Planning Your Own Wedding? Make Sure To Start It Off Right With These Steps!
Whenever I do internet searches or questions regarding “planning a wedding on a budget”, I usually bring up a lot of information about tips on saving money like booking off-season, not booking on Saturday night, etc. What I don’t see a lot of is tips on the actual planning and organizational part of the wedding. While I really like those list of money saving tips, to me the actual planning a wedding and staying organized from the very start goes a long way on also planning your wedding to stay on budget!
So this article is much more important than a list of money saving tips. You should think of this article as planning help for you to really stay organized AND stay sane!!
So let’s start! Here are the materials you will need:
* a three ring binder (white or black is fine)
* a three ring hole punch, as you will find many materials will not have holes in them! Who would have thought?
* dividers for your binder, preferably color tabs, preferably already punched!
* a label maker will definitely come in handy, especially if you want others to be able to read your notebook.
Start labeling the dividers appropriately – this alone will help you really get organized.
Dividers you might need for example would be: budget, wedding checklist, wedding time-line, ceremony venue, reception venue, catering, favors, bridal gown, groom tuxedo, and so forth.
Now here’s one important key. There are TONS of planning guides and binders available. If you already bought one or were given something “fancy” like this to use, feel free to use it. I prefer the normal office binders over wedding binders. This is subtle but makes a difference in my experience and here’s the important key: When it comes to planning, of course you have to be organized. You also have to, when trying to stick to planning on a budget, think of it more like a business and not something to get emotionally involved in.
Let me reiterate: Think of planning your big day like planning a business project
I know this is tough, because wedding should be fun to plan and be emotionally involved in. It is your dream day! But if you need to stay on a budget, for example if you need to keep under $10,000 instead of the $30,000 average cost, you need to know that being emotionally involved in your big day is what gives vendors allowance to boost their prices. In fact vendors can boost their prices as much as 200% for events that have the word “wedding” in them as opposed to a, for lack of a better term, “normal” event.
Statistics say that the average price of spent is around $30,000. But I think this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Brides here this, and then think this much must be budgeted and then the over-inflated prices continue to be paid. If you can think of your planning as a project on a business budget, you will definitely have a better chance to stay on budget. This is also why I like the plain binder. Every time you open it, it is a reminder to yourself to stay rational on budgeting. Hey, every little hint and reminder will help!
The closing point is that you need a “business-like” organizational system from the start on your budget. If this isn’t you, find a friend that can help you with this from the start. It will definitely help you stay organized, sane, and on budget.
That’s it. The rest, after you have the binder set up, will actually all come into place naturally. Good luck on planning your wedding!