The Budget

I've been reading "The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World" and it's been very helpful. [I also finally finished reading through a whole stack of (very heavy) magazines that a friend lent me.] I like that, since The Knot is based in Manhattan, they include New York-centric stuff like the idea that the average price of a wedding in metro areas cost twice as much as the national average. Very helpful so far has been the guidelines on how much to spend for each of the many aspects of a wedding so this weekend we discussed the budget (were we supposed to discuss this earlier?). Here is their breakdown (with my modifications):

• Banquet (50%): cake, Pig Day stuff, cake cards, drinks
  
• Photography & Videography (12%): photo, video, albums (though we could probably postpone the cost of the album until later b/c it takes that long to create)
  
• Attire (10%): wedding dress & alterations, shoes, Chinese dress, evening gown, veil, accessories, groom's attire, hair and makeup
  
• Ceremony (3%): officiant, location fee, programs
  
• Stationery (3%): invites, postage, thank yous
  
• Music (8%): ceremony music (organist/quartet?) and reception music (band/DJ?)
  
• Flowers (8%): bride's bouquet, bridesmaids' bouquets, boutonnieres, ceremony decorations
  
• Gifts (3%): favors, gifts for BMs (aside from their dresses) and GMs
  
• Rings (3%)
• Transportation (2%): rides to ceremony and banquet, parking
  
• + 5% extra for miscellaneous stuff: marriage license, unforeseen costs, etc.
  

It is going to be a crazy amount of money! I'm not sure if we're saving enough money. :( On the brighter side, we met with 2 more photographers this weekend and I think we're close to making a decision. I also re-met with one during the week that we met last weekend to see some proofs. The guy that I like was very friendly (seemed very honest) and has been doing this for 16 years. He started out at one of those Chinese "Mc-Wedding" places and the stories he told back the feeling that I got when we visited Eternal Wedding out in Flushing. He said that ppl would ask for specific photographers so when he went out to shoot a wedding, they'd tell him "Today your name is 'Robert'" or some photographers would call last minute and say that they're sick and can't make it so they're sending their backup and then they'd go shoot another wedding. Similarly, when we went to Eternal Wedding, I asked about a photographer (Tony) that someone recommended. I thought it was a long shot to ask b/c the person who recommended him said that he only does the studio portraits yet this woman trying to sell us stuff said of course we could have Tony. And she hesitated, ever so slightly in the affirmative, when I asked her if all these pictures that she was showing me was by Tony. Anyway, this photographer that I do like was also used by two other ppl that I know and his price is not bad. He also showed us a sample of a very nice album (the Queensberry) which we saw at a previous photographer. The other photographer that we met with seemed a little green and I'm not crazy about her album choices (they seemed like the ones that you can get through Ofoto). But she did seem very eager and nice.

It's Chinese New Year!