The Digerati Life

Photo by Hannita

What’s hot right now? Other than the uncharacteristically scorching heat waves we’ve been experiencing recently, it’s weddings, of course. But I can also imagine just how hot a poor bride must be feeling under all that fabric she carries and drags around during the sizzling days of summer.

For the most part, those days are over for us — we’re over the age when we’re required to attend our particular generation’s weddings. Unless you count 2^nd trips down the altar . But it hasn’t stopped me from checking out the latest on wedding trends, as I secretly enjoy planning pretty celebrations of the sort. I am slightly envious of a few old friends who’ve gotten into the event planning business and who craft elaborate wedding parties for a living. It sounds stressful but it’s a dream business for the creative type, and if everything goes well, can be fulfilling, festive and lucrative too!

How Much Does A Wedding Cost?

Just see how wedding costs have increased over the years — I got these figures from various wedding articles across the web (including this source). From these reported numbers, it appears that wedding budgets increase at the rate of approximately 3% to 4% a year.

Though it seems that fewer people are getting married these days, the wedding budget has increased. Specifically, the average wedding budget has increased by around 75% over a span of 15 years, and has close to doubled in 18 years.

So wedding inflation is alive and well! The reason? The market can bear it: the average age of folks getting married nowadays has climbed. While people used to marry in their early 20’s, they now wait till they’re almost 30 before they tie the knot.

Itemizing The Wedding Budget

I found this cost breakdown for some typical albeit weighty wedding budgets:

Table from Smart Money

That’s a lot of moolah for a one day event! As we’ve already shown, the cost of a wedding this year hovers around $28,700, which is the national average. So depending on where you’re based, your wedding could cost a lot more….or less.

Where I live, I get these rather insane statistics, showing an even wider discrepancy between the low and high end budgets as provided by this Cost of Wedding web site:

On average, couples in my neck of the woods spend between $24,908 - $74,723 for their wedding. This does not include the costs for a honeymoon or engagement ring.

Say what?! Almost $25,000 for the cheapest wedding around here? And $74,723 for any sort of wedding seems unheard of (well, except in the East Coast…). I’m not even sure how the cost of living around here can possibly explain these figures. Nope, can’t blame it all on cost of living. It’s about demand: maybe the ghost of the dot com boom still permeates this region to some degree.

In general, people normally start off with a budget that is 50% less than what they end up spending for their big day, according to the Cost of Wedding site. Seems like people need a better way to budget more accurately, or maybe they’ll need to try harder to stick to their budget!

Basic Budgeting Rules For Your Wedding

Okay so now that I’ve picked up my jaw from the ground (no thanks to those crazy cost figures), how about a few suggestions to help with the wedding planning process?

#1 Set expectations and be realistic.

If you’re like most people, you’d care about saving money on your wedding. Who wouldn’t want to have a dream wedding that was also affordable at the same time? So it’s often the case that when nuptials are being planned, wedding budgets are first set to an admirably low number. But as the preparations move along, that budget often grows…and grows…and grows.

To develop a more accurate budget that you’ll be able to stick to, it’s a good idea to canvas brick-and-mortar, online and even printed wedding resources (stores, web sites, bridal shows and events, magazines) for ideas, and to get a feel for how much things could really cost you before you even start writing down numbers. Doing some preliminary research helps you set expectations and to be realistic about what you’ll get for the money you’re willing to spend.

#2 Work off a wedding checklist!

A wedding involves a ton of nitty-gritty details, so if you are going the traditional route, going with a plan and a checklist are a must. A trusty checklist can help you achieve quite a few things. It’ll help you:

• Delegate tasks to those who are helping you out with your planning.
• Determine who’s going to pay what!
• Work out your budget.

For some advice on figuring out how your family can share your wedding costs with you, take a look at this About.com article called “Who Pays For What? At The Wedding”.

#3 Prioritize your wedding requirements.

Know what’s important to you. We all have different ideas about what our wedding should be like. While some of us want it to be simple and understated, others will insist on having the grandest thing that’s ever happened in their lives. Based on what you care about, you’re going to fashion just the right kind of budget that will fit your requirements. But it becomes tricky when you and your partner have opposing ideas about your wedding; then there could be fireworks before the marriage even starts! It all boils down to expectations, what you hold dear and how much you’re willing to pay for it all. And because it’s all personal, anyone who’s about to get hitched will have to negotiate some of these things with their partner.

#4 Get inspired by the stories of other couples.

Whether you’re out to save money or to spend it on a grand event, seeing how other couples have worked things out may lend you some perspective. How about finding some inspiration from what others have done before you? By taking a peek at how others have tackled their wedding, you may pick up some lessons learned or feel reassured that you’re on track with your plans.

For instance, I found this entry made at a bridal forum particularly inspiring:

When coming up with our budget, my fiance and I looked at it this way: $26,000 is a down payment on a house, a new car bought outright, a trip to practically every country in the world or a nice nest egg, and, it’s only one day. And I think it should be as nice as you want it. I have no issue with people who want to spend that much, but personally for us, we weren’t interested in spending that much money. We set our budget at $5,000. It definitely won’t be as nice as some weddings, but it will be what we want. We’ll offer all the traditional wedding things: food, drinks, cake, and dancing, just a scaled down version. He’s lucky I have simple tastes.

#5 Know what you want and prepare to make tradeoffs.

When you’ve scoured through your wedding checklist and priced the items on the list based on costs in your area, you’ll be able to make decisions about the stuff you’d like to retain and those you’d like to trim off your budget. If you keep an open mind about the features of your wedding, you’ll find that your flexibility will make budgeting easier. Just make sure that if you’re allocating more money to one thing, that you think of reducing your budget allocation for other items that are less important. By making and accepting tradeoffs and setting budget priorities, you’ll control your bottom-line so much more successfully and resist budget creep!