See our Philadelphia wedding budget tips, how they can help you organize and plan with ease.
Being engaged in Philadelphia is exciting. However, after all the romance, daydreaming and sharing the big news, the real wedding planning begins.
Photo by RingShot Photography
Budget Tips For Each Aspect of Your Event
And the first important step is your wedding budget. So, how do you plan your wedding budget and what’s the best way to have these finance conversations?
We turned to Randi Martin, Owner and Event Planner of Trilogy Event Design for her expert insight on wedding planning in Philadelphia. Here is what she suggests:
“There are some key conversations you need to have in order to move forward with the wedding planning process smoothly,” Randi said.
Key Conversations
“Conversation number one: It seems like a ‘no brainer’ but a lot of people forget to have this conversation. And it is with your fiancé so that you’re on the same page. Talk about what type of wedding you want, the number of people that you want there and how much you want to spend on it. When you’re discussing about how much you want to spend, you need to decide if you’re going to be able to pay for your wedding all by yourselves. Or, if you’re going to request some assistance from your families,” she said.
Conversation number two is going to be with your families if you need their (financial) help. “Now it may not be super easy to go to your family and ask them for money in general,” Randi said.
The best way to have that conversation with your parents?
“I think you need to go into it with a game plan,” she said. “And your game plan should be when you’re going to ask your parents to help with the wedding, you need to tell them what their money is going to go toward.”
Photo by Emily Wren Photography/Trilogy Event Design
Martin offered some examples so get your pen and paper ready.
“So for instance, if your parents say they are going to give you $5,000 toward your wedding, you say, $5,000 can go toward our photographer. Thank you so much for your help with our photographer,” Martin said. “Or $2,000 can go toward our florist, thank you so much for your help with our florist.”
“And the reason you want to do this is because you don’t want them to think that they put money into a big bucket that helps to pay for your wedding. And that now they have decision-making power on all aspects of your wedding,” Randi explained. “By telling them exactly where your money is going to go, they have a focus. That way, if they have opinions or want to hire a specific vendor, it will be the vendor you told them the money is going toward,” she said. A win-win!
Randi provides a breakdown of wedding expenses.
Now that you know where the money is coming from and how much you’re going to have to spend on your wedding, it’s time to break it down. “So 50 percent of your wedding budget is going toward your Philadelphia wedding venue, catering and beverage,” she said. “Let’s say you have $30,000. And you’re inviting 100 people. $15,000 of that is going to go toward your reception venue, your food and beverage. So that equals $150 per person.
Now on the other side, the other 50 percent pays for everything else. That would be your photographer, your videographer, your florist, your entertainment, your invitations, etc. Let’s just say 10 percent of that $15,000 goes to your photographer, 10% goes to your videographer. Do you see where I’m going with that? So you want to break it down that you’re just spending the remaining $15,000 on all of those other categories,” said Randi.
For engaged couples seeking further assistance with their wedding budget in Philadelphia, Randi is ready to help.
“If you need some help with this, I have a really easy spreadsheet. It already has these wedding budget figures broken down so feel free to contact me and we can talk a little bit more. Good luck to everybody with your wedding planning in Philadelphia,” she said.
Randi Martin, Owner/Event Planner
Trilogy Event Design
