Budgeting for Your Wedding

Planning a wedding can be very taxing especially if you go over budget. This is why it is very important to make sure that you set a budget from the very start. To help you with your budget here are some tips.

1. Do a little research or canvassing to get a reality check BEFORE setting your budget. Around this time you will realize just how fancy or simply your wedding can be because it is also when you will realize just how much you can afford. You don’t have to do an exhaustive itemized research but simply go to wedding sites and find quotations there.

2. Set you maximum overall budget.

3. According to what you have researched and which aspects of the wedding is important to you create a pie chart dividing it into categories. The usual categories you need to budget for are the reception, attire, flowers, photo/video, music, invites, souvenirs, venue, cake, hair and make-up, and gifts. The reception is almost always the most expensive part and can take up to more than 50% of the entire budget. The next most expensive categories are usually the attire and flowers. However, this all depends on your choices. If you want to get married in a really popular place you might need to set aside more for the venue. On the other hand if you will be getting married in your mom’s dress then the attire will need a very little percentage since you’ll only need to spend money on re-fitting and dry cleaning.

4. Make a timeline. Yes when budgeting you shouldn’t just think about the figures but think about the dates as well. Try to figure out when you will be having an influx of money to pay for required reservation deposits so that you will be able to plan when you’ll be dishing out money. It makes sense to spread out your spending instead of paying for everything all at once. Besides paying early might get you discounts so plan these as well.

5. Get to the nitty gritty. Once you’ve made a general budget then it’s choosing time. Choose the dress, venue, caterer, invites, and everything else according to what you can accommodate with your budget. If your budget is a bit tight you’ll usually have to choose between sacrificing some details and making your guest list a bit smaller. Once you get to this portion you can adjust and ease up on a category’s budget if you realize you will actually need to spend less on something else.