How to Have a Wedding on a Budget | Budget Wedding Planning and Ideas

Let's face it, weddings are expensive. The average cost of a wedding is around $25,000-30,000! If you're like me and you don't have $30k lying around, it might be difficult to have a wedding that showcases your individuality and doesn't break the bank at the same time.

The most important step to saving money on a wedding is creating a wedding budget. If you are planning your wedding, use the following wedding budget ideas to create the perfect wedding for yourself.

Before you begin writing out how you will save money on wedding costs, you and your partner should write out all expected wedding expenses. Regardless of whether or not you'll be paying for different wedding costs, write out as many as possible.

In breaking different costs down, you will be able to create and tweak an effective wedding budget that is totally customized to your needs.

With a general idea of different wedding costs, you are now able to move on to the next step: setting the budget. You can start setting your wedding budget at any point you and your partner feel strongly about.

Do you want to keep wedding costs below $12,000? Do you want to have no more than 120 guests at your wedding? Do you insist on having a beach themed wedding? Determine which items are non negotiables and move forward from there.

It's also a good idea to try to determine who will pay for what in the wedding. Just remember not to break wedding etiquette rules when figuring out who pays for what.

Keeping that starting point in mind, begin deciding where you can afford to trim costs.

Since most couples choose to have a particular dollar amount as their primary starting point for creating a budget, let's pretend you did as well. Sticking with the budget should be your top priority.

Here are some key ways in which you can stick with your wedding budget:

1. Be prepared to do a lot of DIY (do-it-yourself) wedding projects
2. Seriously consider shaving the number of guests (the best way to save money on your wedding)
3. Order wedding invitations on the cheap, or make your own invitations.
4. Utilize friends to do the photography, decorating, etc.
   

Final words of wisdom...

When you are finished setting your wedding budget, add 10% to the total. There are often fluctuating prices and hidden costs that come up, and adding 10% to your budget will leave space for the unexpected.

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