Wedding Times

You definitely don’t want to start your first days as newlyweds in debt and throwing a huge, lavish wedding that you can’t afford is a great way to ensure that you do just that! Not only do many couples not know how much certain wedding expenses will cost, but they also don’t have any limits on areas of spending. Both of these lead to huge problems once caterers are booked and top-of-the-line invitations have been sent out and you’re wondering how to pay for the wedding cake! It’s easy to avoid wedding money woes by planning for certain expenses, knowing how much money you have to begin with, and organizing it all within a wedding budget!

Who’s Paying?

This is the very first question you need to ask and you need to have it answered before anything is spent or booked. Traditionally the bride’s parents pay for the wedding, with or without the help of the bride, but this doesn’t always need to be the case. Many couples today are choosing to pay for the wedding themselves in order to save their parents the expense or because their parents are unable to for other reasons. You first need to speak to your fiancé and decide together how you were hoping to pay for the wedding. Once this is decided, you need to speak to both sets of parents about it as the groom’s parents generally pay for some items such as the rehearsal dinner and some of the honeymoon.

How Much Will it Cost?

You may not know how much your wedding gown will cost or what the total on the flowers will be but there are some generalizations that you can place into your wedding budget to get an idea of what you will need to spend money on first. Here are some general guidelines of how much things will cost. Of course, you will need to adjust these figures but it will get you started.

Wedding dress – $1200 including alterations, headwear, shoes, and accessories.

Groom’s Attire – $200

Bridesmaids – $500 in total if they buy their own dresses

Rings – $1000 – $2000

Flowers – $500 – $1000

Church – $250

Transportation – $300

Photography/Videography – $1000

Wedding reception venue – $800 – $1000

Wedding reception food – $3000 – $5000

These are just the very basics of the things that should be included in your wedding budget but being able to prepare for them is a great help when preparing your wedding budget!

Prioritize

Maybe you’re having a small reception and so you’ll be able to spend less there but you want beautiful pictures and so you’ll be able to spend more there. The best thing about making a wedding budget is that you can make your expenses work for you, and not surprise you!

Stick to It

Your wedding budget doesn’t mean anything if you don’t stick to it. Always bring it with you when talking to vendors and don’t spend more than the budget allows.