How to Make a Wedding Budget: 6 Financially Savvy Tips

Your wedding is an incredibly important day, but it's one day and one goal of what should be many days and many goals in your newly married life. So, before you begin wedding planning, ensure you and your future spouse have the "money talk" and come to an agreement on both your near-term and long-term financial goals.

In the money conversation, it's important to zoom out and identify short- and long-term financial goals you have individually and as a couple. Do you have any credit card debt or student loan debt you're trying to pay off? Do you want to buy a house in the future? When would you like to retire and are you on track with your retirement savings?

Once you've identified your financial goals, prioritize them in order of most importance and allocate your resources appropriately. Ideally, your wedding spend shouldn't get in the way of other financial goals you and your future spouse hope to achieve down the road.

Determining a maximum spend is key—from there, you can start allotting money within your wedding budget toward different line items. Factor in your own money as well as any contributions you may receive from your family. If family members offer to help pay for the wedding, try to get specific about how much they'd like to contribute so you can factor that into your overall budget. In some cases, they might want to contribute a specific dollar amount, and in other cases, they might want to cover a specific item, such as hosting a rehearsal dinner or day-after brunch.

Once you've identified your maximum wedding spend, it's time to break that overall budget down by category. This helps you get ballpark figures for what each category will cost you.

A recent study from The Knot found that the average amount couples spend on each wedding category breaks down like this:

You don't, of course, have to stick to the percentages above, but it's helpful to generally understand how costs tend to get divvied up. You can adjust the percentages according to your own preferences and make it your own.

Talk to your partner about which categories are the most important to both of you and go from there. Let's say, for example, the most important thing to you is the flowers and the most important thing to your partner is having a great wedding band—you might, then, give more weight to those categories and eliminate additional guest entertainment altogether. Or, perhaps you don't plan on having a wedding planner or a friend is officiating the wedding for free—in those cases, you can also eliminate those expense categories as well.

The category breakdown is really intended to help you anticipate costs from the outset.

As those anticipated costs start becoming actual expenses, make sure to track everything and continue refining your budget as you go. For example, let's say you anticipated spending $1,600 on music but ended up only spending $1,000—you can now potentially reallocate that extra $600 toward your wedding dress.

Or, conversely, if you splurged at the florist on bouquets and centerpieces, you might consider doing away with the groomsmen's boutonnieres altogether to stay on track. Manage your budget with a give and take approach, and what's most important will differ from couple to couple. What you spend money on should align with what matters most to you.

Stay on top of your spreadsheet and track all your expenses along the way, including costs, taxes, and tips. Tips can quickly add up, considering it's customary to tip servers, bartenders, the officiant, hair and makeup artists, etc. Make sure to account for these wedding costs in your line-item budget.

Don't forget to add in the other more minor expenses that come up along the way, too: wedding favors, the marriage license, bridesmaid gifts, a flower girl basket, and the guest book you ordered on Etsy, etc.

If you're in danger of going over budget, consider finding creative solutions to cut costs. Get creative with your thinking and planning. Consider these cost-cutting ideas to save money in your budget:

• Pare down your wedding guest list. A smaller number of guests can save quite a bit when it comes to the venue and catering (less guests results in less meals to pay for and also opens the door to more intimate—and potentially less expensive—reception venues).
• Limit the hours of the open bar. When negotiating with your venue, you can stick to a set number of hours for the open bar to be available, bringing down the overall cost of alcohol. Alternatively, you can set it by price and once the bar tab reaches a certain limit, the open bar switches to a cash bar. Without any limits in place, it's easy for the bar tab to run past what you intended to pay.
• Choose a non-traditional wedding day like a Friday night or Sunday afternoon when both venue rentals and vendor costs can potentially be lower.
• Shop around for venues and consider less traditional options (public parks, backyards, restaurants) that might be more affordable than more traditional wedding venues.
• Choose a date that doesn't fall during peak wedding season (usually late spring to early fall), as these dates might give you more negotiating power with wedding vendors like your photographer or videographer.
• Think outside the box with your wedding cake and consider alternative desserts like doughnuts or have a small wedding cake for pictures and serve guests less-expensive sheet cake.
• Don't go overboard with excessive wedding decor. Have a clear vision of the essential décor and stick to more savvy items like in-season flowers or consider some DIY items that match your style.

There's no shortage of wedding inspiration out there whether it's from browsing social media, wedding websites, or thumbing through magazines full of beautiful weddings. It can be easy to get swept up in the societal pressure to make your wedding ceremony and reception "perfect." However, getting swept up in other people's expectations can cause you to drift from your budget and take on more debt than you might have originally planned on.

Focus on what aspects of the wedding are most meaningful to you as a couple, stick to your wedding budget, and don't lose sight of the bigger picture—the beginning of a new marriage and a future together.