Wedding Budget

Wedding Budget: How much and who gets to pay?

Figuring out a reasonable budget for your wedding can be very stressful. Here are a few helpful tips and hints to help you get through.

How Much Do You Actually Need?

Just like buying a house, a pair of jeans or new iPod, when it comes to financing a wedding,you should do some research to guesstimate how big of a price tag comes with the wedding of your dreams. The average cost for a 150-person wedding is about $25,000 and that number could be higher in some areas. Once you have the ball park dollar amount that you need, you can secure contributions accordingly.

Who's Paying?

Talk with your families about who would be willing to pay for what. Some brides' families still abide by the old tradition and pick up the entire tab, but more and more groom's families are contributing also. Some couples find budget is a hard subject to bring into conversation.
For many, talking to each family separately is the best way to have an open discussion.

If the brides’ family isn’t equipped to pick up the entire tab you can remedy that by asking both sets of parents to commit to a specific dollar amount contribution. If neither family is able to set a specific dollar amount, it may be easier to ask them to finance a particular aspect of the wedding such as the ceremony, flowers, or catering. The next step is to decide how much you two, as the bride and groom, can contribute between now and the wedding.

According to TheKnot.com 37 % of the couples polled say they're planning to contribute financially to their wedding. As soon as he puts the ring on your finger you should start putting aside as much of your income as you can. Saving 20% of your monthly income is a respectable goal. Of course the longer your engagement, the more you will be able to save. There are lots of possible ways to save, for example, by limiting your spending on
small things like movie rentals or how many trips you make to Starbucks in a week. Over the period of your engagement it would be possible to save a nice amount of extra cash that will likely cover a good number of your wedding essentials. Once you have spoken to everyone involved then you can add up all of the contributions to create your very own wedding budget.

The following is a breakdown of what you might expect to pay.
Ceremony: 2%-3%
Gifts: 2%-3%

Parking/Transportation: 2%-3%
Stationery: 2%-3%
Wedding Rings: 2%-3%
Miscellaneous: 8%
Attire: 8%-10%
Entertainment/Music: 8%-10%
Flowers: 8%-10%
Photography/Videography: 10%-12%
Reception: 48%-50%

To steer clear of stress, it is always recommended to designate about 5% of your budget to an "in case of emergency" fund.

If you're paying for your honeymoon yourselves, be sure to remember to put that in your budget as well.