5 Budgeting Tips for Your Wedding

There’s always a little extra help needed when it comes to budgeting for your wedding – we totally understand! It’s often difficult to even know where to start. We talked to a handful of expert wedding planners and these are the budgeting tips they came up with – keep this list handy so you can live by it when planning your wedding!

1. Instead of using the templates often found on wedding planning websites and in books, tailor your budget to fit what’s most important to you. For example, if you’ve always envisioned having live entertainment and killer lighting, select a venue that can host your ceremony and reception. By hosting your event in one space, you easily cut out transportation costs and double venue fees, freeing up funds to pour into what matters to you most.  – Geomyra Lewis

Photo by Erich McVey, Romantic Ojai Wedding

2. Don’t have a large wedding party. I often find brides and grooms feel a lot of pressure to gift, host, provide hair/makeup or transport a large bridal party. Save yourself extra cash and have a best man and maid of honor only if you can.  You only need an entourage on the dancefloor and trust me your friends will be happy you didn’t make them buy one more bridesmaids dress! – Janel Events

Photo by Caroline Tran, Golden Sunset Wedding

3. Be selective with your guest list and only invite the amount of people you want to be there.  Managing your guest list can really help you stick to the budget you have – the more people that show up above what you were expecting, the higher the cost for everything.  There is a rule that 20% of your guests may not come, however be mindful of your number.  If you ideally would like to have a 150 person wedding, you cannot invite 250 people and hope 100 will not come. – Posh Parties 

4. When looking for Bridal accessories, head down to your local Garment District and rack up the savings! Veils, hair pieces, and belts are often marked down way below retail! – Skybox Event Productions

Design by Gather Events, Photo by Caroline Tran, Tropical Summer Wedding

Find a venue with rentals and catering included. This looks like a much bigger price tag when you compare with other venues that just offer the space, but the savings can be huge if you’re able to eliminate the added staffing costs of brining on additional vendors. – Gather Events