What Every Bride Should Know When Planning A Wedding

Congratulations, you’re getting married! Okay he popped the question, you said yes, freinds and family have been told the news and now… what? Where to start?

Time and Budget. Regardless of your budget, and you do need a budget, you can have a dream wedding provided you give yourself enough time. With the wedding industry generating between 35-50 billion dollars a year in the United States alone and the cost of the average middle income wedding continuing to rise, it’s little wonder that so many brides are looking for cost cutting alternatives. From the first time bride, to the baby boomer’s encore wedding, the small budget weddings are making their way into the spotlight. The days when mom and dad picked up the tab for everything are slowly becoming a thing of the past for the independent bride. Couples are sharing the costs and calling all the shots or at least trying.

Let’s get statistical. The first time bride is 24 - 26 years old; her groom is 26 - 28. The encore bride and groom are 33 - 36 and 37 - 39 respectively and more than half of the encore couples have children. These independent couples have their feet on the ground and are keeping their money in their pockets. And as much as they would like the fantasy wedding they want the fantasy home, vacation or kid’s education even more. The term low-budget wedding is relative of course, but generally speaking articles dealing with low budget weddings are about budgets in the $10,000 - $15,000 range.

However, the woman whose annual gross income is only $35,000 or less is not likely to look at the $10,000 range as low budget. Most working couples who plan to pay for the wedding themselves do not have $10,000 to $15,000 saved for the occasion and coming up with that amount of money in a relatively short amount of time (8 to 16 months) is not easy nor practical. So what to do? Give up the dreams and settle for less? Don’t even think it!

The wedding day is probably the most important day in a woman’s life with the exception of the day she becomes a mother. Young girls dream about their wedding from the time they’re old enough to play dress-up until the moment they say, “I do”.

However, once engaged and the planning begins, the phrase “I have always dreamed…” can quickly and with a great deal of disappointment be replaced with reality. A reality based on time and money. The cold hard fact is dreams can be expensive. Everything about your wedding, with the exception of the vows you make to each other, is all about money, and lots of it! On your wedding day you can expect to spend for each guest anywhere from $15 to $500 and up depending on the food, drink and entertainment you are providing. And yes, you have to count the children, the spouses and the plus one’s.

Industry statistics show the average wedding will run anywhere from $17,000 to $30,000 and if you are living in a major metropolitan city you can expect to pay even more. Where is all this money coming from? It is not unusual for couples or their parents to max out credit-cards take out home equity loans or borrow from retirement funds, all this for one day! Your wedding, in all likelihood will be the most expensive party you will ever host in your entire lifetime. How’s that for perspective

In fact a wedding is the only time in a woman’s life when she is not only given permission but is encouraged to spend far more money than she actually has. So, why are brides doing this? Dreams and fantasies, it’s as simple as that. It doesn’t matter how silly or frivolous it may be to anyone else, it’s your dream, your fantasy. One florist told me “I tell the bride we can do anything her heart desires as long as she has the cash.” Unfortunately, time and money are usually the two main factors standing in the way of a dream wedding, that and relatives and well meaning friends but that’s another blog

So maybe you’re not a high powered, highly paid career woman, maybe you’re still paying off a school loan, maybe Mom and Dad can’t, won’t or you refuse to let them pay for the wedding and last weeks lottery ticket paid $3 and you got excited and the only thing your savings account is compounding daily is dust. The happiest time of your life and it looks like all you can afford is… well certainly not the wedding of your dreams. If this is you stick around and I’ll share the tricks of the wedding industry with you.

Got questions? Write and I’ll answer and maybe that dream wedding will be yours. advice@weddingsonchurchstreet.com

 © 2008 Mary Spies All rights Reserved