This article was written for and published on HagParty.ie in December 2015
So either you have just got engaged or you are skipping that part and have decided ‘lets just get married’, the next step is to plan your budget. Apart from making the lifelong commitment to be with your other half, the budget plays a pretty important role in your wedding day. Drafting your budget from the start can help keep things realistic in the long run and avoid you from going into overspend, hopefully!
Here are some tips to help you in your budget planning:
1. Make your wedding list
Set out by making a list of the things you need for your big day such as outfits, venue, photographer, band, food and drinks, honeymoon, invitations, gifts, etc. Girls, if you always dreamed of a pair of Louboutins or Jimmy Choos for your wedding put in on the list from the start.
If you can’t decide on small things like favours and extras like photo booths or candy carts, include them if you think it’s something you might want to do. It’s better to have them in from the start and take out along the way rather than adding it into the budget in six months time…where will the money for it come from then?
2. Calculate your finances
Calculate how many months you have to save for until your wedding and a realistic amount that you can save each month. You might already have a wedding fund put aside, if so even better. Most couples getting married nowadays have financial commitments before they get married such as cars, mortgages or kids so saving for your wedding needs to fit around other things each month. You don’t want to be living on bread and water for the next year or two!
3. Divide and plan
Now that you have your list and a realistic budget, divide out your costs so that once you start looking at venues and dresses, you know exactly what you are willing to spend.
Budget friendly tips:
• Use the Internet to research as much as possible. Knowing what you want is half the battle when planning your big day. Following suppliers, such as bridal shops and wedding photographers, on social media is the best way of getting to know the services they offer and seeing their work first hand can help you make up your mind.
• Pinterest is a great free resource for researching ideas and you can create your own boards to save your ideas. DIY is becoming a wedding must. Not only can it save you money, it can also add a personal touch to your big day. Getting family and friends to help you out with DIY is also a great way of including them in the planning.
Always remember, be realistic! You may want the wedding of your dreams but you don’t want the marriage of debts!
Happy budgeting!
Love from my world,
Lisa x