Your wedding day – You may have been dreaming about this day for years and it’s finally happening. You’ve saved pictures from magazines, have thousands of pins saved to your Pinterest board, and can’t wait to start the planning process. You’ve thought about the music, the food, your attire, the decor, and so much more. OR maybe you never thought about a wedding until you got engaged. No matter where you fall in discovering your wedding day vision you will likely soon have a conversation with your partner and maybe even family and friends about the B word …. BUDGET.
Your wedding day is probably the largest and most elaborate event you have planned to date. There can be a tremendous amount of details and vendors to put together to make this one day happen, and the reality is, it all costs something and can add up very quickly. It’s important to set a realistic budget before you start committing to the details to ensure you are comfortable later down the line and don’t end up “wedding broke”.
Before you prepare a budget have these conversations with your partner and anyone else contributing to your big day:
- What are your top 3 priorities for the wedding day (any non-negotiables)?
- Knowing your priorities and any non-negotiables can help you better distribute your budget knowing you may want to spend a little more in specific areas.
- Who is contributing financially and what are they covering?
- As tradition has it, typically one partner is “responsible” for paying a majority of the wedding expenses, while the other partner may pay for things like the bouquet, the officiant, the rehearsal dinner, and the marriage license. Discuss with all parties financially involved what this looks like and what you are including in your overall wedding budget.
When I speak to couples inquiring about wedding planning services, they often provide a budget number. When asked how they came up with the number they tell me they turned to the internet, some talk to family members about their weddings and others provide a number they are comfortable spending. Often the budget they provide is not realistic for the vision they have or number of guests they wish to invite or for the city they are considering. The numbers found on the internet are averages of weddings in big cities and small towns across the US. They reflect micro weddings, extravagant 500 person weddings and everything in between. Family and friend’s wedding budgets are not a good gauge of your potential budget because costs have changed dramatically year to year since covid and their wedding vision may have been very different from yours.
Coming up with a realistic budget is a little bit like searching for home to buy. When purchasing a home, you may have your eye on a certain town or neighborhood and your vision is a 3-bedroom single family home with a fenced yard for your fur babies plus an updated kitchen and bath. You will find that homes in that town/neighborhood that fit your requirements are all within a certain budget range.
It is the same with wedding budgets. If you have your heart set on a certain city and venue and a vision for a show stopping band, gorgeous flowers, and lots of personal detail your wedding will fall within a budget range for weddings in that city with the vision you wish to create.
The best way to get an accurate budget for a wedding in the area and at the venues you are considering is to talk to a wedding planner. Just like your real estate agent it is our job to be current on the cost of a wedding in our city. We are the only vendor that sees all the costs of every possible element you need and want for your wedding. The wedding planner often sources all the vendors and the venue and will have the most current intel on the costs of all elements of a wedding. The DJ or band can share the range of costs for DJ’s or bands in your area and the caterer will be able to give you a quote for their services but can’t tell you how much flowers will cost.
If you would like expert, reliable help to determine a realistic wedding budget before signing vendor or venue contracts and don’t want to go to the trouble of contacting each vendor for a quote, go to our contact page and let’s set up a call. We are always happy to share our knowledge about realistic budgets.
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