5 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Your Wedding Budget
Your wedding budget is definitely not the prettiest part of the wedding planning process. However, it’s a necessary one! Read on to learn the 5 common wedding budget mistakes you’ll want to be sure to avoid.
#1. Unrealistic Expectations
You probably fell in love with the idea of your wedding a long time ago. Or maybe you didn’t but social media has wooed you into the world of grandiose wedding plans including Instagrammable design concepts and decor to wow your guests. It shouldn’t be a surprise that those picturesque weddings will also wow your pockets. Discuss with your partner what you envision for the day, starting with the feeling or vibe you want to create.
#2. Not Deciding Who’s Contributing What
Compile all the money you expect to use towards your wedding, whether that’s inclusive of personal funds, a gift from parents or other family members, credit cards (specifically for wedding expenses ideally), or what have you, put it all on paper so you can start to identify a budget. Without the all-in-number costs can quickly get out of hand and you would ‘t want to be down to the wire on booking a priority vendor or not because you overspent somewhere else not knowing what funds you’d have access to in the first place.
#3. Not Identifying Wedding Priorities
This one goes back to setting realistic expectations. Whether you’re working with a planner or not, one of the first things to consider is what are your Top 3 non-negotiables. Decide what aspects of the wedding you absolutely believe you can not live without being “perfect” and rank those aspects in order of importance. Identify these as the measuring stick to identify other vendors and pricing.
#4. Trying to Please Everyone
This one is a sore spot for so many of my clients. Mainly for 1 of 2 reasons. Exhibit A: a family member is contributing quite a bit of money to the overall budget so you are feeling obligated to listen to their every hope and dream for your wedding day. SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS! If you are taking money towards your wedding from a family member please set your expectations correctly and by this I mean establish boundaries. Accept the funds only as a gift and let them know you appreciate their willingness to contribute but that you want to be sure they are comfortable being a silent partner so to speak. Exhibit B: Your wedding party or the lack thereof is in your ear about all the must-have typical wedding things you haven’t mentioned. So they end up sending you hundreds of ideas to consider and pins from Pinterest to confuse you to the point of you saying yes to things you could care less about. Let your bestie know what you need help with and if you don’t want help with something advocate for yourself to protect your sanity! Trust me, you won’t be a bride- or groomzilla if you set boundaries and limit the “wedding ideas” conversation.
#5. Not Trusting Your Vendors
This one is self-explanatory, or so I like to think. 99.9%* of the time, your vendors have your best interests at heart. If they tell you the extra hour of their services for an added fee isn’t necessary based on your consultation with them. Trust them. Don’t panic that what you’re getting isn’t enough. Most of us want to do as much as we can for our clients within a reasonable amount of time in an effort to keep costs as out of sight as possible AND to gain the most powerful gift you can give us. A word-of-mouth referral. Most of us literally love weddings and have worked our tails off for years to provide you with a comfortable experience and access to our knowledge & expertise in our service areas. Trust us to do the job you hired us for and to do so flawlessly.*