Putting a budget together for your wedding (and sticking to it) can be one of the hardest and most frustrating parts of the wedding planning process. I hope this article will help you find a way to cut out the stress and make decisions you won’t regret after your wedding day!
Obviously, the first step in planning the wedding budget is to decide how much you have available to spend on your wedding. The next step is to list your priorities for your wedding day in order of importance to you as a couple. Here is what my priority list looked like for my wedding two years ago:
1. Photography
2. Dress
3. Videography
4. Reception site and food
5. The flowers
6. Invitations
7. Cake
This list will look different for everyone, but once you’ve decided what’s most important to you as a couple, then you can allocate your resources accordingly. If you have always wanted a specific reception site and it turns out to be a bit pricey, put that down first as a non-negotiable. If the perfect dress is the next most important thing to you, allocate the next largest portion of your budget to that. If you don’t care about fancy invitations, set aside a smaller than average amount there. Basically, what’s most important to you should be what goes into the budget first, then you can divvy up the rest of the resources you have on the lesser important items on the list.
As I mentioned, my number one priority for my wedding was photography. I spent more money on a photographer than anything else in my wedding, but that’s what was most important to me. And if I could go back, I’d do the same thing — maybe even hire someone that was a better fit for me, even if that meant more expense. I know I’m biased, being a photographer myself, but keep in mind that your photos are one of the ONLY purchases from your wedding that will last a lifetime. The reception food, decor, cake, and flowers last one evening, but your wedding album will be looked at hundreds of times throughout your life. Plus, a good photographer captures all those things to be remembered later on. My not-so-humble opinion is that photography should reflect the majority of your budget since it lasts the longest.
But that’s just my opinion. :) The beauty of it being your wedding is that it’s YOUR decision. Make the decisions as a couple that will make you happiest on the most important day of your life and afterward!
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