Setting a wedding budget is a tough, daunting, and extremely overwhelming task that every bride and groom will have to face at some point — sorry to burst your newly engaged bubble — before any planning can truly begin. Here is a step by step guide to help you ease through that process.
Warning: the first 3 steps are the worst (read: totally uncomfortable, if you’re like me and hate talking about money), but it’s all hearts and roses from there — so smile — you’re getting married!!!
1. Sit down with your fiancé and discuss what the two of you are willing to spend on your BIG day. This involves chatting about what you’ve each envisioned for your wedding. Size, location, setting, season, etc. and especially what your priorities are.
Fact: Roughly 1/3 of American couples pay for their entire wedding themselves, but many receive contributions from family members — typically parents or grandparents.
2. Once you and your partner have established a solid number, now is the time to chat with parents or grandparents who have been expressing interest in contributing to the wedding fund — if they haven’t already offered.
I personally dreaded this conversation. It’s awkward, and a weird dance that all financially involved parties do, as to not step on any toes, or overstep boundaries. But it needs to be done, because you need to know how much you’re working with, because you cannot properly move forward until this number is set.
3. OK deep breath, now that that’s over, you can begin dividing up the funds you have in the proper categories.
Rule of Thumb: About half of your budget will go directly toward the catering (ie. food and beverage) and your venue. This will obviously be the absolute largest chunk of your expenses
Here’s a fun word-cloud I created to demonstrate where a bulk of the money is going:
5. Now that you know how much money you’re playing with, you may begin your vendor hunt (whoop!). Choosing your venue comes first and foremost, though. Locking in a venue will determine your date and location (duh), and that is the key information you need when contracting out your other vendors.
6. This step ties back to the very first conversation you had with your partner, figuring out priorities — what you and partner envision for the big day. Great food? A killer band / DJ? Grand entrance with a white horse? (Kidding). Depending on specific priorities that each the bride and groom has chosen, you can now determine which appropriate category you can splurge or save in
7. Know that you can certainly reallocate funds. For example, we are having my cousin officiate our wedding, and since he doesn’t come with a fee (thanks to that beautiful family rate) I’m using the few hundred I would have spent, and adding it to my venue fee– which was a bit more than I budgeted for.
8. You will most likely go over budget, regardless of how much you think that won’t happen, so relax, and allow yourself to have a buffer of at least 2%, because….
9. A common oversight brides make when planning their budget is forgetting to factor in tipping. That’s right. You need to factor in tipping into your budget. Aren’t you glad you gave yourself a buffer of at least 2% ?
10. Keep track of every penny on a spreadsheet. I use a googledoc spreadsheet to keep track of everything that is contracted, the dates I put down a deposit, the balance for that particular vendor, check numbers, and when payments are due. It is color coded, and nauseating to look at, but I would be lost without it.
BRIDES, what helped you stay on track?
PS. The average cost of a wedding in the United States is $28,000 [insert tear faced emoji]
PPS. I really enjoy Wedding Wire’s budget feature