This part of the wedding planning may not be fun,

but it’s vital to work out just how much you have to spend before you commit to anything and start arranging your wedding.

After all, the days are gone when a girl’s parents had to take out another bond to pay for her wedding. These days, the couple often pays a portion, if not everything. When calculating what everything is going to cost, it’s very tempting – and perfectly natural – to want to go overboard, but unless you have limitless funds, we suggest you try to reign yourself in a little. So sit down with paper, pencil and a calculator (and perhaps a glass of wine each!) and work out what you can really afford. Remember, while your wedding is one of the most important days of your life, it is just one day and you both have a whole lifetime together. It’s going to be special, no matter what you spend! You also don’t want to start off your married life by drowning in debt because you have to pay off your wedding day for a number of years. So while it’s okay to go a little overboard, don’t end up getting in too deep. You might need to compromise or tweak your grand plans just a little, but it will be worth it in the end.

So be realistic when you work out your budget. We suggest that you sit down with your partner and work out just how much you can afford to spend. Calculate what each of you can afford to pay, and then perhaps do a joint budget, or a separate one listing what each of you will be paying for. You can also find out whether your family will be able to contribute financially in any way and add this to the budget. Don’t forget… Weddings are an expensive business and you will need to have some spare cash on hand for all those extras that crop up. So make sure to allocate money for this. If you have a monthly household budget, the two of you can how much you can cut back on and how much extra you can save to contribute to the wedding. Start putting cash away and saving – the more you save now, the less you’ll have to pay back later. Once you have realistically worked out what you can afford, then you can start planning your Big Day. But this is the very important first step – so make it first, and then start all your planning. In our next mail we will be discussing everything you need to know about planning your wedding, to ensure that you get everything organised in time for your Big Day.

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