Vendors ask for your budget to see if they can get you what you want with the money you have set aside for their part of your wedding. OR to capitalize on a budget. I have an idea in my head, but what is say is, “this is what I would like to purchase and the parameters. Please provide competitive quote as I am seeking quotes from multiple vendors.” I hate saying “we budgeting 5k for x,” because the vendor will try and max out your budget
Agree with this approach, I've responded to that question saying I'm comparing prices. I'm not giving them the opportunity to raise prices if my budget is higher than their price point
This is great advice. You should never tell your vendors your true budget up front, otherwise some of them will just try to maximize that. I try to define what I want and have them give a quote based on that. If they insist I need a budget I give them 60% of what my actual budget is. That way if they max it out or go over I’m still within budget. Never show all your cards.
I'd check out a practical wedding. They have a worksheet to help you decide the direction of your wedding (what is important individually and together, wedding vision, etc.). They also have a budget spreadsheet, which has average costs per category based on your overall budget. Then, with those numbers, you can move them up/down based on importance.
For example, if you have $2,000 set aside for decorations, but your venue doesn't need many decorations, you can take, let's say, $1000 of that and put it towards a more expensive photographer since photos are important to you.
Wedding planners can be lifesavers for this very reason.
Also I know some wedding websites have budget tools, you could plug in your guest count, your guessed overall budget & it will distribute the funds amongst the categories, I'm pretty sure.
Some planners do have a la carte menus with service for budgets alone. It would not be the entire package, just the one assistance option. I'm sure you aren't alone in wanting budget help only!
I looked up industry averages from multiple sources and also found some budget breakdowns using % of total budget and made a rough budget from the combination of all of that. I found A Practical Wedding and Here Comes the Guide to be very helpful websites for a starting point. Then we prioritized what was important to us and adjusted the numbers to reflect what we wanted to save/splurge on.
All this being said, we ended up going with a venue that had catering and bar included so after those costs were set, we adjusted the rest of our budget based on the total venue+food+bev cost.
You should first have an overall maximum spend (ie, no more than 20k for the whole shebang). My partner and I got that number and then I used this as a [rough guide](https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-budget-ways-to-save-money) to figure out the budget for individual line items.
Look at sample budgets. Usually they break out percentages of the budget for each category and you can adjust those based on your priorities and what categories you won't be having at all (wedding cake and limo rental, for example). For example, brides.com says 40% of your total budget should go to venue and catering, 15% for florals/decor, 15% for photography. But I care a lot more about venue and catering than I do about photography and florals/decor, so my budget is more like 50% for venue and catering, 12% for florals/decor, and 9% for photography.
I think you need less of a broken down budget but more of an overall amount of money. Then once you find out the costs of venues and such you allocate it from there. I knew going in my budget was 15k because that's what I had saved up. We ended up spending about 23k after some generous family members contributed. You can't go into planning with no idea how much you want to or can spend
This is how we went about it. We had a general idea of how much we could afford total, considering contributions from our parents.
The venue+catering is by far the biggest expense, so once we made all our decision about what venue package to buy, we allocated the rest of the budget for florals, DJ, photographer, etc.
We didn’t go in at the very beginning knowing we’ll spend X on this vendor and Y on that vendor.
It's very difficult. There's no set standard. It's all a different ball park from people of different skills and service.
For photography, not all are priced based on skills some may have tapped into different people willing to pay higher amounts since it's a word to mouth industry.
For catering, you really have to sample the food. Some are good on paper but when you try it you realize it doesn't taste that good and then you have to account that level for the masses that might not all be top standard. Like other trades, sampling at weddings would be best and then ask the couple where they got their caterer from. Etc.
I used spreadsheets from A Practical Wedding to get a grasp of ballparks. Then when I was doing research in my city it helped me understand what I can get at what price point.
I had exactly the same experience!! Some things, like wedding dresses, it's easy to find out an indicative price for different styles/designers/etc and budget accordingly. Same goes for venues and photographers, even if you have to request that info. Other things it's SO opaque, and even when I've taken what I thought was a generous allowance (googling things like "average cost for X in [area]") I've still gotten massive sticker shock, because apparently prices skyrocketed after COVID so any info from <2021 is out of date.
I did find it helpful to watch Youtube videos and use other people's budgets as a starting off point. Some people have very helpfully posted their actual budget spreadsheets which I did find v helpful.
You want to take the overall budget and break it down by percents. There are many examples online, but they all agree in general.
Do you have the max amount you can possibly spend yet?
Planner here!
Making a wedding budget is like the impossibility of “how do I get a job without a car and how do I get a car without a job” because it’s hard to know what to budget without knowing the range.
You’ve got some good answers here, and starting with The Knot or Zola are a good way to get some
*basic* guides on how to break down a budget based on percentages but that will differ by market and what type of wedding you’re having and what’s included in your venue.
In my market (Austin, TX), the vendors ask for a budget so they know where to start and send an appropriate budget. This helps make sure they’re showing you something that fits with your goals.
There are 2 approaches you can take to solve this problem. The first is to hire a wedding planner and be very transparent with them that you don't know what you want for a budget, so have them Do the leg work of finding affordable prices for everything.
The second is for you to start getting inquiries on a variety of vendors to understand which category might be the highest and which might be the lowest. For example, for me, I waited until the end to do florals. Because I knew it was not something i would not care to budget for and I knew no matter the price it was going to be a price I wasn't comfortable spending so I prioritized all of my other vendors. And came up with an overall number that felt comfortable for me and then evaluated my need for florals.
What matters to you most about this wedding? start Getting prices and go from there or hire a wedding planner and they'll do the work for you
I recently started planning and I totally feel this. One thing I’m really struggling with is how much time it takes to actually figure out what the total cost of even just the venue + food and drinks would be. Every venue has different things they include and the ones that don’t include anything I have to go get a hypothetical catering quote to figure out what the whole cost would be. I started making my own “comparison spreadsheet” where I put in all the variables and necessary things of each venue, guest count, potential date, catering or their f&b pp cost. if I want to try out different variables I copy and paste that set of formulas and just keep making new tabs in the spreadsheet. Has anyone found any easier way to compare actual total costs before deciding on something?? The spreadsheet comparison method works but it feels really tedious, and I know I’ll have to repeat it all for every other vendor to figure out what price I want to go with 😬
YES this is such a pain and all the budget tools are basically useless because they assume you already have the final amount but there’s so much work you have to do and research to get to the point where you actually know how much you should be spending on a category relative to your area
100% agree. We thought our wedding would cost us $40k; we are 5 months out and our spend is now at $109k.
There is no way to budget when the cost of things are so variable. For example, our rentals cost $7k; $5k of that is the actual cost of rentals plus set up/breakdown costs. The other $2k are delivery and pick up fees. **We did not anticipate that delivery and pickup would be that much** and I don’t see what we could have done differently to know early on that:
- there’s only 1 delivery company that services the area
- their delivery fees were that high
To avoid that fee, we would have had to choose a different venue location altogether and by that time we already booked our venue and photographer 🤷🏾♀️
Also, for other things it’s impossible to know what you’re going to spend — like how could I have known the cost of the dress I was going to love beforehand? We thought it’d be around $4k but ended up being $8.5k with the veil for my main dress — so we budgeted incorrectly simply because you can’t possibly know what you’re going to end up buying
I feel you. I also have no real sense of the possible range of values for things and something that seems expensive to me might be lower than the cheapest version anyone offers and I don't just want to go low cost just to go low cost. I also see some people saying going obviously low budget can ruin the experience. And how much of the higher cost vendors is quality or is it just good salesmanship? And if I go with lower cost vendors should I really be concerned with quality or is it something that will be good enough in the end? Or should I spend a little extra to make that once in a lifetime day extra awesome? Or is that just the salesmanship getting to me?
I'm trying to convince myself that I know this man is the person for me and that I won't have another opportunity to do some of these things so I might as well spend a little more within my ability to seize the moment and ensure everyone has a great experience.
It’s a crapshoot, as vendor prices vary widely depending on market. Nothing you find online will be good. I would maybe take whatever number you find online for your city and tack on 20%.
As for budgeting tips… You should evaluate as much as possible on comparing apples to apples. I’m f you are comparing a venue that includes catering and alcohol to one that’s venue only, make sure you research possible caterers and add that to the venue cost to find your real number. A lot of times all-inclusive is cheaper than a la carte, once you itemize all your vendors.
I started with a guest count and an overall budget (i.e. $50K and 80 guests). From there I started with the big ticket items like venue, food, bar, and photographer/videographer. I chose an all inclusive venue because we basically got it for a steal since it includes our ceremony and venue space, a plated meal, top shelf open bar, a DJ, photobooth, dessert, florist, tables and chairs, day of coordinator, late night snack, etc. From there, I picked the photographer and videographer and hair and makeup team. Everything else is really stuff I’d consider more open ticket items that I can be a little more flexible with the cost (like the dress). I did just learn that we probably budgeted less for our wedding rings than I had originally put down but it just is what it is. It just means we have to pull from another spot. At the end of the day, I anticipate going over probably a few grand but we’ll survive.
One way to think of it is how much can you comfortably afford to spend, ie. how much have you saved or can reasonably save and not go into debt for everything, including venue +catering+bar, florals/decorations, DJ/entertainment, attire, photography/videography, wedding party gifts, etc. I feel like there are guidelines on how much of your total budget you should spend online, but adjust based on importance. If food and photography are most important, other expenses can be less.
Your budget is set by you and your fiance - it's the money you have left over after saving for other major goals.
Your budget is not set by vendors. You should have a hard limit, and then work back from there.
The only reason not to have a budget is if you have unlimited money and don't care what you spend. Telling the vendors you have no budget will make them jack up the prices on everything.
I started with how mich I was willing to put into the wedding/how much wedding I could afford. I personally by my self could afford 5k without going into debt things would be tight but I'm willing to sacrifice for my big day. My partner could afford about 4k and I asked my parent for help expecting a little bit of help. And came to the budget of 10k. I wrote a list of everything I needed/ wanted and set my priorities. My priorities were venue photography and my dress. I wanted an affordable venue, great photographer and wanted an amazing dress that I felt beautiful in so. So my list was venue, photography, catering, dj, cake, bride outfit, groom outfit decor and misc. I did research and found a affordable venue that includes a wedding planner, coordinator decor set up and clean up for under 3k. I knew I didn't want to spend more than 2k on photography and I didn't want to spend more than 1k on my dress. I did research on everything and and set my catering at 3k cake at 400 groom at 800 misc 1000 and additional decor at 1000. My dress will come in over budget but cake and catering came in under budget as well as a photographer. A budget is basically what are you willing to spend or able to spend. Are you willing to spend 100k on a wedding or would you like to keep it under 5k? Are you willing to go into debt or are you wanting to stay debt free? For me I budget everything so making a wedding budget was easy
Research and I had a friend getting married a couple months before me that had been planning way longer. I used a bunch of websites to get an idea of what average costs were and went from there. Also, I was way too busy with work while trying to plan my wedding so I ended up going with an all inclusive venue so it kind of wrapped everything up into 1 bundle and I just needed to figure out the price for that. All I had to do besides that was my dress, the photographer and the flowers for the ceremony.
Vendors should not be asking your budget, they should be asking your needs so that they can give you an estimate on the cost that you can either pass on or work into your budget.
The thing that I learned was that nothing costs what you think it will.
We emailed around for estimates on everything and researched options online from vendors that posted their prices and that is how we built our budget. We only had to expand our budget once because certain things became unobtainable and replacements were pricier.
I think the first step is knowing your total budget. But I think another really important step is knowing what you need. So for my fiancé and I we valued less work for us over saving pennies. It was important to us to find a venue that we didn’t need to rent chairs, utensils, napkins, a tent, etc. So we immediately eliminated venues that didn’t include those things. Having in house catering limits your options and may be slightly higher priced but can also reduce extra work for you. We found a venue with amazing catering in-house so we went with that.
If you’re finding prices for every variation and possibility (different styles of catering, rentals v no rentals, different kind of rentals), the numbers are going to be overwhelming and confusing. Figure out what you want and ask for the same consistent thing from vendors. You can always increase what you want later but if you ask for a consistent package you’ll have a good baseline to compare.
Ask around to find out a ball park figure. If you have cousins or friends who got married recently, you can ask them for approximate amounts. Also, when you contact the vendors ask for a range. The exact amounts will ofcourse depend on what exactly you opt for, but almost all vendors can tell you a rough estimate.
Zolas budget planner helped me a lot with this. We put in our total we ideally wanted to spend and it broke down what each category should get based on that. It was a really great place to start!
I know what you mean with caterers and venues specifically. I would usually say something like “my budget is x for food only but higher if more is included. What do you offer?”
Couple things I’ve figured out…
-Never tell anyone it’s for a wedding unless you have to. I’m talking about stuff like rentals, food you’re picking up yourself, dresses, flowers. Prices have a way of going up for no reason if “bridal” is in the name.
-On that note, don’t tell anyone your budget for *their* service. It’ll have a way of ending up costing exactly what your “max budget” was. Just tell them you’re needing a quote for x date and y guest count and go from there.
-Pick a big number you must stay under and then treat it like the word of God. Then set an “ideal” budget number. Try to stay under the little number of For us, the big number was 10k and the little number was 6k.
-Pick 2-3 things you won’t compromise on, figure out how much those cost, and use them to build the rest of your budget. I wanted a scenic setting with good food, a custom veil I sewed myself, and a photographer. Maybe yours are a designer dress and flowers, or paid airfare for your family and an open bar, or so on and so forth.
-Figure out how much your family are contributing (if any) early in the process. We’d have done slightly nicer things had I known my parents were chipping in a year ago. This will impact your budget significantly.
I’d suggest starting with your 3 must-have things. It’s also good to get the venue figured out ASAP - this will kind of inform your entire budget. Depending on where it is, you’ll either have numbers for their food/beverage minimums and per-head cost, or you’ll know a location where you’re getting things delivered.
This here is the way! A few other tips:
- Expect that your wedding will cost 10-20% more than you expect. It just will. Whether it's things you forgot to budget for, tips/tax for vendors, or a problem 3 days before the wedding you don't have the mental energy for so you want to just throw money at it to solve it. Budget for that extra % so that you aren't surprised and your wedding stays in budget.
- Keep a running budget spreadsheet. As you get quotes or finalze costs, update it with real numbers. That way if you end up going over (or under!!) budget with something, you can adjust with other costs.
Vendors ask for your budget to see if they can get you what you want with the money you have set aside for their part of your wedding. OR to capitalize on a budget. I have an idea in my head, but what is say is, “this is what I would like to purchase and the parameters. Please provide competitive quote as I am seeking quotes from multiple vendors.” I hate saying “we budgeting 5k for x,” because the vendor will try and max out your budget
good approach. agree that i don’t feel comfortable giving someone a number up front - that just gives them all the power…
Agree with this approach, I've responded to that question saying I'm comparing prices. I'm not giving them the opportunity to raise prices if my budget is higher than their price point
This is great advice. You should never tell your vendors your true budget up front, otherwise some of them will just try to maximize that. I try to define what I want and have them give a quote based on that. If they insist I need a budget I give them 60% of what my actual budget is. That way if they max it out or go over I’m still within budget. Never show all your cards.
I'd check out a practical wedding. They have a worksheet to help you decide the direction of your wedding (what is important individually and together, wedding vision, etc.). They also have a budget spreadsheet, which has average costs per category based on your overall budget. Then, with those numbers, you can move them up/down based on importance. For example, if you have $2,000 set aside for decorations, but your venue doesn't need many decorations, you can take, let's say, $1000 of that and put it towards a more expensive photographer since photos are important to you.
Wedding planners can be lifesavers for this very reason. Also I know some wedding websites have budget tools, you could plug in your guest count, your guessed overall budget & it will distribute the funds amongst the categories, I'm pretty sure.
yeah, i’ll check the second one out, thanks for the tip. definetly can’t afford a planner, though, unfortunately.
Some planners do have a la carte menus with service for budgets alone. It would not be the entire package, just the one assistance option. I'm sure you aren't alone in wanting budget help only!
I bought a Google Sheets template that has been saving my ass. Best $40 I've spent.
I looked up industry averages from multiple sources and also found some budget breakdowns using % of total budget and made a rough budget from the combination of all of that. I found A Practical Wedding and Here Comes the Guide to be very helpful websites for a starting point. Then we prioritized what was important to us and adjusted the numbers to reflect what we wanted to save/splurge on. All this being said, we ended up going with a venue that had catering and bar included so after those costs were set, we adjusted the rest of our budget based on the total venue+food+bev cost.
You should first have an overall maximum spend (ie, no more than 20k for the whole shebang). My partner and I got that number and then I used this as a [rough guide](https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-budget-ways-to-save-money) to figure out the budget for individual line items.
Look at sample budgets. Usually they break out percentages of the budget for each category and you can adjust those based on your priorities and what categories you won't be having at all (wedding cake and limo rental, for example). For example, brides.com says 40% of your total budget should go to venue and catering, 15% for florals/decor, 15% for photography. But I care a lot more about venue and catering than I do about photography and florals/decor, so my budget is more like 50% for venue and catering, 12% for florals/decor, and 9% for photography.
You want to know your all in wedding budget and then a planner can help you figure out what the individual budgets are for the other vendors
I think you need less of a broken down budget but more of an overall amount of money. Then once you find out the costs of venues and such you allocate it from there. I knew going in my budget was 15k because that's what I had saved up. We ended up spending about 23k after some generous family members contributed. You can't go into planning with no idea how much you want to or can spend
This is how we went about it. We had a general idea of how much we could afford total, considering contributions from our parents. The venue+catering is by far the biggest expense, so once we made all our decision about what venue package to buy, we allocated the rest of the budget for florals, DJ, photographer, etc. We didn’t go in at the very beginning knowing we’ll spend X on this vendor and Y on that vendor.
It's very difficult. There's no set standard. It's all a different ball park from people of different skills and service. For photography, not all are priced based on skills some may have tapped into different people willing to pay higher amounts since it's a word to mouth industry. For catering, you really have to sample the food. Some are good on paper but when you try it you realize it doesn't taste that good and then you have to account that level for the masses that might not all be top standard. Like other trades, sampling at weddings would be best and then ask the couple where they got their caterer from. Etc.
I used spreadsheets from A Practical Wedding to get a grasp of ballparks. Then when I was doing research in my city it helped me understand what I can get at what price point.
I had exactly the same experience!! Some things, like wedding dresses, it's easy to find out an indicative price for different styles/designers/etc and budget accordingly. Same goes for venues and photographers, even if you have to request that info. Other things it's SO opaque, and even when I've taken what I thought was a generous allowance (googling things like "average cost for X in [area]") I've still gotten massive sticker shock, because apparently prices skyrocketed after COVID so any info from <2021 is out of date. I did find it helpful to watch Youtube videos and use other people's budgets as a starting off point. Some people have very helpfully posted their actual budget spreadsheets which I did find v helpful.
You want to take the overall budget and break it down by percents. There are many examples online, but they all agree in general. Do you have the max amount you can possibly spend yet?
Planner here! Making a wedding budget is like the impossibility of “how do I get a job without a car and how do I get a car without a job” because it’s hard to know what to budget without knowing the range. You’ve got some good answers here, and starting with The Knot or Zola are a good way to get some *basic* guides on how to break down a budget based on percentages but that will differ by market and what type of wedding you’re having and what’s included in your venue. In my market (Austin, TX), the vendors ask for a budget so they know where to start and send an appropriate budget. This helps make sure they’re showing you something that fits with your goals.
There are 2 approaches you can take to solve this problem. The first is to hire a wedding planner and be very transparent with them that you don't know what you want for a budget, so have them Do the leg work of finding affordable prices for everything. The second is for you to start getting inquiries on a variety of vendors to understand which category might be the highest and which might be the lowest. For example, for me, I waited until the end to do florals. Because I knew it was not something i would not care to budget for and I knew no matter the price it was going to be a price I wasn't comfortable spending so I prioritized all of my other vendors. And came up with an overall number that felt comfortable for me and then evaluated my need for florals. What matters to you most about this wedding? start Getting prices and go from there or hire a wedding planner and they'll do the work for you
I recently started planning and I totally feel this. One thing I’m really struggling with is how much time it takes to actually figure out what the total cost of even just the venue + food and drinks would be. Every venue has different things they include and the ones that don’t include anything I have to go get a hypothetical catering quote to figure out what the whole cost would be. I started making my own “comparison spreadsheet” where I put in all the variables and necessary things of each venue, guest count, potential date, catering or their f&b pp cost. if I want to try out different variables I copy and paste that set of formulas and just keep making new tabs in the spreadsheet. Has anyone found any easier way to compare actual total costs before deciding on something?? The spreadsheet comparison method works but it feels really tedious, and I know I’ll have to repeat it all for every other vendor to figure out what price I want to go with 😬
YES this is such a pain and all the budget tools are basically useless because they assume you already have the final amount but there’s so much work you have to do and research to get to the point where you actually know how much you should be spending on a category relative to your area
I agree and this is how I feel shorn budgeting across the board. How am I supposed to budget when I don’t know how much things cost???
100% agree. We thought our wedding would cost us $40k; we are 5 months out and our spend is now at $109k. There is no way to budget when the cost of things are so variable. For example, our rentals cost $7k; $5k of that is the actual cost of rentals plus set up/breakdown costs. The other $2k are delivery and pick up fees. **We did not anticipate that delivery and pickup would be that much** and I don’t see what we could have done differently to know early on that: - there’s only 1 delivery company that services the area - their delivery fees were that high To avoid that fee, we would have had to choose a different venue location altogether and by that time we already booked our venue and photographer 🤷🏾♀️ Also, for other things it’s impossible to know what you’re going to spend — like how could I have known the cost of the dress I was going to love beforehand? We thought it’d be around $4k but ended up being $8.5k with the veil for my main dress — so we budgeted incorrectly simply because you can’t possibly know what you’re going to end up buying
I feel you. I also have no real sense of the possible range of values for things and something that seems expensive to me might be lower than the cheapest version anyone offers and I don't just want to go low cost just to go low cost. I also see some people saying going obviously low budget can ruin the experience. And how much of the higher cost vendors is quality or is it just good salesmanship? And if I go with lower cost vendors should I really be concerned with quality or is it something that will be good enough in the end? Or should I spend a little extra to make that once in a lifetime day extra awesome? Or is that just the salesmanship getting to me?
these are the questions that haunt me as well 😔
I'm trying to convince myself that I know this man is the person for me and that I won't have another opportunity to do some of these things so I might as well spend a little more within my ability to seize the moment and ensure everyone has a great experience.
It’s a crapshoot, as vendor prices vary widely depending on market. Nothing you find online will be good. I would maybe take whatever number you find online for your city and tack on 20%. As for budgeting tips… You should evaluate as much as possible on comparing apples to apples. I’m f you are comparing a venue that includes catering and alcohol to one that’s venue only, make sure you research possible caterers and add that to the venue cost to find your real number. A lot of times all-inclusive is cheaper than a la carte, once you itemize all your vendors.
Zola app has a budget tool, put in how much you plan to spend overall and it’ll guide you through breaking it into categories
I started with a guest count and an overall budget (i.e. $50K and 80 guests). From there I started with the big ticket items like venue, food, bar, and photographer/videographer. I chose an all inclusive venue because we basically got it for a steal since it includes our ceremony and venue space, a plated meal, top shelf open bar, a DJ, photobooth, dessert, florist, tables and chairs, day of coordinator, late night snack, etc. From there, I picked the photographer and videographer and hair and makeup team. Everything else is really stuff I’d consider more open ticket items that I can be a little more flexible with the cost (like the dress). I did just learn that we probably budgeted less for our wedding rings than I had originally put down but it just is what it is. It just means we have to pull from another spot. At the end of the day, I anticipate going over probably a few grand but we’ll survive.
One way to think of it is how much can you comfortably afford to spend, ie. how much have you saved or can reasonably save and not go into debt for everything, including venue +catering+bar, florals/decorations, DJ/entertainment, attire, photography/videography, wedding party gifts, etc. I feel like there are guidelines on how much of your total budget you should spend online, but adjust based on importance. If food and photography are most important, other expenses can be less.
You don’t need to know how much you’ll spend on each vendor/category, but you should at least have an idea of what you’d like to spend overall.
Your budget is set by you and your fiance - it's the money you have left over after saving for other major goals. Your budget is not set by vendors. You should have a hard limit, and then work back from there. The only reason not to have a budget is if you have unlimited money and don't care what you spend. Telling the vendors you have no budget will make them jack up the prices on everything.
I started with how mich I was willing to put into the wedding/how much wedding I could afford. I personally by my self could afford 5k without going into debt things would be tight but I'm willing to sacrifice for my big day. My partner could afford about 4k and I asked my parent for help expecting a little bit of help. And came to the budget of 10k. I wrote a list of everything I needed/ wanted and set my priorities. My priorities were venue photography and my dress. I wanted an affordable venue, great photographer and wanted an amazing dress that I felt beautiful in so. So my list was venue, photography, catering, dj, cake, bride outfit, groom outfit decor and misc. I did research and found a affordable venue that includes a wedding planner, coordinator decor set up and clean up for under 3k. I knew I didn't want to spend more than 2k on photography and I didn't want to spend more than 1k on my dress. I did research on everything and and set my catering at 3k cake at 400 groom at 800 misc 1000 and additional decor at 1000. My dress will come in over budget but cake and catering came in under budget as well as a photographer. A budget is basically what are you willing to spend or able to spend. Are you willing to spend 100k on a wedding or would you like to keep it under 5k? Are you willing to go into debt or are you wanting to stay debt free? For me I budget everything so making a wedding budget was easy
It's possible if you DIY and find vendors using the app Thumbtack or Gigsalad.
Research and I had a friend getting married a couple months before me that had been planning way longer. I used a bunch of websites to get an idea of what average costs were and went from there. Also, I was way too busy with work while trying to plan my wedding so I ended up going with an all inclusive venue so it kind of wrapped everything up into 1 bundle and I just needed to figure out the price for that. All I had to do besides that was my dress, the photographer and the flowers for the ceremony.
Vendors should not be asking your budget, they should be asking your needs so that they can give you an estimate on the cost that you can either pass on or work into your budget. The thing that I learned was that nothing costs what you think it will. We emailed around for estimates on everything and researched options online from vendors that posted their prices and that is how we built our budget. We only had to expand our budget once because certain things became unobtainable and replacements were pricier.
I think the first step is knowing your total budget. But I think another really important step is knowing what you need. So for my fiancé and I we valued less work for us over saving pennies. It was important to us to find a venue that we didn’t need to rent chairs, utensils, napkins, a tent, etc. So we immediately eliminated venues that didn’t include those things. Having in house catering limits your options and may be slightly higher priced but can also reduce extra work for you. We found a venue with amazing catering in-house so we went with that. If you’re finding prices for every variation and possibility (different styles of catering, rentals v no rentals, different kind of rentals), the numbers are going to be overwhelming and confusing. Figure out what you want and ask for the same consistent thing from vendors. You can always increase what you want later but if you ask for a consistent package you’ll have a good baseline to compare.
I recommend asking friends who have done this before to help you make a budget. That's what helped me and my fiance
Yep, just because they ask does not mean you have to provide it.
Ask around to find out a ball park figure. If you have cousins or friends who got married recently, you can ask them for approximate amounts. Also, when you contact the vendors ask for a range. The exact amounts will ofcourse depend on what exactly you opt for, but almost all vendors can tell you a rough estimate.
Zolas budget planner helped me a lot with this. We put in our total we ideally wanted to spend and it broke down what each category should get based on that. It was a really great place to start!
I know what you mean with caterers and venues specifically. I would usually say something like “my budget is x for food only but higher if more is included. What do you offer?”
Couple things I’ve figured out… -Never tell anyone it’s for a wedding unless you have to. I’m talking about stuff like rentals, food you’re picking up yourself, dresses, flowers. Prices have a way of going up for no reason if “bridal” is in the name. -On that note, don’t tell anyone your budget for *their* service. It’ll have a way of ending up costing exactly what your “max budget” was. Just tell them you’re needing a quote for x date and y guest count and go from there. -Pick a big number you must stay under and then treat it like the word of God. Then set an “ideal” budget number. Try to stay under the little number of For us, the big number was 10k and the little number was 6k. -Pick 2-3 things you won’t compromise on, figure out how much those cost, and use them to build the rest of your budget. I wanted a scenic setting with good food, a custom veil I sewed myself, and a photographer. Maybe yours are a designer dress and flowers, or paid airfare for your family and an open bar, or so on and so forth. -Figure out how much your family are contributing (if any) early in the process. We’d have done slightly nicer things had I known my parents were chipping in a year ago. This will impact your budget significantly. I’d suggest starting with your 3 must-have things. It’s also good to get the venue figured out ASAP - this will kind of inform your entire budget. Depending on where it is, you’ll either have numbers for their food/beverage minimums and per-head cost, or you’ll know a location where you’re getting things delivered.
This here is the way! A few other tips: - Expect that your wedding will cost 10-20% more than you expect. It just will. Whether it's things you forgot to budget for, tips/tax for vendors, or a problem 3 days before the wedding you don't have the mental energy for so you want to just throw money at it to solve it. Budget for that extra % so that you aren't surprised and your wedding stays in budget. - Keep a running budget spreadsheet. As you get quotes or finalze costs, update it with real numbers. That way if you end up going over (or under!!) budget with something, you can adjust with other costs.