It seems to me that sticking to a wedding budget is the most important part of planning for a wedding. However, someone recently told me, “Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple as that.” Or is it?
As a recently engaged lady, I find myself in more and more situations where advice is given to me regarding my upcoming marriage (even when I haven’t asked for it). Much of this advice is regarding my fiancé, Kevin, and my upcoming wedding: how many people we should invite, what theme we should choose (we need a theme?!), what time of year we should have it, if we should have a DJ or band, chicken or beef, and the list goes on.
Great advice, however, it would be amazing to hear and read more information on how to plan a wedding that doesn’t cost an arm, a leg, and a second mortgage on your parent’s house, that is, if you are lucky enough to have parents that contribute!
Here are 4 rules we created for sticking to our wedding budget:
1. Take the time to discuss your finances
I feel blessed to be with someone who is an agreement with me on how important finances are. Much before we discussed a wedding, we shared our financial picture with each other. This included our salaries, account balances, bills, and even our credit scores. Before setting a budget for a wedding, set a budget for your life as a couple, and make sure wedding spending doesn’t get in the way of life-long financial goals.
2. Bi-weekly check-ins with our budget
Although our wedding is over a year away, we have agreed on a wedding budget and plan to stick to it! It is easy to get distracted by the glitz and glam of décor, guidance from parents and friends on their “must-haves”, and pressure from vendors! Setting a standing meeting once a week to go over our budget and impending choices helps keep us grounded and thoughtful about the decisions we are making together.
3. Planning for Surprises
Unfortunately, Kevin and I have noticed that taxes, fees, and gratuities, when noted in the contracts, are sky-high and sometimes unclear. No matter what amount is listed, we are planning for additional fees in our budget. That way, there won’t be any upsetting surprises, and hopefully, we will end with some extra cash in the wedding fund that we can use on our honeymoon!
4. Just ask!
I have found that simply asking vendors if they can work within our wedding budget, even if that means giving us a discount, is well worth it! $1/per chair cleaning fee? Waived! $200 off of our photography bill? Done!
Written by Kendall Jackson
This blog post is from the Author's perspective and doesn't speak for brightpeak financial. Contact brightpeak if you want to know more about brightpeak products, and keep in mind that they are not available in all states and there are some limitations (some exclusions and restrictions may apply).
