Wedding Planning 101

Planning a wedding can be fun and will bring two people families closer together, that is if everyone remembers it's about the soon-to-be bride and groom.

I wish I had a friend or a mentor or anyone tell me what I was getting myself into when I started the planning process; that the first and most important rule is to set a budget!  May it be big or small, it doesn't matter.  The point is to know how much you're willing to spend on each tasks or items.  Remember, you're not stuck with the budget you and your fiance set for yourself.  You can always compromise and/or allocate funds from one category to another.  For example, I'm thinking of getting a vintage dress and using my dress money for some couture shoes.  (I'm thinking Jimmy Choos)

The Mister and I did no such thing.  The first thing we did was secure our venue, so that we can secure a date.  This was important since we have families coming in from out of the country and they needed time to make travel arrangements.  Without setting a budget, we booked the first wedding site we saw.  No negotiation  no bargaining... we just signed the contract and went on our way.

We paid the wedding venue in installments so it did not hit us hard, financially, until we started planning and buying other wedding related stuff.  We soon learned that we're blowing our money on stuff that wasn't even necessary or if we had waited, we could have gotten a much better deal.

With only a few tasks left on the list of to-dos, we're both much smarter now.  (It only took us 6 months HA!)  We have an idea of how much we're willing to spend and we will not go over that threshold. 

When you're planning your dream wedding, remember to set a budget!  You do not want to spend weeks of eating ramen and to learn it the hard way.

Oh and don't take the friend who likes everything, she will get you into financial trouble as well.