4 Questions You Should Ask Yourself When Creating Your Wedding Budget
Talking about money is awkward. There is added pressure when you are planning probably the biggest event you will ever host in your life! It’s no secret that weddings take time and money to plan and execute. But, as long as you are open-minded and organized with your finances, planning your wedding doesn’t have to be a huge stressor!
Before booking any vendors or buying anything – you need to determine your wedding budget or as I like to call it, your Wedding Fund! Use these questions to help define your Wedding Fund.
1. Where is the money for your Wedding Fund coming from?
Will you and your fiancé be setting aside money each month? Be realistic here. You still need to be paying your bills while planning your wedding, but maybe you can reduce the number of times you eat out each week and put that money towards your big day. Take that amount you will be setting aside every month and multiply it by how many months you have remaining until your wedding.
Will you be taking any money out of your savings to put towards your Wedding Fund? Remember your wedding is the start of your life as a married couple and I can’t imagine it would be fun to start this chapter of your life with $0 in your savings.
Are any family members contributing to your Wedding Fund? Don’t forget to say “thank you!” Be prepared to ask questions about when, how much and how often they will be contributing. Will it be an all upfront amount or monthly? Will they be paying for a specific part of the wedding or pay for items as they come up?
Add all of these amounts up and you have your Wedding Fund!
2. What counts as a “wedding expense”?
This is a weird but necessary question. Sit down with your finance and determine what expenses you will be paying for with money from the Wedding Fund.
Will the rings, bachelor/bachelorette accommodations/outfits, rehearsal dinner, tips, marriage license, wedding insurance be paid for by the Wedding Fund? Make sure the two of you are on the same page about this.
3. What parts of your wedding are most important to you? AKA what are your top priorities when it comes to your wedding?
The first thing I always have my couples do is determine their priorities. Every decision you make about your wedding should be determined by your priorities.
If photography is the most important part of your wedding day, you will spend more time and effort finding the perfect photographer and will probably be willing to spend more money on a quality photographer. However, let’s say you are not picky about how you are transported to the venue on your wedding day - why would you spend hundreds of dollars on a professional driving service that may charge you for a 6 hour minimum when your Maid of Honor is willing to drive you 20 minutes to the venue?
Don’t spend money in areas that you feel pressured to include in your wedding day. This is not your mom’s wedding day, this is not your bridal party’s wedding day – it’s yours.
4. How will you keep track of and organize your expenses?
I offer a Budget Guide with my services and a similar layout can be made in Excel. You need to have some sort of budget tracker.
Make columns with what is the line item is, how much do you predict you will spend on this line item and how much you actually spend.
The amount you are predicting you will put towards to each line item is determined by... yes you guessed it. Your priorities! Allocate the “predicted amounts” before you book any vendors, so you will not set yourself up to spend more money than you have in your Wedding Fund.
You will need to be diligent about tracking your expenses and when they will need to be paid. For many vendors, there is a deposit and a remaining balance to be paid out on future dates.
Other Notes
Someone very wise once told me to set aside 10% of your total wedding fund for miscellaneous items. This can include unforeseen costs and items that you determined were a wedding expense and don’t fall into any other category.
Unless you hire a planner, you will have to do a lot of research. Creating and sticking to a budget is an essential part of a Wedding Planner’s job. Once you have determined your wedding fund you will spend time researching vendors that fit your budget. Planners will save you time and will find you vendors that fit your budget and style!
Happy Planning!
