How to Make a Wedding Budget

Guide Note: How to Make a Wedding Budget provides advice and tips for assessing and financing your wedding's costs.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

  • Creating the budget for your wedding is as important as setting the date. You must do it early in your wedding planning process because most of the decisions that you make will be influenced, if not determined, by your financial plan. Many salespeople and vendors are going to use every trick in the the book to get as big a piece of the pie (your money) as they can get. Cling to your budget. Your budget is your lighthouse. Let it guide you!

Wedding Budget Tips

  • Step up to the challenge of managing your wedding budget by learning how to make sensible planning decisions. Here are some useful tips:
Staying on top of every dollar ensures that your wedding day will be a stress free good time. (Creative Commons photo by Bill S)
Staying on top of every dollar ensures that your wedding day will be a stress free good time. (Creative Commons photo by Bill S)
  1. Go online: Sign up for free memberships to online wedding planning sites like The Knot and Brides.com, where you can get an overview of expenses, as well as track and manage them.
  2. Ask your family to help: If you need help footing the bill, sit your parents or other close relatives down, separately if necessary, and discuss what they'd like to contribute to the wedding budget. It's not a handout; it's traditional for families to help pay for weddings.
  3. Think through every expenditure: It's easy to overspend when you get caught up in all of the details of wedding planning. Compare the gratification you will get for your purchase against the work and stress you will endure to pay it off.
  4. Understand the consequences of overspending: With typical wedding costs going well over $20,000, it's important to consider that paying off an elaborate wedding could take a great deal of time, put stress on your relationship as you're trying to grow together and even compromise your ability to finance and furnish your home.
  5. Consider hiring a financial planner: View all of the little wedding decisions that you're making as one big financial planning decision. As you prepare to take the huge step of getting married, why not get a little advice on how to manage your money?
  6. Create a joint savings account: Transfer a set amount of money into an account that you don't touch. This little bit of planning and discipline will pay off when the funds you need are at your disposal.
  7. Put it on plastic: If you're going to pay for part of your wedding expenses on credit, get a credit card just for the wedding. This is not a license to spend money you don't have. But, if used wisely, a credit card will help you to keep track of your expenses and, if you shop around a bit, can be a great way to get frequent flyer miles—hello honeymoon savings!

Figure Out How Much You Can Spend

  • You need a total budget before you can start breaking down expenditures. Gather your resources and figure out how much money you've got to spend on your wedding.
  1. Calculate how much you have to spend on your wedding budget:
    1. Have you been saving up for the big day?
    2. Do you have income beyond your monthly expenses to spend on a wedding?
    3. Would your family like to contribute to the cost of your wedding?
    4. Are you going to finance part of the wedding?
  2. Add it all up: This is how much you have to spend: $____________.

Figure Out How Much It Will Cost

  • Weddings are intricate affairs that entail multiple parties, high-end clothings and, very often, find foods. It's easy to underestimate how many different expenses this event involves. Take a look at all of the elements that comprise wedding costs so that you can prepare to tackle them head on.
  1. Ask your married friends what they spent on their weddings: How did they divide the expenses? Looking back on the occasion, what would they have spent more money on and where could they have cut corners?
  2. Look at how wedding planning websites break down the expenses:
    1. The Knot offers a budget planner that, when you sign up for a free subscription, breaks your overall budget down by items and vendors.
    2. Onewed.com offers an average wedding costs worksheet that puts the tab at $20,000 to $25,000. If that sounds preposterous, look at how the numbers break down and figure out where you can cut costs. Ex: Can you get your wedding dress for $500 instead of $800?
    3. If you're looking for a simpler set of budget guidelines, About.com offers a printable worksheet that uses general categories instead of an item-by-item expense list. You can also find a video that shows you how to make your budget spreadsheet.
http://weddings.about.com/library/blbudgetworksheet.htm
About.com's Easy Budget Wedding Worksheet helps you to plan and track your wedding spending.


Wedding Expenses

  • Use the budget planner of your choice to add up your wedding expenses one item at a time. To get a quick overview of major wedding expenses, see below:
  1. Ceremony and Overall Expenses:
    1. Buying wedding attire (Typically, attire is 10% of wedding budget)
    2. Buying wedding rings.
    3. Buying wedding invitations. (3% of the total)
    4. Renting a ceremony venue.
    5. Hiring a photographer and videographer. (Runs from 7% to 12% of your budget)
    6. Buying flowers and decorations. (8% of your budget)
    7. Transportation.
  2. Reception Expenses (This is generally 40% to 50% of your entire budget):
    1. Renting the reception hall.
    2. Hiring a caterer.
    3. Hiring entertainment.
  3. Account for peripheral and hidden costs:
    1. Your honeymoon expenses.
    2. Special parties, such as the rehearsal dinner.
    3. Taxes on goods, from the wedding dress to the wedding ring.
    4. Tips on services, from the catering staff to the ceremony officiant.
    5. Overtime costs, such as running over your booked time for the reception venue or your limo service.
  4. Add it all up: This is how much the wedding is going to cost: $_________.

Note: Avoid the post-wedding shock of hidden costs: Set aside a percentage of your budget for unexpected costs and ask vendors to note tax, tip and overtime rates in price quotes.

Figure Out How to Make It Work

  • Track your spending as you go and make adjustments to the plan if your wedding expenses do not jibe with your wedding budget.
  1. Track your expenditures as you go:
    1. If you signed up for an online wedding site, you can track this on the budget page provided by the service.
    2. Or, make a spreadsheet yourself in Excel or in a free spreadsheet maker (see list below).
  2. If your wedding expenses exceed the budget, it's time to think about what you can do without and where you can cut corners.
  3. Remember that weddings are the basis of a multi-million dollar industry, and people are trying to make money off of you during a time at which you might be blinded to financial reason by both love and haste. Shop around, walk away from pushy vendors and negotiate with the reputable ones.
  4. Avoid using credit cards to finance wedding items and services that are beyond your means. Going into debt over a wedding is hardly a good way to start off your new life as a married couple.
http://www.theknot.com
Online wedding planning sites, such as The Knot, provide budget planners that help you to track your spending as you go.


Conclusion

  • Being financially responsible about planning a wedding is the best gift that you can give to yourself and your family. Creating and sticking to a budget helps you to make informed, disciplined decisions so that you can create the best possible wedding without compromising your financial future.

Resources for How to Create a Wedding Budget

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