Knot Over Budget: How One Bride Kept Her Banquet Hall in the Chicago Suburbs
In Jessica’s quest for the perfect fairytale wedding, she almost overextended herself, and her budget on the Windy City wedding venue. What had become a nagging feeling over the last several months, the sickening feelings didn’t set in until she went over the numbers. Every girl wants the wedding of her dreams, she wants to have her cake and eat it too, but it looked as if she might be shoehorned into choosing one over the other.
“How is this possible? Am I really $3,500 over budget?” She thought. Jessica was suddenly faced with a decision of cutting major costs, and even postponing the wedding entirely. It was a sobering idea, but she wasn’t going to give in. She thought to herself, “this is a normal part of the planning process, I’ll just have to think my way out of it.”
After talking with James, her fiancé, it became apparent that he hadn’t realized just how deep the problem was. To James it seemed that a fundamental change in their plan was needed – or they were going to go into their marriage already in debt, which is never a good situation, and therefore not an option.
What they had to do wasn’t exactly clear at first. Jessica all in favor of cutting some costs, but she wasn’t quite sure where to start. It looked like the only real option was to cancel her upscale wedding venue, but how? She had already sent out invitations, and planned almost everything around the venue itself – was she really going to have to dramatically restructure everything, or the unthinkable, actually postpone the day?
No, of course not. She would find a way.
A Tip That Saved a Wedding
Jessica was stressed …very stressed. She picked up her phone and placed a call to her mother, which was the usual reaction during such situations. Mom had felt the suspicion that the young couple was spending far too much, but her daughter’s call confirmed it. However, Jessica’s mother has a way of smoothing out situations like these, even four months before an over budget wedding. “Let me get daddy on the phone,” said Mom, using typical Mom intuition.
Jessica’s father has been a financial advisor for 14 years; so sticky money situations were not foreign to the man. In fact, they were his favorite challenge.
“Jessie,” he said, using his favorite pet name for his only daughter, “Sometimes, it’s smart to think about investing some of your budget, in order to get where you need to go. Have you thought about a wedding planner?” The suggestion began to spin Jessica’s wheels. Perhaps her father was on to something.
Budget Savvy
Through speaking with knowledgeable family and friends, Jessica was able to track down a wedding planner that seemed particularly good in these situations. And she was truly amazing. After evaluating Jessica and James’ little financial speed bump, she assured them that their wedding was feasible, and it would continue on schedule.
Her methods were interesting, but in the end proved invaluable, the planner moved around several things, but still managed to keep all of the wedding details that were listed on the invitations, including the wedding venue. However, everything else was fair game. It didn’t take long before Jessica realized that this could have been the most important purchase in her entire wedding budget.
When wedding day arrived, it absolutely was fabulous. You would never have known that they suddenly cut costs four months beforehand. By the time they had paid for all of it, it seemed as if the planner had put them under budget – and the newly weds even kept the same luxury venue that they’d already fell in love with. Sometimes, it’s just best to trust the experts with one of the most important days of your entire life.