The most important part of planning a wedding is to learn how to budget for your wedding.
While the ideas of a string orchestra and a white horse drawn carriage sounds so romantic, your wedding budget can’t handle that…can it? Do you even know?
That’s why it’s important for you to learn how to budget for your wedding, so you know how much everything costs and how it’s gonna get paid for.
Plus, when you learn how to set a wedding budget you can learn what you can and can’t afford for your big day…so there are no surprises! Because while an engagement is a surprise and fun, a surprise bill is not fun!
With this wedding budget guide, you’ll be able to set a wedding budget that’s realistic and be ready to roll with the punches of your fantastic day.
To help relieve a little bit of stress and early jitters, I am providing you with some questions you will need to ask and tips that you can follow to help create your budget.
Who Will Contribute To The Overall Cost?
Traditionally the Bride’s parents would take care of the cost of a wedding, but it has become more common for both families and even grandparents to contribute as well.
When you learn how to budget for your wedding, start by having a conversation with family members and discuss if they will be involved financially and how much they are planning to provide.
BONUS FREE DOWNLOAD
Create A Plan For Your Money
These FREE Budgeting Spreadsheets will help you keep a pulse on your money (from the palm of your hand).
If some family members only want to help with a portion of the wedding, figure out how much or ask if they might want to pay for one item on the wedding budget, like the DJ or photographer. This will help get a start on your budget and also help cross items paid for on your list.
Once you have figured out how much money you can work with, then you can begin learning how to budget for your wedding.
Do Your Research
There are many different areas of a wedding that need to be considered when learning how to budget for your wedding.
With the planning of venues, clothing, transportation, food, decorations, and entertainment, you need to have a good understanding of how much everything typically costs. This will help you learn how to set a wedding budget, a good one, from the start.
TheKnot.com is a very popular wedding site that has many tools, such as a budget calculator. This could help you when start planning and help you to try to determine how much you will need to spend in every area of your wedding.
By having this wedding budget guide, can help you figure out which wedding cost you might have to cut, or expand your expenses in that area.
When Is The Wedding?
Surprisingly there are different seasons in which planning a wedding can be more expensive. This is the first thing you must learn when figuring how to budget for your wedding.
If you are choosing to have a wedding in the late spring and summer, then you will probably be expected to pay more for the venue and other vendors because the demand is very high during the spring and summer months.
Also, determine if you will have your celebration in the morning or evening hours. You might spend more in the evenings because you will be expected to provide a full course meal, more alcohol, and better lighting.
If you would like to save some money on your budget, then you may want to have an earlier celebration with a lighter meal.
Once you figure out the day and time, this will help you figure out how to budget for your wedding better.
How Many Guests?
A big part of planning a wedding is determining how big your guest list will be. When you learn how to budget for your wedding, a big portion of that total is trying to notify, feed and accommodate your guests.
When selecting a venue, catering food, offering an open bar, and designing a wedding cake, you must consider how many guests will be attending.
If you send out the invitations early and require an RSVP a few months before the wedding, then you can have a good idea of how much and for how many you will need to plan.
Don’t think that you need to invite everyone you have ever known. The more people who will be attending the wedding, the more expensive it will be.
Write Out Your Budget
Once you have done some research, have a set amount of money to spend, and know approximately how many guests will be attending, then you can start to write out your budget.
There are many free printable checklists online that will help you organize and plan a budget for your wedding.
I suggest that you put together a binder to help keep everything together and easily accessible.
It is easy to lose track of your budget, so by using these resources and wedding budget guide, you will be able to stay in control of what you must spend.
It can seem overwhelming having to think about all the different aspects involved with planning a wedding. But by being organized and focusing on one area at a time, you will be able to create a detailed and achievable plan when you learn how to budget for your wedding.
Plan Under Your Budget
It is very easy to go over your budget and doing so might put you in unnecessary debt. So that’s why learning how to set a wedding budget and sticking to it is so important.
By staying under your budget to the best of your ability, you should be able to avoid debt.
BONUS FREE DOWNLOAD
Create A Plan For Your Money
These FREE Budgeting Spreadsheets will help you keep a pulse on your money (from the palm of your hand).
If something costs more than what you had initially planned, then you may need to cut the cost from another area of the wedding.
Learn to Say I Don’t to these Wedding Expenses!
Don’t Forget Gratuities
There will be many different types of vendors involved in creating the events. That’s one reason why figuring how to budget for your wedding is important from the start.
It is typically recommended and expected to tip the vendors when there is excellent service.
Make sure you include a gratuity category when planning your budget. This category can cost you hundreds of dollars all on their own.
To get an idea of how much you should budget then check out BridalGuide.com.
For the day of the wedding, you may want to have envelopes with the gratuities set aside for someone to distribute to the vendors after the party is over.
So then let’s say, Congratulations on your upcoming wedding celebration!
I hope this gives you a good idea of how you can set-up, plan, and implement a budget for your wedding.
It is a good idea to make sure everyone, who is financially involved, is aware and understands the budget that you will be creating.
By having everyone follow the budget, you will be able to keep everyone on the same page.
As you can see, it’s important for you to learn how to budget for your wedding, so you know how much everything costs and how it’s gonna get paid for.
Plus, when you learn how to set a wedding budget you can learn what you can and can’t afford for your big day…so there are no surprises! Because while an engagement is a surprise and fun, a surprise bill is not fun!
With this wedding budget guide, you’ll be able to set a wedding budget that’s realistic and be ready to roll with the punches of your fantastic day.
YOUR TURN: What do you think your biggest wedding expense will be when you learn how to budget for your wedding? Let me know in the comments below!
