Wedding Wednesdays: Discussing Your Budget
It’s really important to discuss your budget with your fiance ahead of time so that you both are on the same page. Traditionally, the bride’s family pays for the majority of the wedding costs, however, times are evolving and nowadays most couples pay for most of their own wedding cost with some help from both families. I’d suggest writing down who is paying for what so that everything is accounted for when you’re special day comes. The last thing you want to happen is to show up to your wedding reception and there’s no wedding cake! Decide on a budget and then add about $2,000-$3,000 to that…you’re probably thinking huhhhh, I want to save $$$!? Trust me, I’ve seen more than once brides going wayyyy over budget almost EVERY TIME when not giving themselves a little wiggle room and it can get out of hand. That way, if you end up staying within your budget, you’ll have that EXTRA $2,000-$3,000 you stashed and it’ll feel like you saved money! Better safe than sorry!
When you have a set a budget for yourselves, it’s important to determine what is essential. What is a non-negotiable that you must have at your wedding, and what you can spend less on or go without. For Trevor and I, having a great photographer and videographer was really important to us! As we all know pictures are worth a thousand words and photos of our special day last a lifetime. We anticipated ahead of time that we’d be willing to spend more money on this versus a photo booth at the reception.
Once you and your fiance decide what is essential and set an overall budget of what just the two of you can afford to spend, it gives you a better idea of how much you are asking from your parents. The important key factor here is open communication and honesty. If you’re asking for financial help from parents or family members, you want to be clear on how much they are willing to contribute and if that contribution is to go to a certain expense such as catering, the wedding cake, venue, etc. Find out what their expectations are…for instance, my stepmom covered the cost of our wedding cake but that is because she designs wedding cakes. We knew not to take the money she contributed and pay for the DJ with it. So my advice here is to just communicate openly and then WRITE IT DOWN!
I can’t stress this enough!! There’s something about writing things down that makes it feel more concrete. When you write down your budget for everything, it helps you stick to it! Let me tell ya…it’s soooo easy to go over budget quickly! Everything is exciting and your wedding vision is starting to come to life and next thing ya know you’re swiping that credit card a little too many times. So when you’re trying on all those gorgeous wedding gowns and you’ve tried one on that’s $5,000, but your wedding dress budget is $2,500 you can refer back to where you have it written down in your planner and know to not get ahead of yourself ;)
Now that you’ve discussed your budget and wrote it down, let the fun part begin! Planning your engagement party! Where you officially start the wedding planning process! Can’t wait to hit this topic with all you beautiful brides next week on Wedding Wednesdays! See you then….well ya know what I mean ;)
XoXo
