Wedding Budget Planning

Saving for your Wedding

September 18, 2009

In our previous post, we talked about three steps to creating a reasonable, sensible wedding budget. The three steps are determining who is paying for the wedding, how much money is needed for the wedding and how much can be saved by budgeting and cutting expenses.

Couples should start putting as much money aside as they can as soon as they are engaged. We recommend you strive to save 20% of your monthly income, though this is definitely a big sacrifice. The longer you plan on staying engaged without getting married, the more time you will have to save money. Limiting your spending on small stuff is the most effective way to save money. Rent movies instead of going out. If you drink Starbucks excessively, cut down or make your own coffee instead. In the digital age, you can even download a single song instead of the entire album. These changes will probably not greatly affect the quality of your life, but after a year you will have a fair chunk of cash which can cover at least the essentials of your wedding.

Making the most of the money you do save is also important. Instead of saving money in a low interest banking account, consider investing it if you are not getting married for at least a year. Opening a money-market account is very easy these days and can help you accumulate extra cash. This can allow you to make double the interest and maximize your savings.

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Planning your Wedding Budget

September 17, 2009

When you are figuring out your wedding budget, there are three steps you need to take to ensure that you go through three steps which will be outlined in detail in the following post. The three steps to establishing your budget are:

• Determining who is paying for the wedding

• Determining how much money is needed to fund the wedding

• Determining how much you can save by budgeting and cutting expenses

Determining who is paying for the wedding is a relatively simple process. All that is really involved is talking with both your families. Traditionally, it is the brides; family that picks up the entire bill. Yet in modern times, the groom’s family are getting more and more involved. Most couples to be find that they need to talk to both families separately to have truly open conversations. A strategy that many find useful is to ask both families to commit a set amount of money, adding this sum together to create the budget. Others find that certain family members want to take care of specific aspects of the wedding such as the ceremony or the honeymoon.

The next step is determining how much money you really need to make the wedding happen. Many couples find it helpful to break down their budget and determine what percentage of their budget will be used for each aspect of the wedding. Here is a sample breakdown:

Reception: 48%-50%

Ceremony: 2%-3%

Attire: 8%-10%

Flowers: 8%-10%

Entertainment/Music: 8%-10%

Photography/Videography: 10%-12%

Stationery: 2%-3%

Wedding Rings: 2%-3%

Parking/Transportation: 2%-3%

Gifts: 2%-3%

Miscellaneous: 8%

The last portion is important. This is mostly so you both keep your sanity by allowing you some left over money for when something goes wrong or you encounter unexpected expenses. If you are paying for your honeymoon also, this needs to be factored in.

In our next post we will talk about the last step: determining how much you can save.

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Summer Wedding Flowers on a Budget

September 16, 2009

To continue our theme of staying in season with wedding flowers, we bring you…Summer!

Summer Wedding Flowers:

• East Asiatic lily
• Cosmos
• Dahlia
• Delphinium
• Gerbera daisy
• Larkspur
• Pee Gee hydrangea
• Rose
• Sunflower
• Tuberose
• Zinnia
• Midwest Clematis
• Garden Roses
• Sunflower
• Viburnum
• Zinnia
• West Begonia
• Delphinium
• Gardenia
• Hydrangea
• Pansy
• Poppy
• Violet
• South Aster
• Cosmos
• Rosemary
• Sunflower

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The 21st Century Bride

September 7, 2009

The bride of 2009 is also taking many other aspects of their wedding into their own hands. This includes the jewelry the bride chooses to wear. Brides today are realizing that it is the statement that is important, not the cost. One way to make a big statement is with bright and bold statement jewelry pieces, which don’t need to be expensive at all. As a result of this we are seeing more coloured bead necklaces than costly pearls and diamonds.

Wedding locations are also changing rapidly in the 21st century. Instead of going for elaborate churches and halls, brides are choosing locations that are much closer to their homes. This might be a local beach, a bed and breakfast or a small local resort. These locations are ideal for an intimate wedding without the hefty rental bill or travel expenses that come with more traditional venues.

Overall, the wedding trends we are seeing leading us into 2010 emphasize meaning over materialism and expensive locations, dresses and jewelry. Brides continuing to find ways to cut costs are finding that at the same time it is a great opportunity to ensure that the meaning of the evening comes across in a direct and joyous way. In the end the bride of today realizes that the why is far more important than the how.

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Bridesmaids Dresses

September 7, 2009

It is a cool time for weddings. Many people are taking the planning of their wedding completely into their own hands, designing their own dresses, jewelry, destination ideas, invitations and more. This is very exciting since it means that the variety of the weddings you see increases, and hopefully these weddings are more personal for those planning them.

As a result, many of the bridesmaids dresses we are seeing in the weddings of today are not longer perfectly uniform and of the same colour. Brides instead are opting to allowing their bridesmaid a personal freedom previously unknown. The bride may simply allow her bridesmaids to choose their own dresses by only providing a colour guide. These colours may be of a general colour, of the bridesmaid may be clad in a variety of complementary colours. Patterned styles and patterns mixed with solid colours are also very popular.

You might be wondering why this budget friendly and not eccentric. The reason is that in allows a lot more flexibility as to locations that you can shop for dresses, often leaving a lot of options in stores that would not normally be considered for bridesmaids’ dresses. This leaves a lot of financial flexibility as well.

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Low Budget Wedding Ideas for 2009

September 4, 2009

Here are some of the low budget wedding ideas we are seeing and can expect to continue into the year 2010. With the economy in its current state, it is only to be expected that we are seeing more and more weddings being done in a “Do it yourself” fashion.

Backward weddings in the style of the movie “In Her Shoes” featuring Cameron Diaz are definitely rising in popularity with people’s financial difficulties. There are no location fees, smaller guest lists and a more casual menu allowing for an affordable but also more intimate affair. If your backyard is not suitable for a wedding, consider hosting it in a friend’s backyard, or a local park. If you do go this route, be sure to keep the weather in mind and have a back up plan.
Brides are also relying more on “DIY Wedding Favors “ where friends of the bride-to-be create personal, handmade wedding favors, from bouquets of flowers to doing calligraphy for the place cards on the tables. This is a great way to ensure that your wedding is more intensely personal and extremely affordable.

Stay tuned for more wedding trends for 2009 and beyond.

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Finding an Affordable Wedding Photographer

September 2, 2009

vNow that you are planning your wedding, you want it to be perfect. You may have dreamt for a long time about how you want this very special day to be just so. At the same time, you may also have a budget to work within to get everything perfect. It may seem harder to stay within this budget when you are dealing with professional services like wedding photography, but it is possible and really not that difficult in the end. All it takes is a little bit of flexibility, forward thinking and planning ahead. Word of mouth is the best way to start out looking for a wedding photographer. People will always be impressed by good service and pass their experiences on to you. Talk to friends, associates, co-workers or anyone else you know who has recently had a wedding. Ask them how they handled their wedding photos.\ Also, be sure to ask your wedding venue; they hold weddings all the time and will most likely have a long list of names to give you to call. A five minute conversation could leave you walking away with twenty or more names.

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Talking Through a Wedding Budget

September 1, 2009

One of the most important parts of planning a wedding is the wedding budget. By now, this should be obvious. You and your to-be-wed should sit down early in the game and decide what a reasonable budget is and who is going to be paying. This can be tricky; weddings do cost a lot of money. Nonetheless, without proper communication the wedding simply won’t happen smoothly. Wedding money is often a source of tension for couples that are planning their wedding, and talking about it well in advance can allow you to get over it early.

Fortunately, more often than not parents are willing to contribute to their children’s weddings. Both families should ideally get together and discuss these issues since they are going to be seeing each other anyway. If your parents have a certain item that you think they would like to specifically pay for, don’t be afraid to ask them; it’s not likely anything would make them happier.

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Cheap Wedding Invitation Ideas

August 30, 2009

Wedding invitations can be a daunting endeavour, and a stressful one at that, for a bride on a budget. If your wedding invitation list is long, the problem is compounded. It is important that your wedding invitations be classy (unless you are going for a silly or different vibe) while at the same time remaining affordable for the couple and saving money for other parts of your wedding.

Of course, when you are on a budget one of the first things you will think of doing is to make the wedding invitations yourself. While this is a good idea, make sure you get the wording correct on your invitations and do some research into the current trends. Wedding invitations change style almost every year. If you are interested in being hip to the newest trend you may want to do some research. If you are a non-conformist then have at her.

At any rate, you should ensure that your wedding invitations have the proper information. It is important to include the who, what, where and when (don’t worry about the why)

Kidding aside, make sure you think about the text you put on your wedding invitations. You also want to ensure that whether you are making them yourself or buying, your wedding invitations are unique. It is your wedding and no one else’s, after all!

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Flowers in Season

August 26, 2009

One of the most important things to remember about planning your Wedding Flowers, and this applies to all of your wedding planning in general, is to plan ahead, the more the better. You need to know what flowers are going to be in season in your area at the time of your wedding as well as the various pricing ranges you will be dealing with. Certain flowers are going to be more expensive at certain times of the year because of a high demand and the possibility that the gardens get cleared regularly, driving the price and scarcity up even more. Think about Valentine’s Day. Is it a coincidence that the price of red long-stemmed roses goes up in February? Probably not. It is the same with wedding flowers.

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