First off, I want to say, Gwen has been working hard finding good venues, prices, bargains, whatever else. I’m glad to have a fiancee like her. It’s more touching to me because whatever I need to do, I’ll do and I’ll help her in any way I can but she’s been going at it and just telling me what I need to do. Go on baby!
Last night, we made some good progress. We found the amount of venues we are going to check out. There are five of them and none of them are more than $2000. Gwen also spent a lot of time looking up approximates for all the things we would need for the venue from photographers to DJ’s. She actually contacted a photgrapher who had some pretty decent pictures and good price range. She also found, what looks to be on paper, a great DJ and e-mailed them for quotes. From what we saw on their website, they looked cheap also–they’re also available on Sept. 3rd! Of course, that won’t matter if our venue isn’t available but the fact that they’re so cheap and good looked appealing.
Gwen also talkd to Yolanda yesterday and she gave some good advice to Gwen and so she’s thinking about ways to get more money. She is putting in work!
It sounds like she’s doing all the work and if that’s what you’re thinking, then you’re right. I’m not in her mind like she is and she knows what she wants. I’m executing anything I need to execute. I need to call my uncle who does professional photography to see if he’d be willing to help us out. Other than that, I’m waiting for “orders.” She is working hard and I’m so appreaciative. She’s such a great woman!
Monday, February 14, 2011
OMG... The Budget...
I don’t know how to describe what budgeting a wedding feels like. There’s so much excitement that the ball is rolling but then going into the logistical stuff… it’s like being excited about some oatmeal you just popped into the microwave only to find out after it’s done it’s all clumpy but after mixing it up and adding milk, water or whatever, it turns out just fine. I don’t know but that’s what finding a budget for a venue felt like. Exciting but that logistical stuff is rough!
Gwen and I decided to get together tonight to talk about our wedding budget since we’ve gotten our answers from our parents which didn’t tell us much about what our budget was going to be. So we were going to sit down and come up with one ourselves based on the list TQ gave us and some venues and other things Gwen looked up (such a great woman!).
Thinking up a budget was stressful. Considering an average wedding costs 15-20k, I wasn’t sure how $6,000 was going to cut it in San Diego. Gwen thought it was doable. I didn’t know what to think and I think it was best it stayed that way.
When Gwen started talking to me about venues, parts of it were mumbo-jumbo to me. There was a part of me that wanted to jump “to the point” while she was talking about all the details and what the venues came with. I did care about the details but I wanted to work backwards. How much was the venue? Oh okay. What does that one come with? With each new venue she brought it up, it was information overload and after it was all over, I was mentally beatdown. There are not many times where I have to “selah” logistical information. Gwen was patient with me though. Thank you Jesus!
I wanted to figure how much our venue budget was going to be. We only had $6000 so just playing around with venue prices wasn’t the best idea. I told her $2500 but she had a hard time going with that because with all the stuff the venue came with plus catering and what that could come with, she didn’t think it was reasonable to set a venue budget. Me being the guy I am, I wondered why we had a flat budget anyway if we didn’t have the venue which could, with catering and any other 3rd party things we needed to compensate for the venue, it could turn out to be $4000 and all we have left is $2000 everything else. Gwen, being the very restrained with money woman she is, said we’ll work around that. I still did not get how we couldn’t set a venue budget so we went around the mountain again of trying to figure out estimated costs. Why weren’t we going online? Because the internet was not working on my computer at the time.
When the internet started working, we decided to do a mock-up as if we chose a venue and a caterer. We took the venue that did not come with much of anything and looked to the caterer to provide for the lofty lack of the venue–tables and chairs, linens, cups, napkins, etc. Turned out to be about $3200. We checked out one more venue that did come with tables and chairs and in the end, that one turned out to be around $3400 with all the extra.
I was still confused as to why we could not come up with a venue budget. It seemed like so much to think about, to me at least, to look for a venue and then have to factor in what catering would or would not bring plus everything else a venue did or did not have. Perhaps that is how venues found but I needed to break it down so I could at least digest it. I asked Gwen when we go look for a venue, outside of how nice it is, what would determine whether we say ‘Yes’ or ‘Naw. Not good enough.’ She responded with ‘What it comes with.’ I nodded my ahead and said ‘Okay.’ Then I asked, ‘What does a venue need?’ She said, ‘Tables, chairs and everything that goes with those and a dance floor.’ Breathing in with a sigh of relief I suggested that we look at what we had and see what they provided and based on those things alone, no catering, no DJ, just the venue, figure out how much they cost.
In about five minutes, I had all the prices I needed to see and an understanding of what we needed in a venue!
From 8pm to 10pm, we were figuring out a budget and in less than five minutes, we figured out how much each of the venues cost and find a legitimate budget. She was cracking up, I was sitting there in a facepalm wondering what just happened. It was very amusing. It really was.
For that moment, it was worth it. It was tantamount to realizing that your pen was in your ear the whole time you were looking for it. But after that moment, I felt relieved and satisfied and we both knew, at least for venue, what was too much (without catering going into it). We asked God for wisdom. Next time I’m asking for wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
This will certainly go into our testimonies of hurdles we crossed. Thank you Jesus for this one. Simply classic.
Gwen and I decided to get together tonight to talk about our wedding budget since we’ve gotten our answers from our parents which didn’t tell us much about what our budget was going to be. So we were going to sit down and come up with one ourselves based on the list TQ gave us and some venues and other things Gwen looked up (such a great woman!).
Thinking up a budget was stressful. Considering an average wedding costs 15-20k, I wasn’t sure how $6,000 was going to cut it in San Diego. Gwen thought it was doable. I didn’t know what to think and I think it was best it stayed that way.
When Gwen started talking to me about venues, parts of it were mumbo-jumbo to me. There was a part of me that wanted to jump “to the point” while she was talking about all the details and what the venues came with. I did care about the details but I wanted to work backwards. How much was the venue? Oh okay. What does that one come with? With each new venue she brought it up, it was information overload and after it was all over, I was mentally beatdown. There are not many times where I have to “selah” logistical information. Gwen was patient with me though. Thank you Jesus!
I wanted to figure how much our venue budget was going to be. We only had $6000 so just playing around with venue prices wasn’t the best idea. I told her $2500 but she had a hard time going with that because with all the stuff the venue came with plus catering and what that could come with, she didn’t think it was reasonable to set a venue budget. Me being the guy I am, I wondered why we had a flat budget anyway if we didn’t have the venue which could, with catering and any other 3rd party things we needed to compensate for the venue, it could turn out to be $4000 and all we have left is $2000 everything else. Gwen, being the very restrained with money woman she is, said we’ll work around that. I still did not get how we couldn’t set a venue budget so we went around the mountain again of trying to figure out estimated costs. Why weren’t we going online? Because the internet was not working on my computer at the time.
When the internet started working, we decided to do a mock-up as if we chose a venue and a caterer. We took the venue that did not come with much of anything and looked to the caterer to provide for the lofty lack of the venue–tables and chairs, linens, cups, napkins, etc. Turned out to be about $3200. We checked out one more venue that did come with tables and chairs and in the end, that one turned out to be around $3400 with all the extra.
I was still confused as to why we could not come up with a venue budget. It seemed like so much to think about, to me at least, to look for a venue and then have to factor in what catering would or would not bring plus everything else a venue did or did not have. Perhaps that is how venues found but I needed to break it down so I could at least digest it. I asked Gwen when we go look for a venue, outside of how nice it is, what would determine whether we say ‘Yes’ or ‘Naw. Not good enough.’ She responded with ‘What it comes with.’ I nodded my ahead and said ‘Okay.’ Then I asked, ‘What does a venue need?’ She said, ‘Tables, chairs and everything that goes with those and a dance floor.’ Breathing in with a sigh of relief I suggested that we look at what we had and see what they provided and based on those things alone, no catering, no DJ, just the venue, figure out how much they cost.
In about five minutes, I had all the prices I needed to see and an understanding of what we needed in a venue!
From 8pm to 10pm, we were figuring out a budget and in less than five minutes, we figured out how much each of the venues cost and find a legitimate budget. She was cracking up, I was sitting there in a facepalm wondering what just happened. It was very amusing. It really was.
For that moment, it was worth it. It was tantamount to realizing that your pen was in your ear the whole time you were looking for it. But after that moment, I felt relieved and satisfied and we both knew, at least for venue, what was too much (without catering going into it). We asked God for wisdom. Next time I’m asking for wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
This will certainly go into our testimonies of hurdles we crossed. Thank you Jesus for this one. Simply classic.
Gwethony vs. San Diego
We’re only into the first steps of wedding planning and we’re already feeling a slight bit overwhelmed. There’s a lot of things that go into a wedding and I had no idea.
Gwen and I went to TQ’s yesterday so that we could get a start on what we would need to do for planning our wedding. TQ came prepared. She had a list of things that we would need, some more important than others, and the average amount of the cost of those items. She said the average cost of a wedding in San Diego is $15-20,000. I gasped at that. When I saw the price of some of the items, I gasped again. I knew it was going to be expensive but I didn’t actually know how expensive. I also didn’t know how much actually went into a wedding. I’m looking at the list going “We only need a 1/3 of that…” But that was my money conservation self coming out me.
The thing that shocked us the most was determining the people. Before we went to TQ’s, Gwen was telling me about how many people she was planning to invite to the wedding. She said about 150 people. My eyes widened. That was just invites. I’m sure some of you are like “That’s about average” and you can totally bash me for my reactions but I’m just saying, I don’t know what to expect. She asked me and I said probably about 70 or so. But when we were determining how many people would actually come, probably about 100 on her said and maybe like 50 on mine (she actually came up with a list and I haven’t and her list had people we both know). When talking with TQ, she said to expect 5 to 10% more than what we invited! That changed everything. That means we have to budget for extra. Didn’t expect that.
After our meeting with TQ, I felt overwhelmed. Gwen wasn’t terribly concerned. I felt overwhelmed as there was so much more than I ever realized. I never paid attention to what actually went into a wedding. Thankfully, Gwen already has an idea of what goes into a wedding and some prices so that comforts me. The rest, I’m just going to have to leave up to God to supply the needs. No worries.
Today, we talked to our parents. I talked to my parents and they said they were going to give us a cash wedding present but were not helping for the wedding. No surprise there. I asked her about paying for the Rehearsal Dinner and she was a little shocked because they didn’t have one but she said it depends on where we eat and the cost. Again, no surprise. That does make the financial a lot bigger though which means more trust in God. It is what it is.
Gwen talked with her parents and they’re going to chip in for the wedding. They just want to know some more logistical stuff that’s fantastic! Other than that, it’s just us vs. San Diego.
I will say it’s easy to caught up with the challenges and get overwhelmed but we’re simply believing God for favor, trusting Him and leaving it in His hands. We’ll do what we need to do and let God work out the rest. We only get to go through this process once so we’re not going to let the challenges get us down. It’s tough time but that was to be expected. All I know is that we’re on our way!!
The next step is that I need to make my list of invites so we can get a number of how many people I plan on inviting (potentially) and then once we get the budget straight, we’ll start looking for venues. Now, all of Facebook can hold me accountable! Bam! Let’s go!
Gwen and I went to TQ’s yesterday so that we could get a start on what we would need to do for planning our wedding. TQ came prepared. She had a list of things that we would need, some more important than others, and the average amount of the cost of those items. She said the average cost of a wedding in San Diego is $15-20,000. I gasped at that. When I saw the price of some of the items, I gasped again. I knew it was going to be expensive but I didn’t actually know how expensive. I also didn’t know how much actually went into a wedding. I’m looking at the list going “We only need a 1/3 of that…” But that was my money conservation self coming out me.
The thing that shocked us the most was determining the people. Before we went to TQ’s, Gwen was telling me about how many people she was planning to invite to the wedding. She said about 150 people. My eyes widened. That was just invites. I’m sure some of you are like “That’s about average” and you can totally bash me for my reactions but I’m just saying, I don’t know what to expect. She asked me and I said probably about 70 or so. But when we were determining how many people would actually come, probably about 100 on her said and maybe like 50 on mine (she actually came up with a list and I haven’t and her list had people we both know). When talking with TQ, she said to expect 5 to 10% more than what we invited! That changed everything. That means we have to budget for extra. Didn’t expect that.
After our meeting with TQ, I felt overwhelmed. Gwen wasn’t terribly concerned. I felt overwhelmed as there was so much more than I ever realized. I never paid attention to what actually went into a wedding. Thankfully, Gwen already has an idea of what goes into a wedding and some prices so that comforts me. The rest, I’m just going to have to leave up to God to supply the needs. No worries.
Today, we talked to our parents. I talked to my parents and they said they were going to give us a cash wedding present but were not helping for the wedding. No surprise there. I asked her about paying for the Rehearsal Dinner and she was a little shocked because they didn’t have one but she said it depends on where we eat and the cost. Again, no surprise. That does make the financial a lot bigger though which means more trust in God. It is what it is.
Gwen talked with her parents and they’re going to chip in for the wedding. They just want to know some more logistical stuff that’s fantastic! Other than that, it’s just us vs. San Diego.
I will say it’s easy to caught up with the challenges and get overwhelmed but we’re simply believing God for favor, trusting Him and leaving it in His hands. We’ll do what we need to do and let God work out the rest. We only get to go through this process once so we’re not going to let the challenges get us down. It’s tough time but that was to be expected. All I know is that we’re on our way!!
The next step is that I need to make my list of invites so we can get a number of how many people I plan on inviting (potentially) and then once we get the budget straight, we’ll start looking for venues. Now, all of Facebook can hold me accountable! Bam! Let’s go!
Genesis
In the beginning… just kidding.
I didn’t expect to get started so early but we did. Gwen came over tonight to hang out and we got to talking about wedding plans. We both know it was on our minds so it was only appropriate to start talking about the plans.
Personally, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. She has a better idea but neither have actually experienced the planning process so that’s why TQ is there to save our butts. She’s our designated wedding planner (I don’t even know if she knows that yet but if you’re reading this TQ, yes, you).
The biggest question we’ve both been getting since the night we got engaged is “Do you have a date?” Not, “How did you do it?” Not anything else. I kind of felt under-prepared because so many people asked. Even clients at work asked me if we had a date. Same for Gwen too. So to satiate the desire to know, our tentative date as of tonight is September 3, 2011. There’s no “save the date” yet though but that is what we’ve agreed on at this point.
We also talked about who would be in our wedding party which I will not go into for the potential of finding out via a blog than being told in person. That would be lame.
As for later, the plan is talk to TQ about a budget because that will determine what we can have and how many people we’ll invite. Gwen and I were totally on the same page about having a practical budget but the way we think about spending the money is different. Everything she’s thinking is need, need, need but in being sensitive to the fact that this is a special day I was saying “Well what do you want?” Her response? “To get married and have fun.” Well said babe. Won’t contest that at all.
More to come as this thing progresses!
I didn’t expect to get started so early but we did. Gwen came over tonight to hang out and we got to talking about wedding plans. We both know it was on our minds so it was only appropriate to start talking about the plans.
Personally, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. She has a better idea but neither have actually experienced the planning process so that’s why TQ is there to save our butts. She’s our designated wedding planner (I don’t even know if she knows that yet but if you’re reading this TQ, yes, you).
The biggest question we’ve both been getting since the night we got engaged is “Do you have a date?” Not, “How did you do it?” Not anything else. I kind of felt under-prepared because so many people asked. Even clients at work asked me if we had a date. Same for Gwen too. So to satiate the desire to know, our tentative date as of tonight is September 3, 2011. There’s no “save the date” yet though but that is what we’ve agreed on at this point.
We also talked about who would be in our wedding party which I will not go into for the potential of finding out via a blog than being told in person. That would be lame.
As for later, the plan is talk to TQ about a budget because that will determine what we can have and how many people we’ll invite. Gwen and I were totally on the same page about having a practical budget but the way we think about spending the money is different. Everything she’s thinking is need, need, need but in being sensitive to the fact that this is a special day I was saying “Well what do you want?” Her response? “To get married and have fun.” Well said babe. Won’t contest that at all.
More to come as this thing progresses!
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