10 Best Wedding Budget Tips
The budget is a crucial step in the wedding planning process. It will affect every decision and determine your selection on everything!
Here are my 10 best tips to keep in mind when you are planning your wedding.
Determine the dollar amount available for the wedding day.
Who is paying for it? Ask yourself and your fiancé these questions, and also determine if parents or other family members will be involved in helping pay for the wedding. Number one tip I have for smart spending on your wedding - Avoid going into debt for the wedding and the surrounding events. Another layer of stress will be added on top of the planning and preparation tasks. Evaluate if each step, event, and purchase is worth it before doing it.
Prioritize.
What features about previous weddings you have attended do you want in your wedding?
Identify what you loved most.
Identify the features that may be nice to include but are not necessary.
Identify the features that are not important to you at all for the wedding day.
Here are the main categories and vendors for the wedding day to take into consideration when setting the budget:
Venue
Florist
Photography
Videography
Hair and makeup
Wedding gown/seamstress
Rings
Wedding favors
Food
Dessert
Liquor/Bar
DJ/musician
Stationary
Decoration/rentals
Honeymoon
3. Be your own wedding planner (check out The Naomi Hill Wedding Planner that shows you how to do this!)
This is a large cost even for a day-of coordinator, so consider delegating tasks to family and friends and planning way ahead of time. Have an organized planner, like this one, to walk through each and every step of the planning process to make for a stress-free and beautiful wedding day.
4. Focus on the highest costs first.
This will typically be the venue, photography, and food.
Venue: explore multiple options, price compare venues and potential rentals per venue. Possibly opt to get married in the off-season for that particular venue, or on a week day or Sunday. This usually lowers costs.
Photographer: Price compare and negotiate; see what options they have that are affordable. Don’t choose the insta-famous photographer, which can save thousands of dollars. Also, ask family and friends for the photographers they have used in the past - this sometimes comes with a referral discount.
Food: To cut down costs serve appetizers and/or desserts instead of serving a buffet or formal dinner.
5. Consider skipping wedding extras.
Some of the things that can be bought for a wedding aren’t entirely necessary to make the day beautiful. Choose what you can’t live without and be willing to sift through the rest.
These wedding extras may include the following:
Rehearsal dinner or party
Ceremony and reception programs
Bathroom baskets
Monogrammed signs and extra unnecessary decor (quote signs, mr. and mrs. signs, unnecessary candles or flowers)
Limo
Wedding favors
Photo booth
6. Limit the guest list.
The truth is the more guests there are, the more money will need to be spent on seating them, feeding them, providing them refreshments and necessary services. The easiest way to slim down is by eliminating plus one’s or having a “no children” wedding.
7. Ask friends and family to help with tasks on the wedding day.
Delegating special tasks can also be a great way of including those special people who aren’t in the bridal party but are still special to the bride and groom.
A few tasks to delegate: assembling decor, providing a wedding day emergency kit, being in charge of send-off accessories (sparklers, bubbles, etc.), attending the welcome/guest book and gift table, cutting and serving cake/dessert, helping move chairs/tables for reception, help clean up after the wedding.
Ask people who:
Know you and your fiancé well
You trust them
They are reliable
They are willing
8. Leave extra room in the budget.
No matter the budget and how well every penny is planned, ALWAYS leave an additional 5%-10% set aside for mishaps, forgotten items, or unseen expenses. This will save a lot of stress in the long run if some extra funds are set aside just for surprise expenses.
9. Track every purchase.
Keep every receipt and a detailed sheet of expenses to stay on track and avoid going over the allotted budget. The little expenses will sneak up on you, and you may start to wonder, “Why are we running out of our budgeted money so quickly?”
10. Purchase The Naomi Hill Wedding Planner
This planner is created for brides specifically looking for budget friendly tips, tricks and resources. It is also for the bride that wants a stress-free wedding planning process. Trust me, this resource can save you both time AND money planning your best day ever. Use code: FRIEND15 for a special discount.