Ask the Planner: Wedding Dollars and Sense

Q: How do we go about creating our wedding budget?

A: Establishing a wedding budget is the essential first step to take before getting too far into planning your big day! To begin, you’ll want to have frank conversations with everyone who will be contributing financially to your wedding celebration to make sure you are on the same page. You must know the bottom line you’ll be working with beforehand so you do not overspend.

Next, you’ll want to determine with your fiancé what your priorities are. Are you passionate about incredible food? Is killer photography one of your biggies? Is it imperative to you to have breath-taking floral and décor? Do you have to have THE band that will cement your reception in the minds of your friends and family as the party to end all parties? Whatever your top priorities are, make sure to set aside plenty of your budget to accommodate these important categories, and be prepared to scale back on items that are less significant to you.

Once you’ve prioritized, you’ll want to start putting pen to paper and actually mapping out your budget. You should start with the reception, as it will make up 50-60% of your entire budget. In addition to food and beverage (bar) costs, subcategories that fall under reception include venue rental fees, tax, service charges and/or gratuities and possibly security and valet, to name a few.

Other categories usually comprising the wedding budget include (but are certainly not limited to): ceremony, floral/décor, music/entertainment, photography/videography, stationery, rentals, bakery, favors/gifts and transportation/parking. There are plenty of wedding planning magazines and websites that can give you ballpark percentages of your budget breakdown by category. Use these suggestions as a guide but customize your budget based on the priorities you determined. We also always recommend a line item for “cushion” or unexpected expenses that may arise. You don’t want to go over budget simply because you didn’t anticipate any surprises.

If the thought of creating and maintaining a wedding planning budget is overwhelming to you, consider hiring a professional wedding planner. A StarDust planner can not only help you allocate funds and stay on track with your budget, but can also help you design a beautiful, imaginative wedding full of creative ideas that will represent you and your fiancé without breaking the bank!

The Boutique at Stardust Bridal Salon

StarDust Celebrations is thrilled to announce our newest concept, The Boutique, a magnificent offering of more than 75 styles of gorgeous, moderately priced bridal gowns! Now open, The Boutique is located on the newly renovated ground floor of Stardust Bridal Salon and will offer select wedding gowns at $2,000 and below from such fabulous designers as:

• Sottero and Midgley
• Tara Keely
• Watters/Wtoo
• Blush by Jim Hjelm
• Theia
• You, the new line by Pronovias
• Steven Birnbaum
• Robert Bullock
• James Clifford
• Simone Carvalli

While we still have our full collection of stunning couture bridal gowns upstairs in the salon, we are so pleased to be able to offer these additional beautiful gowns and our signature quality service to our brides on a budget. Call for your appointment to check out these wonderful new gowns: 972.781.1619.

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.