How Do I Put Together The Wedding Budget MMW 160
Let’s talk about the dreaded wedding budget.
Last week I talked about the Guest List. I helped you cut back the guest list and finalise the guest list. If you did not listen to those 3 podcast episodes then start here.
Now, the reason you must start with the guest list and not the budget is because how can you work out a budget if you don’t know how many guests you are inviting. When you don’t know guest numbers you also don’t know which venue you can fit into or if a venue will have a minimum spend or minimum and maximum number of guests.
Further to this, how can you start looking at venues if you don’t know your wedding vision? Knowing your vision of the day and how you want to look and feel is critical. That’s a whole full discussion in itself and if you haven’t sat down with your partner to work out your vision of the day make sure you sit down and do that and decide how you both want to feel on the day and how the wedding day looks to you both. It’s our very first lesson in the Calm Bride Planner Course as often you can also make better decisions on the guest list when you know the vision.
Anway, I went off track there and could be overwhelming you with the whole budget, guest list and wedding vision and I don’t want to do that so let's get back to the wedding budget.
Once you know your wedding vision and you have a guest list you can now really start to put together a budget and I’m not talking about oh I’ve got $25,000 to spend. That is actually not a budget. That’s what you have to spend.
A budget is actually knowing how much you think you are going to spend. So breaking down what the dream venue costs per person, what your dream dress might cost, what the flowers you love might cost.
You see the initial budget is ultimately an estimate of costs of what you want in your wedding vision.
So, if you are using the MMW App, then go through each item that is listed in the budget section and put a rough price beside that item. Once you have placed a price beside all the items that you envision wanting on your day then you will have a better estimate of the budget. If there is an item such as a garter and you don’t want that then you don’t need to include that in your budget.
It’s also very important that if you have a venue in mind that you love that you know what extras you need to pay for. For example if you don’t like the chairs then you might need to include in your budget 120 tiffany chairs. So you can see what knowing your guest numbers makes a huge difference to your budget.
Sometimes cutting the guest list by only 5 people can in total mean thousands of dollars because it’s not just the food and drinks you need to cover. You have guest favours, service booklets, rose petals, bubbles, invites, place cards and the list goes on.
So, if you already feel like you are going to do the estimates and go way over the budget you have to spend then make sure you really truly were honest in the guest list challenge and really did cut back as much as possible. Even consider moving a couple more guests into the reserved list for now.
So, that’s it from me. I just really wanted to break down how the budget works and how you can really drill down on that and the guest list even more if needed.
If you want to do this in thorough detail, not go over budget and not feel overwhelmed and be guided by me be sure to watch the wedding workshop video for the Calm Bride Planner as I do cover how to work out your estimates more accurately and ultimately give you more money to spend.
And until next time, enjoy being engaged and staying stress free and organised.
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