Editors Share | How I Shaped My Wedding Budget

It is no surprise that wedding planning on a budget requires a careful balance of priorities, values, and dreams. Today, the Spoken Bride team shares their personal experiences of managing that balance.

For additional reflections on wedding planning on a budget, continue reading about Balancing Materialism and Majesty in your Wedding Plans or Planning your Dream Wedding without Breaking the Bank.

PHOTOGRAPHY: HORN PHOTOGRAPHY

Stephanie Calis, Editor-in-Chief

A bridal magazine suggested my husband-to-be and I each list our top three priorities for our wedding day, in order to identify where we’d be comfortable spending more of our budget. We both chose the liturgy and photography as the first two items on our lists! My husband also listed music as a top priority, and I listed colors (for wedding party attire, florals, and décor). 

Though its usefulness sounds obvious, this exercise was far more helpful than we expected. Knowing one another’s priorities motivated my husband and I to stay on budget for our wedding expenses and to worry less about items that weren’t as important to us. We felt motivated and centered knowing that even if it was painful to forego certain things, we were investing in other things that we truly valued--I’ve found it true that what we valued most, we’ve remembered most.

Andi Compton, Business Director

I always encourage couples to rank their priorities. For us, photography and videography were our biggest must-haves for our parents and children. Then came the dress and our invitations (I’m obsessed with paper goods). No matter what your budget is, you won’t end up with everything you want.

Jiza Zito, Creative Director

When planning our wedding, my thought was always “What will people really remember?” By asking myself that often, it gave myself permission to let a lot of things go such as type of flowers, aesthetics of our invitation suite, or small details of my dress. Financially, we top-prioritized delicious food, good & clean reception music, and wedding photography. 

Stephanie Fries, Associate Editor

My husband and I planned our wedding in four months—which was only possible with the help of my sister, our wedding planner. We wanted to be intentional about our wedding guests’ experiences: that non-Catholics would feel welcome and comfortable during the wedding Mass, and that everyone would come together to celebrate and mingle at the reception. These intentions shifted our emphasis, and our budget, to think about the environment.

With my sisters encouragement to pursue our experiential goals, we spent a substantial portion of our budget on designing and printing the Mass program, paying for lighting features to help set the mood at our reception, and enhancing both the ceremony and the reception with beautiful floral arrangements. Lighting and additional flowers were a surprising expense with major impact.

We made sacrifices in other areas of our planning to stay on budget, but our choices aligned with our desires and yielded an unbelievable outcome.