How to Prioritize Financially for Your Wedding.
What kind of wedding do you want?
What means the most to you, experiences? Decor and aesthetic? Or having everyone you know with you celebrating? Do you want a small, intimate ceremony with just your immediate family? Do you want something even more intimate and adventurous like an elopement? Or, do you want to host a huge, elaborate soiree in which you invite everyone you know? There are so many possibilities and you can customize your wedding to be anything you want. But narrowing this down will help you determine what you need to budget for.
Create a budget.
Before you spend any money, decide what your total budget is and how much you will be allocating for each part of the wedding. Here is a list of the most common items that you could be budgeting for:
- The Venue
- Photographer and Videographer
- Wedding Coordinator
- Catering/Food/Drink
- Cake/Dessert
- Wedding Dress/Tux or suit
- Hair and makeup
- Flowers
- Invitations
- Wedding Favors
Prioritize what is most important.
Sit down with your partner and decide what matters most to the both of you. Each of you should list your the top three items that are non-negotiable. Perhaps having a wedding coordinator to help organize and lower stress. Investing a little more into the photography since it will be one of the only things that you still have after the big day. Or maybe you want to treat yourselves to a five star meal?
Compare your lists and see what matters the most. Then let your answers dictate your budget.
Track your wedding expenses.
You created a budget to give yourselves an idea of what amounts you want to spend where. But, that doesn’t mean that will be exactly what you end up spending. You can easily go over budget and if you end up spending a little more than you intended on a lot of things, you could end up way over budget. Make a spreadsheet and keep track of your budgeted amount versus what was actually spent.
The possibilities are endless and so are the varied budgets. Just be true to yourselves, what you want, and what you value most. Enjoy the day and rejoice in the love and laughter of each and every moment.
