How to stay on budget!

Tips For A Wedding

How To Stay On Budget

Today on The Bride Link, expert planning tips for a wedding, specifically how to stay on budget! Budgeting for your wedding is extremely important and our easy tips on wedding planning will save you time and money but, most importantly, stress. These sensible planning tips will help keep your wedding on budget. Don't forget to grab your free copy of our Wedding Day Emergency Kit Checklist to help ensure you're ready for anything!

1. Determine the type of wedding that you want to have.

Where will it be held? What type of wedding will it be? How many guests do you think you want to invite? All of these are going to have a significant impact on your budget. A smaller wedding focusing on fewer guests can help your budget go further. Venue selection and catering represent a large portion of the money you'll spend. So, the more guests you invite, the more space you'll need, and the more food you have to buy. All of this means spending less on all the other aspects of your event. Determining the most critical elements beforehand and listing them out will help keep you focused. Identify what you need to have! Everything else becomes secondary and negotiable.

2. Get everyone who's contributing to planning or paying for the event in a group to discuss details.

You need to talk about the event specifics and discuss your budget together. Who's ultimately responsible for any deposits for what? Who's delivering what and at what time? Anyone picking up the day of? Should we use a professional planner or coordinator? This way, you understand what your basic needs are and also what everybody will be contributing. It's an excellent opportunity for the couple to highlight their priorities. If something's not necessary to you, there's no need to throw a whole bunch of money at it!

3. Ensure you and your fiance are clear about what's most important to you as individuals and as a couple.

It's crucial to research what reasonable prices are for each vendor. The best way to do this is to get several quotes for each. Your budget should not only be affordable but it should, more importantly, be realistic! If you're not sure what things cost, you must make time to do your research.

Doing this first helps with finding not only affordable vendors but also reputable ones who offer quality service. Don't make decisions on price alone! You want to make sure that you hire somebody that can deliver the services they've promised. More importantly, the services that you'll be happy with at the end of the day.

4. Don't just try to get the best deal.

Make sure you're hiring a quality vendor with a good reputation. If a vendor's price is well below their competitors, it may be because they'll deliver subpar results. They are cheap for a reason! Ask for reviews or past couples who've worked with them previously. Review their social media, online presence, and website. Deciding on hiring a service purely on price can have permanent consequences, costing you in the end.

A great example of this is choosing not to hire a wedding coordinator or, at the very minimum, a Day of Coordinator. Creating your wedding day timeline is tremendously critical. If not designed and executed correctly, your wedding day can be a stressful, chaotic mess. You have one chance to nail the perfect wedding day, and there are no do-overs! Keep this in mind when you find yourself considering hiring a wedding professional whose price is 30-50% cheaper than every other quote you received.

5. Make sure to plan early!

Give yourself time to shop around and make well-informed decisions. Give everyone who's contributing financially enough time to review your budget before you ask for a payment. The more notice they have, the more money they can stow away without putting any financial stress on themselves. If you have time and the budget, you can hire a wedding planner to help you with all of these things. If not, and you're acting as your wedding planner, make sure you're organized and informed when choosing to finalize payments with vendors.

For more expert wedding planning advice, follow us at @thebridelink!