When planning your wedding, it is normal (and fun) to dive right in to asking your besties to stand with you, picking your colors and filling your Pinterest Board with image after image!! Next, you’ll visit with venues and before you know it – you’ve found the perfect one and boom – you’ve signed on the dotted line. All of this is wonderful, and you’ve made great progress – until you meet with the caterer and get the estimate, you go to book your “must have” photographer, and ……wait, it’s how much???!!
Unless you have wedding planning experience, you will most likely underestimate the cost of your wedding. There are a LOT of moving parts to making this dream day come true. And every part has a cost, and these costs add up quickly. This is why having a budget from the very beginning is so important. There is nothing worse than paying a deposit to a venue you’ve fallen in love with – only to figure out that now you’ll end up spending thousands more than you wanted in total. Or to find and tour the perfect place only to realize that there’s no way its within your budget limits.
Don’t let this happen to you.
While it’s not the most fun…..or the easiest conversation to have, sitting down and figuring out your bottom line is so important. Whether it’s $10,000 or $100,000. Where is that money coming from? Are there any expectations on how the money is allocated? Who will physically write the checks? Will there be a separate bank account? And the most important question: what do YOU place the MOST importance on when it comes to your wedding day? Is it the venue, food, flowers, your dress? If you know your budget, and how much you can spend on every aspect of your wedding I promise, you’ll find searching for vendors is so much more fun, and exciting. You won’t have to have those awkward conversations with the vendors, or whomever is financing the day! Here are a few tips to get started.
- Call Heirloom. Let us help take the guesswork our of budgeting and lets work together to plan your beautiful day. We will be open and honest with you about wedding costs and will work to create a wedding with your priorities in mind.
- Hiring a planner can help take the guesswork and anxiety out of planning this day, but that’s definitely also a budget item in itself.
- Make a list of what you want included in your wedding. Then break that list down into “Must Haves” and “Would like to haves.”
- Know that nationwide, your venue and catering will be the two biggest wedding day expenses (alcohol is another biggie).
- Be realistic. Don’t underestimate the cost of a product or service because you think you can get it that cheap. It’ll make the whole process harder on you than it needs to be.
- The higher the guest count, the higher the price tag. This does not just apply to your catering bill. For every guest, you’ll need space at a table, a chair, food, drink, a slice of cake…..the list goes on and on.
- Remember, budget first. The budget is your friend. Don’t look at a budget as a restriction. Once you’ve determined a budget, the rest is smooth sailing!
If you’re stuck, reach out to us – we are here to help!
Happy Planning!
Tracie
