The budget lines everyone forgets

An event budget is usually built from five big lines: venue and menu, music, photo and video, flowers, outfits. Overruns almost never come from there. They come from the lines that are missing altogether. Here they are, grouped, so you can enter them from the start — even with the amount “unknown”.

At the venue

• Extra hours: each hour past midnight has a price, best learned beforehand.
• Corkage, if you bring your own drinks, and the ice, glasses or staff that go with it.
• Supplier meals: the band, the photographer and the videographer eat too, usually a separate menu.
• Power, a generator or heating, for events in a marquee or outdoors.

Around the guests

• Transport: a minibus between church, venue and hotel, taxis for grandparents, paid parking.
• Rooms for the godparents, for relatives travelling far, or for yourselves on the night.
• Keepsakes, printed menus, table numbers, envelopes and stamps.
• The children’s corner: an entertainer, high chairs, a separate menu.

Fees and paperwork

• Fees for a civil ceremony outside office hours or premises, and the contribution to the church.
• Music royalties, where the venue passes them on to the organiser.
• Permits or insurance for fireworks, helium balloons, a drone or an event in a public space.

Before and after

• Trials: a hair and make-up trial, paid tastings, alterations to the dress and the suit.
• Tips for waiters, drivers and the technical crew — decided in advance and put in envelopes.
• The day after: dry-cleaning the outfits, returning hired items, the photo album, the thank-you notes.

How to keep them in hand

Enter every line in the budget even if you do not know the amount yet. A line marked “unknown” reminds you to ask; a missing line reminds you only when the bill arrives. Then keep a reserve of roughly ten per cent of the total, untouched until the final month. And record separately what was agreed and what was actually paid: they are two different columns and are easily confused.

A budget is not broken at the venue. It is broken by the things nobody wrote down.