How to Keep Your Wedding Budget on Track
It’s very easy to get caught up in wedding fever when planning your big day and even easier to lose track of all the spending that comes with it. One of the easiest ways to keep track of your budget is to use a comprehensive wedding budget spreadsheet where you can note all of your wedding expenses. Here we explain how to use your spreadsheet to monitor your wedding budget and provide some helpful tips to ensure you stay on top of your wedding spending.
How to keep your wedding budget on track
Setting Your Wedding Budget
Before you begin creating your budget you should know your wedding priorities. Is your dream venue more important to you than wedding transportation? Or have you always envisioned that dress and are less concerned about your centerpieces? Whatever the case may be it is important that you have a little extra room in your budget to cover for these non-negotiable items.
Leave some wiggle room
As part of creating your wedding budget you should leave some room to move – a safety net of sorts. It’s a good thing to do just in case any unexpected cost arises- perhaps you change your mind on something or a particular priority item is more expensive than you had initially anticipated. Having this buffer within your budget will help ensure you don’t stray too much and exceed your budget limitations. It’s also wise to not think of this safety net when you begin planning. For instance if you have a wedding budget of $30,000 organise your wedding as if you actually only have $25,000. Having this mentality will make a dramatic difference to your wedding expenditure and will help to ensure you don’t go over budget.
Managing Your Wedding Budget Spreadsheet
It is important to add every cost to your spreadsheet through each step of the planning process. This way you can closely monitor exactly what you are spending. Without doing this some brides have been known to only realize the extent of their spending overage in the last few weeks leading up to the big day when final payments need to be made.
Itemize your expenses
It’s a wise idea to itemize everything on the spreadsheet as opposed to having broad categories for each component of the wedding. For example instead of just having wedding invitations and stationery, be sure to detail every part of your stationery set like so: invites, thank you cards, RSVP cards, Place Cards, postage etc. You’ll be surprised at just how much you will spend on stamps when sending out your invites!
Reallocate any extra funds
As soon as a category changes from an estimated cost to an actual cost make sure this is reflected in your spreadsheet, ensuring you are taking note of the prices. By keeping track of your expenses you may find you spend less on certain items than you originally budgeted for, which means that you can transfer those extra funds into other aspects of the wedding, knowing exactly how much you have left to spend. On the flip side you might find that you have spent more than you initially budgeted for in certain areas which will result in you having to make cutbacks elsewhere or dip into the safety net of money put aside for such circumstances as mentioned above. You should always have a backup plan, be it a cheaper DJ or DIY decorations in the instance that you do go over budget.
Keep hard copies to keep track
Make sure that you are always asking for receipts, because there is so much happening and so many different costs all at once you can easily forget the exact amount you have spent on certain items. By asking for receipts/invoices you will erase the need to rely on your memory for how much you are spending and where.
