building a worry-free wedding budget

Hi Friends,

Creating your wedding budget is one of your top three to-do’s once you get engaged. Your guest count influences ALL aspects of your wedding — venue, food, flowers, entertainment, decor...quite literally everything! To avoid overspending — create a plan before you start making down payments and signing contracts.

Today we will review the strategy to creating an easy to follow wedding budget and how to stay on track throughout planning.

Step 1: Budget Research & STRATEGIZING

GEOGRAPHIC AVERAGE WEDDING COST

During this stage, you will gain an idea of how much a wedding costs in your area. For example, a Northern Virginia wedding costs on average about $3,000 - 5,000 more than a Northeast Ohio wedding. Crazy, right? Cost of living varies across the U.S. and internationally, therefore so will the cost of your wedding.

GUEST COUNT IMPACT

Your guest count will have a big impact on how you’re able to allocate your budget. Think of your wedding in cost per person. With a budget of $30,000, hosting a 30-person micro wedding allows you to spend $1,000/guest (wedding weekend anyone?) while a 100-guest wedding allows you to spend $300/guest. For a frame of reference, Willa Weddings couples spend about $450-500 per guest.

Dream wedding cost

Now time for a reality check. What does your desired wedding actually cost? And is it money you’re willing to spend. Set aside an hour or so with your fiance to research the average cost of main vendor categories in your area. You can do this through a Google search or searching through vendor websites and pricing guides.

Some Vendor categories to consider:

Venue - All inclusive vs. barebones? Do they provide in-house catering? What’s the cost?
Wedding Planner - Full planning, design and styling, wedding management package?
Full-service Catering - Plated, buffet, or stations? Elite or casual dining? Do they provide linens?
Photographer and / or videographer
Entertainment - DJ, live band, or instrumentalists, mobile bar, cigar roller, interactive food stations
Officiant
Florist - How much floral decor do you want? Can you repurpose arrangements?
Stationery - invitations, postage, day-of (menus, programs, etc.)
Decor and rentals
Attire, hair and makeup

Step 2: Determine Your Overall Wedding Budget

Use what you learned above to determine what is important to you, where you’d like to splurge and save, and how you can support your vision and budget with your guest count. Come to an overall number or budget range that is realistic for you.

Think of the following when it comes to budget:

Will both of you be paying for your wedding on your own?
How many guests do you want to invite? What is your cost per guest?
How much can you and your fiancé realistically—and comfortably— afford to spend?
Based on your monthly income, how much can you both reasonably save between now and the wedding?
Will you have any contributions from your family?
What are the top three most important categories between the both of you?
For example, venue, food, and entertainment

Family Contributions

A quick note on family contributions — Talk with your respective family members one-on-one (without your fiance.) If there are any nerves involved from either party, this will help create an open and candid conversation. Determine a clear number for how much the family member is willing to contribute, or what aspect of the wedding they would like to cover. For example, your grandma has her heart on buying you your dress - how much is she willing to contribute? This way you can budget accordingly.

Step 3: Budget Breakdown

Creating a breakdown of budget per vendor category will be your guide when hiring vendors and making purchases. A good place to start is an online wedding budget calculator. Though I don’t suggest using this as your final breakdown. Adjust as you see fit as these calculators don’t take into consideration what is most important to you and your fiance!

considerations

Determine your top three budget splurge categories. For example, food, entertainment and photography. Allocate a bit more money to these spending categories.
Do you want to omit certain items like favors? Reallocate this budget elsewhere.
Is grandma offering to pay for your dress? This can also be reallocated.

Step 4: Budget Tracking Methods

You’ve done the hard part, and now you’re ready to jump into wedding planning. Before you start, have a budget tracking method in place to keep you on track. This is something you can do on your own or something your planner will support you with. This takes away the worry and stress of going over budget and allows you to know you are making the best decisions when hiring vendors!

Worry-Free Wedding Planning

Before you begin planning your wedding and paying retainer fees, it’s important to know exactly how much of an investment you can comfortably make. By creating and tracking your wedding budget, you will be able to plan free of worry, knowing that you are spending within your means.