Recently engaged and not sure where to begin with your wedding planning? Our top tips for getting you off on the right foot… set your budget and book your date at The Hutton House! This month, our guest blogger, Hannah Rein of Financially Engaged, is sharing her advice on how to establish a budget for your wedding.
Image by Decora Topp Photography
Guest Blogger: Hannah Rein of Financially Engaged
Hey there, I’m Hannah!
CPA, financial educator, dog lover & married to my best friend. Figuring out how to make your money work for you is tough. Add another person to the mix and it can be a never-ending headache. That’s why my husband, Brady, and I created Financially Engaged – to help people, especially young couples, who are eager to make the right choices with their money but don’t know where to start!
I get it. . . while personal finance interests me, it’s not the case for most people. In fact, it’s usually an uncomfortable, uninteresting area of life that becomes all too easy to ignore.
So I’ve done the heavy lifting for you. I’ve scoured the web, read the books, built the tools, and tested the systems. I’m here to make the process as simple and painless as possible.
Image by Trish Allison Photography
My goal is to help couples navigate life’s major events by sharing our own journey. I want to help you live your best life with fewer regrets, better results, and more time to focus on what truly matters. I hope you’ll choose to follow along and become financially engaged!
Financially Engaged’s Top Tips On Budgeting For Your Wedding
You may feel pressured to race forward and lock down your favorite vendors and venue, before you lose them to other couples, but if you haven’t figured out the wedding funds you have to work with, you can find yourself in a big hole faster than you can imagine. The last thing you want to do is start your marriage stressed out by the burden of new debt that was taken out to fund your wedding.
No more feeling lost! Let’s walk through how to budget for your wedding, together!
Step 1
Let’s start by communicating with your partner about how much money you both have to contribute to the wedding, in case you need it.
Image by Whitley Sander Photography
STEP 2
Figure out how much your family or loved ones are willing to contribute. Money is an extremely sensitive topic for everyone. Your families probably want to help you out, but everyone comes from different backgrounds and financial situations. Some families have the ability to contribute and others don’t. A few tips to help these conversations go smoother:
- Be proactive and ask your family early so they have enough time to set money aside.
- Have separate conversations with each family to not make anyone feel pressured.
- If you get any financial or non-financial support, be appreciative! Don’t lose sight of the real meaning of the day.
Image by Marit Williams Photography
Now, add up the funds that you’re willing to contribute to the wedding and any other funds that you’ll be receiving from other parties. This gives you the TOTAL amount that you can spend on your wedding.
STEP 3
Now that you’re fully aware of the total funds you have to spend on your wedding, it’s time to agree on your top 5 priorities! Such as an amazing venue like The Hutton House, the approximate number of guests you want to invite, your photographer or videographer, and whether you want a DJ or a band.
Whatever you choose, make sure to keep your five most important aspects in mind when deciding how to allocate your wedding funds.
Image by Lahzeh Photography
STEP 4
Allocate the remaining wedding funds to all other anticipated wedding costs. We like to keep a buffer of 5%-10% to account for costs that pop up at the last minute, like dress alterations and tips for vendors.
Image by Mackenzie Orth Photography
Need a little help getting started?
If you need a little help getting started with your budget planning, we just created a brand new Wedding Budget for you to use! Visit our Financially Engaged Etsy shop to check it out.
A few favorite features of our new Wedding Budget include:
- It’s created in Google Sheets so both you AND your partner can access it on-the-go.
- There’s a place for you to track all of the money you have available to spend.
- It comes with an exhaustive list of possible expenses you could incur so unexpected costs don’t sneak up on you.
- It does all the math for you – phew!
- And it is seriously the cutest wedding budget you’ll ever see (obviously the most important part)!
Image by Lily Lancaster Photography
Happy Wedding Planning,
Hannah
SEE MORE: The Hutton House team is here, not only to help with your wedding venue planning, but to guide you through this exciting time and provide inspiration and recommendations to make your experience as seamless as possible. For more, be sure to visit our website, find us on Instagram and Pinterest, or subscribe to our newsletter!
