Setting a Wedding Budget

Cha-ching! It's no secret - weddings can be expensive. During the wedding planning process, establishing a realistic budget is one of the tools that will drive your planning as much as anything else. As a bride, you’ll come across many versions of a budget, whether in magazines or on websites. When you hire a professional wedding planner, she/he will prepare a realistic budget tailored to your vision and priorities.

If you feel you’d rather traverse the planning journey on your own, you should consider a few guidelines when creating your budget. For starters, as a general rule for an average wedding in the D/FW metroplex, you can expect to spend approximately $300 per guest. This would be the all-inclusive bottom line. For example, for a 100-guest affair, you’d be looking at approximately $30,000, for the ceremony and reception sites, food/beverage, décor, entertainment, etc.

How do you divvy your budget? You should start by assuming you’ll spend half of your overall budget on the reception. And you’ll want to be sure to figure in the tax and service charge for your reception’s food/beverage expenses, which adds about 30% to the quoted food/beverage costs.

After that, start prioritizing what elements of your wedding are most important to you. Do you desire incredible photography to capture your day? Are stunning floral and décor hugely important to you? Maybe you envision a phenomenal gourmet dinner. Whatever your priorities are, take them into account when allocating your budget dollars, giving more of them to the components that matter to you most.

And perhaps the most important part of budgeting is being realistic and then sticking to it and tracking your costs as you plan. Having a budget will help direct you in your planning process and hopefully save you a lot of money-related headaches along the way. Happy planning!

If you like to know more about hiring a certified wedding planner to assist you in your wedding planning adventure, click here or call us at 972.781.1619.