Wedding Wednesday: Budget Woes

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When I got engaged all of the websites and books and blogs and people repeated to me the importance of a wedding budget. It is THE most important thing to have a stress-free wedding. I've been engaged for 9 months and I do not have a budget.

Not because I haven't tried. I have forms up the wazoo and sit down to work on them all the time, but then I just get overwhelmed. I don't like to see the glaring amount of money I somehow have to save to have my wedding in 8 months. 

At first I was excited to see that it was possible to have a 4k dollar wedding with a bunch of people. All of these blogs boasted about it. I could do under 5k. Besides, I have a lot of people donating their time and skills to us.

Then Iman and I went to look at venues and we realized that to get married in Southern California...that 5k wedding would only work if we miraculously had a huge house and backyard to get married in. If we had a huge house and backyard...we probably wouldn't need to have a 5k wedding.

Our venue, including meal service and champagne, costs $15k. That is the cheapest we were able to find, and miraculously it has absolutely everything I wanted.

Our wedding photographer is a dear friend of mine and we're paying less than $2k for her and a second shooter [also impossible in Southern California...we're flying her in from OHIO].

We don't have to worry about: any of my attire, most likely his attire thanks to all of the suit places doing their buy the groomsmen, get the groom free, any of the attendants attire [they're buying them], DJ, cake, my hair, makeup is largely discounted, most likely we won't have to pay our officiant...and you see how the costs were cut low.

Yet, I'm still looking at a number around 24k. Which is roughly what I make in a year working 2 jobs and a million hours.

My other problem with the budget is that, I really have no idea how much anything is going to cost because I'm not paying for a lot of things and I'm too anxious about it to sit down and do the research on pricing. Our day of wedding coordinator [I won a discount in a blog contest!], is super helpful with giving me feedback on prices but she's not going to write my budget for me. I'm not paying her for that. I'm paying her for day of and anything she does extra is out of the pure kindness of her heart.

I can't rave about her enough. She is phenomenal.

But really, I need to just sit down and do the research and write the prices down in my own custom budget.

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Only, I think I'm way too busy trying to work a million hours to pay for the wedding. I cut back my hours [I'm sure you've seen my rant post where I decided it was enough]. My room is finally clean.

I have no more excuses but to sit down, do my research and plan my budget.

I don't like budgeting. I don't even have a regular budget. The important part is that I'm trying at least?

Hopefully by next week I'll have something made up [and maybe even share].

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The Work-Budget Dilemma

Obviously, I don't write in my blog regularly and this time I cannot blame it on lack of inspiration, motivation organization, or any other -zation that applies. Instead, I can blame it entirely on...drum roll please...the work-budget dilemma that I've faced for the past several years.

I'm just going to put it out there that I have been working for 8 years...and I have worked for Mervyns, Faculty Club, Pottery Barn, Campfire Kids, Columbus Nanny, Fruitti Yogurt, California Terriyaki Grill, Buffalo Wild Wings, Mi Casa, Lazy Dog Cafe, Victoria's Secret, Planet Bravo, BMW, Kymberly Marciano Photography, Buffalo Wild Wings (again), La Habra Collision, Hollywood Music Magazine, Live Magazine, LA Parent, University Link 15 different companies. This does not include either of my two internships, two freelance magazines, or consistent babysitting jobs that I have had.

I know, that's a lot of work. Usually I am working at least 2 jobs at a time. Everyone calls me the busy bee, and I have lost some friendships because of my busy schedule. I like to be busy, but I also have a lot events in my life that cost money. Some are planned (roadtrips, moving out, concerts, wedding). Many of these events have been unplanned, like my house fire*, luck with Tut-Tut and the saga of driving a 1988 pick up truck*. I wouldn't change any of these events.

Now that I'm planning my life with someone else though, the exhaustion of two jobs is so much heavier than it used to be - or maybe I'm just old. Unfortunately, it is a necessity. Throw in this economy and I'm broke. Not poor or rich, definitely in debt but still not working out a great budget.

It's a vicious cycle. I am literally only home to sleep most days, so there is no time to prepare food or even go shopping. So then I eat at Buffalo Wild Wings at night, or somewhere for lunch; sucking up more of my money, forcing me to work more hours. And then I decide I need a break from all of my work - so I splurge on a vacation to Vegas or a much needed date night.

Something has to give. I cannot work these crazy hours and ruin my relationships, exhaust my body and make no dent on my debt or bank account. I didn't mean for this post to seem a little ranty. Yesterday, I actually wrote about mine and Iman's story, then decided against posting it. For the past week my head has been swimming with a post about friendship and earlier Laura sent me this awesome picture about self-doubt. I really, really want to write about those things.

But I'm going to go drown myself in more coffee, face plant my desk, and prepare myself for my last 14 hour work day until Monday.

P.S. I swear I've written posts on the house fire and Chuck the Truck, but I have not. I will share, because they've made me such a stronger WQ. Yay for exciting upcoming posts!