1. Have “the talk”. It’s awkward, I know. It doesn’t have to
be though. You’re excited- you’re getting married! And hopefully your family
members are excited too! If you think that family members will be contributing,
when it comes time to start talking budget, you definitely want to consider
your family dynamics. There are way too many variables to consider, but if it
were me, I would sit down with your fiancé to “pre-assess” whether or not
family can contribute (you usually have an idea of monetary situations with
your family members, right?) and then go from there. It always helps to be
prepared and educated about wedding costs, so be sure to check this out.
2. Decide who will be contributing and set your total
budget. If you’re going the traditional route, the bride’s parents would pay
for the wedding reception, and the groom’s parents would pay for the rehearsal
dinner (groom’s parents also sometimes pay for the alcohol at the wedding).
However, today it’s pretty common for multiple people to contribute- such as
the bride and groom’s parents, as well as the bride and groom themselves. It’s
also not uncommon for the bride and groom to pay for the “extra” costs of
vendors or things that mean a lot to them- like a super amazing photographer,
or a planner to keep them sane. Plus, since many couples are getting married
later in life (aka once they are successful and have established careers), it’s
becoming a norm for the bride and groom to pay for their own wedding. There’s
really no right or wrong way in deciding who contributes to your wedding budget
though. It’s all about whatever works best for you, your family, and your
wedding. Once you know who will be contributing to your wedding budget and how
much they can contribute, you can add it all up and set your total wedding
budget!
3. Prioritize. Once you know your total budget, it’s time to
prioritize what things mean the most to you. A wedding budget is broken up into
various “categories”, since there are several vendors and components involved
in making a wedding happen. If amazing food is the one thing that you and your fiancé
care about, you’ll want make sure you have a great budget for that. Be prepared
to make some cuts to other areas within your budget order to accommodate your
priorities. Decide what things are most important to you, and then move on to
the next step.
4. Set individual budgets.
Each element of a wedding needs its own budget. This is where your
prioritizing comes in handy, because you will know right off the bat that
you’ll most likely need to allot more money to those things that you have
prioritized. I recommend setting your budgets according to a percentage of your
total budget- you can see a very broad example in this post. (But see below for
something special!) And remember- as you’re setting individual budgets, it’s
important to keep in mind what means the most to you and your fiance!
5. Get to planning! Now that you have your budgets set, you
can move on to the rest of your planning! As you find out pricing, get quotes,
and book vendors you may need to alter some of your numbers, but just make sure
that if you’re going over budget in one place, you’ll need to compensate for
that by being under budget somewhere else!
