Wedding Social Networking, Wedding Shop Online: average wedding budget

Maximizing Your Wedding Budget

By Jeanette Shinn

Depending on the expert you read, recent estimates tell us that the average North American couple's wedding budget is more than $22,000 (and many estimates place the total north of $26,000!) on the wedding ceremony and reception whether they realize it or not. If they have the money to spend on such an event without putting themselves in financial jeopardy, more power to them. With that kind of wedding budget they could do so very much. They could build a wedding event that is much more than most brides ever achieve. However, if the money is not there...

Or if they have the money for that kind of wedding budget but could make better use of it some other way... To buy that first house... to start a college fund for the children... to pay off their own college loans... to have a more memorable honeymoon... to start a business... whatever the reason!

Can you have a memorable, striking wedding for less money?

Of course.

All that is needed is a little research of the wedding industry, some prioritizing on the wedding budget, and a commitment to planning rather than simply gathering for a dream wedding to come together that is truly as unique as the people involved.

This works because most brides make the mistake of panicking themselves into simply gathering the decorative touches they have seen in other weddings rather than planning. As a result they end up purchasing elements that do not really fit the wedding they are trying to put together.

A second reason this approach to wedding planning works is simply that by not understanding how the wedding industry works they end up blowing their wedding budget as a result. This takes a little time when time is precious, but it is worth it to understand what is reasonable to expect of each wedding professional and what is not. If you work with the wedding professional you will normally end up getting more for your money than if you put yourself in an adversarial role with them.

So take the time to plan out the wedding of your dreams. Think through the different options to make it happen. Some methods will be more expensive than others. Choose carefully. Not all options are equal. Often the less expensive method can work as well.

In the meantime, here are ten simple, yet practical suggestions that can help save a lot of money when planning a wedding:

1) Borrow or rent that wedding dress that will only be worn once
2) Have attendants bring their digital cameras to the hair salon rather than paying a photographer to follow you around all day
3) Reduce the number of guests
4) Limit the number of attendants
5) Hold the wedding and reception on a family member's property to save the cost of venue rental
6) Use locally grown flowers that are in season
7) Resist the pressure to commission both an ice sculpture and a wedding cake - both are designed to be a design focal point for the reception and two focal points do not work in any decor. Choose.
8) Use grazing stations filled with favorite delicacies instead of a sit-down dinner
9) Have an alcohol-free receptions. If you have to have bar, have a cash bar, or close the bar during dinner
10) Consider an off-season wedding (November through April) to reduce venue costs

There is nothing wrong with wanting to mount a wedding that all will look back on with fondness. Plan. Dream. Shoot for the grandest wedding celebration you can manage. But always remember that there is everything right with being wise in the use of your wedding budget.

How to Prepare Your Wedding Budget

CLICK HERE TO A FREE WEDDING BUDGET WORKSHEET

(plus the average estimated cost for a wedding reception by year for Fresno area weddings below article)

by: Veronica Champigny

The single most important action that must be taken when you are ready to begin planning your wedding is to prepare your wedding budget. Your wedding budget is important because it is impossible to know what you can afford for each part of the wedding if you don't limit yourself to the overall spending costs. For most people, preparing a wedding budget is one of the hardest tasks to be done before the wedding because almost everyone wants to have the nicest and most memorable wedding that they can afford.

Sometimes, parents will not pay for the wedding but will pay for the honeymoon instead. This makes preparing your own wedding budget very important; especially if you are paying for both the wedding and the honeymoon yourself. These days, 4 out of 5 couples pay for their own wedding so it helps to know how your budget should be broken down. When starting to prepare your wedding budget, you will first begin with the overall amount that you can afford to spend. The average wedding today costs around $20,000.

Now you will need to take that starting amount and apply it to an actual separate dollar amount. If you are not good at percentages, you can always utilize the internet and check with the various websites that offer you free or cheap wedding budget calculators that will do it for you. With these calculators, all you have to do is give it the total budget amount and then it will calculate for you how much money in dollars you will have to spend on each aspect of your wedding.

Once you have figured out the dollar amount that you can spend on each aspect of your wedding, you can then begin to create a chart that will itemize the list for you. The following is a list of areas that should be included in your chart: Wedding Reception Venue, Wedding Ceremony Venue, Professional Photographer/Videographer, Catering, Wedding Rings, Wedding Dress, Tuxedo, Music, Flowers, Honeymoon, Miscellaneous, and Decorations.

What this list is meant to show you are the areas you need to give consideration the most to in your planning. You have to make a list of all of the things that you will need to get in order to complete the above list. This is necessary in order to know if what you dream of can even be afforded within your set budget. If it can't, you will have to do any or all of the following: Lower the guest list, Forego some of the services, Lessen the wedding party, or Forget the extras like limos.

Remember starting with the preparation of an objective and realistic wedding budget is the first important action you must take in order to beging the planning stage of your wedding successfully.

SAMPLE BELOW - YOU CAN GET FREE ACCESS TO THE FULL PDF BY GOING HERE (your valid email address is required, details on what your information will be used for can be seen near the top of the form)