Your wedding budget will depend on many factors. Sticking to your wedding budget will be impossible if you don’t allow for all of the deposits and costs of the services that you require. The more that you know about available services, the more realistic your wedding budget will be.
Stick to Your Wedding Budget for the Perfect Wedding.
First determine how much money you have in “the pot” for your wedding. How much can you afford to spend on your wedding? If your parents and your betrothed parents are going to contribute to your wedding, find out how much and what that money is to be used for. You will want to consider how much debt that you are willing to carry for your wedding, too. Where will the money go and what will it be used for? You will have to answer this question in great detail if you want to have an effective wedding budget.
You will have to factor in your honeymoon as part of your wedding budget, too. If you are set on a particular destination for your honeymoon, your wedding budget should begin with this expense. Once you determine where you are going and how much it will cost, you can trim the cost of your wedding in other areas. For example, you can invite fewer guests to your wedding reception, which will save money on your dinner and alcohol budgets. Going with a buffet instead of a sit down dinner will trim some of the costs of your wedding reception, too. Also, instead of having an open bar during your wedding reception, you can serve beer for free and have your guests pay for mixed drinks.
Your wedding budget will also require that you decide whether you are going to cover the costs of any of your wedding party’s clothes. If you rent tuxes for your groomsmen, plan on spending around $100 per tuxedo. This is a comfortable figure to work with. In many cases, you will be able to get a better cost per tux, but it doesn’t hurt to plan liberally.
Gifts for your wedding party should be budgeted for, too. Whether the wedding party will have a limousine and whether or not they will be staying at the hotel as your guest is important to determine, too.
A wedding gown is an expense that will have to factor into the wedding budget as well. It is easier for a seamstress to fit and alter a wedding gown than it is for the seamstress to make the dress herself, so you can save some money by purchasing a dress. You will also save money by having your seamstress make the alterations for your entire wedding party.
Another area to save on your wedding budget is to purchase plain shoes and dye them yourself. Or shop as many sales as possible. Either way, you will save your wedding budget by getting the best deals on the things that you need. Your wedding budget is your guide to following your ability to pay for your wedding without getting more in debt than you want to carry.
