How to Stay on Budget for Your Wedding

Let’s face it we all love spending money on the things we love and it can be very difficult thinking about budgeting when there’s so much products and services at your fingertips you can simply buy with a touch of your finger and a credit card…. So how does a bride stay on budget for her wedding and actually manage this all the way through her wedding day?

View more of this Santa Margarita Historic Ranch Wedding Wedding Photos by William Innes 

One of the best advice I have learned from my family, my mom especially, was don’t spend money you simply don’t have or can’t justify the expense (Thank you mom!). Oh don’t we love listening to our parents give us advice as much as we don’t want to hear it and some say it definitely goes in one ear and out the other, I think it’s safe to say 99% of the time they’re always right… and somehow all this becomes more apparent the moment you start having kids.. ironic how that works huh..

Nonetheless  today I wanted to continue a wedding planning tip series on the blog that will be featured on Wednesdays offering tips and advice dealing with all aspects of the wedding planning process. I want this blog to offer inspiration as well as advice or brides to take away something from. As someone in the wedding industry having planned a wedding under my belt and finishing her degree in event management it’s important to start this conversation and it involves an industry I love. As this series grows I hope to feature insights from wedding planners and other wedding professionals because afterall these are the people you are going to be working with when you’re planning your wedding. They have established businesses that have given them knowledge to help brides on the do’s and don’ts so be to tune in Wednesday’s Wedding Planning Tips in the future.

How to Stay on Budget for Your Wedding

Set a goal and stick to it
Why are setting goals important? They keep us on track of the things we want to accomplish and remind us what we need to do to get there. Setting a goal of an overall budget you want to maintain for your wedding in addition to determining how much you want to spend on each vendor is a great first step when you get engaged… WHY IN THE WORLD IS THIS AN IMPORTANT FIRST STEP??? It lets you know before you begin to start searching for vendors what your price range is and what you can spend.

Determine who will be contributing to your overall budget
In traditional weddings the bride’s parents usually offers to help pay for the wedding. This is definitely not the case for everyone sometimes both parents offer to help and sometimes they simply can’t afford to do much at all. So one of the things I would advise brides to do when budgeting for their wedding is to see who will be contributing in this overall budget. Maybe your sister would love to spend money on creating the wedding favors or your mom is more keen on creating the desserts whatever the case maybe establish who will be helping you along the way.

Create or buy a wedding planning book with a detailed budget spreadsheet

Be held accountable
I love when I have friends and family that keep me accountable on the things I say I will completely and finnish in my life. When planning a wedding and trying to stay on budget I think you should also have people in your wedding party, family members, and friends who let you know when your going a little crazy on the budget and when your right on track.

Don’t choose the services of vendors you can’t afford
In a perfect world we would all be able to get everything we want. Thank God we don’t live in that world because that would be a disaster… Every vendor has a price range for the services they offer and sometimes no matter how hard you try to negotiate to bring down their prices ( a topic I will talk about later in this series) it just doesn’t work so make sure you have an estimate for the amount of money you want to spend on each vendor. Having this number in mind will greatly help as you research vendors and assure you don’t choose the services of wedding professionals you just can’t afford.

Enlist the services of a wedding planner
As a wedding planner in Central Florida who helps brides in planning their wedding through my wedding designs and event planning services I can’t tell you how important it is to hire a wedding planner. These are the individuals who are educated in the field, have your best interest in mind, and know ways to keep you on budget you may not have considered otherwise. I would highly advise brides to consider enlisting our services if it’s something they can add to their budget because you definitely won’t regret it.

Prioritize Prioritize PRIORITIZE!

This also is an important step to stay on top of your wedding budget. Being organized and determining what are the most important wedding expenses you must have verses things that don’t matter as much will save you so much stress in the end and afterall we all want as stressfree of a wedding we can get!

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this Wednesday’s tip and tune back in for our next topic.

Happy Planning:)