The Big “B” Talk: Budget

It has officially been over one week since SD asked for my hand in marriage. It’s been really fun watching as we tell folks we are engaged and all the love that is shown, plus requests for an invite to the wedding. If we could, we would invite the whole community, but how many hours do you really have in a reception? I want an environment where we can have a personal connection with our guests.

ehow image: Wedding Budget Calculator

And another important factor — to invite everyone would mean to overextend our budget. And for many reasons, that just can’t happen. When my clients come to me for full-service planning, I tell them a few things about budgets.

1) Do not take out loans.

There’s nothing worse than planning something and in the back of your head wondering about when you have to start paying for it. It will only take away the joy of planning. It can get really sticky!

2) Come up with a real dollar amount that you feel comfortable with and – “work it.”

Pick a budget that you both can feel comfortable with, and stick with it. Understand what’s included in the budget, and be on the same page. A good online budget: http://www.wedding-needs.com/wedding-budget.asp

3) Be realistic, and remember the goal of the day: Marrying the person you love.

Look at one of your wedding fantasies and stick with that, knowing within your realistic budget that you cannot afford everything.

So with all that wisdom, it should be an easy task for me, right? Hah! With my experience and in the area I live, the average budget for a wedding is $30,000 (and that’s the basic). However, in this day and age, I knew this amount would not fly with SD.

I’m not going to tell you the budget until after the wedding, because I would like everyone to see how you can “work” a budget no matter what it is. But I would love to hear what you think we agreed on for the final budget.

It’s going to be a grand day because I am marrying SD.