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WEDDING PLANNING HELP SERIES 1
Over the coming weeks we will create a series of posts that will help with your planning if you are new to your wedding journey, or maybe just looking in when you start. So do come and delve in to get some idea of what you need to be doing….
This is the first in the series that will cover
HOW TO CREATE A WEDDING BUDGET
It's easy to get caught up in planning and forget your bank balance might not match the ideas in your head so here's how to come up with a wedding budget and actually stick to it!
Number 1. Have an honest chat with your partner about what you can afford.
The last thing you want on top of the pressure of planning is a wedding with a wedding that is fuelled with anxiety about where you will find the money to pay for your venue or suppliers, or regret about how much you spent. It can be easy to get swept away with the idea of a once-in-a-lifetime day
Be honest and realistic
Start with what kind of wedding do you both want
How much do you have in savings and how much of that are you willing to put towards your wedding (not leaving yourselves short of course)
Write down exactly how much take-home between you both. Take away all your financial commitments e.g mortgage/rent, utility bills, phone, car etc
Please take into consideration that you still need to live, have fun, dinner out, nights out with friends
Once you have done this, what do you have left to put towards a wedding?
So if you have £8,000 in savings that you can put towards your wedding day and you can save £350 a month, you can soon work out that it will take you 20 months to save up for a £15,000 wedding if that is what you have agreed you wish you spend.
Now the average a UK wedding costs around £23-30,000, but that does not mean you need that much to have a magical wedding day. It is all about making your budget work for you – and that starts with knowing what your wedding budget is and how many guests you have.. that’s in my next series
But if you have £350 per month to put aside, then consider how many months that you may need and start to think of that as your ideal budget to get married, but don’t go killing yourself by picking a date that does not leave you enough time to save for it.
Tip
Set up a bank account having all your finances for the wedding in one place
And remember that the majority of your costs will come upfront. It might not be the full amount, but it could be ANYTHING UP TO 50% to secure some of your elements.
Number 2. Who else is contributing?
You also need to ask the questions to your families to find out if any of them are going or willing to contribute? And get it in the bank!
Note:
If they are going to contribute, either ask them what they would like to contribute towards, ie. flowers, dress etc.... (this is usually the best way) becuase if they are giving you a lump sum they may expect you to invite their friends, that may even outweigh what they contribute according to what they give you. A questions its best to ask upfront.
Now you are ready to choose your guest list… tune in to our next blog to figure out the best way to pick your guests.