Budget Woes

A "wedding budget" is the biggest oxymoron I know.
It's bigger than "jumbo shrimp" or even an "accurate estimate."
But that's mostly because monetarily speaking, it just keeps getting bigger.

We began our budget by asking our families flat out how much they felt they are able to contribute.  We graciously accepted however much their wallets allotted and threw in some ourselves.
We used The Knot's planning tool to enter the entire amount and then it spit out the breakdown for us.  We figured some areas might cost more or less and it will all even out.
Right?
Wrong.
You will always be over budget.

As our day-of planner said (which, as I write this, I realized I have yet to write about her!) if we remain within budget we will be the first couple to ever do so.

Of course, we came across extra expenses we neglected to budget:
-Day After Brunch (for out-of-town guests)
-Postage for Save the Dates and invites (although you could argue that the "stationary" line item covers this, but then we need to come down $100 to include the postage)
-Welcome Bags (for hotel staying out-of-town guests)
-Tips/Gratuity (assuming the wait-staff, photographer, etc. meet standards)
-Guest Book & pens
-Videographer (ok, we did budget for this, but seriously low-balled this one)


So that budget we worked so hard to create? tweaked to make the numbers more realistic? scraped and cut out items?

Well, I opened the window, smelled the fresh air of reality and then?
I threw it.
I threw the budget out the window.

I mean, yes, sure we still do have our basic working frame-work.
We still are aiming for a relative amount.
I'm thanking my lucky stars my retro-active paycheck will cover most overflow.
But still, how about that chocloate fountain?
What's another $500?
Optimistic Pessimism?
There - that's another oxymoron right there.

How do you stay on budget in life? when planning for a wedding?

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