Aver Age Wedding/reception Budget wedding

Item Percentage of Budget 

Rings 5% 

Stationery 3% 

Gown and Accessories 8% 

Ceremony Location 2% 

Music 3%  Flowers 7% 

Décor 5%  Reception/Catering/    

Beverages/Cake 50% 

Photography 10% 

Transportation 2% 

Miscellaneous 5%

In case you are wondering what a debt-free wedding budget might look like in terms of real dollars, here are three sample budgets that can help you get started. keep in mind that each of these weddings can be beautiful even though they have very different budgets and goals. each of these budgets, however, corresponds with the percentages you will find in the average wedding budget (above), and should help you contour your own beautiful wedding to meet your needs. As you read through this book, you may find it helpful to use one of these samples as a guide, adding or subtracting various items in order to fit into your budget :

Budget #1

Total: $5,000 

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How It’s Done wedding

For many couples, the idea of a debt-free wedding seems like a fairy tale. They think, it can’t be done. Or, I won’t be able to have the kind of wedding I want. Or, I’ll spend now and pay later. But in actuality there are many couples who plan beautiful weddings—dream weddings—on many budgets, and who manage to finance the full package without going into debt or jeopardizing their futures.
As you get started on your budgeting process, take a look at how the costs break down in an average wedding and reception. The items listed here correspond to the wedding list on pages 26 and 27 and in the money-saving practices you will find in Part Three of this book. Using these percentages as a guide, you can create your own wedding budget, or use one of the sample budgets you’ll find below.

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Your Wedding List

RINGS Engagement Ring Bride’s Ring Groom’s Ring

BRIDAL CONSULTANT

COUNSELING

WEDDING STATIONERY/ ANNOUNCEMENTS, ETC.  Save the Dates Invitations Announcements Wedding Programs Thank You Notes Maps Postage

ATTIRE Gown Headpiece/Veil
Alterations Jewelry Gown Storage

REHEARSAL DINNER

CEREMONY Venue/ Site Rental Music/Musicians Officiant Marriage License Flowers Decorations Unity Candle Set

RECEPTION VENUE/  SITE RENTAL Caterer Beverages/Wine Paper Products Flowers/Décor Music


WEDDING CAKE Cake Cake Decorations Cake Topper Cake Knife Groom’s Cake
 
PHOTOGRAPHY Engagement Photo Wedding Photos Photo Albums Cameras

VIDEOGRAPHY Taping Fee Editing Fee Copies

FOR THE GROOM Tux Shirt Tie Vest/Cummerbund Shoes

ACCESSORIES

TRANSPORTATION Limo Other

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Making Your List, Checking It Twice wedding

As you begin putting together the details of your wedding, take a few minutes to consider all that you may want to include in your special day. Begin by making a list of everything that is involved in a wedding (in the traditional sense) and then proceed from there.
The detailed list that follows can serve as a starting point to help you plan your own debt-free wedding. Put a check mark next to those items that you think will figure into your wedding we’ll worry about detailing the costs and money-saving tips in a subsequent chapter. But for now, be honest with yourself about the wedding you hope to plan, all the while keeping your budget needs in mind.
Determining your priorities within this list is helpful. Next to each item you can write:

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Finding Discounts and Incentives wedding

The bulk of this book (Part Three) contains specific information that will help you devote fewer dollars to your wedding. You will be able to get more for less. You will learn how to network for the best prices. You will find hundreds of creative ideas that can help you stretch your dollars, and you’ll also find valuable tips and websites you can visit to help you create the most beautiful wedding on your budget.
Before you walk into a bridal shop, go online, or say “I do” to the first salesperson who asks you to purchase a wedding dress, you’ll want to do your homework. You’ll find that planning a debt-free wedding may be easier than you realized, if you give yourself time and permission to save money on your purchases!
One of the most successful brides I encountered was an older lady named Tina, who was getting married for the third time. Her first husband had died, she had been divorced from her second husband for about three years, and she had met a wonderful older man over an online dating service. They hit it off and wanted to get married— but debt-free. I invited her to come and talk to our group—and she truly had an impact.

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Planning to Save wadding

Next you’ll want to establish a savings plan for your wedding. There are many ways to do this, as you will see in Part Two. Your personal wedding list will inform your choice of how to save. Moreover, you will be able to gain important experience that will impact your future and help you in the years ahead. You will find that saving for your debt free wedding will help you to live more freely and fully.

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What’s in Your Wedding?

Your married life together saddled by a mountain of debt. Having a debt-free wedding is giving yourself permission to have a life. It is a philosophy shaped by a specific plan (which you can create) to finance your own wedding and not to be beholden to the credit card companies, the bank, or a line of credit.
The debt-free wedding philosophy is easy to understand. It will not overwhelm you with charts and figures. It won’t dazzle you with fancy formulas. You will be the one shaping your wedding, planning your budget, and creating the debt-free approach. In fact, your debt-free wedding may be very different from another debt-free wedding. It’s not about size, or number of guests, or even appearances. It is about the results you are able to produce and the wedding you want, no matter what your budget.

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Understanding the Beautiful “Debt-Free” Wedding Philosophy

 

By now some readers are probably asking the question: How is it possible to have a beautiful wedding on my budget? Or perhaps some readers are saying: I don’t have much money to work with, so how can I possibly get married? But don’t despair. There is a way to create a wedding on your budget, especially if you believe that real beauty isn’t something you purchase. In fact, you can even create a debt-free wedding that will set the stage for your marriage.
First, remember that your wedding day debt is going to follow you into the marriage. If you’ve borrowed money to finance the wedding, you’re going to have to pay as soon as you return from the honeymoon. There are many couples who are still paying for their wedding ten years into their marriage. And, worse yet, I’ve known some men and women who were paying off wedding debt after they divorced. One woman I met fifteen years ago at a wedding seminar told me she was still paying off her wedding debt from wedding number two, and she was about to get married for the fifth time! Now that’s a tough way to fund a failed marriage!
Second, financing a wedding through debt doesn’t reap future dividends. remember, a wedding is a one-day event—and it is difficult to justify a long-term debt for a one-day event, even an extremely important one! A mortgage, on the other hand, is a fifteen-, twenty-, or even thirty-year event—and can reap longterm dividends for a couple as they build home equity throughout their marriage.
Finally, you simply don’t want to jeopardize your future—your ability to own a home, save for a family, save for an education, or any of a dozen other vital aspects of life—all for the sake of a frosted wedding cake. You want to have a debt-free wedding because it will offer you a better future—one where you and your fiancé can fulfill your dreams and plan a life together. One year, five years, ten years after your wedding, you’ll be glad you came home from your honeymoon deb free. You’ll be able to look back and say, “All of this success and happiness began there, and we’ve got the money to prove it!”

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What Matters to You?????

It is helpful to keep in mind that the more time you have to plan your wedding (and hence the longer your engagement) the less stress you are going to feel as the big day approaches. Nothing spikes blood pressure like last-minute planning.
But creating adequate time to plan will also give you adequate time to save for your wedding—and to formulate a financial outline that can guide you through the months preceding the wedding day.
Likewise, it is helpful to keep in mind that a wedding is also a gathering of your family and friends—the people you love the most. This realization can be a source of strength and comfort to you as you think about your wedding day. There is no need to be nervous in the company of those who love you. And where love is found, there is no need to prove yourself to others, to put on airs, or to buy the favor of those who are closest to you.
Concentrate on the people rather than the “stuff” and you’ll be much happier for it. Don’t allow your purchasing power to overtake your people power—just be yourself in your wedding plans and don’t feel that you have to prove anything through the gown you select, the flowers you choose, or the band or DJ you hire.
What Matters to You
It is helpful to keep in mind that the more time you have to plan your wedding (and hence the longer your engagement) the less stress you are going to feel as the big day approaches. Nothing spikes blood pressure like last-minute planning.
But creating adequate time to plan will also give you adequate time to save for your wedding—and to formulate a financial outline that can guide you through the months preceding the wedding day.
Likewise, it is helpful to keep in mind that a wedding is also a gathering of your family and friends—the people you love the most. This realization can be a source of strength and comfort to you as you think about your wedding day. There is no need to be nervous in the company of those who love you. And where love is found, there is no need to prove yourself to others, to put on airs, or to buy the favor of those who are closest to you.
Concentrate on the people rather than the “stuff” and you’ll be much happier for it. Don’t allow your purchasing power to overtake your people power—just be yourself in your wedding plans and don’t feel that you have to prove anything through the gown you select, the flowers you choose, or the band or DJ you hire.

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Dollars and Sense

Think about how most couples plan their special day. They usually begin with a no-holds-barred philosophy, or (heaven forbid) a credit card approach to financing the wedding. Charge it! has become the latest fad in wedding planning, but couples who finance their weddings on plastic can quickly discover that their marriage is in bigger trouble than their bank account.

Banks have even gotten into the act and have parlayed the wedding craze into a billion-dollar industry. Now couples can sign up for specially designed “wedding loans” that can help them to finance the wedding of their dreams, only to discover later that they cannot afford a loan for a house, a car, or an education. In short, their wedding loan has upended their ability to create a life together.

We’ll return to these concerns later in more detail, but suffice it to say that if a couple wants to go into wedding debt it’s easy to do… and there are many people and institutions that are eager to help them do it!

When it comes to the dollars in your wedding, you’re going to want to have some sense (not cents) about it. You’ll want to have a tightly knit plan that can help you emerge on the other side of the ceremony without having to mortgage your life.

Over the years, I have counseled hundreds of couples on their way to the altar. I’ve seen the best and worst in weddings and marriages. But there are some observations that have held true over time.

I have noted that weddings, like most everything else in life, tend to have trends, fads, and changes that are not unlike the changes we see in clothing styles, cars, or the desire for the latest electronic gadgets. A hundred years ago, when our great-grandparents and grandparents were getting married, ceremonies were generally quaint, simple, and brief. There were no five-thousand-seat auditoriums, no large reception halls, no catering services eager to meet the demand for three-course meals and decadent desserts. Many weddings in this day took place in living rooms or on lawns.

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What’s in a Wedding ?

No doubt, your ideas and concepts about weddings have been shaped by weddings you have seen on television, personally witnessed, or participated in. Perhaps you have dreams of a fairy-tale wedding like the televised spectacle of Princess Diana and Prince Charles— probably the most celebrated and widely viewed wedding in history. Or perhaps you particularly loved a certain aspect of a family member’s wedding. Or maybe you served as a bridesmaid, flower girl, or reception helper—and these experiences have informed your questions, observations, and dreams for your own matrimony.
Weddings have a way of taking on a larger-than-life aura. But then, weddings are special and do contain elements of the human and divine, the highest callings of our passions and convictions, and also demanding the most of our commitment and love. Weddings are meant, by their very nature, to be one-of-a-kind occasions. And they should be. A wedding is not only an event, but also an opportunity to offer the best of yourself to the one you love, and to your guests!

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THe BeAUTIFUL “DeBT-Free” WeDDINg PHILOSOPHY

every couple is going to have a wedding philosophy—a standard operating procedure that will inform how they prepare for the wedding, and how they save and spend to make the wedding a reality. Understanding and self-awareness are vital, but it is also important for couples to agree on their ultimate goal. Is the goal of the wedding to create a beautiful experience no matter what the financial cost? Or is the goal of the wedding to create a beautiful experience on a budget the couple can afford?
These are key questions, and they strike at the heart of what this book is about. In the following section, we’ll explore the philosophy behind a beautiful debt-free wedding. Once a couple understands where they are going, and why, it will be much easier to actually get there.

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