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.
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