Wedding Costs: Allocating your budget
It’s no secret: weddings are expensive. They are a once-in-a-lifetime event. It is crucial that at the start of the planning journey you decide what your budget is and who is paying for the wedding, or contributing to it. Once you have set an overall budget you need to decide your key priorities, which will help you allocate your budget effectively. For example, if impactful floral design is really important to you then ensure that you allocate at least 10% of your budget to flowers. Similarly, if photography is really important to you, then allow £3000+ for your photographer (some photographers will be much more, so do your research).
Once you have decided your overall budget and key priorities, you need to create a budgeting spreadsheet. Have the following columns at a minimum:
Item
Supplier name
Estimated cost
Quote
Final cost
Supplier contact details
I would advise allocating 10% to flowers, 10% to styling and 40-50% to venue and catering (although this may vary depending on whether it is a marquee wedding). Other suppliers will need fixed costs allocating, depending on your budget. Don’t forget that wedding planners will charge 10-15% of the overall budget as their fee, so allow for this (although, planners will do all the budget allocation for you!). If your budget doesn’t stretch to a full planning service, then I cannot stress enough how important an on-the-day coordinator is, particularly if you are having a marquee wedding. This is different to a venue coordinator (read my Journal article: Is there value in hiring a wedding planner? to understand why).
Research is so important. Research suppliers (or your wedding planner will do this) you like and start using this as a further guide to draw up your budget. Select a shortlist of suppliers and book in consultation calls and see if you get on with your suppliers - this I cannot recommend enough. You need the energy on your day to be sensational and that means you need a team of people around you who you gel with and who gel with each other. Sometimes spending a little more on a supplier is worth it for the right person.
It’s true that budgeting and the cost of weddings is where the stress in wedding planning commonly stems from, but if you are really organised at the start of your planning journey, then there is no reason why it should be stressful. Another way to reduce stress is to allocate a 5-10% contingency to your budget, but remember that you have to be able to finance that contingency if you enter it!
If you are still finding budgeting for your wedding overwhelming and unsure where to start, then get in touch today and I would love to have a chat about how I can help.
