How to Overcome Wedding Budget Anxiety

Every soon-to-be married couple goes through it, but some deal with wedding budget anxiety a bit better than others. Stressing about costs and management while riding the roller coaster of emotions can often prove too much for folks. 

Here are some simple ways to overcome your wedding budget anxiety:

You’ve probably attended a few weddings, read loads of wedding blogs and magazines, and even have done a little window shopping, ignoring the price tags and just enjoying the moment of being a bride-to-be. Once you start planning your own wedding, the cost of it becomes a bit of a shock. You’ll find yourself questioning the price of everything and become overwhelmed. 

An easy way to avoid this shock is by doing your research. Research will give you a sense of the going rate of wedding venues, dresses, decor, etc to give you a better idea of how much everything will realistically cost. Take care when looking at blogs or magazines that do not focus on the city that you want to get married in, as prices could fluctuate according to the city.

Realistically, the wedding photographer, cake, and bridesmaid dresses you wanted might be out of your budget. The wedding of your dreams doesn’t always include all your dream items, unless you’re will to pay an arm and a leg for it. Even though disappointing, you need to accept that you can’t have it all. You might even have to cut a few things off your dream wedding list like having a cash bar instead of an open one, or skip the engagement shoot to make more money available for more important things.

If you know exactly what you want, and what is most important to you on your special day, then your wedding will cause you less anxiety. Ask both your family and your partner’s family to decide on the important things to have in the wedding, then take that list to your partner decide what is most important to you as a couple. Let your family also know that you are paying for the wedding and that their prioritize are not always yours. Your spending doesn’t need to follow the rules of a traditional wedding, but rather need to keep you sane and out debt.

It is easy to throw in the towel and just not want to have a wedding. You start feeling angry at the fact that everything is costing way too much and the wedding industry is just ripping you off, and at the family pressure to invite your cousin’s sister-law’s brother. But remember this is your wedding, you call the shots, and your fiancé is on your side. It is you and your partner against the wedding industry, and the family pressure - and you both know your budget, need to be firm about it, and make adjustments where needed.

From the cutlery to the flowers, you might find yourself asking for a discount on any and everything wedding related. Yes wedding can be expensive, but finding a bargain, reduced price item or getting a discount can be hard to find. You might even find yourself thinking that you could potentially make your own dress, get a friend to take your photos, bake your own cake, and a arrange your own flowers, but remember that wedding dress makers, photographers, and bakers are all professionals that often own small businesses. They charge what they charge because they need to make a living and take their craft seriously - imagine someone asking you for a discount on your services whether you’re a journalist, marketer, lawyer or taxi driver.

Staying on budget is probably one of the biggest challenges you will face while planning your wedding especially if it is the first time you are planning a large scale event. There is nothing wrong with your budget changing a little once or twice as long as you are OK with it. You might budget for a dress costing $10000 but once you go try dresses on, you find that everything in that price range is too big for so you need to get some that is $15000 instead. You can always balance it out by cutting costs somewhere else, like not having an open bar, or getting your bridesmaids cheaper dresses. 

If you don’t often spend money on yourself, you better quickly get comfortable with it. It becomes easier to spend money as time goes on, but make sure to always keep an eye on your budget as it is easy to get carried away, and you don’t want to break the bank. Being broke after a wedding just causes issues that you don’t want to deal with in the beginning of your marriage.