Planning your fairytale wedding can be exiting until you realize that your wedding budget doesn’t match your dreams. Aside from finding ways to stretch your dollar, it’s also important that you don’t over budget for each item on your wedding planning list. Otherwise, you could find your self spending a crazy 25% of your budget on a DJ! Keep in mind that it’s not just important to track what you spend, but also how you spend it. After agreeing on an overall budget, take a look at these suggested percentages for each main expense. This guide should help prevent you from overspending on any individual category.
Wedding Budget for Receptions
Not including the honeymoon, your reception will be your largest wedding cost. We suggest allocating up to 50% of your budget to accommodate this expense. Keep in mind that this will include, your cake, venue, and food. If 50% is a bit too much to spend, you can save on an extra rental fee by having your wedding ceremony at the same location as your reception.
Flowers and Decoration Budget
Everything from the bridal bouquet to the centerpieces at your reception should not take up then 15% of your budget. A great money saving tip is to reuse flowers and decorations from your wedding ceremony at your reception. You can also use your bridesmaid’s bouquets as centerpieces; because, chances are they won’t want to hold them the entire night anyway!
Music Budget
Despite what you choose for musical entertainment at your wedding, be sure that the expense does not take up more then 10% of your budget. Although a band sounds great in person, using a DJ allows for more versatility at a much lower cost.
Photography Budget
Allocate 10% of your budget for your wedding photographer. This expense has the greatest amount of variability because there are so many skilled freelance photographers that charge alot less then professional studios. Regardless of who you choose, always take into consideration the costs of additional rolls of film, engagement photos and the wedding album.
Stationary
It may not seem like stationary would require a large bite of your budget, but once you consider all that this category entails (”save-the-dates”, invitations, envelopes, thank-you cards, etc.) you’ll understand why. The number of guests that you invite directly affect your overall cost. So we suggest setting aside 3 - 5% of your budget for all your needs depending on the size of your guest list. Likewise, if you’re only expecting a handful of guests, you can eliminate the expense all together by creating everything yourself!
Unexpected Costs
You may feel like you have everything under control, but there will ALWAYS be some kind of unexpected additional wedding cost. Assuming you’ve done you’re best to seal up any obvious “wedding sink holes”, we think that saving 7% of your budget should be enough to allow you to sleep at night. Save your self the stress and be sure to create a checklist of everything that could potentially fall under this category. Although you won’t be able to predict every expense ( hence “unexpected costs” ), you can at least check if the items can be written off into other parts of your budget.
These numbers aren’t set in stone so feel free to make adjustments according to your wedding plans. The main idea is to allocate your budget wisely and always commit to your percentages. Similarly, try to keep your budget balanced. If you do pass your spending limit in one area, be sure to decrease your allowance in others.
From learning how to buy wedding favors to writing your invitations, Ellanor Redfern and ForYourGuests.com will help you plan your dream wedding for FREE!
Tweet This 
Stumble This
