Wedding Tips – The Wedding Budget!
You just got engaged! Congratulations! You are ten feet off the ground and you’ve spent the last three days calling everyone you’ve ever known to let them know that you are now the happiest woman in the world. You’ve already been doing some wedding planning – expecting the proposal, you’ve been casually searching online for tips for the last few weeks, but you didn’t want to jump the gun too much. Now you can dive right in and plan the wedding that you’ve been dreaming about since you were a little girl.
Now, where do you start?
Most people will tell you to start with the hall. I disagree. I do think that the hall is one of the first things you should focus on, but not the #1 thing. First things first – THE BUDGET.
In order to establish a budget, first you must figure out how much you can spend on the occasion. This will require three conversations. First, a conversation with the parents of the bride. Unless they have unlimited funds (wouldn’t we all love that!) you need to get a specific number from them. Not, we’ll see how it goes, not, start planning and we’ll let you know if you’re going to far, get a specific number from them. This will help you to budget and will help to keep things in perspective.
Second – the groom’s parents. They may decide not to pay for anything, and they may decide simply to do the rehearsal dinner. As the bride, you may want to send your groom to have this conversation on his own. I have heard of some groom’s parents who foot half the bill, and I have heard that others pay for burgers in the back yard after the rehearsal and that’s about it. To avoid any conflict with your future in-laws, it’s better to have your man do this!
Once you have had conversations with both sets of parents, you and your groom need to sit down and discuss between the two of you how much you think you can afford. Add your number to the number from your parents and his parents, and that is the total you want to spend. I would suggest basing your budget on a lower number. If you feel that you have $12,000 to spend, base your budget on $10,500. That way you have $1,500 for things that you can’t plan for, such as the veil you have to have, or deciding you want your DJ to play for an extra hour.
How do you determine how much to spend on each thing? There are many websites out there that will help you calculate a budget. www.theknot.com is one of the most popular. www.brides.com also has one. Google, “Wedding Budget Calculator” and you’ll find one you like – I promise! Additionally, you can purchase a book from the library which will help you with that. If you want, I’ll send you my budget – budgeted vs. actual numbers. My budget was $10,000 for the wedding, $3,000 for the honeymoon, and my in-laws took care of the rehearsal dinner. We were able to have a wonderful wedding for just a few hundred over budget. It can be done!
One thing to keep in mind with budget calculators, however, is that they rarely allow enough money for food. For example, with my $10,000 budget, it was suggested that I spend $1,400 on food and less than $1,000 on alcohol. We actually spent much more than that. So be careful! If you are having 150 guests, $1,400 for food is less than $10 per person. Not going to happen!
Once you have the budget established you can move on to more fun things! But it is imperative that you first come up with a budget and that you then stick with it – or you’ll be stuck with a hefty bill!
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