Wedding Budget Basics

It can be hard to set aside the romance of your wedding to think carefully about dollars and cents. After all, picking out a wedding gown and a bridal bouquet is fun... writing up a list of wedding expenses and figuring out how much you have to spend is not. Still, creating a wedding budget is an important part of planning a wedding, so make it a priority and get it over with!

To create a wedding budget, you need to ask yourself a few questions. Who will pay for the wedding? How much money do you have to spend? And what are the elements of your dream wedding that are most important to you. Answer these three questions and you're haldway toward planning a beautiful wedding.

The traditional rule of the bride's family paying for the entire wedding is fast becoming history. Today, the bride's family, the groom's family, and the bride and groom themselves usually share the cost of the wedding ceremony and wedding reception. Many couples are getting married later in life and are well established with their own careers, thus they feel inclined to pay for some or all of their own weddings.

Once you know who pays for the wedding, the bride and groom should discuss which elements of the wedding are most important to them. For instance, is it the reception venue, the bridal gown, or the entertainment that is most important? Maybe it's the wedding cake! You should choose roughly three or four items that are your top priorities and set the rest of your budget from there.


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