Announcing your engagement is exciting, so you can be forgiven for pushing aside thoughts of the wedding budget to focus on the fun elements of wedding planning, like finding the perfect dress or colour coordinating your bridesmaids.
However it is important to take a moment to sit down as a couple and discuss your wedding budget to ensure that you can turn your dreams into a reality.
With the average wedding cost now £20,700 in the UK, there are a lot of factors to consider. It’s all about making what you can afford work for you – and that starts with knowing exactly what your wedding budget is.
1. Consider What You Can Afford
It is very easy to get swept away in the concept of a‘once-in-a-lifetime’ day but it is important to be realistic with your finances. The last thing you want on top of the pressure of planning a wedding is the stress of how you’ll find the money to pay for certain aspects of it.
The first thing to consider is what kind of wedding do you both want. Your expectations may need to be managed depending on budget.
Here are some points to think about:
- How much do you have in savings? How much of this are you willing to put towards the wedding?
- Write down exactly how much take-home income you both get each month. Remove all your financial commitments that won’t change, e.g. rent/mortgage, household bills, transport costs, etc
- What’s left is the amount each month you have to spend or save for your wedding. The best thing is to put this into a separate bank account as soon as your salary comes in so you won’t be tempted to use it.
- The majority of your costs will be upfront. It might not be the full amount, but it could be 50% to secure your venue, for example, so it’s worth starting to save before you begin booking.
2. Discuss Who’s Paying
Discussing who is paying for what can be an awkward conversation to have but you need to sit down with your parents early on and encourage them to be realistic about what they’re able/willing to contribute. For some parents it may be the food or the dress cost, for others the venue.
It is important to let them know how much you appreciate the generosity if they can contribute. Saying thank you goes a long way and can prevent resentments further on down the line.
3. The Guest List
The size of your guest list will determine roughly how much you need to be aiming to save.
If it’s a small wedding, you can look at more intimate venues that offer cheaper rates e.g. a private room in a pub or restaurant. Most venues easily cater to guest lists of 50-100, so do some research to find out how much venues in your area charge and what the cost per head for catering might be. You can usually find the guide prices on their websites.
Consider having a midweek wedding or going for a dry hire to reduce the cost.
If you find that the amount of guests is becoming a huge financial burden then it’s time to be real with yourself and either give yourself more time to save or cut down the list to a more manageable figure.
4. Set Aside Some of Your Wedding Budget
Now that you’ve worked out how much you can save, whether you’ll be getting familial help and how far your money can stretch, you have a rough budget to work with.
There are little costs that tend to pop up when you least expect them so it’s always worth having a contingency fund that you don’t touch, just in case. Usually this is around 10-15% of the budget. You should always make sure you keep some cash spare for the wedding day too, just in case of an emergency such as the wedding cars not turning up (true story) or a replacement bridesmaid dress needs to be found.
5. Block Out Your Biggest Costs
The biggest cost will more than likely be your venue hire. This is usually 50% of the wedding budget including food and drink charges.
- Knowing this, you can find out quotes for hire and cost per head from the venues you’re interested in and see whether they fit in your budget.
- Not every venue will offer the same kind of package so it’s worth creating a spreadsheet so you can keep track of what you’re being quoted for.
- Enquire about every cost with your suppliers so you’re not caught out by any hidden wedding costs. This includes VAT, delivery, service and corkage.
Wedding Costs You Might Forget to Budget For:
- Wedding insurance
- On-the-day wedding stationery: order of service, menu and place cards
- Marriage licence/registrar fees/celebrant fees
- Corkage
- Wedding party gifts (the parents should get something too, even if it’s just a bouquet)
- Hen or stag party costs
- Extra reception décor, like lighting hire
- Stamps for your invites
- More than one hair and makeup trial
- Clean-up costs
- Outfit alterations
- Hotel room the night before the wedding
- Unexpected guests (random plus-ones do happen!)
- Post-wedding extras: thank you cards, preserving your wedding dress
6. Decide Your Priorities
The remaining half of your budget is for everything else, so it’s time to consider your priorities and here’s how to do it:
- Draw up a list of non-negotiables with your partner. If you can’t imagine marrying without this thing, you need to be prioritising it in the budget and looking elsewhere to cut costs.
- Be sensible about your non-negotiables: try to pick two or three otherwise you really will have no budget left.
- It’s helpful to make another list of things that aren’t priorities for you e.g. a massive cake can be replaced with a cupcake tower, which can also be used as wedding favours. Cost cutting ideas like this can help free up money that could be spent in your priority areas.
- It’s important to book your priority vendors first (venue, photographer/videographer, catering, band/DJ) so you can continually adjust how much you have to spend.
At the end of the day, it’s important to have your wedding your way. Sticking to a budget will help remove the majority of the stress during the lead up to your future bliss.
If you would like to discuss a bespoke ceremony with me, please don’t hesitate to call on 0778 986 6589.
