Planning Your Wedding Budget
Money is the number one thing that married couples fight about.
But do you realize that the tension surrounding money begins
long before the happy couple say 'I do?' Wedding costs can
rapidly escalate out of control which is why it's so important
to begin the planning by devising a realistic budget. And once
you've got the numbers crunched, it's equally important that you
both stick to the budget.
And while a wedding budget doesn't sound all that glamorous, it
doesn't have to be a bad thing. In fact, planning your wedding
without a budget is almost guaranteed to land you into serious
financial debt. What's the key to success? As it will be
throughout your marriage, open, honest, two-way communication is
an absolute must.
Newly-engaged couples must talk about how each envisions his and
her special day. Women work on the assumption that guys don't
care about the details but that's not always true. It is, after
all, the man's big day, too and he has a family to please as
well.
Once the excitement of the engagement wears off, go somewhere
quiet and talk about what's important to each of you in regards
to your wedding day. Listening to your partner's opinion is as
important as talking so be sure to do both. Then, make a list of
what you both want (to arrive in a horse-drawn carriage,
lobster, renaissance theme, color scheme, etc.) and what are
absolute necessities (for example a photographer, caterer,
rings, etc.). You're going to use this information when it's
time to allocate your budget.
Once you both have an idea of what's important, it's time to
crunch the numbers. You've got to determine how much money is
available now (for example, in savings accounts, stocks/bonds,
real estate, trust funds), how much you'll have to commit to
saving from your regular income streams, and how much you can
realistically expect others to kick in. Depending on how far out
the actual wedding date is you may want to consider opening a
higher-interest bearing account for the money so that it can
earn interest.
When considering what others may be able to put towards the
cause it's really important that you don't make unrealistic
demands. Take whatever others are willing to contribute
graciously and try not to belabor the issue. Getting angry or
disappointed in the amounts you are being given isn't a very
mature way of handling the situation.
When you know where the money's coming from and how much is
coming, you'll know how much you'll be able to spend. Now make
another list of all wedding-related expenses and allocate a
dollar amount or the percentage you're willing to spend next to
each item. This will help when you're actually contracting for
these services. Remember that if you exceed your budgeted amount
in one category, you'll have to scale back another so your
budget will stay balanced. Because budgeting is so very
important for most couples, you'll find that wedding budget
worksheets, software and other tools are available everywhere,
so go find one and start using it right now!