The cost of a Wedding ~ Below please find a breakdown of how the average bride and groom divvy up expenses, based on a wedding I've done with 164 guests, five bridesmaids and five ushers. It basically works for any amount, no matter the budget, if you follow these guidelines:
ITEM % OF BUDGET
Reception site, meal, bar etc... 43.9%
Photography/Videography 13.5%
Wedding rings 8.7%
Wedding dress/veil/accessories 6.8%
Music 6.5%
Flowers 5.9%
Invitations/other printed materials 3.3%
Limousines 3.1%
Attendants' gifts 2.9%
Hair/Makeup 1.7%
Officiant 1.7%
Favors 1.4%
Groom's formalwear rental 0.6%
TOTAL 100%
May this breakdown serve as a guideline for all of you who are not sure and still in the planning stages of your budget. If you follow this guideline, trust me, you will not be broke after your wedding. Even though your wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, don't go into hock for years to finance a party you can't afford. If you charge some things on your credit cards, you want to be able to pay off your wedding expenses charged to those credit cards by your first anniversary.
Happy Planning Divas!!!
The cost of a Wedding ~ Below please find a breakdown of how the average bride and groom divvy up expenses, based on a wedding I've done with 164 guests, five bridesmaids and five ushers. It basically works for any amount, no matter the budget, if you follow these guidelines:
ITEM % OF BUDGET
Reception site, meal, bar etc... 43.9%
Photography/Videography 13.5%
Wedding rings 8.7%
Wedding dress/veil/accessories 6.8%
Music 6.5%
Flowers 5.9%
Invitations/other printed materials 3.3%
Limousines 3.1%
Attendants' gifts 2.9%
Hair/Makeup 1.7%
Officiant 1.7%
Favors 1.4%
Groom's formalwear rental 0.6%
TOTAL 100%
May this breakdown serve as a guideline for all of you who are not sure and still in the planning stages of your budget. If you follow this guideline, trust me, you will not be broke after your wedding. Even though your wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, don't go into hock for years to finance a party you can't afford. If you charge some things on your credit cards, you want to be able to pay off your wedding expenses charged to those credit cards by your first anniversary.
Happy Planning Divas!!!
This is a great guide. Some people include other things like the honeymoon in their budget. Have you heard of this and if so how is it budgeted?
Another budget tip I found beneficial is that if you have good credit, take advantage of no interest for 1 year deals with jewelers. My DH bought my rings from Helzberg on a their card in early 06, and I bought his and put it on that card in September (I started to pay cash as I had been saving, but he convinced me to put it on that card), so we paid off all our rings (in $400-500 increments) before the end of January 07 which is when the interest would have kicked in...thats an option vs. credit cards (Visa, etc) where you pay the interest every month. That let us have more cash flow in hand to pay for other immediate items such as decorations, etc.....
We've been Happily Married 2 Years and Counting:)
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PS...
If you don't already, I would make a special account just for wedding spending...This helped also....
We took a certain amount out of every paycheck and put it into this account, any early cash gifts we recieved went into this account also. That way you will always know exactly how much you are working with every week to pay for the wedding. This account can later on be made into a joint account, or make it a joint account today, and update it later with your new last name and address!
We've been Happily Married 2 Years and Counting:)
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Yes Bumble, I've heard of some people including their honeymoon in their budget. It's not uncommon when with our generation, we finance our own wedding instead of Mom and Dad paying for everything.
[quote="Ginoue"]Yes Bumble, I've heard of some people including their honeymoon in their budget. It's not uncommon when with our generation, we finance our own wedding instead of Mom and Dad paying for everything.
[/quote]
OH-Kaaayy!
Ain't that the truth!
We've been Happily Married 2 Years and Counting:)
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