Use This Handy Wedding Budget Analysis to See Where All the Money Goes

This wedding budget analysis is going to show you where all your money is probably going to go for your wedding.

Certainly, more money can be added to categories that are dear to your heart and taken away from others that are not as important to you both.

Start your wedding budget analysis by mapping out all the possible elements, you may wish to include in your nuptials. Some will be mandatory, such as the officiant's fee and refreshments. Others such as a wedding video, or limo will be optional.

Your actual wedding ceremony will be a very small part of your total cost of your wedding budget analysis. (I always thought this was strange since it is actually the most important part of your getting married. Don't you think? I guess it is just one of those things that make you go hmmmmm).

You can assume that about 50% of the total average wedding budget will go toward your reception, including the cost of your venue, food and drink, and service.

Even if you plan on having a home cooked backyard brunch, you can still expect that the costs of the ingredients, renting chairs and place settings, and hiring servers will still eat up half your budget.

You are also likely to spend more on your reception flowers, decorations, and music than on those for your ceremony.

That being said, the breakdown is as follows:

• Food: about 40% of your budget will go toward food, such as the hors d'oeuvres and meal, beverages, the cake, and service.

• Reception Venue: about 8% will go toward the reception site rental plus any other rentals such as chairs, tables, dinnerware and tent.

• Attire: about 10% will go toward the brides dress, headpiece/veil, hair/makeup, shoes, and lingerie, groom's attire, and going away garb for two.

• Flowers: about 8% will be needed to cover the brides bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets, boutonnières, corsages, ceremony and reception arrangements. If you are going to go with a floral headpiece, you can steal some money from your attire budget.

• Photography/videography: about 12% will go toward the labor costs for a photographer and/or videographer, plus the costs of photography/videography packages.

• Music: about 8% will go toward ceremony music, including vocalists, string Quartet, organist, etc. and reception music such as band or DJ.

• Stationery: about 3% will go toward invitations, announcements, and thank you notes.

• Gifts: about 3% will go toward attendance gifts and favors.

• Wedding Rings: about 3% will go toward bands for both bride and groom.

• Ceremony costs: about 3% will go toward ceremony location for the, officiant V., and programs.

• Transportation/parking: about 2% will go toward bride and escorts ride to the ceremony, couples ride to the reception, wedding party transport and guess shuttle both of which are optional, and parking.

• Miscellaneous: try to set aside an additional 5% for extra and unforeseen costs like marriage license, overtime costs, tips, taxes, and last-minute purchases.

Now that you can see a rough idea of where the money will go, you can start filling in the Wedding Budget Worksheet.

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