Getting engaged is an exciting moment for any couple. After being together for a while and getting to know one another, you are finally ready to take that next step in your relationship. You will be getting ready to start a life and your new family together.
However, before you can get to all that, you will first have your wedding day. This is the day where you celebrate your commitment to one another with your closest friends and family. It is also, however, a rather involved and expensive day.
Many couples find themselves overwhelmed with just how much it costs to hold a traditional wedding. While there are ways of curbing costs and keeping things simple, it is never easy to host and feed a large group of people, no matter which way to look at it. Because of this, you should look to get your budget figured out as soon as possible.
With that in mind, here are a few tips to help you get started working out your wedding budget.
Make a Wish List
You probably already have some idea about what your overarching number is when it comes to what you are able to spend on your wedding. However, an effective budget will have a breakdown of all the various aspects of the day that you want to incorporate. This means that the best place to start is with your wish list.
Things like a specific type of venue, catering, and flowers are standard items to place on your wish list. Once you have this list worked out, you can start researching how much each of those items is going to cost.
For instance, if you want to have a band play at your wedding, websites like alivenetwork.com can prove to be a big help. When it comes to flowers, do some research to see which blooms will be in season when you will be getting married. This will affect their cost.
Prioritize Your Budget
Unless you have an unlimited amount of funds to dedicate to your wedding day, you will have to prioritize your budget a bit. Depending on your vision for the day, you might have to dedicate more of your budget to certain things than you had originally hoped.
You can pretty much assume that the thing that will cost the most is your venue. However, if it is more important to you to have a great band, phenomenal food, and an open bar, then you might look to spend much less on your venue.
Make sure to spend some time together as a couple figuring out those aspects of the day that are most important to you. At the end of the day, this is the most important thing that matters.
Your best course of action when planning your wedding is to sit down as a couple and establish just how much you are going to be able to spend on things. Creating a wedding budget with as realistic a breakdown as possible of what you are going to be able to spend on the various aspects of the day will prove to be incredibly helpful throughout the planning process.