How to Spend Your Wedding Budget

Managing the budget tends to be the most dreaded part of wedding planning. Not only must couples decide on a total amount to spend, they must also determine how to allocate the money across the many different expenses associated with a wedding.

There are some rules-of-thumb for allocating a wedding budget but rather than adhering to how they are supposed to spend their money, we encourage our couples to go all in on the things they care about and be willing to let go of everything else.

For example, if a couple’s biggest priority is having a great party, we encourage them to spend money on a great DJ and drastically cut back on flowers. We would rather hear about how delighted they were that their reception turned into a great late-night dance party even if that meant going with very simple centerpieces. Or, if you dream of ornate floral installations, go ahead and overspend on that and forget about the cake and favors you are indifferent about anyway. Whatever you choose, just make sure it is totally you!

In the early stages of planning, couples do not necessarily have a complete image of their perfect wedding but they usually have a good idea of the kind of feel they want. Determine what is most important to you and use the grid below to see how we recommend you splurge and cut back. We know, we wish you could have it all too.

Juliet Horton is the founder of Everly, a Seattle-based online wedding planning service.