The Buck Stops Here – Budgeting for Your Wedding

From my days as a Production Coordinator in the film industry I have a healthy respect for budgets and their power to help make decisions when planning a production!  So here are a few tips when making out your budget, specifically The Main Events’ specialty, destination weddings.

Once the excitement of the engagement has settled a bit one of the very first things I tell my brides is to plan your budget.  It is the one tool which, once properly planned, will make the rest of the wedding planning a whole lot smoother.

I generally break down my budget to include the following categories:  Ceremony, Reception, Attire, Flowers, Photography, Music, Transportation, Invitations and Wedding Planning Fees.

Be sure to include a fee, gift and possibly travel costs for your officiant. Include a line item for ceremony objects as well. Another item most people forget to include is tipping.
This line item can add up, especially if some of your vendors do not include gratuity as part of their bid.  Finally, I always add at least a 5% contingency.  There are inevitably unexpected costs as well as items or services that you just feel you cannot live without at your wedding.

It’s best to sit down with both sets of parents and decide who will pay for what and how much the overall budget will be including all of the contributing parties.  Once you have that number you can begin to assign costs for each category.

For a custom budget, please call me at 303-570-6570 and I will happily prepare a budget that works for you!

 

This article is part of The Main Event’s article series on How to plan your wedding!  Stay tuned for next months post on your Guest List – Easy as A, B, C.