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Wedding Budgeting Tips

At the Wedding Genie we are committed to helping couples start married life with a strong foundation. We really hate it when we hear how the wedding budget escalated, and the day after the wedding couples are hit by the reality of a huge debt that is going to take months, or even years to pay off. We ran this blog last year so we thought for anyone who has recently become engaged, Congratulations! it would be very useful. We have added a few more tips to help.

To start you off here are our top tips for planning and managing the finance, how to keep track of it and ideas on how to save.

• Where is the money coming from? – Who is paying for the wedding? - You may have savings that can be used for the wedding budget, but often most couples don’t have enough for the whole wedding. Your parents may want to contribute so now is the time to tactfully ask them. Once you announce your engagement I am sure they will have started to think about how you will finance the wedding, so this conversation won’t be a surprise to them. If they are worried about how much they want to give, you can suggest they pay for certain items perhaps the photography, the dress or the cake. It is sometimes better to get them to contribute to these areas rather than the reception, that way you will have more control over the guest list and food etc.
• Open a separate Bank Account - This way you can identify exactly how much cash you have at anytime. Keeping it separate from your normal household account will encourage you not to spend it. At the moment the interest rates are very low and there is not a great return on your savings, but there are some deals around to entice you with short-term bonuses that offer a good rate of interest. Always check how long these special deals run so you can move your account when they are over.  Perhaps if you are getting married in the next twelve to eighteen months it may well be worth taking out an ISA. This is a savings account where the interest on your savings is tax free. The allowance is £3,600 cash per year each. It can go up to £7,200 if you have stocks and shares. Take a look at The Money Saving Expert for the best deals and tips on saving. There is also a great budget calculator that Saffron Building Society have set up to help work out what you spend. It then calculates automatically what you left, therefore how much you can save each month. Their Wedding Saver Account is guaranteed to be in the best 10 available in the online market.
• Save Regularly Each Month - Set up a standing order so you know for sure the money is going into your savings each month. It will really help when you see your money start to grow. Work out what you can save comfortably, that way you will be more inclined to leave it in the bank, and not spend it because you have left yourselves too short.
• Cutting down on some everyday spending can boost your savings – For instance buying coffee everyday really adds up. A latte can cost around £1.80 and if you buy three a week thats £5.40, over a month its £21.60 and over a year its a whopping £259.20. You can take your own lunch to work to cut down costs, and if you go out for dinner a couple of times a month, cut this down to once.
• Wedding Magazines – These are quite addictive and very expensive, if you want to splurge, choose your favourite and not two or three different types. Your friends may have just got married and they may have some to loan you.
• Set up a Spreadsheet to keep track – If you are computer savvy set up a simple spreadsheet split up into all the areas of cost such as, photography, cake, dress, reception, stationery etc. Apply the amount you want to spend against each item, total everything so you can see what the budget is. If you do not use a computer do the same in a notebook. Keep all of your receipts so you know exactly what you have spent, and keep an eye on when payments are due. Don’t forget you won’t have to pay for everything all at once so you will have time to save. A deposit is generally needed in the early days to secure a supplier, then payments are split according to time frames set out by the terms and conditions of your suppliers.
• List and Stick to your priorities - If you read our blog regularly you know we talk about setting your priorities and writing them down. Keep them with you. When you want to start spending get them out and look at what they are then compare them to what you are about to buy. Do you really need the item and is it a priority?

These are just a few ways of tackling your budget. We cannot stress highly enough the importance of working out your budget and most of all writing it down. In the cold light of day the figures you have been thinking of may add up to much more than you thought.

For more information on budgeting read our tips and advice or call us to see if we can help with our budgeting service. A new pair of eyes is often all it needs to look at your budget from a different perspective. I guarantee we can find ways of helping you save money and perhaps moving funds around so that photographer you really wanted is affordable.

If you have any ideas for saving or tips let us know and we will post them on our blog.

Until next time, happy planning.

Tags: Budgeting, Planning, Tips & Advice

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 09:00 and is filed under Budgeting, Tips & Advice, Wedding Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.