Planning and organizing a wedding budget can greatly reduce the stress of putting together a wedding. The very thought of a wedding conjures up images of finery and elegance, music and dance, fun, frolic and lavish spreads. However, all the extravagance can really add up. So, whatever the size and style of the wedding, one cannot underestimate the importance of a wedding budget.
Getting started on the wedding budget
You need to determine who is paying for the wedding. Traditionally, the bride's parents sponsored the entire wedding. This no longer holds true. So put your heads together and decide who is paying for what.
What is the total wedding budget?
Once you know who is paying for what, you also need to calculate the total wedding budget. Calculate all the income that you intend to spend on the wedding. You need to include the groom's contribution, the bride's contribution and contributions from both sets of parents if any.
Also, sometimes family and friends may choose to sponsor a part of the wedding like the honeymoon or the decoration or the cake. Ensure that you ask the persons sponsoring, how much they want to spend and stay within their budget. If you want to go a little over the budget they have allocated, you must bear the cost.
Set priorities
Before you start allocating the resources to different items, you need to set priorities. Is it important for you to invite everyone you know or is it more important for you to have a grand wedding? If you absolutely have to invite the 200 odd people you know, then you may need to choose a cheaper venue and think of having a cocktail reception instead of a dinner or luncheon reception. If you have your heart set on a lavish wedding, then cut back on the number of guests to stay within budget.
Maintain a notebook
Don't even think of having a wedding budget and sticking to it without putting it all on paper. Weddings have a tendency to get out of hand real quick. Write down your wedding budget, the breakup of the wedding budget and how you intend to spend it and the actual expenditure in a single notebook. Maintaining a wedding budget book will help you track all the expenditure easily. In case you start to overshoot, you can immediately takes steps to amend it.
You can even maintain a wedding budget online. There are many wedding websites that enable you to maintain a wedding budget online. It is a simple, efficient and effective solution to your problems.
Ask family and friends for help
If you have a small wedding budget ask family and friends for cash gifts instead of the regular chinaware. It will make things easier for them as well as you.
Planning a wedding is an effort in itself and staying within the wedding budget is positively an art, but with a little know-how you can do it and you'll be glad you did!
Copyright Andrea Britt, 2005. All rights reserved.
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Andrea Britt is owner of CharmingWeddings.com where you can find elegant, unique wedding favors, bridal shower favors, and wedding planning tips for your wedding reception and bridal shower.