Wedding Planning: Budgeting

 Picture this: the love of your life, your one and only, your knight in shining armor…your soul mate got down on one knee and popped the magic question “will you marry me?”  Now you are in a state of bliss, life is in Technicolor, flowers are blooming everywhere, you’re giddy with your head in the clouds, and there’s not a care in the world that could bring you back to earth.  Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s time to come back to reality!  Planning a wedding takes much work and time.  You have to think of everything from the tiny details such as wedding invitations to the big details such as the date and wedding destination.  Depending on how long you plan on being engaged, time is of the essence!

Now before you start freaking out, it’s all going to turn out well…you just have to stay level headed and plan ahead.  For women, we have daydreamed and thought about our wedding since we were little girls, and for the day to finally arrive, there’s no doubt that we want everything to go perfectly. 

The first step to planning out a wedding is to figure out what your budget is.  There is no point in making extravagant plans and realizing that you don’t have enough funds to make it happen.  To plan your budget, determine who is going to help fund the wedding.  It may be a fishy topic that you would rather not bring up, but it’s got to be done sooner than later.  Many couples depend on combined help from their parents, themselves, or a combination of both. 

Once you have a rough estimate of how much money each person is able to accommodate, plan an extra 10% as cushion.  Just to state off the bat, for weddings, people usually always spend more than they anticipated.  From buying wedding invitations, to paying for venue, to buying wedding dress and jewelry, expenses add up quite a bit.  It’s best to add the extra amount in your budget just to be realistic and to prepare yourself for when you do go overboard. 

Even after determining how much money you are working with, you will probably feel have the sinking feeling and realization that you do not have enough money for everything that you want.  Unless you have been blessed with a free 10 million dollar wedding like Kim Kardashian, then odds are you probably won’t be able to wear 10 different dresses, have 5 different cakes, and wedding destination somewhere exotic.  Start with what you think is the most important.  Is it having the right wedding invitations? Having the perfect dress? The fairytale venue? The rockin’ band? You get the picture.  Have both you and your partner make a priority list and talk to each other to finalize one main priority list.