While the warm summer is often a favorite choice for weddings, some love birds choose to get married in the cold months of winter. While we’ve already discussed How Much Should You Pay For a Wedding? I’ve yet to give you a resource to help make it happen.
For those readers, I have prepared a free downloadable wedding budget document in Excel – Wedding Budget Spreadsheet (83).
Free Wedding Spending Worksheet
Features:
- Pre-set formulas. All you do is type in your actual numbers.
- Includes categories for budgeted amount, % of total, actual amount, and % of total. This allows you to see what % of your overall budget is going to specific categories.
- Completely customizable. You can add and alter information at will.
- The worksheet can be downloaded and emailed to anyone free of charge .
Wedding Category Budget Guidelines.
The following guidelines come from For Richer, Not Poorer
| Reception | 45% |
| Wedding clothing | 10% |
| Photography | 10% |
| Music | 10% |
| Flowers | 8% |
| Stationary | 5% |
| Rings | 3% |
| Cake | 3% |
| Officiant/ceremony | 3% |
| Transportation | 2% |
| Gifts | 1% |
My thoughts:
- The reception cost will differ drastically based on cultural expectations. Where you are expected to provide a meal, this number is probably accurate. An afternoon snack sort of reception can minimize the cost dramatically.
- 10% for music sounds way too high. I cut that down to the 3% range and add the money to another category.
What do you think about those budget guidelines? Do they seem accurate based on your experiences?
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