Planning a wedding can be extremely stressful for a lot of brides. There is so much to plan and coordinate - it can be very overwhelming, and a lot of brides have trouble even knowing where to start!
In my experience, the first thing you should do (after announcing your engagement to your family and friends and changing that all-important Facebook status of course) is to determine your budget. Will you and your fiance be paying for the wedding in its entirety, or will you have help from other sources, like your parents? Your budget may also change depending on how much time between your engagement and the wedding itself. Financially, it may make more sense to stretch your engagement 18 months or more to save for your wedding. You should never go into debt to pay for your wedding! Remember that you will probably have to pay an initial deposit when you book your vendors, and the remainder anywhere from 2-3 weeks to 1-2 days prior to your wedding day. By setting your actual budget early (and sticking to it), you will not only avoid a lot of unnecessary headaches and heart brakes, but it can also help determine the size and type of your wedding. For example, if your budget is $10,000, you should probably put the idea of a 500 person soiree at the Plaza Hotel out to pasture. I don't want to be a dream crusher, but unless you hit the lotto, strike an oil well, or become BFFs with Subrata Roy's daughter, it's not going to happen. But you can still plan a beautiful wedding on your budget, as long as you remain realistic and are willing to make some compromises and get creative. I'll address creative ways to save in another post.
The average cost of a 150-person wedding in the U.S. is $27,000 (and even more in urban areas). The basic breakdown of how you should budget is as follows:
Reception (Food, Beverages, Rentals, Site Fee): 40-50%
Flowers: 10%
Photography/Videography: 10%
Bride & Groom's Attire: 5-10%
Music: 5-10%
Planner/Coordinator: 10-15%
Miscellaneous (Favors, Stationary, Transportation, etc): 10%
Cushion: 5-10%
Once you know your budget and have an idea of the breakdown, the next step is setting your top priorities, choosing a date, and booking any "must have" vendors. This could be the venue that holds a special place in your heart, or the dynamite photographer who took your friend's gorgeous wedding photos. These can be done simultaneously, as booking a particular venue or vendor may be more important to you than the date of your wedding. [Side note: Your venue will usually be able to provide you with a list of "preferred vendors" if you need some help - these are tried and trusted vendors that the venue has experience with, and is a great place to start looking for other vendors if you need some help; Wedding Wire and the Knot's preferred vendors are also great.]
Keep in mind that when breaking down your budget, there may be some things that are more important to you than others. For example, stationary was not a big deal to me for my wedding. Instead of spending hundreds - maybe thousands - of dollars on thermography, letterpress, or engraved stationary, we ordered regular, digital printed invitations from Wedding Paper Divas. They were perfect for our day, and the money we saved on invitation cost went towards the open bar at our reception. The point is, when you set your budget early, you know how much can be spent where, and you can get an idea of things that are important to you and things that aren't.
The Knot has a great wedding planning calculator tool, found here. It allows you to enter your budget, guest count, and bridal party count, and it calculates how much you can spend automatically. It tracks your actual amount spent, and can re-calculate your budget based on those amounts. You can also add or delete fields depending on your wants and needs.
Don't forget La Belle Vie is always here to help you plan while staying on budget! Contact us for more information!
Happy Planning!
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