While we all wish we could throw the most lavish and extravagant wedding of our dreams, the fact of the matter is we are all held back by a budget. Planning your special day would be hard enough if everything was free, but once you factor in the constraints of working within a certain dollar amount, the task can seem completely overwhelming. Here are some tips to help you reign in your budget so you can spend on what really matters to you.
The first thing you need to do is decide where your priorities are. What's most important for you to have at the event? This is going to be a very different answer for everyone. It doesn't matter specifically what is important to you, as long as you know what it is and stick to your guns. Obviously if the things that are important to you are completely out of your price range you'll need to compromise, but otherwise you should put your top priorities first. Explain what they are to your planner, explain what they are to your partner, and find out what his or her top priorities are. These will be your guide post through the rest of the process.
From there on out, you'll know where you can save money. Some people decide that they are going to save money by having a smaller event. Deciding to have fewer people at the special day makes just about every aspect of it cheaper. You can select a smaller venue, you don't have to spend as much on the reception as there are fewer mouths to feed. Most of the costs of a wedding are per capita costs, and reducing the heads there will make a big difference, especially if you have expensive tastes. It's a lot cheaper to give 30 people wedding guest favors than to shell out for enough wedding party favors for 200.
While it's nice to have everyone and anyone who was ever important to you there to watch you get married, it just isn't so essential these days. With the internet and its ability to spread photos and videos of anything across any distance, you can feel a little better about only inviting your closest kin. Everyone else will at least be able to see the event and have some small part in it.
There are plenty of other areas of the day where you can cut corners. Go ahead and hire a nice caterer, but resist the urge to only order the most expensive dishes they have. Get a smaller cake instead of a multi-tiered monster. Don't hire limousines to escort you around- your wedding takes place in one spot, and no one really cares what car you were in for the 15 minutes it took to arrive at your destination. Hire a DJ or have a friend DJ instead of hiring a large live band.
There are tons of places where you can spend less on your special day, provided you know from the beginning what's most important for you to splurge on. When it comes down to it, your wedding is just about the union of you and your partner, it isn't about the decorations. Anyone who is special enough to invite to your wedding should understand that and not look down on you for scrimping when you need to.
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