Budget

No one knows your budget except for you. A good budget is whatever you can afford. For me that might be $5k and for you it might be $45k. We figured out our budget by deciding what we were comfortable spending out of our savings at the time we got engaged, then deciding what we could realistically save each month and multiplying it by the number of months until the wedding.

My fiancé and I sat down and looked at what we thought our max amount we could spend would be and then worked from there. We also knew exactly which church we wanted for our ceremony and it was on the pricier side compared to our more casual taste for the rest of the wedding so we took our max amount and looked to see if we could afford that church and still have enough leftover using "standard" percentage breakdowns for a wedding budget that I found online

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There is just so much to do and so much saving to do. Because we just want it to be perfect but I understand comfortable spending cause some people will just spend 45k just because they saved up that much. I also heard some people will have a cheep wedding so they can have an expensive
honeymoon.

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I wish I knew where I wanted it, that would help me so much cause then I can have that in mind when I wanna spend money on everything else.

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After sitting down and determining a comfortable 'max' wedding budget between you and your FH, decided all the 'mini-budgets' as well. I created a max line item for everything, including every vendor, DIY project, etc. This includes some research into average vendors, and deciding what is a realistic price-point for all of these items. There are areas where you will save money, and then you can shift money over into another areas.

I would say $10,000-$20,000. Mine is in the end going to come out to about $13,000-$15,000.

Depends on what you are comfortable spending. We are doing a lot of stuff ourselves, to keep costs down. But, our reception will be a bit pricy but fun at the same time.

I had NO idea where to start either as far as budgeting. Our families are helping us pay and I wanted to be considerate without sacrificing the "wedding" feeling that I wanted. AKA I really didn't want to get married in the backyard AND that ended up being basically as expensive, if not more, than just booking a venue. My grandparents basically said I didn't have a budget but they do so much for me and I'm trying to be considerate of their finances. I would never take that as "have a 50k wedding!". I started out thinking I'd spend 5k for about 120 people. I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. My venue ended up being about 4k itself. My wedding will end up being AROUND 10k with everything.

So I'd say figure out sort of how much you want to spend (I can't imagine I'm even spending 10k because that seems ridiculous to me for a PARTY but it is what it is). And then start to look for venues that are AROUND that type of budget. Once I had the venue, everything else fell into place because I knew what style I was going for and sort of how much more I wanted to spend on other stuff.

You're going to have to adjust somewhat because things probably cost A LOT more than you think. I had complete SHOCK over the fact that a photographer for 8 hours was going to be $5000. I ended up finding one I love through a friend for $800. But my videographer is like $2000. So just shop around, get quotes from lots of people.

But you can't really book anything until you have a venue and a set date.

I agree with others that the "right" budget is what you can afford and WANT to spend on a wedding. At the same time, I understand it can be helpful to have an idea what you might be looking at. When daughter first got engaged, we Googled some of those "average cost of a wedding in ____" calculators. We definitely experienced sticker shock when the answer came back (we live in a high-cost, suburban/metropolitan area). At first we thought, no way, and started with a budget about 2/3 of the average, thinking that would work. After looking at venues, it became clear it wasn't enough. Luckily, FOG volunteered an amount that ended up being about 25% of the total, and we increased our contribution. When all was said and done, daughter & SIL's wedding, at a country club type venue, for 100 people on a Saturday night, was almost exactly the average we'd found 18 months earlier (not including honeymoon, their rings, and bridal party gifts). The wedding was absolutely lovely, but it was NOT over-the-top at all. Guest list, location, timing, etc., are all going to have a significant impact on your costs -- and, luckily, all can be adjusted to fit whatever your budget is. Good luck!

It can be so different for every person. I've been to a $3,000 budget wedding and a $55,000 wedding. It's more what you can afford.

Ours is $9,000.00 maximum. No ifs, ands, or buts. My parents offered to pay for it, and that was the budget set.

I looked at what I was ok with spending and then increased it after seeing our guest list and venue and food options.

Let me just start with...we set it at $15,000 and now we're at $35,000 LOLLLLLL! That's only because we hadn't done our research yet on how much stuff would actually cost. Do your research before you make any commitments. It's better to get an estimate of what everything cost before setting a budget in my opinion.

I say where you live will play a major part in your budget. I'm from Maryland and this is a very expensive state to get married in You'll need to look at if your venue has a "preferred" list of vendors that you'll have to use (these vendors are normally on the pricey side) or if it's all inclusive (includes tables, chairs, food, cake and drinks - good for your pockets) or allows an outside caterer (also good for your pockets)

Officiates are anywhere between $200 - $800

DJ/Singers or entertainment period $1,500 - $3000 (all depends on what your looking for)

Flowers: a billion dollars lol j/k but skip them if you can

Try getting a package deal with both video and photography - we have a combo for $4500 and it includes 2 photographers and 2 videographers for 8 hrs. of coverage, a full video, a trailer video, a photo book with 20 pictures and an engagement shoot. I thought this was a sweet deal.

Looking for a dress under $3K

So.....it really alllll depends on many factors. Finding your venue and caterer should be top priority!!!!! They'll eat up 50% of whatever you have saved. Pick your top 3 must haves and let everything else fall into place. Have fun with it!

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Yes, knowing how much the venue was going to cost was a big factor in our overall budget. I just did a bunch of research on places I was considering. Once we did some tours, and picked our place, then we could craft a more realistic budget. But we did what most others do, and calculate the amount of money we'd be able to save each month, and multiplied that times the number of months before the wedding. That became our budget. Trying to come in under it by cutting costs where we can. No floral decor (very expensive!), DIY some other stuff, and tried to find the best deals on everything.

It's a cross between what you want, how many guests, and what you can reasonably save between now and when you plan on getting married.
For me it was casual, 65 people, and $10k.
Everyones different so do some research on vendors online, look at the average prices listed on WW and calculate what your ~dream wedding~ would cost.
Then decide if you could afford it, and are comfortable paying that. If not then think about what's important to you for a wedding and start there.