Planning Your Own Wedding? Make Sure To Start It Off Right With These Steps!
I have done quite a bit of research on wedding planning and budget planning planning. It seems when I do a lot of internet searching for “planning a wedding” most of the time I pull up results which give tips on how to cut costs on various parts of your budget. Now I am all for cost-cutting tips, but to me it is very important to have the proper mindset when planning your special day. To me, planning a wedding and staying on budget means starting organized and being organized. This will go a long way towards helping you stay on budget.
So my article here is much more than just a list of money saving tips. Think of this article as planning help for you to stay organized, sane, and on budget.
Without further adieu, let us start! Here are materials you will need:
* a three ring binder (white or black is fine)
* three ring hole punch (because surprisingly not all materials have three holes punched in them! who knew?)
* dividers for your three ring binder, preferably already punched and with color tabs.
* a label maker will come in handy
Start labeling the dividers – this step alone will really get you started nice and organized.
Dividers you might need for example would be: budget, wedding checklist, wedding time-line, ceremony venue, reception venue, catering, favors, bridal gown, groom tuxedo, and so forth.
Now here’s one important key. There are TONS of planning guides and binders available. If you already bought one or were given something “fancy” like this to use, feel free to use it. I prefer the normal office binders over wedding binders. This is subtle but makes a difference in my experience and here’s the important key: When it comes to planning, of course you have to be organized. You also have to, when trying to stick to planning on a budget, think of it more like a business and not something to get emotionally involved in.
Let me reiterate: Think of planning your big day like planning a business project
It is okay to be emotionally involved in your big day, don’t get me wrong. In fact you should! It is your BIG DAY! But realize when you need to make the financial choice, and if you really need to remain on a budget, being emotionally involved makes it hard because that’s when rational decisions get moved aside. Being emotionally tied to your wedding is what allows vendors to charge those higher rates. Just having the “W” word attached to something means a boost of 200% or more!
They say that the average price of a wedding is about $30,000. I would say this is average, but this is an over-inflated average because brides accept this price as average and then continue to pay over-inflated prices. This is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think of your day as a business to be kept on budget, you will have a much better chance at staying on budget. And subtly, this is why a nice plain and more emotionless binder also tends to do better than a fancy binder designed to remind you of the specialness of the occasion. Hey, every little bit helps!
The final point is that you need a “rational” organizational system working for you already, and if you are not one to be organized, find an organizer friend to help you plan a budget and stay on budget.
That’s it. The rest, after you have the binder set up, will actually all come into place naturally. Good luck on planning your wedding!
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