An average American wedding costs approximately $44,000 for hosting 160 guests. This is not a small amount that everyone can or wants to afford. What if we tell you that you can plan your ideal wedding within a limited budget? However, as easy as it sounds on paper, planning your wedding budget is no easy feat. If you’re already dreaming of four-tier cakes and designer dresses, tallying your budget beforehand can help you decide the route to take.
For all brides and grooms to be, here is a guide to planning a budget wedding.
Establish a Wedding Budget
The first and foremost step should be to establish a wedding budget. Create a spreadsheet and round up your combined savings, contributions from friends or family, and the total cash you have to spend on the event.
Before you go around assuming your parents have a wedding fund for you, it is always better to ask them well in advance, at least three months before the wedding. Keep this in a separate account, so neither party uses it for anything other than the event planning.
Track Your Spending
Most couples have a wedding budget, but 27% of couples tend to go overboard. Hence, it would help if you did some detailed planning. Create a spreadsheet with three columns.
- Available Budget
- Adjusted Budget
- Actual Spending
Record all that you are spending into categories like venue, event planner, DJ, catering, lighting, dress, and so on. The adjusted budget should tell you where you are transgressing. If you cut back on the number of guests and use that amount to buy a designer dress or vice versa, you can create a wedding
tailored to your preferences.
Expect Surprises
The problem with wedding planning is that it does not always go as expected. If you allocated 15% of the budget to the venue, it does not necessarily mean that this will pan out. As a result, to stay within a budget, always prepare for surprises!
The best way to do this is by keeping 2-3 options on standby. If venue A is unavailable and venue B is too expensive, you can always shift to venue C.
Add up Miscellaneous
Most people tend to go over budget because they fail to take additional costs into account. Naturally, you’re counting the significant chunks, but what about the transportation cost of the photographer you hired from out of town? What about the overtime rate for the DJ in case the party lasts longer than expected? Always make sure you add up the miscellaneous costs as it can add up to a considerable amount later
on.