Wedding Budget

How to set a wedding budget?

The cost of organizing a wedding day is one of the most pressing topics for future newlyweds. Wedding Planning Assistant will help you to prioritize, not forget anything, and adequately distribute your holiday budget. You will calmly start preparing for your important event without being distracted by a material and mental issue.

Of course, your wedding organizer will help you determine the exact amounts, calculate the final estimate, and detail the cost items. But we still recommend our Wedding budget planner to make an approximate wedding budget example in advance for which you are ready to spend money. And then think about the amounts so that you can already give approximate figures in a conversation with the organizer, and the final cost does not come as a surprise to you. To do this, use our wedding budget calculator and edit how much and on what you are ready to spend, and our tips will answer your question of how to create a wedding budget.

Where to begin?

Despite different financial possibilities, the wedding budget percentage breakdown is usually the same. Personal wishes can increase or decrease the total amount, so of course, there is no optimal wedding budget. However, you can orient yourself towards a certain cost ratio by dividing the whole holiday into the main expenses. Let's take a look at a typical wedding budget paragraphs.

Looks of the bride and groom

It isn't easy to talk about some amounts here, because it all depends on your wishes and preferences. You can wear a vintage wedding dress that you inherited, choose an outfit from a little-known brand, or vice versa, one of the luxury brands. Also, do not forget to add the groom's suit, shoes, accessories, jewelry, and, of course, wedding rings in the wedding budget worksheet.

Polygraphy

Write down printing in expense items: invitation cards, seating cards, event programs, menus. The price depends on many factors: how many guests you will have, whether you will make and sign the cards yourself or print in a printing house, what materials you choose, and so on.

Ceremony

This should include the state fee for registering a marriage at a registry office, as well as the cost of an official exit ceremony or unofficial registration. In the latter case, the final price will include the master of ceremonies, rent of the ceremony area, decor, decoration of the altar, or flower arch.

If you dream of a beach ceremony, it will be easier for you to calculate the cost: many hotels in popular seaside resorts offer wedding packages with a fixed price.

Lease of the site

If you plan to organize a gala dinner at a restaurant, this article can probably be crossed out: most restaurants provide a hall for free when booking a banquet. If you close the hotel entirely and pay for all the rooms, you will not have to pay separately for the banquet hall.

In all other cases, the site's lease will need to be included in the wedding budget spreadsheet, and the amounts will depend on the size, equipment, and popularity of the site.

Decor and floristry

Next tip where we would like to give a typical wedding budget breakdown. Decide what kind of design you choose. If you plan to decorate tables with flowers, arrange a podium, an arch for registration, and put decorations, the amount will grow indefinitely. It all depends on the size, complexity of structures, and the number of specialists needed for installation.

Wedding Reception & Banquet

At this point, it is easier to indicate the average wedding budget numbers. The banquet cost will depend on the number of guests, the category of the restaurant or catering service, the number of meals and drinks, and whether your venue provides furniture, tablecloths and chair covers, dishes, equipment for the dance floor and artist performances, etc. The maximum amounts usually include drinks (including alcohol), festive decoration of the hall, all the necessary equipment, and waiters' work.

We should also talk about alcohol. Some restaurants allow you to bring your alcohol, but they charge a cork fee on each bottle. If the prices for drinks in the restaurant are too high, it can be beneficial.

How to calculate the number of beverage bottles for your guests? In our sample of the wedding budget, you will need as many drinks:

— Strong alcoholic drinks - 0.5 bottle / person

— Wine - 0.6 bottles / person

— Champagne - 0.3 bottles / person

— Soft drinks - 1.5 l / person

If there are many women among your guests, bringing more wine and champagne and fewer spirits is worth getting. If the guests are predominantly male, on the contrary: more strong alcohol and less wine.

Cake

The wedding cake is the evening's main dessert, so it is worth including it in the wedding budget planner of expenses.

It is not difficult to calculate the cake's size: for each guest, there is 150-200 g of dessert. If you think this is too little, do not worry: remember that before these guests will try snacks, salads and a few hot dishes. Besides, there will undoubtedly be other sweets on your wedding table.

We get that for most people, and they have no idea what a wedding cake costs, but it helps to get comfortable with the fact that a wedding cake for 100 will start around $6 per serving. It all depends on the filling, the complexity of the execution, the presence of decor, and the master's popularity.

Entertainment for guests

You can add to the wedding budget estimator another item of expenses - the wedding entertainment. This includes workshops, photo booth rental, DJ work, guest performers, special effects (firework, etc.).

Specialists

The wedding budget list also should include all contractors with whom you intend to work on the sign. Usually, the following professionals are present at the wedding, so it's reasonable to include them in your wedding budget:

— Wedding planner or Wedding organizer (the cost of his work depends on the experience, skill, and size of the company)

— Photographer

— Florist

— Decorator

— Master of Ceremonies

— Presenter

— Waiters

Of course, the rates for all professionals vary greatly depending on the city, the duration of the event, the popularity of the selected date and day of the week, and your pros' category and experience.

Transfer

Include in the wedding budget checklist car rental for you and for guests and train or plane tickets (if you will pay for guests from other cities for the trip), taxi from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the place of the ceremony. Consider also how guests will move between venues if the ceremony and banquet are held in different locations.

Accommodation of guests

Are you planning to accommodate guests from other cities and countries at your own expense? Then in the estimate, you will need to include the cost of rooms of the selected hotel in your wedding budget sheet. If you have chosen a country hotel for your wedding and intend to stay there for a few days, add a room for yourself.

Important!

And do not forget about the seasonality: late spring and summer are the most popular seasons for weddings. Therefore, during this period, the rent of a venue, hotel accommodation, a banquet, and professionals work will cost you more than in autumn and winter.

What is the result?

The main wedding budget percentages are as follows:

— 41% for a banquet

— 12% for entertainment at the wedding

— 12% clothing and accessories for young people

— 11% goes to video and photography

— 7% wedding cortege

— 8% other expenses, including for the wedding ceremony

Congratulations! Now you know how to make a wedding budget!

There was an excellent example of wedding budgeting of the essential condition for your wedding's success. To get started, we recommend identifying the main cost items and calculating your wedding approximate cost using our wedding budget tool. Wedding Budget Planner is a wedding budget tracker that will help you collect all the information about your wedding in one place, saving you from chaotic diary entries and lots of flyers. Plan pre-wedding affairs and tasks, control the budget, make lists of contractors and guests, etc.

Can I have my wedding budget in Excel format?

Yes! To record the actual costs, we suggest using our system calculator and then exporting a budget to an Excel spreadsheet. You can reflect all current expenses, mark the dates and amounts of prepayments, dues, and final settlements. Such an excel table, Wedding Planning Assistant calculator will allow you to manage your wedding budget breakdown and control all expenses.

The wedding budget for the newlyweds is very clearly laid out, the expenses are divided by the main groups, all names, dates, and notes can be marked here.

Such a table will be a good help in the process of wedding preparation and will help not to overlook anything. You can download your budget list in PDF format. The second options is export wedding budget list in Google sheets. Or you can make it yourself using our wedding budget template in Excel after export.

The modern way is to keep your wedding budget in the cloud. It is reliable! But you can print out your wedding budget at any time and literally hold it in your hands.