Setting Budget Priorities

Imagine, on a nice sunny day your boyfriend gets down on one knee and proposes a question you wanted to hear since you were a little girl. Emotions completely overwhelm you as you say yes and fall into his arms of embrace. Nothing can go wrong. The perfect husband, the perfect ring and the perfect life. After you reach out and tell your friends, post some Instagram stories, and take some pictures, you start to think of that perfect wedding day you dreamed of as a child. This day will have beautiful flowers to captivate your family, a gorgeous dress that will impress your future groom, a beautiful venue decorated to the nine, and outstanding food that everyone will talk about for years to come. The perfect day to the start of a life with one another.

Does this sound familiar to anyone. This dream is possible for any bride on any budget and this is the focus of this series. Too often brides become so fixated on the budget they forget about the big picture. We are hoping that by taking a practical approach to your wedding budget you can have the wedding of your dreams. The first step in our four part series starts with setting your priorities.

The Budget Priorities Exercise

Priorities will provide a perspective to your budget. Think of them as the guide to how you will spend your budget for your special day. One of the exercises we take our brides through we call the priority exercise. It doesn’t take long and will help you immensely with your wedding budget. The three steps are:

1. List all things that are priority for both you and your fiancée (have two separate lists). They can be in any order the important thing is to just put them down. Here are some examples of priorities:
   1. Reception
   2. Food
   3. Wedding Venue
   4. ReceptionVenue
   5. Photography
   6. Guest Gifts
   7. Decorations for the Wedding
   8. Decorations for the Reception
   9. Honeymoon
   10. Rehearsal Dinner
   11. Hair and makeup
   12. Flowers
   13. Invitations
   14. Wedding Planner
   15. DJ
2. This step will combine both lists into one. Look at both lists and if you have a priority listed on both of them, put it towards the top of another piece of paper and then list all others mentioned on both lists under it. Then draw a horizontal line to cut the paper in half. All the other priorities that were mentioned on each list but not on both, put below this line. We do this to show which priorities will have more importance as they were mentioned on both lists.
3. Now here comes the actual prioritizing and the way we recommend you do it is by asking yourself:
   1. Why is this a priority to me?
   2. Will I be able to remember this 10 years from now?
   3. How will this impact my wedding if it is not done?

If you answer these questions honestly, especially the last one, it should make prioritizing your wedding day a lot easier.

Once you have prioritized them put them on a final sheet of paper in their correct order. Don’t prioritize things because your family tells you to. This is your wedding and no one else’.

Final Thoughts on Budget Priorities

We are hoping that this series provides invaluable information about how to set a wedding budget. If you enjoyed this blog post stay tuned for next week and subscribe to our newsletter for more content. Also, please join our YouTube channel as we will be posting more videos for your to enjoy.