There are several pieces to the pie that someone may pay for, so you don’t have to include that in your total budget. For example, maybe your parents have given you money for your wedding, but they want to also pay for your dress and aren’t considering that as an item you need to include in your budget. Or maybe you have a relative who hasn’t given you money for your wedding but wants to pay for your cake.
Use Table 3-4 as a guide to help you set up an Excel file that will include all your wedding budget needs, how much each vendor costs, payments made, the date of those payments, the remaining balance due, and your total budget. The reason to do this in an electronic form is so that you can adjust the budget as needed based on your specific requirements.
TABLE 3-4 Sample Budget in Excel
| Total | $40,000 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Cost | Paid | Date Paid | Balance | Due Date | ||
| Planner | $5,000 | $2,500 | M-D-Y | $2,500 | M-D-Y | ||
| Venue | $8,000 | $4,000 | M-D-Y | $4,000 | M-D-Y | ||
| Florist | $2,500 | $1,250 | M-D-Y | $1,250 | M-D-Y | ||
| Photographer | $5,000 | $2,500 | M-D-Y | $2,500 | M-D-Y | ||
| Videographer | $3,000 | $1,500 | M-D-Y | $1,500 | M-D-Y | ||
| Baker | $1,200 | $600 | M-D-Y | $600 | M-D-Y | ||
| Entertainment | $2,300 | $1,150 | M-D-Y | $1,150 | M-D-Y | ||
| Transportation | $1,000 | $500 | M-D-Y | $500 | M-D-Y | ||
| Caterer | $6,000 | $3,000 | M-D-Y | $3,000 | M-D-Y | ||
| Rentals | $3,500 | $1,750 | M-D-Y | $1,750 | M-D-Y | ||
| Over/Under | |||||||
| Total | $37,500 | $18,750 | $18,750 | $2,500 |
Percentages of how much you should spend per item do not hold as much clout as they did in the past. Remember, the key is to consider what is most important to you and your fiancé. Table 3-5 is designed to serve as a guide, to give you a general idea of how much you should spend on each category. It’s not going to fit you exactly, so if you don’t need an item, allocate that percentage to something important to you. The categories are set up to be very vague so that everything under that category fits within the percentage.
TABLE 3-5 Budget Percentages
| Item | Percentage of Budget |
|---|---|
| Wedding planner | 10% |
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