Thank you for following my series covering the Wedding Project! This will be the final blog post, focusing on Project 5 as well as the final budget.
Project 5: Wedding Details
Since this is the details part of the project this is also where students tend to get a little carried away with the budget and end up having to scale back, much to their disappointment in the end, but if it was real life we couldn't keep printing money so they can't either.
They focus on the attire details, which similar to the other fashion pieces, require pictures, prices, and the vendor information. Additionally, they will either find someone to do the bridal hair and make-up or purchase the supplies if they will be doing it themselves. Next, they will look into the details for the florals including the flower girl flowers (throwing or bouquet), ring bearer pillow, as well as lighting (also including price, vendor, and pictures (when appropriate).
Once the finer details are found they will look into their entertainment as well as who they will have to capture their big day. For this they could go big (think band and full cinematographer) or small (rented speakers and a playlist and a single photographer) but it's up to them to find the price and vendor for how they want to go. On these, it is vital that the students include the services provided for the price they're paying as many vendors have different packages at different price points.
A fan favorite with many of my students is when they get to shop for their wedding rings, I do have a lot of students find their preferred engagement ring as well during this time to make sure it "fits" with their wedding band but this is not a requirement of the project.
Lastly, and lately one of the most cut items from budgets when they start to go over, is the wedding favors. Students should decide what they would like to give their guests as a favor and include the price, vendor, and a picture.
And that is it for Project 5! It's pretty simple, but once they've completed the final decisions when it comes to what they want at their wedding it is time for the Final Budget part of the project.
Final Budget
I encourage students as they work on each portion of the project to use the sheet to track what their "best case scenario wedding" is looking like for their budget so that way this portion of the project is easier, however as this project is often left for them to complete with substitutes that is not always done. That being said, students have to go through the different Projects 1-5 and figure out how much they've been spending. If they've gone over their total budget of $30,000 they either have to find cheaper alternatives or completely cut things from their wedding.
This is typically a very frustrating time for students as they begin to realize that the world and their dreams are very expensive, and if they didn't complete portions of the earlier projects as they were instructed they are now not able to complete this assignment either and have to backtrack to get it completed.
In the end what students are able to submit isn't their dream wedding, but it's a semi-realistic, still expensive wedding that they might actually be able to pull off one day. If you're interested in having your students complete this project you can get it here.