Its a general consensus that weddings can be expensive! Although they do not have to be. Everyone's definition of expensive or low cost is different but for you and your finance, the definition has to be the same, at least for the wedding.
To control and keep things organized, you both NEED to sit and create a budget.
Budgeting is very important for your wedding. You want to be very sure that you have enough money to make this a special occasion and not run up huge bills that will be hard for you and your finance to manage.
There should be a total budget that breaks down into the various categories. List your expenses to estimate better. Your biggest expenses will directly be linked to the number of guests that will be attending such as the venue, catering, and wedding cake provider. Thus creating a total max amount of guests you wish to attend and deciding on the max per person cost you and our finance can afford is crucial.
Next you'll want to list all of your other expenses and when I say all, I mean ALL. Down to the smallest item you need to purchase, should be included on your list. This will be your guide to staying on track with the total budget.
Now, your budget should be realistic. You may want to pay $200 for flower arrangements but that might not, well that is not realistic unless someone you know is giving you a huge discount. Do some research in regards to how much bakers, dj's , caterers, venue's etc are in your area. Decide on an budget for each service and shop around when deciding on who you're actually going to go with. Facebook bridal groups and bridal expos are a great resource for finding wedding vendors.
At some point during the planning, you may find yourself switching the budget around. Some couples will value putting more money into one service than the other or find a less expensive service for a certain aspect of the wedding which allows them to either spend the extra money in another area or count it as a savings.
With all the moving parts and the many costs, having a budget an sticking to it will save you stress down the road, and you definitely want that because wedding planning can be a looooong road.
I find using excel is a great tool for creating a budget and is easy to make changes to, and can recalculate columns and rows easily. Having a ready-made wedding binder can also help because they typically have the expense categories already laid out for you which lessens the change of forgetting to add something to the list.
Happy Wedding Panning!
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