Step 3: Plan to Go Over
If you account for budget overages, then you never actually blow your budget. Try to earmark 5% of your budget for unforeseen costs.
These are some areas where you might go over:
- Flowers: A last-minute realization that something previously unconsidered needs to be decorated, or a request that an additional family member wear a boutonniere or corsage.
- Weather-related expenses: Umbrellas for a rainy day, space heaters for an unseasonably cool day, additional shade for a particularly hot or humid one.
- Small accidents: Gown needs last-minute spot removal, something breaks in the days before the ceremony, menus get damp and need to get reprinted.
Step 4: Be Smart
Take advantage of budgeting and money management tricks along the way.
- Put all your wedding money in one separate account, so you can easily track additions and withdrawals without getting it confused with the rest of your day-to-day funds.
- Pay for as many of your expenses as possible on a credit card that gives you benefits like mileage, rewards, or cash back. Make sure everyone making purchases (your fiance, your mom, etc.) are all on the same card system, allowing you to benefit from the rewards and also from the easy tracking of your purchases.
-- The Knot
RELATED LINK: 12-Month Planning Calendar
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