All the decisions about your wedding day will come down to a wedding budget. The magical number will not just leap from a hat. You will need determine who is paying for what and get creative to make it all work. These tips should help you make your wedding budget work to create the dream wedding you envision.
Determine Your Contributors
You will need to determine who will be paying for what. Traditionally, the bride's parents pay for the wedding, and the groom’s parents pay for the rehearsal dinner. Sometimes the groom’s family helps pay for the flowers and the bar. Sometimes the couple pays for it all without help from family. Your wedding budget will begin with conversations about numbers. Try to avoid going in debt for your wedding day. Once you have a solid number, you will need to utilize some creative wedding finance to make it work on paper.
Wedding Budget that Works
The wedding venue, guest count, catering and every aspect of your magical day will all come down to the wedding budget. The trick to having an extravagant wedding on a smaller budget is all about how you make your dollars work. Knowing how much you have to spend is essential to spending. Knowing how to spend is fundamental to creating the fairy tale. Calculate the essentials and everything you absolutely must have. Find your dream wedding dress and write down how much it will take to have it. Count your guests and tally up the catering costs for the experience you really want. Envision the cake, bouquet and photography. Think about your entertainment and the type of wedding experience you want to create. Make a list and note the cost. If you can spend less on favors and décor, you can spend more on the catering. Let’s consider some tricks to saving.
The Venue in the Wedding Budget
An all-inclusive wedding venue provides different upgrade options and the ability to customize your wedding, while including in-house designers to decorate the entire ceremony space and reception ballroom, bartender services, banquet staff, furnishings, china, linens, flowers, centerpieces and all of the décor. This saves you thousands of dollars by avoiding the need to rent items separately, and creates more room in the budget for other details.
Budgeting for Wedding Flowers
Create a realistic budget that has give. Be prepared to allocate between 6% and 10% of your total budget on the wedding flowers. The average cost of wedding flowers ranges from $2,000 to $5,000. How much you spend on your wedding flowers will depend on the types of blooms you choose and the amount of flowers you require to fill your space. Artificial flowers can be combined with fresh flowers to stretch the budget. Daisies and dahlias are usually less expensive choices. Roses, tulips, lilies and hydrangeas are in the mid-range. Peonies and orchids are usually among the most expensive flowers. It is important to note that a few expensive wedding flowers can produce better results than a dozen cheap ones.
Wedding Entertainment
The wedding entertainment you choose will create the experience on your wedding day. Unfortunately, the budget always wins. On average, couples allocate about ten percent of their budget on the wedding music. A live band exists on the opposite end of the cost spectrum as the DJ. They both play the same music, with a very different experience and associated price tag. Talent, popularity and time can drive the cost up or down for both. The average DJ costs between $800 and $2,000. In contrast, the average cost of a live band is between $2,500 and $6,000. Keep in mind that you can pay more or less for your talent. It is important to know whether there is a minimum number of hours required to book your talent. It can be cheaper to book talent through your wedding venue or a planner.
Budgeting for the Wedding Catering
While it is risky to base wedding catering solely upon the price of a plate, it will be a factor. Keep in mind that skimping in this area risks disaster on your wedding day. A professional caterer with a reputation will cost between $25 and $40 per plate on average. Catering can cost less or much more, depending on skill and reputation. Negotiate and customize your packages to receive the most savings. Having a drop-off service that works with the banquet staff at your wedding venue can deliver a superior dining experience for less. Drop-off service is not right for everyone. If you desire full-service wedding catering, your wedding venue will be able to recommend vendors with special packages to save you more.
Budgeting for the Wedding Cake
Baking a cake is a labor-intensive project. The size of the cake and the details will affect the cost. A larger cake is more expensive than a smaller one, since there are more materials and it takes more hours to bake and design it. Fondant is more expensive than buttercream. You should also consider the topper and other embellishments. The cost of a wedding cake is commonly calculated by the slice. The average cost is about $8 to $10 per slice. There are also fees associated with transportation of the cake to consider.
Crystal Ballroom at Sunset Harbor
Crystal Ballroom at Sunset Harbor is a luxurious wedding venue that makes the dream wedding affordable. All of the furnishings, designs and staff services are included to create the wedding of your dreams. Bring imagination to the design studio and choose your colors, décor, linens and fine china. Build your entire vendor team with Crystal Ballroom vendors and the assistance of the free concierge service. Plan with Crystal Ballroom and host your magical moments in a ballroom designed just for you.
