Tips for Creating a Wedding Budget

When planning a wedding, the first - and most important - part is setting a budget. Without an overall budget, it is very difficult to know what you can afford for each aspect of the event. You will probably find that deciding on the budget is the hardest job because you want to have the best and most memorable wedding possible.

Who Pays For The Wedding?

It used to be that the bride's parents paid for the wedding. This is no longer the case in many instances and for several reasons, including the possibility that the parents can't afford it. But, quite often, it is because the couple wants to ensure that they can plan the wedding they want without interference. Four out of five couples these days pay for their own wedding and it helps to know how the budget should be broken down.

Calculating Your Wedding Budget

In creating your budget, you must first determine the overall amount you can spend. The average wedding costs around $19,000, according to current statistics. You must then divide the overall amount into parts and decide what percentage you are willing to spend on items such as wedding clothing, rings, catering and decorating the venue, etc.

There are plenty of free and inexpensive websites that offer wedding budget calculators that are easy to use. All you have to do is input the total budget amount for the wedding, and the calculator will tell you how much you should allocate for each of the components of the wedding.

Making a List

Once you have figured out the dollar amount available for each aspect of the wedding, you can begin to create an itemized list of everything. You will need to put together a list of all the areas of your wedding that are important to you and make sure that you allocate a sensible proportion of the total budget to each.

This is necessary so that you can see if the wedding of your dreams is a realistic expectation given what you can afford to spend. If you come up short, here are some ideas to enable you to trim the expenses:

• Reduce the size of the guest list
• Forego some of the services
• Reduce the size of the wedding party
• Forget the extras like limos

Once you have put the budget on paper, you can begin to decide on the type and scope of the wedding you want to have while keeping it within realistic bounds. After all, you will have plenty of expenses in your married life after the wedding - it doesn't make sense to create problems by overspending on the wedding itself.

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