bridesmaid so that should work out pretty much perfectly.

yay!

My plan this evening is to go through the last few pages of the 'to do's in The Ultimate Wedding Planner - a book that my maid of honor gave me within days of being engaged.  I just want to make sure that we haven't forgotten anything.  This book has been extremely helpful so far!

Wedding Ring

This weekend, among many other things that got done, we bought our wedding bands.  While we bought my engagement ring at Spence Diamonds, we found the bands at Michael Hill.  They had the best price for the ring that suited the engagement ring the best!

Before we stopped into Michael Hill we had come to the conclusion (after visiting half a dozen other Jewelers, including Spence) that to get what we wanted, we weren't going to be able to stick to our $1,000 or under budget.  We went back to the wedding numbers and decided we could, at a stretch, make $1,500 work.

Michael Hill was having a sale and the representative first said that he could sell us my ring, and Jordan's for $1,750 before tax and before any sort of maintenance/insurance plan. We told him that it needed to be under $1,500 for it to work and he said he would see what he could do.

After about ten..fifteen minutes, he came back to us saying that he would sell us my ring for $1,499 and 'give' us Jordan's ring next Saturday when he can capitalize on another sale he's having.  It seemed a little sketchy but he wrote everything down and we have receipts so went with it!

I'm so excited that we found the perfect ring!  I have a picture of mine, but wasn't able to find Jordan's online. The little bit of curve fits around the setting of the engagement ring beautifully.

The wedding band is 18K white gold with a total carat weight of 0.50 and the engagement ring is 19K white gold with a carat weight of 1.16...I find it very bizarre that for wanting something simple Jordan and I both fell in love with rings that are absolutely princess.

Suits: Check

Jordan, his best man, and his groomsman went suit shopping this weekend.  It was their second trip and they found everything they needed!  The guys wound up with a dark charcoal suit, white french cuff shirts, purple ties, and purple cuff links!

They went to a variety of different stores but had all agreed they wanted to purchase instead of rent so that they had a good suit to use in the future.  When they started out looking at different shops they found suits ranging in price from $150-$1,500.  

The price point that wound up being the most comfortable for all three of them was at TipTop Tailors which was about $500 each.

Here's the breakdown of the cost:

Unfortunately, no one came prepared to pay for their suits so Jordan and I footed the entire bill - my credit card is now screaming.  The Best Man will be paying us back for his bit sometime this week and we expect the other groomsman (his brother) to pay us back this week as well. 

I was budgeting approximately $800 for Jordan's suit however; so in that sense the weekend/suit shopping was a great success!  I'm really glad Jordan found something that worked for him and his men that worked for the pocket book.

oh- I should mention.  The Best Man did buy his own tie (we bought those at another store) and the groomsman's shirt cost more because of the length of his back - it needed to be a bit special.  

Centerpieces & Isle Flowers

This past long weekend I went to my parents place in BC to spend some time with my mom putting together the centerpieces and ceremony isle planter pots.  Other than getting a nasty sunburn, it went really well and was low cost too!

We had gathered the centerpiece pots and painted them a while back and had some excellent soil that we had been given a while ago which was fantastic.  My mom graciously bought some miracle grow as well as the flowers (approx $175) and we had bought some large planter pots from Walmart (approx $30) as well.

All told the total cost was just over $200 for our centerpieces (25) and isle flowers (12).

Here's some photo's of pulling everything together:

Wedding Shower

A couple of weeks ago when I was in my hometown my family and friends threw me a wedding shower.  Hosted at my aunts place I was spoiled with gifts and goodies after playing some super fun, super rediculous shower games!  Then they took me out on the town (to all five bars) - it was a pretty fabulous night.

Here's some of my goodies:

The theme of the gifts was time of day - so depending on the time of day the person got was what the gift was based on - it was really fun!!

I can't share pictures from the night on the town because my face is all over them, but the next day we went and visited our venue - here's a pretty picture of the field we're going to be getting married in.

My Boots - 1/2 Done!

Jordan and I stopped by the Boot store on Thursday to meet with the Best Man who is buying the same style of boot that Jordan is.  They same sales person was working and showed me the progress on my boots.  The colors look amazing!  I honestly wasn't 100% sure that I made the right choice, but didn't want to admit it because of the $$ and Jordan had such good luck with his - I am so happy right now!!!

March Wedding Spend

Yesterday I posted the total March Spend Report, but I wanted to break out the wedding category for those who are also planning their big day.

It doesn't take very long before you've spent $1,052.49.