What's your budget?

Budgeting your wedding will probably be the hardest part of your wedding planning. That is because our eyes are bigger than our budget. We want what we can't afford or what we have not budgeted for and that breaks the bank easily if we do not stay on task. While when working with my brides I have specific break downs that I suggest them follow, today I will give some of the most important details to consider while planning your budget. 1. Set a realistic number for your budget. Before you can set this number, you have to do some research on your wedding venue. Your venue will probably eat up 50-70% of your budget. That can be good or bad. Good, because the venue can offer many things such as centerpieces, all of your linens, cake, food, beverage and more. Bad if your budget is taking up that amount of your budget and you are not getting those added benefit such as decorations and catering. 2. Your venue will be your greatest expense but other items can add up. Your vendors should be the next part of your budget you tackle. Vendors include, Photographer, videographer, hair/makeup, limo services, flowers, DJ, entertainment and so forth. This should be no more than 30% of your budget. you can leave some vendors off or ask family members who do these roles as hobby or professionally to help with that budgetary cost. 3. Your dress. Now some of my brides tell me that 3 is more important than 2. I can understand that seeing as we as brides pay a lot of money on our dress. But realistically, our dress should only be about 10% of our total budget. If we are spending more on the dress than we are on the vendors, then we may need to reconsider our budget. 4. Your decorations. This should also be about 10% of your budget. This includes stationary products, centerpiece's, table linens (not provided by the venue), party favors and other things you use to make your wedding look great. 5. The last is miscellaneous - which i usually reserve for gifts for the wedding party and love offerings. Anything else should fall into this category and should be a meager 5% of your overall budget. By all means spend your money where you feel it is most important. But if you realize you are budgeting to spend 17,000 total and your wedding venue will already eat 14,000, then you may want to reconsider the amount of money you are going to put into the venue versus everything else you still need to consider. For more budget tips, subscribe to Weddingsbyaprilsteele.com. Ask about our consignment shop! -Love April 😘