Budget - What Is It? Why Have One? Do I Die or Kill Somebody If I Break It?

One of the first few questions I ask my clients is, "Do you have a wedding date?" "Do you have a guest count?" "Do you know what time your celebration is going to start?"


Then, the stupid question. "What is your budget?" Well, the client either has a lot of money to spend so they don't want to be overcharged and won't tell me the real budget. Or, well...the client does not have a lot of money to spend and does not want to feel less than so they won't tell me the budget.


Well, that brings us right back to the stupid question of "What's your budget?" If I was a bride I would be thinking "Don't ask me what my budget is - just give me everything I want and I'll decide if I'm going to or even can pay for that!"


Budget is something to divest from emotionally; something that is necessary to think about from a project management standpoint. We have to grow up and and deal with it so you can move forward from some starting point.


Look at it like this...what kind of restaurant food do you want at your wedding experience? A $50 per person place like Cheesecake Factory? A $250 per person ritzo New York type place? Well, take that number and double it, add a field kitchen and rentals, a location, service charge and decor, so maybe the dinner price (3 courses - this is a wedding so go "all the way") should be times 4 per person.


So here we go, $50 turns into $200; $250 turns into $1,000.


That means a wedding dinner for 150 guests lower end is going to be about $30,000.00. It means a higher end would be about $150,000.00.


Now, let's go put our head in the sand, die, and get re-born male so somebody else can pay? No, just figure out a guest count, take a number between $50 and $250, multiply it times four, then times your guest count and start early! The earlier you start the less busy vendors are and they're hungry to book dates.


My advise is also to take twenty percent of your budget and hide it for mad money, as you know you are going to encounter things you can't live without. You need mad money to pay for that stuff with.


Now layout a listing of all the items you want at your wedding and get 2 or 3 quotes for everything and you will know what your realistic budget is going to be. Then you can move forward or cut your list back, or add more items depending on your outcome funding wise.


And as I said earlier, start early so you get the first pick of the crop, you have time to adjust and you can think without white knuckle gripping pressure. A budget is just a jumping off place to help begin planning and necessary. Don't be scared and be honest with your planner, it makes our job much easier. Then we don't want to charge as much cuz we're dealing with an angel.