Blog / wedding budget

Take a look at some of the biggest and oldest wedding traditions that most bride's choose to include in their wedding.

The average wedding costs, $30,000.00. In most circle's that's a decent amount of money. There may be some question as to who exactly is meant to pay that cost.

Wedding Collectibles is a shop dedicated to those little details and one thing we've learned being in the wedding industry is that it's these wedding accessories that brides forget to think about when planning their wedding budget.

Weddings cost money. It doesn't matter if you're planning the biggest wedding of the year or if you're doing a courthouse wedding and going out with your closest friends for dinner to celebrate after.

Planning a wedding is a lifetime adventure: unknown, intriguing, and exciting. While most people prefer to hire a wedding planner, some prefer to organize their own to make sure it goes perfect.

When a new couple is looking to get engaged, buying that engagement ring can be pretty daunting. Unless the couple comes from a family of Jewelers or are somehow super up to date on how much a diamond is going for these days, it can be hard to know how much money will equal what size diamond. 

Starting out with facts about what it is you are getting into, including the average cost of an engagement ring, then adding in average number of bridesmaids, who pays, and a budget breakdown. 

If you know you are not going to want to pass up the perfect wedding dress because it would take over the budget for the wedding invitations, then set that dress as a no compromise item.

The wedding budget is, without a doubt, one of the biggest concerns for the newly-engaged couple looking to minimize the fiscal impact of a wedding shindig.

A good friend and colleague of mine got engaged over the weekend, and was full of questions when she was back to work. 

Congratulations on your engagement! The first few months of your engagement (depending on how long you want to wait for the big day) can be a little overwhelming if you start planning things out early. Figuring out budgets and checking out locations can become a little disorganized, and I definitely recommend a solid wedding spreadsheet.

Microsoft Excel is designed to be easy to use and helpful, and is especially wonderful during the wedding planning process - take advantage of it! If you aren't comfortable using Excel (or an equivalent program), try to get help from your new fiancé/fiancée or a particularly friendly coworker. I first learned how to navigate the wonderful world of spreadsheets by looking around on Google and YouTube for quick "basics" tutorials, as you won't need anything past a basic understanding to create a good wedding spreadsheet - it's an amazing tool, as it practically does all of your budgeting for you.   Columns! So Exciting!
Columns can be organized by different budget scenarios, with the running total on top (for ease of access), starting with your ideal budget and working toward budgets that are more specific. I recommend one column for an ideal budget, a column for projected budget (how much you think you'll actually spend. Depending on different variables, you can have multiples of these), a column for various quoted prices, and an actual money spent column. These columns will help you to keep your budget in perspective as you move forward, and it works well for testing out different combinations and package options to see how they would affect your overall budget. Sometimes it's hard to visualize all budget outcomes without a tangible guide, and Excel is a great solution. Rows! Hooray!
Your rows can be as general or specific as you like, but keep in mind that you can always add subheadings for specific items that are a part of a larger group. You can have a row for "party rentals" and a row for "tables," or you can group them together as a single expense. These groupings will change depending on how inclusive venues and packages are and you can always group them in later columns. The reason that Excel is such a great wedding planning tool is that no expense with take you by surprise at the last minute as you add up your expenses and discuss priorities with your future spouse. Excel can be a singular tool that keeps track of your expenses and helps you decide where you want to spend your money on your wedding day! Color code away!

A wedding needs to be perfect. It usually happens only once in a lifetime, and everything needs to be in its proper place, or else a wedding can be ruined. In order for a wedding to go off smoothly, proper planning needs to be done. Whilst planning a wedding, one of the first and most important factors to come into play is the budget. Although it is hard to stick to a certain budget, it is important not to exceed it by too much either. This budget needs to be broken up into several segments such as catering, transportation, entertainment and accommodation to name a few. After the budget is broken up, a lot of choices have to be made like where the wedding venue will be, what band to hire for the wedding, which caterers will supply what kind of food, how the wedding cake will be and so on. The list can go on and on. All this can be taken care of with proper and diligent delegation of duties. Once people have been assigned duties, it is important for a responsible person to oversee the entire process of the wedding. This way, one can make sure that everything goes off smoothly and as planned.