How to Make Your Budget Work for Your Wedding

This is going to sound obvious. I know that. Yet I can't tell you how often I see brides trying to stretch an already thin wedding budget to the point of breaking.

The answer is simple: Prioritize.

By prioritizing you can set a budget that puts the emphasis on the elements of the wedding that are important to you. It might mean that you get that grand, dramatic ceremony that you have always dreamed of with spotlights illuminating you as you enter the otherwise darkened room. In exchange you sacrifice the catered dinner in a local hotel ballroom in favor of a simple, yet elegant garden tea reception. Or maybe you forgo the professional photographer and get friends with digital camera's to record your day. Maybe it's the cake that's not important to you...

It's all a matter of how to create a wedding day that you will look back at with fondness when all is taken into consideration. Decide what's important to you. Do those things, and leave the rest alone. It's not worth the stress of trying to create something from a budget that approaches nothing.

Remember, weddings don't have to be expensive to be memorable but they do have to be personal. If your wedding budget is too thin, don't try make it stretch so you end up with a bunch of shoddy elements scattered about your wedding. Get married in a local farmer's cherry or pear orchard in the spring while the trees are in full blossom and skip most (or all) of the rest of the flowers. Skip the three tiered cake that tastes like sawdust covered in sweet lard if you can't afford a quality cake and serve some pre-cut deserts instead.

Take some time to study each of the disciplines involved in the wedding industry and learn what you are really buying from them (hint: It is rarely what it appears at first glance) and then decide what you can do without to make your budget provide you with the best nuptial celebration your budget can afford.