No! Not the "B"-word!!

It is undoubtedly the LEAST exciting part of planning a wedding. Just thinking about it is enough to make most brides cringe a little.


Yep, I'm talking about the Budget, my friends. *collective shudder*


Still, it's gotta be done. And I figure we might as well be frank about it. For some couples, it's a completely private matter, and I can totally respect that. But I have no problem with being open about where our priorities are and what we intend to spend on this whole shindig. We've spent a lot of time figuring out how much money we'll be able to come up with, and even though the budget is still a bit of a touchy subject, we're actually pretty comfortable with the decisions we've made so far. And the best part? If all goes according to plan, we won't have any debts to pay off after the wedding. And we like that.


Now, I should tell you that Curt's a wizard with an Excel spreadsheet. He knows all those fancy little tricks that make something in one column affect something in another column, and he actually understands all that stuff about algorithms, and blah blah blah.... totally not my thing. I'm moderately tech-savvy, but spreadsheets? ugh, gag me. Anyway, he's got our whole budget set-up all fancy schmancy-like, and it works beautifully. Every time we get a quote from one of our vendors, we just plug it in, and voilà. Everything adjusts accordingly.

So the point of all this? I found something today that made me very.... well, relieved, I guess.

Miss Deviled Egg on Weddingbee did a budget-related post today and mentioned a fascinating website: www.costofwedding.com. Here's what I learned:


Average Cost of a wedding where Curt currently lives: between $17,807 and $29,678

Average Cost of a wedding where I currently live: between $21,580 and $35,966

Average Cost of a wedding in Curt's hometown: between $26,422 and $44,036

Average Cost of a wedding in my hometown: between $32,377 and $53,961


Total estimated cost of our wedding: approximately $22,000.



So... I'm pretty impressed with our budgeting skills. And I feel a little less ridiculous for wanting to spend so much money on one day.


For more thoughts on staying sane while budgeting, click here.