If you’re recently engaged and have just started planning your dream wedding then you’ll need to establish a budget early on before you get to the fun bit of deciding themes, locations, colour schemes or styles. The bigger the families and friends involved the bigger the wedding and necessary budget. Nothing beats eloping to Gretna Green for a cheap wedding. However if you want to transplant your respective clans to the other side of the world for a lavish tropical wedding you’ll need a jet set budget to pull it off. Either way, Confetti’s handy wedding budget calculator lets you see quickly and clearly how realistic your wedding plans are.
Getting started with Confetti’s Wedding Budget Planner
From the Confetti homepage, you’ll find the budget planner under the free planning tools on the members drop down tab on the far right. Then select Budget Planner. The first thing you’ll need to do is enter an estimated budget in the left hand side. The important expenditures are then automatically estimated. If, for example, you aren’t sending separate invites and RSVP’s or you’ve already got a dress, you can change the field to blank by pressing ‘edit’. If there are some important categories not already included you can press ‘add item’ on the far right and fill in the new details.
Estimated, Actual, Paid and Due
There are four columns next to each category: estimated, actual, paid and due. Estimated is the cost according to the Confetti wedding calculator and the original budget figure you entered. You can enter the actual figures after you’ve shopped around for prices and decided exactly what you want. I’d recommend you complete the ‘actual’ column as soon as possible as chances are your wedding will cost more than you first think – these things have a way of adding up. Once the actual column is completed you’ll have an idea of the budget necessary for the wedding you want. If you’ve placed any deposits down or paid for things in their entirety you can enter it in the paid column (remember you just press ‘edit’). As you pay for things you can fill in the ‘paid’ column and then the ‘due’ column will show how much of your wedding expenditure is outstanding.
Wedding planning strategies
Once the ‘actual’ column is filled in you’ll begin to see how realistic the kind of wedding you want is. If you’ve gone wildly over budget in one area you can’t go over budget in another area. It may be a good idea to decide what is essential and what isn’t essential. If you don’t want to scrimp on the venue then consider inviting less friends and family – keep it an intimate affair. Or if you want to make sure everyone comes then compromise on the venue, gifts, dress or honeymoon. In these days of frugality there may be things you can make yourself, or friends you can rely on to provide some of the services (perhaps you’ve a friend who can do your hair and make-up for example). When budgets are tight there’s always an opportunity to be creative and find unique solutions. Good luck.
