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Old 02-13-2008, 10:00 AM
SthrnZeta SthrnZeta is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by APhi Sailorgirl View Post
SthrnZeta,
To answer your questions, one thing that helped FI and I out a lot when budgeting was using theknot.com's one. You input guest count and total budget and they help break things down for you. We took that, put it into an excel sheet and adjusted as necessary. Excel also helps us look at overall cost, then couple costs, then parental costs, etc.

As for alcohol, a lot will depend on the venue if they let you bring it in. I'm not sure I would want the stress of that, but it does usually cost less. And if you want just signature stuff for the reception, I would do it for the whole thing so guests don't get confused.

As for hair and makeup I think it really depends on location. I would look online at local salons/spas to see what their packages are. Also it depends if you want someone to come on-site, airbrushed makeup, etc.

It might be worth it to have a Day of Coordinator (DOC). A sister of mine is an event planner, so she is helping me as my DOC as a friend and I am super thankful.

I know the knot has a lot of crazies on it, but my local board and my wedding month board have been really helpful.

Hope this helped a bit!
I do have some stuff set up on the Knot, so that's some really good advice. One of the doctors I work with, an AOPi, got married where we plan to and told me that the event coordinator for the venue should handle logistics for the day and that I don't really need a wedding planner. But I like the idea of someone else setting up meetings with vendors and her talking to them for me throughout the process.

As far as the alcohol, I get what you're saying about confusing people, but the bar area is in a separate room that you can close off and but then I guess we'd need more servers to serve drinks if we shut down the bar... definitely something to think about (and I hear alcohol is a major money-suck!).

And what's the deal with all the pieces in the invitation? Do you really need a separate one for the reception - can't you just say reception to follow since the reception site is on the same property as the chapel? Just seems silly to me... We would like people to RSVP on our wedding site but we know some may prefer to mail in a card so we'll include that also. Just seems like invitations are unncecessarily expensive, and then you throw in the Save the Date magnets we want and it's approaching $4-500!! And that doesn't include programs and napkins and any other stationary items! I mean, is $20,000 a realistic budget for a wedding of approx 100 people?
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