What''s your value?

[EyeElle]

Hey All,

So since getting engaged we have been venue shopping. Looking at tons of places but unfortunately nothing really did it for me. Untill now.
One place is in a hotel penthouse .... good price, and the other is by the lake .... a bit more expensive in pricing.

And so I am a bit torn by them ... do I go with the nice place for cheaper, or the nicer place for more money??

I am not sure what to do, as I am not one to spend tons of money (I am more of a saver) but part of me wants to splurge and part of me want to save the extra money for a house.

So I am just wondering on what your takes are. How many of you went all the way for your wedding?
Did you guys go a bit further then you thought you would to get what you wanted or did you tone it down??

P.S. the difference in price overall I would say is around $2000 .... which is a fairly large amount and yet not so much in the large scheme of things. (playing devil''s advocate here ... that is my problem when making decisions

)

I appreciate all your input and time in writing it

 

[MagsyMay]

We are spending a bit more on the wedding that we had originally envisioned. After seeing a ton of venues, none of them felt like "us" and so we ended up seeing one that did and it happened to be pricier that the others. We decided we''d sacrifice things elsewhere to have the venue, and that''s what we''re doing. My parents are graciously paying for most of the wedding expenses, but we will also be contributing due to the higher cost of things. It does seem silly especially given our financial situations, but we have made the decision that it is worth it to us and there''s no turning back now!

While I don''t know what your wedding budget is, a difference of 2K between the one you love and the so-so one is not an exorbitant amount at the end of the day. There are lots of ways to cut costs to come up with that amount if your wedding is, say in a year. About $5 dollars a day would almost get you to that point, so things like bringing a lunch instead of going out, downgrading your phone plan if it''s unnecessarily high, cutting 20 people off your guest list, do some wedding projects yourself instead of paying vendors, you get the point!

I think it sounds like you really do want the nicer place, and your wedding should be what you envision at the end of the day, so I say go for it! How''s that for enabling!

 

[elrohwen]

My parents gave us $10k and initially we said we would stick to that amount. We quickly realized that we couldn't have the wedding we wanted for $10k (not where we live anyway) so we added on. I think we tried to get everything as cheap as possible without sacrificing what we really wanted. In the end, it will cost us $20k.

We definitely prioritized certain things. For example, I had to have a string quartet, but we didn't care about the DJ and picked one with a good reputation who was also cheap. We also picked a venue that could offer us $15 less per person than most places, but it's a beautiful location and the food is delicious. So we kept price in mind, but didn't sacrifice quality if we could help it.

We realized we would never be able to set an amount and totally stick to it, so we've just tried to remain budget conscious the whole time and not do anything that wasn't necessary for us to have a good time.

ETA: Agree with MagsyMay that $2k is not a lot of money. I think you can easily save this amount in other aspects of your wedding if you decide that venue is a priority. Nothing wrong with splurging in one area as long as you're willing to sacrifice in another.

 

[rhbgirl24]

We are spending quite a bit. More than we thought too. Our wedding is small, about 75 people, but we''re still spending about $25,000. Our venue is what killed us, they are $160pp, but we fell in love with it and splurged.

Which one makes your heart sing? B/c in the scheme of wedding, 2K isn''t all that much. If you can be happy and save that money, go for the cheaper, if you''re just always going to wish you went with the other than I say its worth it to spend it!

 

[MonkeyPants]

EyeEll, good question!. Our budget for our wedding is $28k for a northern California wedding with 150 guests. Even with this budget I''m stretching a lot of things (we''re doing an ipod instead of dj, small floral budget, etc). So for me, I''d save the $2k on a venue that is nearly equally as nice as the more expensive space. In fact for my venue, we decided to choose a Sunday over Saturday which only saved us $1k, but that''s $1k I can spend on my food, alcohol, or flowers. Good luck with your decision!

 

[ficklefaye]

oh gosh, this is a tough question, my ultimate wedding was a destination one, but we went with our second choice and it was still a splurge in any case, i think if you really want one place over the other, you just need to make sacrifices in other areas, smaller guestlist or smaller budget for other items like flowers, decorations?

 

[panda08]

We were maybe $500 over budget for a small DW. Like you, I''m not one to spend tons of money. We didn''t go all out, as we could not justify paying $$$$ for a lot of things for just one day, not even for our wedding day. I did a lot of comparison shopping, bargained hard for the things I had to have, and let the rest go.

As for whether you should go with the nicer place, it depends on HOW much nicer you''re talking about for $2K more. Whenever I make big purchases, I ask myself two questions: (1) how much do I like it and (2) do I really need it, and balance those answers with the cost. If it''s like Motel 6 vs. Ritz Carlton, it''s a no brainer. But if it''s like Ritz Carlton vs. Four Seasons, then it depends on whether you want to spend your money on other things that matter to you or if you can spend less on other things to get the venue you want.

 

[Kim N]

Date: 9/18/2009 7:03:19 PM
Author: panda08
As for whether you should go with the nicer place, it depends on HOW much nicer you''re talking about for $2K more. Whenever I make big purchases, I ask myself two questions: (1) how much do I like it and (2) do I really need it, and balance those answers with the cost. If it''s like Motel 6 vs. Ritz Carlton, it''s a no brainer. But if it''s like Ritz Carlton vs. Four Seasons, then it depends on whether you want to spend your money on other things that matter to you or if you can spend less on other things to get the venue you want.

Exactly what I was going to say. How much more do you like the place by the lake?

 

[gwendolyn]

Nope, didn''t go all out, but that was the right decision for us. Only you can decide what''s right for you!

Since that''s probably no help, you could write up a pros & cons list for each place--whenever I do this, I subconsciously tend to try to make one choice ''win'' over the other choice(s), thereby making it clear to me which I prefer deep down.

Hope you figure it out soon so you can get to booking it!

 

[EyeElle]

Hi ladies,

Thank you all so much for helping me add some perspective to my decision. It is still hard even today lol
I think I want the one by the lake so much that I think I will go for it. But that means that I have to spend less on other things.
I did try to make a pro - con list, but even that was difficult.

We can afford the pricer one, I just didn''t want to spend that money .... But I am already haveing ideas on how to decorate it haha I guess that tells me something.
But the otherone being at a hotel means we can get good rates for out out of towners (which account for 85% of the guests) so I was thinking of that as well.

I will keep thinking about it, and taking all your points into consideration
Thanks so much for all the messgaes!!

 

[jcarlylew]

our was that the location does not charge extras for cake cutting, corkage fees and parking. So, i am willing to pay $20 pp more to have a kick ass location, AND not have to worry about extra charges.

we just looked at our site today, and i am completely comfortable with its price tag (which is hard for me to do!)