Allocating Your Wedding Budget: How Much Should You Spend?
You’re getting married! Congratulations. Planning your big day is an exciting time, and ensuring you have the best wedding possible is going to be something that will occupy a lot of your time and thoughts from now until the big day.
One aspect of planning your wedding that is more important than anything else is your wedding budget and what needs to be included. Being thorough about your budget and knowing what to allocate and how to ensure you to cover everything can be tricky, especially if this is the first time you’ve planned an event of this scale. The last thing you want to use up all of your budget only to realise you missed things out and can’t find the funds to pay for them.
This post will run through some parts of your budget that you need to include. While there are no hard and fast rules as to how much you can spend on each aspect, it can give you a ballpark to work from to create your perfect wedding and ensure you have the funds to pay for it.
Venue & Catering 40%
Your venue and catering will take up a fair chunk of your budget. You can find venues at many different price points to suit your budget, but putting aside almost half your budget for your wedding venue and catering is an excellent place to start.
Photography and Videography 10%-15%
How you record and preserve memories of your big day will help you look back on the day and give you a way to capture it so you can see it from a different perspective than you will have experienced yourself.
You can choose to have a photographer or videographer or both, or if you ask guests to take pictures, you can compile them at a later date.
Music/Entertainment: 10%
You want to be able to create a good atmosphere at your wedding, so choosing suitable entertainment is a must. Sometimes, at night, your venue offers a package that includes entertainment, and you can allocate this decision to your venue budget to allow you to get the right venue package. But if your wedding budget is £10,000, then putting around £1,000 into your entertainment fund can help you really bring your wedding to life.
Wedding Attire & Beauty 10%-13%
Your wedding attire fund doesn’t just mean the dress; it is the bridesmaid’s dresses, groom and groomsmen’s outfits, shoes, hair, makeup and even the bride and groom’s parents if you are covering these costs. It might not seem much initially, but once you have all of your other options in place and have confirmed vendors, you might find that there is more you can use for your wedding attire.
Extras
Other parts of your wedding budget that you should include are;
- Flowers 10%
- Decor 10%
- Transportation 3%
- Stationery 3%
- Cake 2%
- Favours and gifts 2%
- Ceremony 2%
Of course, all these percentages are just approximate guides, and you are free to allocate your wedding budget as you see fit. However, if you’re unsure of what to include or how much to be spending on each aspect, this can be a helpful guide to get you started. From there, you can rejig your budget to make it work for you.
