Creating Your Wedding Budget

One of the most important things to do when planning a wedding is to first plan your budget. Your budget is important because it is almost impossible to know what you can afford for each aspect of the wedding if you don't give yourself a limit to the overall spending costs. For most people, creating the budget is the hardest job to do because you want to have the nicest and most memorable wedding possible, but you may not have the money to do everything exactly as you'd like.

Once upon a time, the wedding was paid for in full by the bride's parents. That doesn't happen much these days because parents simply can't afford it, or because the new couple prefers to do things their way.

Parents often still contribute though, either by giving money as a gift to the new couple, or by paying for the honeymoon. If you're able to find out in advance whether your honeymoon will be paid for by someone else, that can help in planning your overall wedding budget. Otherwise, plan for the wedding, reception and honeymoon in full.

Here's a general breakdown of common wedding costs, and how much of your budget should be applied to each section. This is a just a guideline though, your personal preferences may vary slightly.

Reception: 37%
Wedding Rings: 14%
Wedding Flowers: 4%
Wedding Music: 5%
Wedding Invitations: 2%
Bridal Apparel: 6%
Photography/Videos: 10%
Misc: 8%
Honeymoon: 14%
(source: Bridesave.com)

To create your overall wedding budget, start with the total amount of money you're able to spend. On average, weddings tend to cost about $19,000 these days.

Now you will need to take that starting amount and apply it to an actual separate dollar amount. If you are not good at percentages, you can always utilize the internet and check with the various websites that offer you free or cheap wedding budget calculators that will do it for you.

With these calculators, all that you have to do is give it the total budget amount and then it will calculate for you how much money in dollars that you will have to spend on each aspect of your wedding.

Once you have figured out the dollar amount that you can spend on each aspect of the wedding, you can then begin to create a chart or table that will itemize the list for you.

For example:
Category: Reception - Goal: Outdoors with 100 guests, full dinner and wedding favors
Category: Ceremony - Goal: Park Gazebo with 100 guests, decorated with white lights and white roses.

Do the same with all of your budgeting sections: the Ceremony itself, Rings, Clothing, decorations and so on.

What this table is meant to show you is what needs to be done, and how you dream of having it done. This gives you a starting point for figuring out what you need, when you need it, and how much it'll cost.

This is necessary in order to know if what you dream of can even be afforded within your set budget. If it can't, you will have to do any or all of the following:

· Lower the guest list
· Forego some of the services
· Lessen the wedding party
· Forget the extras like limos

It is with the budget that you can set realistic goals for your wedding and see whether your budget is realistic for your financial situation. If it isn't, you will have to change or get rid of something. It's that simple.

Once you have decided what you want and what you can afford, then you can move on to the planning stage.

Detailed resources, information and original ideas for your wedding, prom or any formal event can be found at www.WeddingsAndFormals.com

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