What are your priorities when it comes to your wedding?
When you became engaged did you begin to think about how much your wedding was going to cost? Did you start checking websites to see what percentage of your bridal budget should be spent on flowers, cake, your venue, or disc jockeys? May I suggest a different process?
Think about your priorities. What are the most important aspects of your wedding day? Is it the ceremony? The reception? Your dress? The celebration with your friends? This information is invaluable in helping you determine the best way to allocate your wedding costs. Put your money where your priorities are.
The next step is determining what you should expect in the way of wedding costs. Since you probably haven't planned an event of this magnitude before you may be surprised at what it costs to hire a DJ or buy a six tiered wedding cake with the sugar flowers cascading down the side.
Everything wedding related will probably cost more than you expected. For example, a common refrain is, "Its just music." or "Its just a cake." Yes, and no. An awesome DJ doesn't just magically appear and play music for four or five hours. He or she will spend anywhere from 10 to 20 hours in prep time before your wedding even starts. Your cake decorator will easily spend several hours decorating your cake depending on the design. You are paying for the expertise they have developed over the course of their careers.
So how much will your wedding cost you? It depends on how much you are willing to spend to get the wedding your want. As a point of information, the average wedding in Colorado runs about $30,100 according to theweddingreport.com. They are predicting that figure to be over $35,000* for 2010. Only you control your budget. You can spend more or less. The choice is yours. Just be sure to spend it where it means the most to you.
*Given the current state of our economy the actual figure may be less. We are also seeing that many couples are holding their wedding in 2011 instead of 2010 so they have longer to save for the wedding they want. We are actually booking 2011 events already for this very reason. If you think your wedding may be on a very popular date you may want to consider hiring your entertainment earlier than you had originally planned.