I love my clients, I really really do. I love hearing all their wedding wishes and ideas, learning about their personalities, style, and what makes them unique, and working to create a day that shows off that uniqueness and love to all their family and friends. Inevitably however we always come to a bump, or hurdle, along the way….the wedding budget. Creating a wedding budget is by far one of the most stressful aspects of wedding planning because let’s face it, weddings cost A LOT. You will spend more on this one particular day in your life than probably any other so naturally it’s tough to understand and come to grips with that fact, and tally up the numbers. Another thing I’ve noticed when creating the wedding budget with my clients, is that often what you want on your wedding day does not equal what you want to spend on your wedding day. Meaning the dream you have in your head costs far more than what you are prepared to spend. There’s nothing wrong with this, one just has to either adjust the budget or adjust the expectations. Yet that seems to be really really hard to do.
Regardless of how much a couple has to spend on their wedding day I do try to give one major bit of advice. Do not cut corners. Because at the end of the day, you get what you pay for.
Essentially cutting corners equivacates to taking a giant risk. And who wants to take giant risks with their money? (well I’m sure some people do, but not with your wedding). Sure you can hire that $1000 photographer who has only shot one friend’s wedding and who’s equipment totals one basic DSLR camera and a kit lens but then what if he misses key moments of your day and the photos are terrible? Not to mention what happens if his one crappy camera breaks? Or you can gamble and hire a friend’s mom to do your flowers, after all she’s worked as a grocery store florist for 10 years and knows a thing or two about roses, right? But does she have any experience ordering just the right amount of flowers to fill all your centerpieces, or does she know how to construct a bouquet properly so it won’t fall apart? Will she bring a team of people on your wedding day to be sure the set up is completed in time? What if all the flowers she orders arrive dead? Does she have a network of suppliers to get what she needs fast? Sure you can hire a seamstress 2000 miles away to create a replica of your dream dress for 1/3 the cost. What are you going to do if it arrives 4 weeks before your wedding half finished and completely not how you pictured it?
These are all real scenarios that really happened by the way, I’m not making this stuff up. Of course once in a while a gamble can pay off and you just happened to hire “the next big photographer” 2 years before he became huge and charged 5 times more and you got amazing images for a fraction of what they were worth. But it’s all just that…a big gamble. If you cut corners on your wedding, 9 times out of 10, you will get what you pay for. Quality costs more, it’s that simple. Personally I’d rather not gamble with such a huge sum of money on such an important day. Would you? Instead find other ways to cut costs such as inviting fewer guests, or have a longer engagement to give you time to save more. It will save you a lot of future stress and headaches in the long run.
SImply Stunning Events
Nashville Wedding Planner
by Kristin
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