Budgeting

I was watching a show on a Disney World dream wedding the other day. I thought it was such a wonderful event, with everything from a carriage ride to the chapel to individual wedding cakes for each guest with a castle topper. The shock came when I heard the final price, $70,000.

You can spend a tremendous amount on making your day something that will never be forgotten. A designer wedding gown can cost $30,000 alone. Unfortunately not all of us have that kind of disposable income or have our own kingdoms to tax for the costs.

There's nothing worse than starting out your new life heavily in debt. And among break-ups, finance is cited as the leading cause.

It's great to dream about a Cinderella wedding ceremony, but that doesn't mean you have to sell your future for it. With all the different companies and vendors trying to sell you everything from gowns to release doves it's easy to spend more than you'd ever realized or planned for.

A sane plan for a wedding starts with setting a budget and staying at least close to it. A budget should be flexible and gone over frequently to ensure that there aren't any surprises at the end. With today's spreadsheets, accounting programs, and wedding software programs it's easy to track all the different expenses and changes.

The first step is to get an idea of how much you want to spend in total. This would be a total of your budget, family donations, and a guestimate of what guests will contribute.

Once you've set the budget, then you have to sit down and decide where you want to spend your money. Make a list of all the different costs you can imagine for your wedding. Items would look like:
gown
flowers
cake
planner
reception hall
officiate
photographer
rings
guest book
carriage

Then prioritize your list, putting must haves (like a wedding officiate) at the top, then putting lower and lower priority items (like hand calligraphy for invitations) at the bottom. If you have money left over at the end, you can always move items up.

Don't put down costs yet, just list everything that you might want (and seems realistic).

Once you have a your list then start going down your list, assigning a cost and subtracting the amount from your total. As you negotiate each item, the more you save the more money you can keep or move to something else.

We'll try and help you in that effort as we add in tips here. We want you to have a great, beautiful, elegant wedding.

In the mean time you should start making a list of everyone you just have to invite. This will be your family, his (or her) family, family you have to invite for your parents, and those friends that have shared everything else in your life.

There will be costs that vary depending on how many people you invite, and we'll plan for the people you must invite first. Then, when we're finished, if there's money left over you can think about inviting more people.

A budget will be broken into three different areas. There are fixed costs and variable costs in the wedding. On top of that plan for a flexible budget that covers unexpected costs.

Fixed costs are those items that will stay the same, no matter how many people you invite. You want to start by budgeting for these costs first. Here are some examples of some of these costs.

• The bridal gown
• Bouquets
• Limousines
• Wedding Cake (Bride and groom, wedding party, and a layer to freeze)
• Officiate
• DJ
• Band
• Reception Location (though this may jump depending on guests. 50 - 70, 80 -150, 200 - 300)
• Photographer
• Videographer
• Wedding party gifts
• Hotels
• Cleaning costs
• Guest book and pen

Then there are the costs that vary depending on how many guests you invite. We'll start with a price per guest for the required guests, then you can add in more guests if you feel it's within your budget.

• Meals
• Hors d'oeuvres
• Champagne for toasts
• Bar
• Table decorations
• Table cameras
• Tables
• Chairs
• Tablecloths
• Ice

You can prioritize these areas even more by breaking them into fleeting and permanent. Don't skimp too much on the photographer by asking Uncle Joe to take photos. The photographs go in to wallets, hang on walls, sit on your coffee table, and are mailed to special guests to say thank you. We'll talk more about this later.

Flowers are beautiful and add that extra dimension to your wedding. But they are fleeting and will be carried out to be forgotten before the dancing is over.

Be sure and leave 10% - 20% of your budget for unexpected costs.

We've talked about some cost savings like purchasing your bridal gown at outlet stores in Jessica McClintock San Francisco . We'll talk about other ways to save in the future.

Don't forget to enlist volunteers for some of these tasks. For instance there are church groups that cater weddings for members.

Also be aware that some reception venues like Temples have a required list of vendors so you won't have much opportunity to change these costs if you contract their location.

This isn't fun. But being firm here is one of the most important steps in starting your new life. There will be lots of unexpected costs in the future, and by starting out on the right foot and being prepared you'll set a foundation you can use the rest of your life.