What was the most unexpected expense when planning your wedding and how did you pay for it?

Question

Answer Question

Answer 1

I think all the little extras that wedding photographers stack on after the original quote, can be quite an expense.

My sister had a photographer recommended by friends and prices were agreed on. Come the day of the wedding, the photographer rocked up late with extra unagreed for staff to help her. She was a bit of a martinet, ordering even guests around all day/afternoon, even at one point interrupted the priest during the ceremony as he was in her way!!! The wedding album then contained photos that were of people's faces blocked or pulling faces, when the DVD of all photos contained really nice ones of the same person/people!!! Dodgy :(

Source(s):

My sister's wedding.

Answer 2

Using my aunts wedding as an example:
She had 110 guests and had a buffet style dinner and when she ordered the food they asked how many guests and she told them and they said alright we will plan food for that many people. Well she guessed they use their tiny serving sized to decided how much food to set out so when it was gone and not everyone had eated they had to bring out extras (of course they had it prepared, hmm how convient) so when she was signing the bill there was an extra couple hundred dollars tacked on.

Answer 3

Flower arrangements for the reception. This is the one thing that has been the most expensive... for them dying a couple days later. I have actually found a lady who knows how to do very nice floral arrangements. She works from home and she will charge me only half of what other places charge. That makes me feel relieved....

Answer 4

It was the little 'last minute' stuff.

We suddenly realised with a week to go that my soon-to-be-husband didn't have any shoes to go with his suit.

2 days before the wedding, the pearl string I was going to wear broke and had to be replaced because it would take to long to fix.

And we'd forgotten that we needed a table and chairs to sign the papers (being an outdoor wedding) and had to buy them on the day.

But the biggest unexpected expense was the paying for the taxi to take a ridiculously drunk relative home ($150) when we didn't really want him there in the first place but had to invite him because he's family and no-one else was willing to pay.

Had a friend whose make up artist was taken severely ill the night before wedding. Getting a makeup artist to do the wedding makeup of the bride and the three bridesmaids on about less than a day's notice is going to cost...

Moral of the story: always budget about 10% extra for 'emergencies' - you don't need the extra stress of trying to scrape up the cash to get something you need to buy / replace / take care of. If you don't spend it, think yourself lucky and put it towards your honeymoon or hosue deposit etc.

Source(s):

My source is personal experience

Answer 5

How much the photographer ended up costing. Just the photographer ended up costing as much as all the dresses, flowers, suit hire, limo, reception etc put together!

We paid for it on our credit card and then saved hard to pay it off.

Answer 6

We had to find a new Justice of the peace a week before the wedding because the first one dropped out. The first JoP cost only $50, the new JoP cost $150!! Luckily, we had some extra money, but it was definitely not expected!

Answer 7

I planned for it within my budget, but I think ALOT of people overlook tax and gratuity on the food bill.
Most places automatically add anywhere from 18% to 22% to the bill.
So your $3,000 bill can easily be closer to $4k

Answer 8

I had a $4,000 wedding budget for everything.

The only thing I can think of that was unexpected was that my hair roots had to be recoloured, costing another $100 I hadn't been planning on, having just spent nearly $300 for colour and cut 4 weeks earlier. I have long hair.

It was paid for in cash, as was everything else. Debt free.

Source(s):

Nov 08 wedding.

Answer 9

We got married at the registry office as it was quite a few hundred dollars less then a celebrant We planned the wedding in 6 weeks. I bought stuff for the wedding every week made my own flowers & cake. Did all the decorations myself to save money & had a backyard reception with a bbq for a small number of family & friends the unexpected thing was we had family show up a few days early as a family friend was put into hospital close to death & they came to spend time with them but we had already known they would be staying after the wedding so beds were already made & I had over stocked the fridge & cupboards, I have a tendency to over do it on food for parties don't want anyone starving. At the reception I caught them whispering in a corner & found out the person in hospital may not make it thru the night so I chased them off to hospital. Unfortunately he died that night. Because the family members showed up early they handed me an envelope as they were leaving with money in it so there wasn't really any extra expense. I used my reception dress for the funeral a few days after. Talk about from one extreme to the other

Answer 10

The divorce - still paying.... :P

Answer 11

The father of the bride asking me to pitch in $5,000.00 to help pay for the cake and food . From there on the marriage was on the brink of collapse.

Source(s):

I still have the recipts

Answer 12

the most expensive was booking the heritage house reception room for the night! Our Best man paid the deposit for us as a wedding present and we saved the rest.

Answer 13

The biggest expense is not thinking things through and not being properly financially prepared, not getting to know your partner really good and of course, how do you pay for it? you pay for it with your life. Before you think about that Vera Wang dress, think about your life and about whether you're prepared for that.

Answer 14

My wedding was really cheap with no unexpected costs-we got married at the city hall, the ceremony consisted of a piece of paper being stamped, total cost $100.

All that money we saved went on the house deposit-a much more practical use of those thousands of dollars, dont you think?

Funnily enough, being a friend's best man or a relative of someone getting married has cost me a lot more than my own wedding! Apart from the clothes, hotel, present etc. as a best man you should ALWAYS have a few hundred dollars (maybe a thousand or so these days) in cash tucked away in case anything goes wrong. It always gets spent-keeping the open bar open for a while longer, getting the band to do a few covers you really want to hear, keeping the caterers happy-whatever. It's your duty to make sure the bride and groom don't have to worry about anything, if that means getting some drunken idiot quickly and quietly packed off to a hotel in a cab while they aren't looking and the cabbies' "tip" is a c note, that's the price you pay...

Answer 15

Definitely all the little stuff adding up. I got a wedding planner book from a store ($14.95 added towards my total plus tax), and I didn't even think about purchasing things like a cake topper, a cake knife, the garter, lingerie, corsages for the mothers of the bride and groom, grandmothers of the bride and groom, and honor attendants, shoes, jewelry, getting my hair done, etc. All together it added up to over two thousand dollars in extras. Luckily I'm getting a lot of help from talented family and friends, and we're taking out stuff that won't matter twenty years from now, like the exact color coordination of the earrings to the sash on my dress :) In the end, the only thing I'm taking home that I'll love the most (and won't cost me a penny) is my groom.

Source(s):

My own harried, crazy wedding planning.

Answer 16

Everything together was pretty expensive actually..my husband and I wanted a traditional yet not-too-formal wedding. The venue we found included catering and an overnight stay for the two of us, so that was the most expensive payment we made.

Still, I think it's a really good thing to sit down with your partner at the beginning and make a list, plan things out, decide what's important and what isn't. Our mothers, for instance, decided two days before that they really wanted us to have a wedding cake, so they went out and found one for us.

Three things I would recommend: 1. Brides: don't splurge on the dress. I found a cheap but nice rental and then a friend of mine helped me add some flair to it that made it personalized and unique to me.
2. Be sure to get a good photographer, you'll want to remember it all because it's a blur to the couple when it's over!
and 3. Give some time for planning! Try and set aside a couple days/afternoons that are devoted to running mindless wedding errands so that they get done sooner rather than the day before :)
Good luck!

Source(s):

I just got married last Tuesday, so it's still fresh in my mind :)

Answer 17

I would have to say the meal, however it was worth it. I was pretty lucky to have my next door neighbour who is a retired photographer do my photos as a wedding present. And they were fantastic. My husband granmother insisted she make the cake. (I had 5 people ask me for the name of my baker, it was that good). A friend of mine is an florist, so she did the flowers and decorated the cake as a wedding present. And my brother mother in law manages a jewellery shop, so mates rates on the rings. And I walked by a dress shop (that was closing down) about 8 mths before the wedding and saw the exact dress I wanted. Reduced from $1900 down to $300. I hope all that luck means great luck for our marrige.

Answer 18

Yes indeed, the photographer who moved the goal posts. We wanted the pictures (of course) so we just paid for it. We always have money in reserve at all times anyway, but it left a bad taste.

Answer 19

You can be 'ripped' off by any of the activities in your wedding day, so try and get a letter from them stating the exact price.

Try not to mention the word ' wedding'. If you can get away with telling your hairdresser that you need your hair done for a special event, it would cost you less etc, etc.

Get family friends to do the photographs - so easy these days. Our kids got a photographer, and then they liked our photos as much as the ones he did???

Answer 20

I did not know the groom. I thought I knew him. I didn't know he was dangerous. My Dad got me out of it, he hired a lawyer.

Answer 21

Buying a wife

Answer 22

does it matter that day suppose 2 be the best day of your life.

Answer 23

I avoided that by not getting married, and if I fall for that then I won't have a wedding. I'd rather have a house deposit not unexpected expenses.

Answer 24

The make-up for my bride, I had paid 4,500,00Rp for food and alcohol. As 500 people at reception. Family had given use of their Hotel free, then 700,000Rp for make-up and final dress veil additions, when dress had cost only 550,000Rp back in 1990 when exchange was only 1/5th of what it would exchange today. Lucky I had bank account in that overseas country, with some spare money in it for a unforeseen expense.

Answer 25

The cancellation fee and slowly.

Answer 26

The most unexpected expense for me was probably the little things!
The small things, like the ribbons on the edge of the chairs, the few flowers on the windowsills, little things like that, all added up to be quite a bit of a cost!
I paid for it just with cash of course, but it was still unexpected.

Answer 27

The most unexpected expense was when my wife to be slept with one of the guests 2 days before the wedding. I paid for it by believing it didn't really happen, and now, 2 years later, they have my house, my car, and my dog. And I still owe Bankwest $9000. That probably sums it up.

Answer 28

Ack. The thing about marriage is.... it costs way too much to break up.

Answer 29

the divorce. With half the persons assets.

P.S. I have never been married and never plan to be as it is such a waste of a decent life to screw it up with marriage.

Answer 30

the little things always count in planning a wedding because the more little things you have the better it looks.