11 Pro Tips to Conclude the Wedding Budget Strategy!

Do you have a wedding in your family? You are not sure how to plan your wedding on the budget? &what percentage of your total to spend on the individual costs? Let the Gharpedia do the math for you! You will get the general wedding budget breakdown based on average wedding costs for every aspect of your wedding! Yes, weddings on a budget are possible by hiring a certified wedding planner!

Whether your wedding budget is small or large, a beautiful celebration is absolutely within your reach. But this is possible only if you strategize your activities accordingly and maintain a detailed spreadsheet.

Here we have discussed mostly American & European weddings. Indian/Hindu weddings have more rituals & customs. So, we are dealing with it separately. Click on the link below to read about weddings in Indian context:

There are lots of costs, both obvious and hidden, and it is a must to consider them before nailing down where your wedding budget is ultimately going to land. So, the first step for organising a wedding is making a budget for it. It is not that easy & people who are planning a wedding for the first time are mostly liable to under-budgeting & then face problems! The next thing is to make an appropriate checklist for all the activities before the wedding and during the wedding. It will help you to strategize your work and distribute the expenses accordingly. Also, it is necessary to understand how much things will cost in your locality.

Wedding Budget

Whether you have huge or small fortune to spend, here is the strategy on how to set your dream in your wedding budget!

Strategies for Wedding Budget

For the newly engaged, one of the most challenging parts of planning a wedding is establishing a wedding budget. But, prior to that, how do you bring up the discussion? For many couples, talking separately to each family is the best way to have genuinely open talks. When you do talk, here are strategies for determining your initial wedding budget!

01. Contribution of The Couple’s Families for The Wedding

Ask both the couple’s families if they are planning to contribute to the cost of the wedding! The very first thing is you need to talk with your families about who will pay for what? Some bride’s families still pick up the entire wedding financing. But this fact is not true these days because the groom’s families are participating too! Ask them to commit to a specific amount, & then add up all the contributions to create your wedding budget!

Otherwise, it may be easier to ask each parent to finance a particular aspect of the wedding (i.e. honeymoon, ceremony, catering, or wedding photo editing service) instead of just committing to an amount!

02. Figure Out A Basic Wedding Budget

After a discussion with the family about contribution, start figuring out the basic wedding budget in a worksheet. If you know the actual figures, like that for rentals, put the real numbers and for the rest of the activities, keep an approximate number. Ask those family members who have conducted a wedding before yours so that you get an idea about the approximate wedding budget.

03. Wedding Budget Strategy and Cost Considerations!

Start looking at the budget and cancel those things that you don’t need. At every step in planning the wedding budget, prioritize what is important to you. For e.g., if you are planning a formal candlelit dinner in the grand ballroom of a fantastic hotel, your wedding budget is going to rise much higher. As compared to that, if you have sketched out an afternoon tea & dessert party in your parent’s lovely backyard, you can surely save much of your bucks!

Afternoon tea party in Backyard
Candlelit Dinner in the grand ballroom

In general, several significant factors will affect what you will need to set aside for your wedding costs! Set your wedding budget with a certified wedding planner explaining your needs & choices!

04. Guest – Wedding List Size!

Wedding Guest List

It is the fact that the higher the number of guests, the more formal and lavish the wedding takes place. There is always an average per-head cost for food & liquor, & these two are typically the most significant expense of the whole wedding! Therefore, changing the wedding list size is the surest way to increase or decrease your wedding costs!

On top of that, the smaller the wedding list, the more you will save on all your other details, including décor, stationery, favours & rentals, because you won’t need as much of everything!

05. Locations (Venue): Wedding Settings!

Wedding location

The location of your wedding plays a significant role when budgeting strategies are to be considered. Some cities & towns are just more expensive than others! e.g. New York, Chicago, & Los Angeles, (in India) Udaipur, Jaipur, Bangalore, etc. are the obvious culprits, but small towns & remote destinations can demand higher costs if things like flowers & talent have to come from far!

Tourist towns can also add to your wedding costs during a peak season! Similarly, specific venues are more expensive than others! Also, be conscious that many popular locations have headcount minimums, means they won’t host a wedding that is too small, & some may even have a per-head minimum that requires your event to be of the particular size!

06. Time & Date Does Matter in Wedding Budget

Wedding Date

Highly hunted seasons & days of the week are costlier for the obvious reasons! For example, an evening reception is usually more expensive than an afternoon reception. It is because of higher catering costs for dinner, but because people tend to drink less during the daytime, & many couples choose to go more low-key on elements like music, lighting & decor!

Pick an off-season date and not those dates that lead to a decrease in your wedding costs. Additionally, picking weekdays will help you in saving your expenses. You could score a discount for choosing a less popular month, such as January or February.

Vintage Wedding
Beach Wedding

The more ceremonial the affair, the more luxurious, because you will have to match the site, food, & musical entertainment to the overall set tone! Weddings seem to have their language based on the theme they carry. Based on the budget and people’s choices, the wedding styles vary from the vintage wedding, bohemian weddings, beach wedding, modern wedding, rustic wedding, or traditional weddings. The cost for a full six-course meal is typically higher than for a cocktail party with mostly a small savoury dish; usually one served as an appetiser. Similarly, the fee for a twelve-piece band is higher than that for a DJ or a quartet; all décor like lighting, speciality linens, & striking floral displays also will run up your bill!

08. How Much You Actually Need to Finance a Wedding?

When it comes to financing a wedding, you should figure out how much you need to spend to get what you want! Set your expectations accordingly!

Wedding Expenses

There are an endless number of things that are to be done in weddings. In this modern world, opt for digital invitations as this will save your 2-3% of your budget. It will also take less time and effort than sending physical invitations. Besides, there are certain things that remain mandatory based on their rituals, different cultures, and religion. But when it comes to prioritising things, make sure that ultimately it is your wedding, so it is not only about how much you spend, but about how much you need and how much joy you feel.

09. What You Can Guess to Pay!

The below mentioned is a tentative percentage for how much you need to pay for the wedding:

  • Ceremony – 2 to 3%
  • Wedding Jewellery – 2 to 3%
  • Attire/Clothes – 8 to 10%
  • Reception/Hall/Hotels Rent/Food – 48 to 50%
  • Guest Accommodation – 8 to 10%
  • Flowers– 8 to 10%
  • Photography/Videography – 10 to 12%
  • Entertainment/Music – 8 to 10%
  • Stationery/Invitation Card – 2 to 3%
  • Gifts – 2 to 3%
  • Parking/Transportation – 2 to 3%
  • Miscellaneous –  8%
  • To avoid hassle, allocate extra 5% of your budget for an instant increase in expense.

10. Honeymoon

Honeymoon Destination in Wedding budget

If you are paying for your honeymoon yourselves, then remember to add this cost to the wedding budget! According to wedding planners, if this is the case, the couples should set aside around 10-15% of their wedding budget for honeymoon. Although it is up to couples’ personal preference for how they allot their budget for honeymoon.

11. How Much You Can Save For Your Wedding Budget?

As soon as you are engaged, start putting aside as much of your income as you can for your wedding. Saving 20% of your monthly income is a good though high goal!

Saving for Wedding Budget

The longer your engagement, the more you will be able to beat away! Limit your expenditure on extra stuff. These changes will barely affect your quality of life, but after a year, the extra cash will cover some wedding essentials!

We are not quite done yet! When it comes to destination weddings, there are a few ways you can avoid difficulty & be extra prepared! While the destination weddings may seem complex, many of them can cost the same as the wedding in a big city! Be sure to ask a friend or two, to help you with the plans & research!

Click here to read about Weddings in the Indian context: Indian Weddings: 16 Tips for Your Home Decoration!

Also Read:
16 Tips to Decorate Your Home for the Auspicious Occasions!
25 Creative Tips for Your Room Makeover!

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