Achieve the wedding of your dreams – without going to debt.
Congratulations! You are now engaged. I know you’re still on Cloud 9 and I vividly remember having butterflies in my stomach after hearing the big yes from Stephanie. Isn’t it a lovely feeling?
But I hate to break it, as soon as you’re engaged, you need to start planning for your big day. It may be a year or months away but a well laid out budget and preparation will make you avoid the pitfalls before your wedding day.
Photo – Lorden Titular Photography
Coordination – Bash Grandeur
Video – Box Films
Groom’s suit and trousers – Gil Macaibay III
If you’re emotionally ready to take your relationship to the next level, you must also equip yourselves to be financially stable. Getting married in the Philippines is no joke. Culturally, we’ve been influenced that weddings should be grand and fancy but I guess the new generation of Filipinos have learned to be practical.
Stick around as I discuss some practical ways for you to budget your wedding.
Estimate the wedding cost
There’s nothing wrong in asking. Asking newly married friends for an estimate of their wedding cost will make you think of how much to spend on it. Majority of our friends told us they’ve spent no lower than Php 400,000. So we took it as a benchmark but also thought of spending lower than them.
Reflect on your affordability
Think and decide on a budget you can afford. If you’re getting married in a year and let say you’d want to only spend half a million pesos and you have Php 400,000 in savings. Take a look if you both of you can earn the Php 100,000 savings in a year. Ask yourselves: Is it feasible?
Also, I would recommend if you allocate an additional 5% – 10% budget for the excess expenses. This is only optional as it would be lovely to only spend what you can afford. Having an emergency fund for your wedding will assure you that everything will be manageable.
List essential services and products needed
Set your priorities straight and only list down the services and items you would need. One of the many items we have to give up was having the low-level smoke machine. It was a little expensive than being practical so we crossed it out. May I also add not that you should consider the pre-wedding or prenup shoot expenses.
Get quotes and compare
Once you have the list, the groundwork begins. It’s time to get quotes from your potential suppliers and compare prices. There’s a lot to consider here. A couple of which includes the quality of work, fee/rates, reading testimonials or reviews, and location.
Stephanie and I have a couple of wedding supplier friends across north Mindanao so getting the majority of suppliers from one location was a major personal decision for us. It helped us avoid paying for out of town fee which could add up to the cost.
Photo – Lorden Titular Photography
Coordination – Bash Grandeur
Video – Box Films
Groom’s suit and trousers – Gil Macaibay III
Create a wedding budget spreadsheet
Put every item and cost on an excel sheet. In this way, you’d have a better view of where the chunk of money will be put in. You may also adjust which items to give up and prioritise.
Based on experience, the biggest chunk of our money went to the reception, particularly the venue, food, flowers and decors. The entourage attire, rings, make-up, prenup, the cake, and the lights and sound were next to it. The small items could also pile up your budget if not properly monitored so make sure you itemised it on the spreadsheet.
In the beginning, Steph and I have made it clear to only spend within our means. We created this Google sheet spreadsheet which helped set priorities and monitor our expenses. I suggest you use it. You may download the wedding budget Excel sheet here.
In the sheet, we’ve included columns on the total amount, the payment phases (usually downpayment 1,2..etc., status and remarks so you’ll be fully guided.
BONUS Step: Open a checking account
It could be daunting to carry a huge sum in your pocket or bag so we recommend dropping by your bank and setting a checking account as early as now.
We hope these steps and, of course, the excel sheet will help you properly budget your wedding expenses plus eliminate the stress. We’ve been to your position and we know it’s not an easy task to do.
We wish you the best on your preparation and wish you a great wedding day!
Remember that getting married is only the beginning.