Building out your wedding budget is one of the most personal steps in the planning process. But many couples struggle with where to get started and often spend hours googling “what is the average cost of a wedding?” or “how to build a wedding budget”. 

But what if we took a step back and redefined the overall goal of a budget first? Because we feel there is a better way to build and utilize a budget while wedding planning. One that will radically change the way you approach your planning – promising a less stressful and overwhelming experience with a budget that actually works for you! 

Did you know that 27% of couples cover the full cost of the wedding and a striking 50% of the couples go over budget?! What does this mean? It means your budget is just that – a budget. It’s a guide.  It’s meant to give you benchmarks  throughout the wedding decision making process and act as a starting point!  

Our goal- as your event planning team –  is to make the identification of the benchmarks easy.  To give you benchmarks based on industry standards and more importantly from what we’ve experienced with other planning couples. From there we will encourage you to adjust based on your preferences. We share plenty of tools to help you track your spending and keep it updated as your planning continues.

Because your wedding budget isn’t a one-size-fits all. It’s actually dependent on a variety of highly personalized factors. Let’s uncover my top two recommendations to help you get started on the right track with developing a budget that actually works for you:

 

Number one: Determine Who Will Contribute 

• Are your parents or other family members contributing? There are varying approaches to how parents choose to help their children. Some will provide an overall dollar amount. Others will provide payment for specific vendors, elements, or aspects of the event. Having this conversation can be hard but it’s important. It’s safer to have these conversations early on and to not make an assumption. 
• Another factor to explore is your own personal contributions – if you are choosing to do this. Here are a few recommendations for how to build up funds from other industry experts: 
  • From your savings: Many financial experts recommend having three months of living expenses set aside in case of an unforeseen job loss or emergency. After setting this just in case amount aside and after subtracting anything you are particularly saving for, the residual amount in your account is what you could put towards wedding costs. (BRIDES)
  • From your monthly income: Experts also recommend setting aside up to 10 perfect of your monthly income for wedding related costs after you’ve made payments for existing monthly expenses and debts. Many also recommend setting up an automatic withdrawal from your checking into your savings so that you really start to build this wedding fund on a monthly basis. (BRIDES)

 

Number Two: Determine Your Priorities 

Setting your priorities for vendors and aspects of the wedding that are most important to you as a couple will help you adjust how your dollars are allocated. And knowing this up front before you start to book vendors will ensure you don’t feel like you have to miss out on something important down the road {more on this in a future post}

For some the venue is the most important. For others it’s all about food. While others prioritize entertainment, photography, or videography. 

Taking time to consider what elements of the wedding and the experience you desire most when dreaming up your event, ensures that you have adjusted your budget categories to reflect areas you are willing to spend more all while staying within a set dollar amount that feels best to you.

Examples –

• For some, entertainment is one of the most important facets. Great music that has guests singing and dancing along. If this is a top priority, allow your budget to show that!
• For others, amazing food is one of the most important elements. For that helps to elevate the experience and allows guests to feel well taken care of. If this is a top priority, give yourself a higher budget for catering.
• Some couples are eager to transform the space into their dream event and will prioritize the overall design and experience by choosing to invest in an event designer and the design team needed to bring their design dreams to life. 

 

Ultimately your budget is your permission to spend – while ensuring you’ve accounted for important – dare we say critical – planning elements down the road.  

These are not the only two pieces of the puzzle to consider when creating a wedding budget, but these are a great place to start! By having transparent conversation around who is contributing (and how much), as well as setting clear priorities with all contributing financially, you’ll be able to create a budget that makes sense for YOU, your significant other & your dream wedding day! 

 

Looking for more budget creation advice? We’ve created just the resource! The Modern Wedding Planner! We’ve taken our signature planning approach used with hundreds of clients and channeled it into a comprehensive, step-by-step, results driven resource that empowers you with the tools, the strategy, the industry based secrets, and the assurance/confidence to make your dream wedding a reality! CLICK HERE to watch a lesson completely free, our gift to you!