Creating A Wedding Budget

Before you start planning your wedding, you should sit down with everyone involved with the financial aspects. Set a budget rich enough to give you what you want but affordable enough to not break the bank.

If you don't have a budget set from the start, you'll have a difficult time holding on to your money. It's easy to spend an extra hundred here and an extra hundred there. If you limit your spending, you'll be less tempted to spend and more able to focus on what you want and need more wisely.

Here are some pointers for creating an affordable wedding budget.

Who's Paying?

Traditionally, the bride's parents were in charge of paying for the wedding. Times have changed quite a bit, though. While the bride's parents sometimes still pay for the wedding, it is just as likely to see the couple pay for their own ceremony or have financial help from parents on both sides.

If you aren't able to pay for the wedding yourself, then sit down to have a serious discussion about what is going to work. Depending on your financial situation, you might assume family will help pay for the wedding, but even if you're positive of that, show your family the courtesy of asking if they'll pitch in.

The average wedding costs over $20,000 these days, and it might be intimidating to ask for such a large amount of money. You might want to prepare a plan that details how much you'd be willing to chip in, what your budget is, and what type of help you'll need or the specific expenses you'd like your family to pitch in for.

Sometimes parents contribute a certain amount of money or offer to pay for certain items such as the wedding dress, the catering, or the entertainment. Look into splitting the budget up as much as possible to have everyone willing to contribute put in an equal amount towards the event.

Setting Your Budget

The budget always depends on the amount of guests that you're inviting to the wedding. A general rule of thumb is that you should prepare to pay $100 for every guest on the invitation list. If you're having a large amount of guests, you may receive a discount per head as opposed to paying full price per person for smaller weddings.

Taking Care of the Basics

You shouldn't just make a wild guess at how much you're willing to spend on your wedding. Instead, set the approximate amount of budgeted dollars per guest and then put together a list of everything you'll need to buy with that money.

By creating a detailed financial plan, you'll know how much you can spend on every aspect of the wedding: catering, decorations, transportation, dresses, photography, etc.

You might want to splurge in one area and you may find that with a detailed plan, you can easily save some money in another area of your wedding. By finding out what's important to you and planning things carefully, you'll give yourself a better chance of staying within your financial means.

Look around or ask friends that have been married before what expenses they had and what costs their wedding day incurred. Sometimes you'll realize that your numbers aren't very realistic compared to what people who have gone before you have spent. It's better to find out in the planning stages than when you're actually heading off to make your purchases.

Prioritize

When you make detailed plans, prioritize what's most important to you. Make sure to communicate with your partner so that you both end up getting what you want instead of feeling ripped off or resentful. Rate every item's priority on a scale of 1-5, with "1" being your top priority and "5" being one of the least important items. This helps prioritize wants versus needs and helps you stay on track with your budget.

Ways to Save Money

There are always tricks to saving money on your wedding package. Sometimes you can find places that offer catering, decorations, and a reception room for a low price when bundled together. Other times you'll find a photographer that also offers videography for a discounted rate. By finding bulk deals or making connections, you'll be able to minimize excess costs.

You'll also want to find out if you have any friends or family members willing to help out for free. Sometimes you might know a person capable of doing all your photography as a wedding gift or you might know somebody willing to volunteer as a decorator.

There are many ways that you can save money, but most of the trick in cutting costs is thinking creatively and resourcefully. By finding out what is most important for your wedding, you'll be able to spend money on what matters and save on things that are less important.

Stick to It

Once you've set a budget, stick to it no matter what. Don't plan to be frugal from the start - be realistic. Instead of trying to spend too little and create problems when you overspend because of true cost, you should plan for costs as truthfully as possible. It's no fun having financial pressures because you didn't spend enough time planning properly. Overshooting the budget not only causes arguments in the couple, but it is also a sign of poor choices.

While it's true that this is your only wedding, it's not true that you have an unlimited amount of money available to blow on the event. It's easy to upgrade items for a couple of hundred dollars, and some vendors will push you to do so. But if you take every vendor's advice and don't follow your budget, you'll never find your available money to be enough.

Don't stress over your purchases. Instead, spend what feels comfortable and that is within your means. Have fun finding the pleasure in the ceremony and not in the extra (and expensive) trimmings.