How to create your wedding budget

Congratulations! You are engaged! This is such an exciting time in your life! And now you have started dreaming about what your wedding celebration will look like. But before you can fully enjoy the more exciting parts of wedding planning, you must create a comprehensive wedding budget.

Building the wedding budget is one of the trickiest yet most important parts of planning your wedding. Your budget sets the stage for all of your decisions and guides the planning process. When couples hire me for full service planning, we always start their planning journey with building a comprehensive budget.

There are many websites that will offer you a percentage breakdown of what you should spend for each vendor. I do not approach budget building from this perspective because every couple has different priorities. In this post, I am going to walk you through how to build a budget based on your desires and vision for your wedding.

Who is contributing to the wedding celebrations and how much?

With my couples, I always begin budget creation with a conversation about who is contributing to the budget. Often times, each family is contributing a set amount. These contributions can come from parents or grandparents. Sometimes aunts, uncles, or even close friends may also want to contribute. If your family is contributing, I encourage you to sit down and have an honest conversation with them about how much they are contributing and when the money will be available. Are they going to give you a large sum up front or are they going to make payments as they come up? Do they want to pay for certain items like catering or the band? After these amounts are determined, add them to your own personal wedding savings. Additionally, if you have expendable monthly income that you want to allocate to your wedding, you can multiply that by the months remaining before your wedding and add that to your overall budget. This is your wedding budget ceiling. This is your top number that you are unwilling to go over. Set your regular budget below this absolute number. This gives you some wiggle room so that if some of your priorities come in higher than expected you have the extra to cover them.

Estimate your guest count

Wedding costs are typically determined by your guest count. The more guests you have, the more your wedding will cost. Make sure you are intentional with your guest list. You are creating an unforgettable event for you, your partner, and all your loved ones. If you are creating a guest experience that costs $1500 - $2000 per guest, you want that guest list to be full of people who are eager to celebrate with you.

Set your priorities

This is where budgeting gets fun! This is your opportunity to dream with your fiance. Talk about your vision for the day and what elements are most important to you. Determine 2-3 non-negotiable elements. These are your “must haves.” This could be having a full service planner to alleviate your stress, a designer dress, the food, the music, the flowers, photography, or any other detail. Once you have decided on your non-negotiables, you will know how to properly allocate your funds. Once you figure out where you are not willing to cut costs, it makes it a lot easier to decide where you can cut costs. When I was planning my wedding, I went to a wedding show and saw this beautiful swan ice sculpture. I had not made provisions in the budget for an ice sculpture, and when I went to my father (who was paying for the wedding) to request that we add the ice sculpture, he told me that I would need to make cuts somewhere else. I realized then that the ice sculpture was not important enough to cut into my photography or catering. Not to mention…. an ice sculpture didn’t really fit my overall design or who I am. This is a good lesson in not listening to the outside voices just because they tell you that you need an ice sculpture!

Experience

What do you want the overall experience to look like, feel like, smell like? How do you want to feel during your wedding celebrations? Take the time to write down how you want your guests to feel. Do you want the smell of pizza wafting through your reception and ceremony space while you are sharing your vows? Do you want the quintessential New England Coastal wedding experience with the plated lobster dinner and the sound of the ocean surrounding you? Where you spend your money should reflect the experience you are trying to create. For example, your floral budget will be significantly higher if you are creating an enchanted elegant garden inside a ballroom verses using the natural scenery of the New England coastline to enhance your nautical wedding.

Make a list

As a planner, I LOVE lists! And this is your time to make a list of what professionals you desire to hire for your wedding in order of importance. Start your list with your 2-3 non-negotiables then move down the list. As you make your list, keep in mind that if something is on the bottom of the list doesn’t mean it isn’t important. It simply means that it has less impact on the overall wedding experience that you are looking to create. Also, keep in mind as you create this list, that more your catering and your venue may possibly take up the largest portion of your budget, but not always. Flowers can quickly become more expensive than the venue. Or you may build your wedding budget around a photographer that you absolutely love. Making your own list of importance will also help you to keep outside opinions where they belong. This will make it easier for you and your fiance to create the wedding that truly reflects the two of you without needing to add elements just because someone else tells you it is a good idea.

Do Your Research

If you are working with a full service planner, they will do this for you. But if you choose a partial planner or a wedding manager then you will need to do your research. Start with your non-negotiables and inquire with professionals who appear to align with your vision. Take the time to interview them. This is a very important day in your life, and you want to be sure that you have the best team of professionals for you. Be intentional about who you hire. Find out how much what you want is going to cost. Then make a spreadsheet that lays out all your desires and the expected cost. Take this spreadsheet and compare it to your budget and your list. You already made your list of priorities. If you are starting to come in over your budget, you know right away which categories to make adjustments in.

Budget Breakdown

Create a comprehensive budget breakdown. Now that you know your non-negotiables, your priorities, and have done your research, it is time to allocate an amount to each wedding expense. Make sure to include a category for “extras.” This is important for any and all surprises that may arise during your wedding planning.

Why I don’t do a percentage breakdown

Every single couple that I work with has a different vision and different priorities. Some couples want to allocate a larger percentage of their budget to a band while others want a larger portion to go to flowers. There is never a one size fits all, and I never want my couples to feel like they have to fill a standard in planning their wedding.

Wedding budgets are worth it!

I know that creating a wedding budget is not the most glamorous part of wedding planning, but it is worth it. You will feel so free knowing what you can spend and how you want to allocate your funds. Once you create your budget, stick to it! Make sure that the planner you are working with respects your budget and works hard to keep you within your budget. If this part of wedding planning overwhelms you, I would be happy to help! I actually love helping my couples build their wedding budget. Contact me today, and we can talk about how to build the right budget for your wedding!

Photographer: LAD photography