One of the first questions we asked ourselves when we got engaged was how much we are going to spend for the wedding. I thought setting up a budget was quick and easy. It actually turned out to be a long process that requires a lot of research for both of us who knew so little about weddings.

Photo from Ashleysbrideguide.com

There are many elements in a wedding. Setting up a budget not only requires coming up with a single number, but several numbers for each element. How much of your total budget will go to food and beverage, flowers and decor, photography, entertainment, etc?

There are lot of wedding budget tools on and offline that can help. But there’s one important feature missing on most of these budget tools. They don’t factor in your priorities. I learned that setting your priorities is very important in coming up with a budget breakdown. While most tools recommend allotting around 30% to 50% of the total budget to reception, our reception (including venue fee) turned out to be almost 75% of our total budget. Crazy, isn’t it? Well, to us, good food and a beautiful venue that requires minimal decor (one way to save) top our priority list.

Here is a copy of my Budget Breakdown, and these are the steps I followed to create it:

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As a professional project manager, I really wasn’t too worried or stressed about wedding planning. However, after listening to stories of others going through the process, I was getting a little worried that maybe I was missing something and that is why I was so calm. I have always been extremely organized and usually would have a good idea of everything that I need to get done, but of course, I really didn’t know all the small details involved in putting together the perfect wedding.

After much googling and visiting every site possible out there, I came upon WeddingWire.com which has a wealth of wedding tools including one of the cutest and most complete checklists I’ve ever seen!!!!!! It had things in it that I never would have thought of and everytime I check a task off, my little bride would move closer to my groom in the graphics. As simple as it may sound, trust me, it’s a motivator to get tasks done just to see that little girl go. So… I’ve officially hit the under 1 year mark and I’m well on schedule according to the checklist.