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Setting and Staying Within Your Wedding Budget

  July 7

This post may contain affiliate links.

The following post was written by staff writer, Kayla.

Budget WeddingOne of my friends recently got engaged, like last week, and the first thing I found myself asking her was “When is the wedding?” I’m sure most newly engaged ladies get asked more about their up-coming wedding date, wedding plans, and even their wedding budget, before anyone tells them congratulations for getting engaged. Honestly, I don’t think it’s because we aren’t happy for them for getting engaged, rather I think it’s because weddings are so darn much fun to plan and dream about.

Thanks to certain internet tools these day, like Pinterest, it’s super easy for a gal to have her wedding pretty much all planned out before she’s even engaged. But the down-side of this social media tool is that weddings have gotten more lavish and expensive than ever before.

It’s easy to get carried away drooling over amazing floral arrangements, gorgeous dresses, and more on Pinterest without thinking about the cost of your upcoming nuptials. But having a wedding budget in mind before you get too far with your wedding planning is important. After all, it’s unlikely that you want to spend more on your wedding day than on your future house! For all you gals out there planning a wedding, here are some tips to help you set and stay within your wedding budget.

Setting a Budget

Before you can stay within your wedding budget, you need to have one in mind. There are a lot of costs that are often over-looked by brides-to-be in all of their excitement, and those are the things that will add up and cause you to spend more money than you intended. Being thorough with your wedding budget plan and including everything you can think of will help you stay on track.

Just like any other budget, using a spreadsheet to create a wedding budget plan and then to track your expenses along the way is a great idea.

Make Compromises

Unless you have a truly unlimited budget for your wedding, chances are that you are going to have to make a few compromises as you plan your wedding. For instance, some girls choose to spend more on flowers and less on the musical entertainment at their wedding reception. Other girls might choose to for-go having a wedding dinner and dance and instead go on an amazing and more expensive honeymoon.

Making compromises about your wedding day isn’t the worst thing in the world. Yes, it’s a huge milestone and an event to be celebrated, but you can still throw an amazing wedding without spending more on it than you would on a house. Plus your future self will thank you. There’s no way you’re going to look back on your wedding photos and regret spending a little less on center pieces for the guest tables, or serving chicken instead of beef.

What you choose to spend more and less on is totally up to you, but at the bottom of your wedding budget you still need to stay within your target.

If you are married, what did you compromise on to stay within your wedding budget?

18 responses to “Setting and Staying Within Your Wedding Budget

  1. To stay in the budget, I had to look for a smaller venue/reception and crowd only those close friends and family so that our wedding would be more personal. And, I think we really saved much from doing this and glad that we did.

    1. When I got married we limited it to only immediate-ish family and very close friends. My extended family is huge, so that would have cost a fortune!

  2. I am engaged and I won’t start planning my wedding until May 2016, but I know what my budget is ($2,500) and I know who I want to invite (my immediate family and his). My co-workers think I am crazy for having a budget so small, but I am sticking to it. I think I can plan a beautiful wedding with that amount and having a budget that small forces me to invite only those who truly matter to us.

    1. Wow! I’m impressed. You should definitely give us an update on how that goes.

  3. You can make your own wedding invitations and if you have a talented friend you can ask them to design the venue. If you know someone who has a good voice you can ask them to sing during your wedding in that way you can save a lot.

  4. We skipped things like favors, rice-throwing, and special decorations and centerpieces (the hall had standard decorations already up). This not only saved money but also saved a lot of prep time. We also paid acquaintances instead of professionals for the photography, flowers, and DJ. The only “compromise” I regret was hiring a non-professional photographer. She just didn’t have the equipment of a pro, so our photos aren’t the greatest.

    1. These are great ways to save. I’m with you though, paying for a professional photographer probably isn’t the best way to save money.

  5. Wedding have gotten so insanely expensive. It becomes more about the event than about the marriage. Hubby and I married 38 years ago and only spent about $200 (ring, my dress, cake, snacks for reception at our apartment) and I don’t regret for an instant the way we did it.

  6. I know women more often tend to be the planners when it comes to weddings, but you’re starting a life partnership, so what better time to work on your partnering and financial planning skills than planning your wedding together? So don’t forget your partner!

    My wife and I got married 9 years ago this Thursday. It is a second marriage for us both, so we decided to have a smaller wedding (about 40 people). Other than the size of the wedding, we were able to have the plans we wanted, and we came in just under budget thanks to careful planning.

    1. It is usually left up to the women, but involving your partner (as much as they want to be involved) is a good idea. Thanks for weighing in Gary!

  7. Pinterest is both a blessing and a curse! I don’t have anyone to help me plan my wedding, so I’ve been using Pinterest a lot. I had NO idea how many things you have to consider when planning a wedding – and I’m planning a very small (less than 50 people) wedding!

    On one hand, I think Pinterest has made me consider things I wouldn’t have thought of before (which means more money which = bad), but on the other hand, it’s helped me plan a nice wedding. As an only child, I want to have a slightly more traditional wedding, just because I know our families will appreciate it. And while the wedding is about us, it’s also about our parents and showing them respect. A traditional wedding is something I know they’ll love, so I don’t mind spending a little more for that 🙂

    1. Great points Melissa! Good luck with the wedding planning. 🙂

  8. Pinterest is the WORST if you want to stick to your budget. Just too many unrealistically expensive ideas out there 😉 It’s far better to focus on what you actually want and value, and don’t get distracted by other people’s shiny objects online.

    1. I agree! I’m not planning a wedding, but I do like to do DIY projects around my house. There are some AWESOME DIY ideas on Pinterest, but there are some expensive ones there too. Looking at Pinterest occasionally makes me feel jealous and want to just burn down my house and start over with all the ideas from Pinterest, haha.

  9. I also just got engaged (on the 4th), so this post is very timely for me. My original budget was about 5k, but I quickly realized how unrealistic that would be considering what we’re doing. We’ve since revised our budget to be 15k on a destination wedding.

    1. Congrats on getting engaged Jasmine! I’m glad this post was helpful and timely 🙂

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