Five ways to make your wedding budget work with your design vision

You can have a beautiful wedding that is within your means.

Let me say it again. You can have a beautiful wedding that is within your means.

My husband and I like to refer to it not as the “best day,” but rather as the “first day” of what will be a lifelong love and commitment. Just because it’s your big day doesn’t mean you need to add financial stress to your planning process or start off your newlywed life in debt. Weddings are full of emotionally charged decisions, and finances are almost always an emotional pain point. Put the two together, and it could really be a recipe for, I don’t want to say “disaster,” but maybe something along those lines.

Early on in the planning process, determine who is contributing financially to your wedding, what your budget number is, and if there is any divvying up to be done, establish those roles clearly. Having a clear, solid budget and game plan will allow you to spend the money where it’s needed and will create a stress-free process for all involved.

Here are a few tips to align your budget number with your wedding vision, giving you all that you could ever dream of — and then some — on your wedding day:

Cut your guest list down — and yes, I know this is easier said than done. Paring down the number of guests allows you to increase the quality of their overall experience. You can opt for more expensive catering and bar options, fill the space with more blooms, add in premium furniture rentals—really, whatever your heart desires. There’s also something really wonderful about a smaller, more intimate wedding, but that is a blog post in itself. 

But I do understand that some couples may not be able to budge on their number. It’s your one day, and if you’ve had your heart set on having a large wedding or having all of your people there, you might not have much fat to trim, and that’s okay. It’s all about personal preferences and priorities, which brings me to my next point…  

Identify your priorities — or otherwise put, your non-negotiables. This is essential for choosing how to allocate your budget when it comes to your vendors, based on the services that are most important to you. Writing down your list and identifying your top three vendors can be a helpful way to understand your priorities visually. It creates a totem pole of sorts to book top people in your top categories and then fill in the vendors accordingly as you go down the list. For example: photography, florals, and venue could be most important to you, so you devote a little more in your budget to fulfilling those slots. This doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice quality in other areas though, it just may mean that you don’t allocate additional funds for those other vendors.
* Pro-tip: Having a wedding planner really helps with this tip though, because they can make vendor recommendations and detail your budget to reflect your priorities. Adding the expense in this area can in turn save you expenses in other areas and provide you with the value of a solid vendor team.

Disclaimer: This is just a sample version of how a wedding budget could be broken down — it is not a “one size fits all” thing. Working with a planner can help you to determine and manipulate your budget, based on your preferences.

When booking your venue, consider multiple days of the week. Saturday is not the only day of the week for weddings, and there are actually a few noteworthy perks of choosing a different day, the first of which being the price break that comes with booking on days that aren’t “peak days” or in “peak seasons.” This means you could secure a discounted price for a wedding on a Friday or Sunday, and for some venues, a discount for certain months if they aren’t as popular. (Think getting married in Texas, OUTSIDE, in August—all I can say is hot and humid!) You’re still getting married at the venue of your dreams, and the experience does not change depending on the day.

The second perk to picking a date that’s not a Saturday is the possibility of having better vendor availability. Think about it. You’re not competing with nearly as many people to book the most sought-after hair and makeup team or catering company. Stretch your budget and have no trouble booking your dream team— sounds like a win to me.

Reuse floral arrangements and opt for greenery. If a big bouquet of blooms doesn’t top your priority list, find ways to work floral arrangements from your ceremony into your reception space. Many florists are already thinking this way, and some even take care of the labor part of it (and if they don’t, your planner might). Also think about incorporating more greenery, maybe on tables that guests will pass (like your welcome table or your cards/gifts table), or into focal points (think greenery hanging from the chandeliers in a reception hall). You can fill the space in a more cost-effective manner this way and also save the tears when you throw it all out at the end of the night.

Pictured: A repurposed floral arrangement. First, as decor for the aisle in the chapel, then atop a table in the reception hall.

Photo by Courtney Leigh Photography.

Don’t say “yes” to everything. When I hit creative blocks and had a hard time making design decisions during my own planning process, it typically boiled down to overcomplicating things. Social media makes inspiration, and comparison, readily available and can feed the idea that you need to have X, Y, and Z in order for your day to be beautiful. I’ll be the one to tell you that just isn’t true. Think about it this way: What do you want to remember after the day is done? If there is something that you feel like you need, why do you think that you need it? Maybe because you think it will elevate the guest experience, maybe because you think it will make for a pretty picture? I asked myself these same questions. I found that when I got down to the bottom of why I felt like I needed it, and then asked myself if it was going to be one of the things that I would truly remember from the day it simplified my thinking and gave me clarity on what really mattered to me. That’s the thing: This is about you and your love, and you have full permission to make the choices that are right for your wedding day. Once it’s come and gone, you’ll be glad that you did.

For me, that last tip was what I needed to hear as a bride-to-be. The best thing you can do for yourself as you plan is stay true to who you are and what you really want in your heart of hearts. Identify what really matters to you, and don’t be afraid to stick to your guns. 

— LNC