In the program management world, we have the term ‘scope creep.’ It generally refers to your customer asking for something else that is beyond your original agreement.  This same phenomena occurs with weddings.

Mike, a friend of mine whose daughter is now married, told me the story of how it occurred with his daughter’s wedding.  His daughter came out of the dressing room wearing a thousand dollar dress that looked similar to a potato sack. She asked how it looked.  He admitted that it was not very flattering.  The next time she came out of the dressing room she looked as beautiful and radiant as a bride should be.  Mike said, “That’s the dress for you.”

It turned out that the new dress was $3,000. Mike suffered sticker shock as his daughter scheduled her fitting.  I don’t know if Mike’s daughter planned tricking her father into the more expensive dress, or if this was a bridal shop upgrade ploy, or if it just happened. It doesn’t matter.  This is what can happen on any of a hundred different expenses tied to a wedding. You’ll be asked questions such as, “Would you like white cloth chair covers for all the chairs at the reception to protect the bride’s dress and give an elegant look?”

Unless they are planning on using dirty chairs, this probably is not necessary.  If you want to be on the safe side, just get chair covers for the bridal party, not every guest.

Your best defense against scope creep is a clearly defined budget at the beginning.  No matter whether you have $5,000, $10,000, or even $100,000 to spend on the wedding create a budget.  If you are using a wedding planner then he or she can help you establish the budget.  Get everyone to agree on the budget.  Now when your daughter says that she really likes the dress that costs $200 more than you budgeted, you can remind her that the $200 needs to come off somewhere else on the budget.

A point of consideration.  For some daughters or wives when you point out that they are over budget they will say, “Fine, I’ll pay for the extra out of my own pocket.” Let them! Ask them if that will be cash or check? Otherwise there is a tendency to forget about all the little extra things that they agreed to pay for after a while, and you get stuck with the bill.  If the money actually has to be brought out and put on the table, it becomes more real.