Planning Your Wedding Budget… And Sticking To It
Image by: Agnes Grace Photography
During your wedding planning, one of the most important decisions you and your partner will make is deciding what your wedding budget will be. At this stage, your wedding vision and the reality meet and will push you and your partner to know your priorities or what truly is important to the both of you.
Your wedding budget needs a lot of discussions, throwing ideas, time and attention. If you create a reasonable and practical wedding budget, a lot of unnecessary stress and pressure can be avoided in the whole wedding planning process. Ready to work on your wedding budget? Below are some tips and bits of advice on how to plan for your wedding budget and how to strictly stick with it. Remember, your wedding day is only one day, and your lives together are forever. There are far more important things you need to be prepared for as you and your partner continue your lives after the wedding.
Image by: Agnes Grace Photography
Determine Your Wedding Budget
When deciding on how much you and your partner are willing to spend on your wedding, remember that there is no such thing as the “correct budget” that applies to all. Some couple chooses to spend more on the bar while some couple prefers spending more money on wedding photography and wedding rings.
To determine your wedding budget, the best approach is to prioritize the items that could possibly be included on your wedding day. Consider also if you are planning to hire a wedding planner or an event coordinator. If you plan to hire them, you need to include it in your wedding budget as well.
Things that affect your wedding budget
It is important to specify the things that impact your wedding budget. Knowing these will help you manage and prioritize important items during your wedding planning process.
- Time of the wedding – If your wedding date is during the wedding season, it is likely that wedding-related items are more expensive and in-demand compared to the other months of the year. Keep in mind as well that weekend weddings can put a toll on your wedding budget. So if you really want to stick to your wedding budget, consider having a weekday wedding. More choices, a lot cheaper and more vendors are willing to give discounts. That’s more savings for you!
- Your wedding guest list – Of course, this is already a giveaway. The more your guests are, the more you’re going to spend money on invitations, food, drinks, space rental and more. Are you after a more festive reception with at least 200 guests or a more intimate one with your closest family and friends?
- Having an open bar – According to wedding planners, drinks and alcohol are one of biggest expenses at a wedding. If you can’t help but have some alcohol in your wedding reception, instead of having an open bar, try to limit the number of options or kinds at the bar.
Image by: Acorn Photography from Oxford Street Caravan
Calculating Your Wedding Budget
We all know that every wedding is special and has unique components to it. But we can safely assume that it is comprised of the same items of a typical wedding. So, to calculate your wedding budget, you need to do the following:
- Rank the items in order of priority.
- Provide a total amount of budget.
- Based on your priorities, adjust the percentage allocations so it can fit your wedding budget.
Image by Aimee Kelly Photography
Stay within your wedding budget
Drafting your wedding expenses and your priorities can be tough, but sticking to your wedding budget is a different story. Take a look at your top priorities and must-haves. If you are over budget, sacrifices in certain areas must be made in order to minimize unnecessary extra expenses. Make sure that you keep track of what you are spending. It is also important that you take notes as you progress on your wedding planning.
Image by Lydia Rachel Photography
If you are still over budget even if you have found an affordable cost for your top priority items, check your list again and remove the items that you can work without like expensive floral centerpieces, Save-the-Date cards, open bar and many others. You can also opt to buy a smaller wedding cake that you and your guests can eat rather than a 3-tier cake that can cost a lot just as a display for your reception. There are so many ways you can work around your wedding budget to make your wedding vision come true. Be open-minded and open to new ideas. You might never know, this might work a lot better than you think.
To help you stay within your budget, you can download our FREE MKW Wedding Budget Tool on this link. Happy planning!
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