According to Business Insider, the average wedding in the United States costs a little over $33,000. Depending on where you are in the country, that number can easily be higher or lower. A large factor here is how rural you are. Why? Imports! Shipping costs can play a large role in your florals and decor. If you’re flying in a destination wedding photographer or band, you’ll want to account for that as well.

You have a few avenues for determining your wedding budget. These steps will help!

1. Ask your family members if they are planning to contribute

   Parents excited to pitch in for something? When my sister got married, her in-laws covered the reception venue and her parents covered the ceremony and catering. While not everyone can contribute financially, having family help you organize your florals or officiate your reception can be a great way to involve people and make a little room in your budget.

2. Look at what you have saved so far

   Have a wedding fund saved up? How much is in there right now? Are you willing to use all of that for your wedding, or are there other things that will require use of those g’s?

3. Look at what you will save in the meantime

   Wedding a year out? What are you willing to pull from your monthly income to put toward vendor payments or your dress. Plan to include that in what you apply to your payments, but don’t stretch yourself too thin.

4. Figure out your must-haves

   Now that you have an idea of exactly what you have, pick out the things you know you HAVE to have. Maybe you follow an amazing dress designer and you MUST have a custom design. Or maybe your friend got married at the Samoset Resort and you fell in love. Write a list of exactly what you want.

5. Track your spending

   Now that you’ve determined what you want and what you can spend, make sure you keep track of your expenditures. It’s really easy to go over budget, so keeping tabs on your wedding expenses will help your budget stay in line.

With a just general wedding budget outline, how do you determine what you should be spending on each aspect of your wedding? There are some key components of every wedding, luxury or not. For example, you should plan on your wedding florals taking up around 10-12% of your budget. For more of a breakdown, here’s a handy chart that will help.

These percentages are part of a range. For example, photography can be 8-12% of a budget and a venue is around 20-35%. These percentages will change depending on your priorities and amenities! For example, if you are planning on having a tent reception or you aren’t hosting at a full-service venue, your venue expenses will likely be less than 35%. Perhaps you have no interest in videography, but want to include an exclusive officiant. You can use those funds to allocate toward something with a higher value to you like your wedding florist or wedding photographers.

Here in Maine, the average cost of a wedding is between $27-30,000. I can’t divide to save my life, so for easy math, let’s say you’re having a wedding with a $30,000 budget. That means your spending guidelines might be something like this:

Venue (Ceremony & Reception): $9,500

Catering: $4,500

Photo+Video: $4700

Florals: $3,600

Decor: $3,000

Attire: $1,700

Transportation: $900

Cake: $600

Gifts: $600

Beauty: $300

Miscellaneous: $600

Here at Blossom & Pine Media, our luxe collection + full-length wedding film combo comes in somewhere around $5,300. If you are dying to have both of those components to tell your story, you’ll want to tug your budget around to fit that priority. Maybe you’ll go with a smaller cake design or opt for a donut wall to allocate an extra couple hundred to your photo+video budget.

We also do wedding florals! Our basic table scapes (centerpiece) are around $250/table. If you’re going to have a wedding with 300 guests, you might want to plan for more table scapes. Those are just general examples. This push and pull takes a bit of time to fit together, but make sure that you set a realistic budget for yourself and stick to it!

Your wedding day is an amazing celebration, but it shouldn’t cause your future to be on the rocks. We love love, but we love you more. Do what’s best for your love story.