Perhaps the most important thing that must be done when you are ready to start planning your wedding is to first devise your budget. Your budget is essential as it is almost impossible to know what you can afford to spend on each aspect of the wedding if you don’t give yourself a limit to the overall spending costs. For most people, producing the budget is the most difficult job to do because you want to have the best and most memorable wedding that you can afford.
The days when the wedding is paid for by the bride’s parents are practically gone now. Parents will often contribute to the wedding cost as a gift to the couple, but it is rare for parents to cover the total cost of the wedding these days.
Usually it is because the parents simply can’t afford it, but couples today often like to pay for their own weddings as it ensures that they have the wedding they want without interference.
In many cases, parents will not pay for the wedding but pay for the honeymoon instead.
These days, around 80% of couples pay for their own wedding and it helps to have some idea of how your budget should be broken down.
Here is an example:
reception 35%, rings 12%, flowers 5%, music/entertainment 7%, invitations 3%, bridal apparel 7%, photography/video 10%, honeymoon 15%, miscellaneous 6%
When drawing up your budget, you will first start with the overall amount that you can afford to spend. The average wedding today costs around $19,000.
The next step is to calculate how much money that you will have to spend on each aspect of your wedding.
Once you have worked out the dollar amount that you can spend on each aspect of the wedding, you can then start to create a chart that will itemize the list for you. I have included a quick table to help you get started.
Category(what must be done)
Goal (what you hope for what must be done)
Reception
Ceremony
Photography/Videography
Catering
Rings
Attire
Music
Flowers
Honeymoon
Miscellaneous
decorations
What this list is meant to show you is what requires to be done, but the blank areas are designed as a means of bringing out the dream of it all into reality. You have to make a list of all of the things that you will have to get in order to fulfill your wedding wishes.
This is necessary in order to know if what you dream of can even be created within your set budget. If it can’t, you will need to do any or all of the following:
* Reduce the number of guests
* Forego some of the services
* Decrease the size of the wedding party
* Forget some extras such as limos
When you have decided what you want to include and what you can afford, it is on to the planning stage.
And remember, you do not have to hire a professional wedding MC. You could invite a friend or family member. Find out more about it here
Wedding mc duties
Wedding master of ceremonies
Wedding mc tips
