If you need wedding budget ideas to help with your planning this article is for you.
Are we saying that your budget will be finished by the end of this article? No. Are we saying that you will feel better about wedding budget ideas and a sense of relief? Yes.
The challenges with planning your wedding budget are moving parts, unknown costs, and just the cost of having a wedding.
Moving Parts
The number of moving parts in a wedding is staggering. You will likely have a different number of guests and possibly even a different budget than you start out with.
Unknown Costs
The unknowns in wedding planning are typically what guests will and won’t be able to attend the wedding and any unforeseen circumstances that will arise during the process. This is why it’s important to negotiate. Lock in your prices as soon as you can. Ask if you can pay for any services ahead of time for a lower cost.
Wedding Costs
The basic cost of a wedding is high not only because of the actual cost but also because of the number of one-time costs. It’s always worth it but you should be aware that the costs of a wedding are unusual compared to the way you spend otherwise. Because of this, you will want to be even more prepared.
One of the most stressful parts of planning a wedding is most certainly planning the budget and coming up with wedding budget ideas. When a person begins this process, it can be tough to know where to begin. This article provides a few effortless ideas to help get you started in a way that will save you time and effort.
It took me 10 years of officiating weddings, participating in more, and then finally getting married myself to create Wedistry, tools to help with wedding planning. Throughout this time I learned that we don’t need to spend all of our time doing all of the things. If we set up our plan correctly from the beginning, we will not only save time and effort but also stress.
The great thing about wedding planning is always the reason we are doing it. When we think of wedding budget ideas it’s more important than just saving money on our wedding. How we plan this budget in particular sets the standard and the tone for our future planning. By being careful in how we spend leading up to the wedding we also strengthen our skills in communication, decision-making, and making adjustments that will help us throughout our marriage.
Wedding Budget Ideas
Decide on your Number
One of the most important things you can do when thinking about wedding budget ideas is to decide how much you can afford to spend at the beginning. And when you have decided on that number try to reduce that by 10 to 20 percent to get a realistic idea of your goal but also keep in mind that your actual cost could be 10 to 20 percent higher than your original number. Having a number in mind will help you to negotiate, plan, and communicate exactly what you need for each wedding cost.
Rank your Costs
As much as possible, write down your costs from greatest to least. This will help you tremendously to stay ahead in your planning. That doesn’t mean that the most important item will be the most expensive but it will help you to know where to put your emphasis when it comes to budget.
Set your Budget Timeline
Figure out what you need and by when. For example in other posts, we share that it’s important to secure your venue and officiant as soon as possible. Then you can move on to items such as your vendors, design, and wedding invitations. Setting this timeline will help you to save money because you won’t pay as many last-minute or inflated fees or deposits.
Save and Send your Deposits
Once you have an idea about your costs it’s a good idea to put aside the amount that you will need to reserve your venues and vendors. This will also save you money because you will be able to know that you have your venue and plan for the number of guests.
Rather than trying to come up with every single cost right away, give yourself some grace and a range to work with. Instead, list the most expensive costs from greatest to least to give yourself an idea of how to plan.
Be Ready for Changes
It might sound simple but one thing that we know will change during your wedding planning process is the cost of the wedding. This is because of the reasons we mentioned before such as the moving target and things that affect the costs such as an unknown number of guests. As much effort as you put into planning things will likely change.
The best way to handle this is to be prepared by asking your vendors questions like, what is your policy for no-shows, or do you have a range of costs for a number of guests? Other factors like the weather could change your cost if you were planning to walk for any part of your trip but now you need to uber.com to your event locations for example.
These wedding budget ideas are not meant to be a conclusive or exhaustive list but we do hope they help you to get started!
The next step is to stop by our other posts and don’t forget to make sure you lock down your favorite venue and a few backups as well.
Hopefully, you are a little less stressed and excited to now set up your wedding budget.
It’s good to know that event venues like Victory North Savannah (http://www.victorynorthsavannah.com/weddings) have specialists on hand to assist and provide suggestions for keeping the wedding’s quality while staying within budget.