Where to Spend & Where to Save’

Pink Palms brings you… a super useful mini guide on your wedding budget!

Money can be a tricky subject at the best of times - add the pressures of planning your ‘perfect’ wedding day and the expectations and opinions of your family and friends, and it can be a minefield! Luckily we’re here with some top tips to manage your wedding budget.

For a rainy day...

First up, we’re talking contingency money. A contingency is a sum of money set aside that isn’t assigned to anything in the beginning. Once you’ve worked out what your total budget for your wedding is, we recommend leaving a small amount of it ‘unspent’ - that is, you’ve assigned money for your venue, your catering, flowers, entertainment…but there’s a small portion leftover as ‘spare money’. Whilst it’s tempting to spend every penny you have in your head, leaving some money as a contingency allows you some breathing space if anything unexpected crops up. You may suddenly find you need a little extra for a forgotten element, or something you had budgeted for works out more expensive than planned. If you have contingency money built into your budget you can just dip into this, rather than having to worry about finding more money to add to your budget.

Budget breakdown

Another question people often have is how to split up their budget. It’s normal to start with an overall spend amount, but how do you know whether your suppliers fit into this and leave enough room for everything else? If you’ve never planned a wedding before, this is the sort of information you won’t know!

Whatever your budget, your spend on each supplier is all relative. We recommend that your wedding venue, catering and any furniture rentals be around 50% of your overall budget, meaning the number of guests you invite has a big sway on how much you’ll spend here. Your catering is likely to be one of the most expensive investments you make for your wedding day - whether this is a large or small amount of money is relative to your budget. So if you want 120 guests, look at the starting prices per head (let’s say £120pp) 120 guests x £120pp = £14,400 as a starting price. Guest numbers make a HUGE difference!

Not all venues come equipped with the furniture you want or need for your day - it may be as simple as needing to hire tables and chairs, or you may wish to create a relaxing lounge area with sofas and soft furnishings for your guests. Factor these things into around half of your budget - you should be able to budget for your remaining suppliers with what’s left.

3. Your day, your money!

Having said all of the above, there is of course an element of personal preference. Whilst 50% for venue, catering and furniture rentals is a general rule of thumb, you and your partner may not be bothered about prioritising your wedding food and so choose to scale back on this. Our tip here is to sit down and physically make a list with your partner, ranking all the elements of your day in terms of priority and importance to you. Adamant that you want the best jazz band money can buy? Desperate for cascading florals in every corner of your venue? Put these things towards the top of your list, and choose to spend a little more on them. This will mean scaling back on some of the items towards the bottom of the list; you can still have a perfect, memorable day with some minor compromises!

Love these tips and tricks on splitting up your budget? Think of how much we help our clients - every single penny is well spent when you work with us!

Photography: Pierra G, Rachel Takes Pictures, Chloe Mary