How To Set A Wedding Budget

The Basic Courthouse Elopement

If your budget is $100, you could spend your money like this:

$25 to $100 Here in Nashville, the fee for a marriage license clocks in at $99.50. And $60 of that can be waived if the couple completes a premarital counseling course within the last yearhello savings!

If your budget is $3,500, you could spend your money like this:

Venue: $0 for your future in-laws backyardFood and beverages: $750 for drinks and a buffet prepared by friends and familyAttire: $200 for a dress $200 for a suit rentalFlowers: $0 for wildflowers you picked for a bridal bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets, and boutonnieres $1,500 for a tent, dance floor, table and chair rentals, lighting, and DIY centerpiecesWedding Planning: $0 for an aunt willing to chip in and coordinate the day-of details $500 for a talented friend or amateur via CraigslistEntertainment: $75 for a speaker rental $0 for a great playlistDessert: $50 to $200 for a cutting cake, cupcakes, or pies from a bakeryInvitations: $50, DIY

If your budget is $7,000, you could spend your money like this:

Keep Tabs On Your Budget

Now you have mastered how to make a wedding budget, you must master how to stick to it! Every time that you agree on a price with a supplier, pay a deposit or pay off a balance you should record this. It is also a good idea to simply check your budget every now and again to make sure you are on track and not overspending. If you are overspending in some areas, be sure to adjust other expenses to account for this. Remember that setting a wedding budget is pointless if you are not going to stick to it!

Well there you have it My handy guide on how to budget for a wedding. If you would like to tell me more about your wedding plans and speak to me about the value I can offer to your wedding please give me a shout and we can arrange a meeting with no obligations for you to book me.

I hope that this has helped you in your wedding planning process and I wish you all the best for your special day!

Research In Your Area To Set Realistic Wedding Budget Expectations

After youve discussed your ideal wedding vision, its important to set expectations for costs. For most couples, there are typically two numbers at play when it comes to your wedding budget: The amount of money you are able to spend, and the amount of money the wedding you want will actually cost.

Many couples start researching and quickly realize the wedding theyve dreamed of is going to cost more than theyd hoped. This is where honing in on those priorities comes into play. Even if there is a disconnect between your desired spend and your wedding vision, you shouldnt feel compelled to spend more than you are comfortable with. One of our main goals at The Budget Savvy Bride is to present you with doable, affordable alternatives so you can have a wedding youre happy with at a price you can afford.

A note on pricing research:

As a savvy consumer, its important to educate yourself on the true costs of a professionally executed event. Getting familiar with actual costs will help you to set a realistic wedding budget that allows you to have what you want at a price you can afford.

Collect pricing information and proposals from vendors and venues you are interested in. Creating proposals takes a significant amount of time for wedding professionals, so be open and honest with them that you are in a fact-finding part of your planning process, so that they understand the proposal is sent in a speculative context. Dee Gaubert of No Worries Event Planning.

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Focusing On The Guest Experience Regardless Of The Guest Count

If youre limited with what you can spend, we recommend to start cutting your guest count. If youre wanting to plan your wedding with a budget between 15-25k, you can host a incredibly detailed micro wedding for 20 of your closest family and friends or a fairly limited wedding for 100 people . More often that not, we find our couples value their guest experience so highly, that it makes more sense to create an incredible design around those who are truly closest to them.

How To Budget For A Wedding A Step By Step Guide

According to research, the average wedding in the UK costs around £30,000. Quite a substantial amount of money to most! But it is important to know that it doesnt have to cost this much if you understand how to budget for a wedding early on.

Here are some simple steps to help you create a wedding budget which works for you.

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What Is A Reasonable Budget For A Wedding

In 2019, American couples spent an average of $215 per guest for their ceremony and reception.1 That said, what is reasonable for you, is reasonable. Planning a wedding is a series of decisions, and those decisions will determine your budget. How much money you spend, and where you choose to spend it, will be different for every couple according to their preferences, priorities and requirements.

How Will You Divide Up Your Budget

So while its certainly a big step to have your official total wedding budget on paper, thats only the beginning . Youll have to divide up your budget so youll know exactly how much you can spend on each wedding vendor or item. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but weve got an easy-to-follow wedding budget breakdown to simplify the process for you. Like, did you know that youll spend about half of your budget on your venue and food? You can certainly adjust the amounts to better fit your priorities, but its important to have a general breakdown before you start building your vendor team.

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How To Plan A Wedding On A Budget

13 Minute Read | October 07, 2021

Congratulations, youre engaged! Youre probably flying high with visions of wedded bliss in your head, but heres a statistic thats sure to bring you back to earth: According to The Knot, the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is $19,000. That’s a pretty steep wedding budgetand it doesnt even count the honeymoon expense!

After reading that you may be ready to elope! Compared to footing the bill for a lavish wedding, taking a simple trip to the courthouse is obviously more economical. But dreamers, dont despair. You can still have a traditional wedding ceremony and reception without going overboard. You just need a budget!

Figuring out your wedding budget can be confusing if youve never planned a large event. Its difficult to nail down a dollar amount if youre unsure how much bang you can get for your buck. Sometimes the wedding a couple wants doesnt align with what they can afford, and thats when the trouble begins.

Your wedding is one of the best days of your life, so you may feel pressure to plan an elaborate celebration. But theres no need to go into debt. You can have a wonderful, memorable weddingno matter what your budget is!

If you dont want to sink boatloads of money into one day, I have some practical tips to plan a wedding on a budget youll still love!

Two: Find Out If Anyone Else Is Happy To Contribute

It can be a tricky conversation but youll want to have the money chat with your parents early on. Its no longer expected that the brides family will pay for the wedding, but its worth seeing if either set of parents will help you financially or pay for a specific cost, like the dress or flowers.

We have a full breakdown of the rules and etiquette of parents paying for your wedding, including the best ways to gift money to avoid inheritance tax. There are five main ways to broach the topic too: the most popular of these is to indirectly ask if theyd like to be involved in wedding planning and see if they mention money, or outright asking if theyd be happy to help. Dont forget to let them know how grateful you are for their generosity a little thank you goes a long way during the stressful planning process.

READ MORE:How to Plan a Wedding for £10,000

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How To Make A Wedding Budget: 7 Easy Steps To Staying On Track

It’s easy to get caught up in wedding planning and forget your bank balance might not match the ideas in your head. Here’s how to come up with a wedding budget and actually stick to it!

We have included third party products to help you navigate and enjoy lifes biggest moments. Purchases made through links on this page may earn us a commission.

In all the excitement of getting engaged, it can be easy to throw yourself into planning without actually knowing how much you have to spend.

The average UK wedding now costs £32,000, but that doesnt mean you need that much to have a spectacular wedding. Its all about making your budget work for you and that starts with knowing what your wedding budget is.

Weve come up with a seven step guide to working out a realistic budget that makes you feel happy about what youre spending and saving. The hardest part is sticking to it! Remember that no wedding is worth starting your married life in unmanageable debt you and your friends and family will love the day no matter what. Handily, weve got lots of tips on how to save money too, so you can get the day you want for the budget you have.

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• Hidden Wedding Costs You Need to Know About

Whos Paying And How Much Are They Contributing

Figure out who is going to contribute funds to the weddingheres the traditional breakdown of who pays for what in a wedding, in case youre curious. Have an open and honest discussion with your and your future spouses families to figure out who will be contributing and exactly how much money each is willing to spend. Will they be providing a set dollar amount or paying for specific wedding products or services ? If you and your future spouse are paying for the wedding yourself, come up with a number that youre both comfortable spending.

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Allocate The Rest Of Your Budget Accordingly

Divvy out what you expect to spend on all the different suppliers from your remaining 50% – our checklist should help you cover everything!

• Rather than guessing the figures, get quotes from several different suppliers before you allocate a figure to them .
• Some areas benefit from a specific budget and others a broad one . Using broader categories makes it easier to make changes later on, if, for example, you decide to ditch designer shoes in favour of a high street pair, and use the extra cash on epic headpiece.
• When you’re getting quotes from suppliers, ask if VAT, delivery, and service fees are included in their quote.
• Don’t forget to factor in hidden costs from the very beginning, as these can eat substantially into your bottom line. Décor rentals, gifts, fees, tips and even the honeymoon are often left off the initial budget – get more info on hidden costs here.

Photo by This Modern Love via One Fab Day

Six: Prioritise The Rest Of Your Budget

The remaining half of your budget is for everything else, including outfits for you and your wedding party, the wedding rings, stationery, flowers and décor. Heres how to do it:

• Draw up a list of non-negotiables with your partner. Wed highly recommend a good photographer be top of this list. What about an open bar? Fancy invitations? A firework display? Photo booth? Live music for the evening reception? It can be anything from a Rolls Royce to drive you to the ceremony to only having a summer Saturday wedding. If you cant imagine marrying without this thing, you need to be prioritising the budget for it and looking elsewhere to save.
• However, be sensible about non-negotiables: pick two or three otherwise you really will have no budget left. This means you cant keep going over £500 here and there. An extra £500 for the dress of your dreams needs to be cut somewhere else.
• Its helpful to make another list of things you really arent that fussed about e.g. centrepieces, a massive cake, expensive wedding rings. Itll help you see when you start tracking your budget if youre spending more than you need in this area.
• Book your priority vendors first so you can continually adjust how much you have to spend in other areas as you proceed.

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How Much Do Weddings Cost In Your Area

When it comes to how to set your wedding budget, perhaps the most important part is figuring out how much weddings actually cost in your area, because it varies widely depending on where youre marrying. Turns out that most couples skip this stepaccording to the WeddingWire x CNBC study, nearly 75% of couples set a wedding budget before conducting any research on the cost of vendors, which can lead to a misalignment between a couple’s budget and their final wedding day spend. Instead, take the time to do some researchthe WeddingWire Cost Guide will provide you with the average cost of wedding vendors and services in your area so you can create a realistic budget with confidence.

Set Up A Money Tracker

As any financial planner will tell you, the first and most important facet of managing your money is to keep track of exactly how much you have coming in and going out. The same principle applies to a wedding, whether you plan to spend $1,000, $10,000, $100,000 or even $1 million.

So, whats the best way to do it? Well the short answer is, theres no one right solution for everybody.

If youre computer literate, a spreadsheet might be the way to go, as you can set up formulas that will automatically calculate your bottom line as you add, subtract or adjust different amounts. This will help when youre trying to decide, for example, how much you would need to cut out of the budget for favours if you want to have a particularly expensive pair of shoes.

Of course, the easiest way to keep on top of your wedding budget is to use

Easy Weddings budget planner, which has the advantage of being available online and as an iPad app, meaning you can access it whether youre at home, on the train at the baker or browsing in a dress shop and you wont have to mess with spreadsheets, tabs and formulae!

Other ideas to consider include a folder with different sections for the likes of clothing, the ceremony and reception, or even a chalkboard that gives a rundown of your financial position at a glance.

As long as you have some way to track your expenses and upcoming costs, you wont run the risk of running out of cash right at the end.

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