wedding budget

Photo by Ethan Killian Photography

In one of our latest blog posts, we talked about how to begin establishing priorities in order to create a wedding budget. Once you and your betrothed sit down and decide the overall look and feel of your wedding (including the size, time of year, and ideal location), it’s much easier to to flesh out your wedding budget and assign monetary value to each of those items.

Remember, the amount you spend is *not* representative of how much you love your soon-to-be spouse! Couples who spend $5,000, $25,000, or $50,000, all have a fantastic time and a wonderful wedding. It’s much more important to break apart these numbers into smaller, digestible nuggets. What’s important to you? Your partner? How can you stretch the budget to get what you want: a wedding that is uniquely you? Where are the opportunities for compromise? What are the items you can agree the two of you want to eliminate completely?

There are many ways to determine your wedding budget, but we want to make it as easy for you as possible. Do you have a good idea of the amount of money you have to spend? If so, you can start with the end number (your budget total) and break down how much you’d like to spend on each item based on which items are most important (and most expensive). This method helps you to assign money to each of your different priorities.

If you’re not sure of the total amount you’d like to spend, start by creating smaller budgets for the most expensive priorities and add up each item until you reach your ultimate overall budget. This method helps you to understand the big picture cost of each of the smaller items related to your wedding day that are important to you, your partner, and your families.

Need a visual? Here’s a sample, using a final budget of $25,000, with numbers based upon the national average. These numbers are not necessarily representative of everything you may need or want at your wedding, but give you a good idea of how much individual items may cost (and how quickly costs can add up!).

Are you staring at staggering numbers? Take a breath and break it down again. Vendors offer options at every price point, for every budget and type of celebration.

Did you find you have more wiggle room that you thought? Lucky you! Splurge on something meaningful (or, pragmatic planners may want to keep that bonus for a “just in case” budget).

Want more tools? We’ve partnered with our friends at A Practical Wedding to provide free, customizable budgeting and planning spreadsheets

Antique Crackle Piggy Bank by The Pig Pen on Etsy

When it comes to creating an appropriate wedding budget, you’ll have a few things to consider. Don’t fret. An easy place to begin is by deciding whether you want a large or small wedding.

With all of the options available, budgeting for a wedding can end up feeling like a choose-your-own-adventure. Adventure is the right word, too, as wedding planning can (and should) be fun! Let’s embark on the early stages together by asking a few preliminary questions:

What are your priorities?

• Attendees?
  • Large wedding? (Friends from high school and beyond + wedding party + family?)
  • Small wedding? (Wedding party + family only?)
  • Intimate wedding? (Family only?)
• Venue?
  • Time of year? (The first few months of the year are generally cheaper for weddings, as they are not a part of “Wedding Season,” which is considered April through October.)
  • Close to home or far away?
  • In a private residence, a place of worship, a social space?
• Catering?
  • If you’re a foodie and you know it, clap your hands! (And then be prepared to pay much more for your sit-down meal versus a buffet.)
  • Food trucks?
  • Passed hors d’oeuvres?
• Dress Code?
  • Black tie?
  • Black tie optional?
  • Cocktail attire?
  • Beach wedding?
  • Casual?

Once you have your top priorities figured out, it’s time to make some deeper decisions:

Will it be a destination wedding?

• If yes, begin thinking about any expenses that you will cover for your guests and when your guests will need pay their own way. Your “local wedding” may end up being a “destination” for some guests, anyway.
• If yes, and you’re planning a larger, higher-budget wedding, think about the related events you’ll be planning. If your guests are flying to a destination, it’s your job to make sure they’re entertained the entire time! Check out how real-life Glöbies Mark and Christian planned their destination wedding in Germany.

Will there be a rehearsal dinner?

• If yes, check out our Glö Flo-chart to help you decide how many people and who to invite.
• Next, decide whether to have something simple for a small group (catered or at a local restaurant) or to go all the way, with your favorite ice cream truck jingling into the venue to serve up your favorite dessert!
• If no, cross this item off of your budget. Woohoo!

What’s your style? What kind of dress or suit are you looking for?

• Vintage: Vintage and thrift shops often have a yearly wedding dress sale. This could be a great first stab at finding the perfect dress or suit. If you don’t find one, don’t worry! You have other options.
• Repurposed family heirloom: Some folks prefer to take their mother’s or grandmother’s dress and repurpose it to fit the season and style, while still having “something old.” Same goes for grooms. Adding a modern flair to an old tux works wonders.
• Rented: Not that sentimental? Plenty of people rent dresses or suits for a fraction of the cost and return them right after. This is also a great option for your wedding parties—rather than having them buy something brand new, help them out by finding a line of dresses or tuxedos for rent instead.
• Brand new: This, of course, is likely to cost the most out of the options and also takes the most time. You’ll want to make sure you have the first round of alterations done well in advance, so you’re not left with a too-big bust or the wrong sleeve length a week before the big day. We’ll talk more about that in an upcoming blog post.

Will you be hiring a photographer?

• If yes, consider the following:
  • Where are you getting married? If it’s a destination wedding, make sure you do your research well in advance. You don’t want to find out that the amount you budgeted for a photographer won’t cover even half of it. Also consider flying in your own photographer to a destination wedding, so you can meet with him or her and discuss shots in-person long before the big day arrives.
  • Do you personally know a photographer? Extra points for a friend or family member who will do it at a discount as a gift.
  • Working locally? Get referrals from friends, but don’t forget to check Yelp and other review sites. Ask for bids from at least two or three pros.
• If no, that’s okay! There are other ways to save your memories. If you’re looking for a more personal “crowd-sourced” wedding album, make sure to create the perfect hashtag so your guests can upload their images. [link to hashtag post] You can also go old-school and put disposable cameras around the venue and encourage people to use them.

Will you be sending online or paper invitations?

• If online, you’ll save money and effort by customizing your invitations on-the-fly as you nail down the rest of the details. Plus, you’ll have an online guest database to keep everything (and everyone) organized! Check out Glö’s packages.
• If paper, make sure to have them ordered and finalized a few months before the “drop date.” You don’t want to order your invites and have them arrive with a typo a day or two before they’re supposed to be sent out.

Don’t be overwhelmed—just take it one day at a time. Figuring out what’s important will help you later assign a dollar amount to each item.

Is there anything else that you would consider in preliminary wedding budgeting? We (and our fellow Glöbies) want to know. We’ll dig deeper into budgets in the coming weeks, so come back to the blog and read up!