Setting A Budget

Image by Mike Rohde via FlickrNow that you have set a wedding date, the next step is setting up your wedding budget. The best way to do this is with a wedding planning guide that will help you set up your budget so that you don't forget any important detail.

With so many options to choose from and so many decisions to make it so easy to overlook some important element and come the wedding day can spoil the occasion because some detail was left out. I know what this is like from personal experience. It may not seem important in the grand scheme of things but for me it was a big deal.

In my case, I had forgotten to book in to get my hair done for the wedding and also I forgot my shoes. Luckily though I found a hairdresser that could fit me in on the day and I did already have a pair of satin cream shoes to match my dress, although they were very uncomfortable to wear and so couldn't wear them for too long. I was living in a small remote area and my wedding took place in a capital city about 5 hours away. I didn't have a lot of access to wedding planning books and had to rely on magazines to piece it all together. It would have been so much easier if I'd had a wedding planning guide to help me through the whole process.

Your wedding is one of the most important events in your life, however, you shouldn't have to spend the first years of your married lifes together trying to pay back a wedding debt. The secret to every great wedding success is in the planning. The key to planning your wedding is setting a realistic budget and then making sure you keep to it.

When setting your budget, there are several aspects you will want to consider, some of these include:

1. Who is paying for the wedding? How much can you afford to spend?

2. How many guests to invite?

3. What style of wedding you would like? Formal, casual, outdoor or beach etc

4. Prioritize. Decide what elements you want to include in your wedding, and choose one to be the focus and that you want to spend more of your budget on.  For example, is the reception the most important element or the dress or the location etc.

5. Are you having a church service?

6. The wedding date: if the wedding is held in a peak period (warmer months) the costs will be higher.

Once you have made these decisions the next step is to sit down and work out a list of all the items you want as part of your wedding and then allocate how much you think you want to spend on each item.
 This will give you a rough idea of how much your wedding could cost and a basis to work from.

Here is a list of some of the main components of a typical wedding budget:

WEDDING CEREMONY
Church or ceremony location
Celebrant
Decorations
Music

WEDDING RECEPTION
Venue: fully catered or self-catering
Type of Menu: food and drinks
Wedding cake
Entertainment and music

PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEO
Photos
Video

WEDDING OUTFITS
Brides outfit: gown, shoes, veil etc
Bridesmaids outfits: gown, shoes etc
Flower girl, page boy outfits
Groom's suit and shoes
Groomsmens' suits

WEDDING FLOWERS
Bride's bouquet
Bridesmaids bouquets
Groom and groomsmen buttonhole
mother of the bride corsage
father of the bride
Flowers for the ceremony
Flowers for the reception

WEDDING STATIONERY
Invitations
Wedding ceremony booklet
Place cards
Thank you cards

HAIR AND MAKEUP
Hairdresser
Makeup artist
Beauty treatments

WEDDING JEWELRY
Wedding rings
Bridal Jewelry and accessories
Bridesmaids jewelry and accessories

WEDDING TRANSPORT/ACCOMMODATION
Wedding cars
Picking up guests from the airport
Accommodation for bridal party
Accommodation for out of town guests
Wedding night accommodation

The next step is to take your list and your budget and go out and do some research. Get samples and quotes for each item on your list and then once you've done that you can then go back and re-evaluate your budget. You may have to change your priorities if you find that things are more expensive than you first imagined. This is where having a budget worksheet is very important in planning your budget.

A good wedding planning guide will provide you with a budget worksheet that will help you set a budget for every element of your wedding. The key factor in working out a budget is not to get too stressed if things aren't adding up at this early stage. Take it from me, if you keep an open mind and are willing to make some compromises, you'll soon see that you have a lot of options to choose from, no matter how big or small your wedding budget.

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