Some of you may judge me for a statement I am about to make. However, I made a decision a long time ago that I would have no shame in my likes or interests. (I was the girl in eighth grade that wore Hanson shirts to school on the regular while no one else in my grade thought they were cool.)
So here it is: I’m Miss Phone Booth and I wish I was a Kardashian.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. My name doesn’t start with a K, I obviously wouldn’t fit in. Welp, thanks for raining on my parade. (That was what you were thinking, right?)
One of the many reasons that I’d be content with becoming a Kardashian (even if I did have to change my name) is the money that they have been able to spend on their weddings. Yes, their weddings could be called outrageous and over the top and sure, Kim’s marriage only lasted 72 days and now Khloe has filed for divorce. However, the inspiration that can be found in their weddings is plentiful. So if you’re a Kardashian hater, put on some rose colored sunglasses and join me as I oogle the photos a bit.
The tenting. The chandelier. Their body language. Sigh. (Side note: SO sad to hear things didn’t work out for them… sniffle sniffle) // Source: Khloe Kardashian
Look at all those flowers in the background! And her sisters in different color dresses! In the same color family! Carrying all white bouquets! Be still my beating heart… // Source: Ok! Magazine by way of QuoteKO
Hate on haters, but Kim’s commitment to theme during her wedding was amazing. She had a vision and found a way to execute it to the fullest. // Source: People Magazine
Now that I’m in a good mood because of the photos above, let’s snap back to reality and talk about the meaning of this post: the wedding budget.
Source: The Knot
A price tag of $28,427 and according to the infographic, that include a honeymoon. The most recent honeymoon statistics I could find state that the average honeymoon in 2010 cost $4,466. So $28,427 plus $4,466 equals $32,893, so about $33,000. The average amount is obviously way below that of a Kardashian wedding (or any other big celebrity wedding) but it’s still a good chunk of money in my eyes.
Mr. PB and I knew from the beginning that we would be footing most of the bill for the wedding. This didn’t worry me because I knew that we were giving ourselves 18 months to save. On top of that, the 18-month engagement allows me time to hunt for the best deals possible. Sure, we wouldn’t be able to have a Kardashian-type extravagant wedding but that’s not who we are anyways (even if I like to pretend I am every once in a while). We could make the wedding reflect us and fit what we can afford.
To figure out what the budget would be, I went to my favorite tool: Google Drive. Many bloggers have written about the great features of Drive and I will sing its praises all day long as well. I relied upon Drive for many things before we were engaged, have been using it almost daily since we became engaged and foresee myself using it long into the future.
I take care of the majority of our finances and have since we moved in together. To help sort things out and make the financial planning transparent, I created a spreadsheet in Drive that I share with Mr. PB. I plan out all of our bills normally about a year at a time in biweekly increments. The system has worked out really well for both our personal and joint finances. I figured it would be no different when it came to the wedding.
Utilizing our already in place budget spreadsheet, I figured out how much money we could save throughout the engagement while still paying all bills on time, paying off any debts we have and stowing away some savings. Once I had that figured out for both our joint account and our personal accounts, I added in any contributions we would be getting from other sources (parents, family, projected additional income, etc.) and resulted in our budget.
While our budget is not Kardashian sized and is a bit below the supposed average, I think our budget gives us plenty to work with. With the right attitude and savvy shopping, the day will be amazeballs and we’ll feel like celebrities.
Do you have any celebrity weddings you drool over? Anyone else using Google Drive to help with wedding budgeting?