How to Create a Wedding Budget

Congratulations, you’re engaged! The champagne has been popped, the parents have been called, and you just shared the news on Instagram. As you begin to dream of what your day will look like, there is one thing you have to do first. Before you pick a date, location, or dress, you have to determine your budget. Learning how to create a wedding budget may sound simple, but can be quite complex.

Creating your wedding budget is a vital first step. It will affect every decision and purchase you make for your wedding day. It’s important to work out your budget so you have a realistic picture of what you can spend – and what you can’t.

In this blog post, I’m going to help you take stock of your finances, prioritize your wedding day must-haves, and determine what aligns best with your budget.

Step 1: Where is the money coming from for my wedding budget?

Before you start laying out your wedding must-haves, you need to take stock of your finances. Will you be paying for your wedding yourselves? When can you take advantage of your other resources? Will your family be giving you money to use towards your wedding? Let’s break it all down.

Personal Finances

Depending on your current financial situation, you may have already set money aside for your wedding day. Your personal finances are a great starting number for your budget. 

If you don’t have money set aside for a wedding, you have a few options. You can extend your engagement period to give yourself additional time to save. Or, you may consider taking out a loan for your wedding. 

Personally, I believe a loan is best used for an item that has a longer shelf life than a one-day event. Going into debt for an over-the-top celebration is only putting your marriage in a financially insecure position from the start. Now, using clever and strategic financial assistance like credit cards with rewards can work out great. But I only suggest that if you have the money to immediately pay off said credit cards when making purchases.

Additional Resources

Believe it or not, money isn’t your only resource. You are also choosing how you spend your time and your energy. It’s important to think about the value you are receiving from a specific vendor or service. When looking at your resources, make sure you are balancing all your resources. 

For instance, you may have your eye on a specific photographer who falls outside of your budget. You can look for similar photographers within your budget or get creative. Would the photographer be willing to shoot your wedding day for six hours instead of eight? Do they have an associate photographer they could send in their place? Don’t be afraid to put a little time and energy into creatively solving your budget constraints.

Gifts 

Do your parents or other family members plan to give you money for your wedding day? It is so generous of them to help support your wedding day dreams in this way. Before you accept the money, there are a few things to consider. 

I always recommend having open and upfront conversations around expectations. If they provide financially for the wedding…

• Do they expect you to invite certain guests?
• Do they expect the money to be used for a specific item/vendor?
• Do they expect to be included in big decisions like venue and food?

As you will learn, wedding planning can be filled with lots of big emotions. Often we aren’t prepared to navigate the changes to relationships as they occur. It’s wise to consider what expectations come hand-in-hand with financial help in paying for a wedding before you accept the money.

Step 2: Can I have my dream wedding on my wedding budget?

Your wedding day priorities will likely be different than that of your friends and family. You may be dreaming of an expert florist while your best friend has her eye on a designer gown. 

For every couple, there are two types of wedding budgets you have to consider –

1. The wedding you want to have
2. The wedding you can afford

When determining your budget, you have to consider your must-haves and focus on what you need, want, and dream of having. Let’s dive into your wedding vision and come up with a plan next!

What do you need to have on your wedding day? 

Hopefully, it’s not a shocker that this list should be sparse! I’m talking officiant, the marriage license, the witness(es), and the couple. That’s it – that’s really all you need to legally get married. The legal needs of your wedding typically only require around 3-5% of your overall wedding day budget. 

What do you want to have on your wedding day? 

Your wedding is a day worth celebrating. List out your must-haves, and the non-negotiables that help to fulfill the purpose of your celebration. For example, do you need a photographer and a videographer or will a photographer suffice? Remember, this is a day to celebrate the love you share with your partner. How you choose to celebrate is completely up to you. But you will have to get honest with one another about what your wedding day priorities are.

What do you dream of having on your wedding day? 

Now it’s time to dream about what your wedding would look and feel like if you had every resource available. List any additions such as vendors or decor that would make your event feel unique and special. This is where you can set your wedding apart. But these are also usually some of the elements that will be the first to get cut or have budgets adjusted when the need arises.

How do you choose what the money should pay for?

Once you know what vendors will be instrumental for your wedding day, you can start deciding how much you want to spend in each category. Sometimes using online wedding budget calculators can be helpful, and sometimes they may not be. Many of those budget tools are based on national averages. And let’s be real nobody wants to have a cookie-cutter wedding. It’s best to focus on your local wedding industry and the real costs associated with actual vendors you might hire.

Yes, this means doing some work. It’s time to research vendors in your area and reach out asking for quotes. This gives you the best advantage to see what the real average is in your area. You can use the national averages as a guide. But once you start to see real quotes from professionals that you inquire with you will be able to adjust your budget and your expectations.

Don’t forget to:

1. Start with your top priority vendors to make sure you budget them in immediately. This will likely be your venue – but for some, it’s a photographer or a full-service caterer.
2. If you start to go over your budget, take a deep breath. This happens a lot as you are building out a budget. Remember, there are other resources besides money influx here so don’t forget to consider those options as well.
3. Remember to consider additional fees like taxes, service fees, admin fees, and tips. Allocating about 10-15% of your budget into “Miscellaneous” may help you plan for these costs upfront.

Step 3: How Do I Stay Within My Wedding Budget?

Now that you have a basic outline of what you need, want, and dream for your wedding budget you can compare that to your actual resources.

Focus on Your Wedding Purpose

The first step is deciding your top priorities and preparing to make some tough choices. At the end of the day, it’s your wedding, and what you want is the top priority. Every vendor you book and wedding decision you make should be reflective of your wedding foundation – the REASON you are celebrating your wedding. 

For example, if part of your wedding foundation is to gather up your loved ones to share a special meal together because it’s the first time everyone will be together in 10 years and this is reminiscent of family reunions long gone by. Then you should definitely focus on providing a scrumptious and memorable feast for your guests that will leave them saying “that was the best meal I’ve had in years!”. If your wedding foundation is more focused on allowing friends and family to relax and party, you may want to focus on a great DJ and curating a cozy and welcoming vibe. 

The two weddings mentioned above will probably both hire a catering team and a DJ. However, they will probably invest vastly different amounts in them based on their needs.

Be Realistic with Your Needs Versus Your Wants 

A want is usually something that would add that “cherry on top” type of moment to your wedding day. But isn’t totally necessary for your guests to understand the purpose of the gathering. This could mean deciding to use the venue-provided silver table settings instead of upgrading to the gold chargers and matching flatware if a curated table setting isn’t a top priority for you. Or maybe it means putting more money towards your photography budget and not opting to add on the champagne tower since your group of friends and family aren’t big drinkers. 

Pro tip: Be careful when selecting your venue, so you don’t become “venue poor”. This occurs when you invest too much of your budget in your chosen venue (sometimes a dream venue) and then end up sacrificing other areas of your wedding day – usually the guest experience portions. When selecting a location don’t allocate more than 50% of your budget toward the venue (typically 30% is a healthy and accessible benchmark). Your venue is a major expense. But if you sink the majority of your budget into the venue, your options will become drastically limited down the road when looking at other vendors. 

Don’t Forget Your Additional Resources

If you have little to no wiggle room with your budget, you may need to prepare yourself to be more flexible with your time and energy. That may mean spending more of your time, or a longer amount of time, searching for the perfect vendor to fit within your budget. Sometimes a good way to look at your resources is to ask yourself “in this situation, do I want to spend more of my time or my money on this element?”. 

And remember, you can always make more money. But it’s impossible to get your time back! It just depends on the resources you have available to you, and each couple is different. 

You could also ask a friend or family member to spend more of their time and energy to fill in the gaps. This should come with some big conversations around expectations and considerations for how you want to nurture the relationships you have with friends and family. It’s not great to feel used for a special talent or passion you have, and often friction surfaces either during planning or after the wedding day. So really consider the effect of having a friend or family member pitch in for major wedding elements. 

Trust the Professionals

At first, hiring a wedding planner might seem like a luxury. However, when it comes to making the most of your budget, a wedding planner can actually help you save more on your bottom line.

As a wedding planner, I help my clients understand the prices they’re receiving from vendors, and how to weigh the cost vs. value investment. Balancing a wedding budget can be an overwhelming task, especially if it’s something you have never done before! So many of my clients are surprised to find that things like service fees, admin fees, and oftentimes taxes will need to be added on.

A wedding planner can also help save you major time and energy! As I’ve said numerous times, time and energy are huge resources that are abundantly needed when planning a wedding. Many of my couples look to me to sort through the never-ending list of vendors out there to help guide them to a small handful of professionals who can bring their vision to life. They know they can trust my recommendations and opinions because of my relationships with other vendors and my time in the industry. And often, and unexpectedly, these relationships result in wonderful things for clients. Like a discount or gifted services because of strong and healthy vendor relationships!

When it comes to creative solutions for budget restraints, a wedding planner is a superb ally to have on your wedding planning team. We are very familiar with navigating through vendor services to best advocate for your true needs. Both before and on the wedding day. Whether you need to scale down your floral vision to meet the reality of your budget. Or are trying to find a full-service caterer that doesn’t have a minimum that’s tens of thousands of dollars. A wedding planner can lead you through how to create a wedding budget and when it’s necessary to adjust it. And they are there to guide you through blind spots to help you see the best solution. 

Work with Kindred Weddings and Events

While creating a wedding budget is a big and important task at the start of wedding planning, it’s not something you have to do on your own. If you are looking for a wedding planner in the Los Angeles area, hi there! I’m Sarah, owner and lead planner with Kindred Weddings and Events, a wedding planning company serving clients who desire small and intentional wedding celebrations. And I’d love to talk more if this sounds like you…

• Your relationships with friends & family are tantamount to your event – more so than the “perfect” decor
• You want to have an intimate celebration that puts a new twist on modern traditional weddings
• Making decisions isn’t something you shy away from once you’ve researched all your options
• Your guest count is small – we serve weddings with up to 100 guests (on average our clients have 40-80 guests)
• You want your day to be slow and meaningful and not carried away in the hustle and bustle

You can check out our wedding planning and management packages, that will help take some of the planning off your plate. And give you your time back to be with the people you love!