Managing costs and saving for your wedding can be a daunting task, especially if you want a grand over-the-top wedding that you’ve been pining for.
Planning ahead and proper budgeting can help you save big for the wedding you’re looking for, cutting the stress and fretting. Here are a few tips that will assist you with your money saving initiative.
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Plan for Your Wedding
The key to cost savings for an amazing wedding is an appropriate plan that would help guide you in the right direction. When putting a plan together, you’ve to be careful.
There are so many things you need to consider like flowers, festoonery, food and drinks, guestlist, reception and music amongst others.
The ideal way to go about it is to work out a schedule or breakdown of the tasks for your wedding and then plan for each task individually. Take care not to leave out any important details, as it may affect your budget.
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Share Ideas And Opinions With Family And Friends
Planning a wedding is not a task you would want to accomplish on your own. The best plans always have inputs from multiple sources.
When planning for your wedding, it is wise to share ideas with your family and friends soliciting their opinions on the arrangements, decor, meals, and most importantly on finances.
Check with your family if they would want to contribute to the funds and plan accordingly.
Your friends might be able to give you valuable suggestions on arrangements that could suit your affordability criterion and budget. Include their opinions on different wedding arrangements and set a budget that is realistic.
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Estimate the Costs and Define a Budget
Estimates are pivotal to your wedding plan, so for each task, factor in all related costs and then put together the final budget. How you plan the event is entirely up to you.
Perhaps, you want to opt for a wedding package that meets your budget or simply desire to organize the special day yourself.
Whatever you decide, do put in an effort to carefully estimate the costs, because they can elevate if you don’t have a proper budget defined.
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Defining a Wedding Budget
Probably, the most crucial aspect of any wedding plan is the budget, and if defined well, can make your special day worth every penny you have spent on it.
Before estimating costs related to details like flowers, wedding dress, music, reception, and meals, it is important to discuss the costs with the related designer, planner or florist to get a clear understanding of the estimates required for the type of wedding you’re looking for.
If you’re thinking of getting a wedding package, then choose one that fits well with your plans and budget; it will make saving for the big day easier. Once you have all the estimates for the arrangements, convert them into a total to define your wedding budget adding a small buffer for miscellaneous expenses.
(See Also – 101 Romantic anniversary ideas)
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Plan for Your Savings Every Month
Having a wedding plan in place is fine but how about the savings? Isn’t that what you’re aiming for?
Once you’ve got a budget for the wedding, calculate how much you’ll need to save each month to achieve your wedding plan goals. How much can you afford and put away for the wedding? Keep these questions in mind for savings.
It’s also a nice idea to be realistic and objective while defining a budget for your wedding based on what you can save and afford easily. You will also need to gauge the time needed until you’ve saved enough from your monthly savings to meet your wedding goals.
However, when drafting a plan for your savings do take care to decide how you’ll save and manage the costs every month.
Once you have a clear idea of your spending and the source of your savings, set up separate savings account to transfer your monthly savings to. Call it your wedding funds account.
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Keep the Wedding Time in Mind
Always keep the wedding date in mind; it will help you plan for your monthly savings effectively. It will also make you more careful with regards to your savings allowing you to stick to the plan.
This essentially means, if your wedding budget is around $10,000 and you start saving two years ahead then you’ll need to save around $400 to $425 every month.
Devise a realistic wedding budget factoring in the wedding time to ensure you know how much to save and for how long.
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Put the Plan in Gear and Get Started
Once you have saved enough money you can go for shopping or get a wedding planner onboard to start with the arrangements but make sure you stick to the plan.
Obviously, you will be using your wedding funds for the arrangements. Make a habit to transfer the calculated monthly saving amount to this fund regularly to achieve your wedding goals.
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Keep a Track on Your Savings
You will need to monitor your savings account to ensure that the funds are in sync with your plans. If there is any interest associated with your bank account or direct debit account, make sure you’re getting the best rate.
You can discuss the interest rate on your savings account with your account’s relationship manager who would guide you about other financial products like credit cards that might be beneficial for your wedding budget.
Such products would be helpful if you’re planning to buy stuff before the set date, as you can use the credit card and pay back the amount with your monthly savings.
Saving for your wedding is easier if you set realistic goals and plan well. Most people tend to start just before their wedding, get a loan or just borrow from a friend.
You can avoid the last minute hassles and easily save for your special day by following these simple tips.
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