Eeeeep!  You’re engaged!  This is such an exciting time in your lives full of love and wonder.  All of your friends and family congratulating you and cheering on your love.  Maybe even throwing you an engagement party!  And then it happens.  You start actually planning your wedding and realize how much everything costs.  You are not alone, we have all been there!  The first step in navigating this new ocean of wedding planning is to create a budget for your wedding.  Here are my top tips for determining your budget!

Consider your current savings

You may be someone who saves every spare penny they get.  Or maybe you recently received an inheritance or a big bonus.  If so, you may already have a nice starting point for your wedding fund.  Be careful not to totally deplete your savings account to pay for the wedding.  A rule of thumb I learned from my aunt was to keep a minimum of 3 months of bills and groceries in a savings account.

How much can you save?

Determine when your ideal wedding date is (usually within 12 – 18 months of your engagement).  Then determine realistically how much money both you and your partner will be able to save in that amount of time.  Do not take any bonuses into this calculation, as bonuses are never guaranteed.  If you do get a bonus, then it really is a bonus!  (Maybe extra money for the honeymoon.)

For example, after paying bills, buying groceries, and having a little spending money you can put away $300 a month towards your wedding fund.  You partner can also put away $300.  Over 12 months you will have saved $7,200.

 

How much are you comfortable spending?

Just because you can save $40,000 for your wedding doesn’t mean that you feel comfortable spending $40,000 on a wedding.  You may only feel comfortable spending $30,000 on a wedding and using the additional $10,000 to create a nest egg or to renovate your kitchen.

Will anyone else be contributing?

Usually, this is your parents.  But, depending on your individual situation, it may be a grandparent or an aunt or uncle.  Or maybe, you won a wedding and will only have to pay for certain aspects (like the dress and rings)!

Ask the contributing parties how much/what they will be able to contribute to your wedding.  This can be a difficult subject to address with your parents, but it is something you should do.  They may have been putting money away for your wedding day since you first brought your partner home for Thanksgiving dinner.  Maybe they will not be able to contribute financially, but they want to offer you family heirloom rings for your wedding.  You will never know unless you ask.

Remember that when others are contributing to your wedding, you will need to take their ideas and wished into consideration.  For example, they may want to invite specific people to the wedding if they are helping pay for it.  This is also something that is best addressed head on.  My best word of advise on the subject is compromise.  If you parents want to invite 5 of their closest friends and 5 coworkers, try compromising and suggesting to only invite the 5 closest friends as you know your parent’s friends but not their coworkers.

 

Be Flexible

Your wedding budget may change over time, and that is OK.  Once you do more research into vendors or as life events happen, you may decide to change your wedding budget.  As long as you are not spending more than you are comfortable with, then change is totally acceptable.

 

Now the hard part, creating your initial budget!  I believe in you; you can do it!  Check back next week to learn How to Break Down Your Wedding Budget.  Want more tips for creating an amazing wedding day in the mean time?  Click here for more Wedding Tips!