Wedding Budget Planning

Looking For Help With Your Wedding Budget Planning?

What To Include and Where to Start....

Thinking about your Wedding Venue you should put in your budget your Wedding Ceremony Venue and where you will hold your Wedding Reception and Wedding Evening Party. 

When getting married in a hotel where they hold a Wedding License your whole day will be spent in the same place.

On the other hand you could be looking at getting married in a Church and holding your celebrations on a farm with a marquee on site.

Research what your venue includes in their prices, there might be hidden extras you hadn't considered and restrictions on what you can have on site.

Costs to Consider

* Registrar Fees

* Venue Hire

* Decorations

If you are hiring your Wedding Venue for the full day you can skip over this part.

Your Wedding Reception Venue may be a Village Hall, Club, Hotel or Converted Barn.

There will be hire fees for he venue itself and then extras for equipment and additional services.

Research is key again here, see what your venue offers in their packages to see what fits with your plans, remember some venues like hotels will be quite restrictive on what they will allow you to have on site and have preferred supplier lists and could charge a damage deposit from you in the case of problems occuring from outside suppliers.

Costs to Consider

* Wedding Venue Hire

* Decorations

* Accommodation Costs

* Teepee/Marquee Hire and Equipment Costs

* Outdoor Hire Costs like Toilets and Food Vans

* Damage Deposits

Wedding Catering can make up a significant part of your day and as everyone likes eating this is such and important part to get right so that your guests will have a memorable day.

Your Wedding Venue may be supplying both your Reception Food and your Evening Food or just one part of the day. Have a look at the Venue Wedding Food and Drink packages and consider that you may be restricted on the menu and choices.

There may be other options you would like to have as part of your day such as Sweet Carts, Food Vans or Food Stations. Some of these may replace the Food Servings or in addition to these.

Remember here that Wedding Venues may have preferred supplier lists which might restrict the options that you can have and you can give yourself more flexbility holding your Wedding somewhere where you can have whatever suppliers on site that you want!

Go through your plan for drinks, you may wish to have use of the onsite bar, provide your own drinks  or hire your own outside bar,  you may wish to have bottles of wine on tables so don't forget about any Corkage fees.

Costs to Consider

* Reception Food 

* Evening Buffet

* Additional Food Ideas

* Corkage Fees

* Plate and Cutlery Hire

* Serving Staff Costs

The Wedding Venue may already have standard decor that you are happy with and there is no need to spend money on decorations or you may wish to change things around if you are allowed to do so.

You may be hiring a Wedding Stylist who will include the costs of all the decorations hired in for your Wedding Cerermony Venue and Wedding Reception Venue or only provide part of these within their service.

If you have a blank canvas and are going for DIY Wedding Decorations you may be looking to hire or buy some decor items, think about the rooms you will be filling and what needs to be included for the ceiling, the walls, the floors and in the corners!

Teepees are normally already filled with a themed decor and should be included in the Wedding Hire cost but there may be things you want to incldue in your package.

Have a think about your Wedding Flowers and get some ideas from Florists about what the costs of these will be, this should cover Bouquets, Table and Standing Displays as well as button holes if appropriate.

Costs to Consider

* Decoration Hire

* Wedding Stylist

* Wedding Flowers

If you are going down the route of a Simple Wedding you might not be looking to employ a Photographer for the day but if you do make sure you do a great of deal of research before you make your choice of photographer.

Every photographer will offer a package of their service, this may cover a number of hours and number of photos which may be presented in an album or provided on a USB stick.

Should you wish to include a Videographer you'll need to research prices of thes to include in your Wedding Budget.

Consider that you may also be expected to feed your Photograper during the day.

Costs to Consider

* Photograph Hire

* Videographer Hire

* Album, DVD or USB Costs

* Food Costs

Your Wedding Entertainment Budget might cover DJs, Bands, Wedding Singers, Hired Professionals like Balloon Artists, Children's Entertainers or Magicians or hired items such as Lawn Games and Photobooths.

There may be restrictions on what your Wedding Venue will allow on site and you may have to stick to their Preferred Supplier List, they may be inclined to ask for a damage deposit to cover the eventuality that one of your suppliers leaves a mess behind or damages anything whilst on site.

Again you may be expected to supply any hired professionals with food during their time spent at your Wedding.

Costs to Consider

* Supplier Hire

* Hire Equipment Charges

* Damage Deposits

* Food Costs for Suppliers

Wedding Transport covers getting to and from the Wedding Venue for the Wedding Party and the Wedding Guests.

There will be hire charge for this service and this may cover a set amount of time, you may be charged more if you wanted to extend the time of hire.

Further charges may apply for waiting time, additional staff and inclusion of provision of drinks or having permission to have photos taken in or around the vehicle.

Some suppliers may require damage deposits if their vehicles are rare or vintage.

Costs to Consider

* Transport Hire Charges

* Waiting Time Hire Charges

* Damage Deposits

Your Wedding Stationary Budget should cover Save the Dates, Invitations, Table Plans, Menus and Thank You Notes.

As we are becoming more dependant on technology these days the budget may go towards online Wedding Apps where all stationary is emailed to guests or for physical stationary sent directly to guests.

Think about whether you would all these items to follow a theme, you may wish to employ the services of a Professional Stationer or this may be something you put together yourself or buy as part or your Simple DIY Wedding you have planned.

Costs to Consider

* Online App Costs

* Professional Stationer Package Costs

* Stationary Purchase costs

* Printing Costs

Wedding Apparel needs to cover everything needed to dress and style the Wedding Party on the day.

This will include all the Wedding Party clothes, shoes, jewellery, accessories. It may be that you will be paying for all these yourself or each individual will be meeting the cost of their own outfit for the day. Some of these items will be purchased and others might be hired for the duration.

Don't forget about any alteration costs needed and any hire costs and whether you will need to budget for damage deposits and cleaning before hired items are returned.

You will then have to think about the costs of Beauticians, Make Up Artists and Hairdressers on the day itself.

Costs to Consider

* Wedding Party Apparel Purchase or Hire Costs

* Fitting or Alteration Costs

* Damage Deposits and Cleaning

* Hairdresser Hire

* Beautician Hire

You will probably have decided where you will go on Honeymoon before you have booked your Wedding date!

Treat your Honeymoon like any other holiday when putting together your Honeymoon Budget and think through everything you need from start to finish.

Costs to Consider

* Holiday Cost

* Clothes Purchases For Holiday

* Holiday Insurance Costs

There will be things missed off from the main list above that you will need to include in your Wedding Budget.

Here I would consider any Wedding Gifts you are planning on giving to your Wedding Party, Accomodation Costs for Guests and any Pre or Post Wedding Celebrations.

You might also be considering having Guest Thank You Bags and putting together baskets of toileties to leave in the toilets for use by guests.

Go through the day step by step to see if there are any more items that you need to add to your Wedding Budget.