Everything you Need to Know for Your Wedding Budget

Newly engaged? One of the most important things you need to know is your wedding budget. As much as that can be daunting, it is the foundation and fuel for everything in your wedding. You need a budget in order to get flowers, décor, food, venues, invitations, and attire. Money does not grow on trees (although paper is from trees) so we got to plan ahead.

That is why this article was created just to help you through it. What this article is going to do is not just help you with along with figuring out your budget but also answer common questions you may think about later.

Who is going to be Paying?

This could be one of the easy questions you have to answer if you choose to pay for the wedding yourself. However, when it comes to family that is where things can get a little overwhelming because it is an unknown area. Your wedding budget may rest in your parent’s hands and they may not even know where to start. Traditionally the father of the bride pays but we are far from that these days.

A brilliant tip for dividing up costs is the breakdown. Assign aspects of your wedding to certain family members that want to help out. For example, your parents can pay for the ceremony/reception and your fiance’s parents can pay for the flowers and décor. It not only does it give your family members a guideline but also gives them reassurance as to being able to feel a part of the wedding planning in some way compared to just an amount. This works great even if your parents are divorced.

Use the budget that your parents have contributed to you + what you are able to contribute as a couple towards your budget for your wedding.

Budget Breakdown

You must be wondering where all of your money is going to go. I mean it is a big expense in your life as well as a huge milestone. As I mentioned, in the beginning, your money is going to aspects of your wedding but how much of it is going to what? It is a little hard to think about it just straight from your mind, that is why I thought you should see first hand what is going where.

Your budget really depends on a few key things such as the time of when you are getting married, amount of guests and where you want to have the wedding. On average based on The Knot, a wedding can start at $31,213. Don’t go blowing into a paper bag just yet, remember that it all depends on what you want for your wedding.

The reception is by far the money sucker. It actually takes up about 50% of your wedding budget. If you find a way to cut that down it would improve your budget significantly. The next on the list with a big percentage would be your photography and videographer with around 12%. Next, you have flowers, attire, and entertainment with are around 10% of your overall budget. Ceremony, attire, stationery, wedding rings, and parking all come at around 3%.

How to set your budget?

There is no right or wrong way to set up your wedding budget. It is different for each couple. In order to set it up though you should consider which things are most important. So some couples may want to spend more of their wedding budget on the venue space while other rather spend more money on the food quality. It really depends on that. Once you figure out what is your at least top three, you can create and set up your budget to what you desire.

Wedding Budget Saving Tip

It is recommended to put 20% of your income towards your wedding budget. If you have parents helping out then it is a little different since you are working with their budgets as well. Try to stick to your budget as much as you can. Remember that you want to use the least amount of money without taking away from luxury. Save when you can and splurge on the most important.

Take advantage of money savers such as time of the week (Saturdays most expensive/ most popular) to have your wedding or time of the season. Evening receptions are way more expensive compared to brunches or lunches.

Tipping Staff

Believe it or not, tipping the staff that is going to be helping you out is pretty awesome but it is also something you should consider before the occasion. You do not want to be searching in your wallet the night when your wedding finishes with a crowd of hands wondering where their tips are. I know that is a little over dramatic however it is kind to give a tip. So who do you tip and how much do you tip? That is a common wedding question couples have.

For starters the wait staff, driver, makeup artist, and hairstylist, you will want to give between 15% – 20%. There are a few you should pay per the number of guests you have such as bathroom attendants, coat checkers, and valets. According to Martha Stewart, you can give them between $1-5 dollars per guest you have.

Consider giving a higher amount to the valets since they are doing more work. As for the big tippers, you have bartenders who can get tipped up to $200-400 each. (I should rethink my career field) As for the officiant, it is always nice to give a gift of some sort. Whether it is a donation to a church/place of worship or an actual gift or even money ($100).

Let’s talk music! What to tip those lovely people who can really play an instrument or play some great dancing tunes. The DJ gets around 10-20% of the fee. Bandleaders get the big buck with around $200 and he/she’s band members can $50 each.

Here are a few optional suggestions. For the catering manager, you can tip he/she around 2%. Ceremony musicians can either get $50 each or a 10% split.

Final Thoughts

There you have it, everything you need to know for your wedding budget. We talked about key questions couples have about wedding budgets such as who should pay for the wedding. What to do if both parents want to pay or even how to ease the tension. We also talked about the budget breakdown and cracked down on what your wedding budget is actually going to be. Briefly discussed how to set up your wedding budget and even shared some saving tips.