Manage My Wedding Podcast

The Hard Truth: Why Your Wedding Budget Will Go Over MMW 206

• Yvette Sitters • Episode 206

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What if I told you that your wedding budget is likely to go over the initial amount you've set? It's a tough pill to swallow. But don't hit the panic button yet, as in today's episode, I, your host Yvette, bring you face-to-face with the harsh realities of wedding planning budgets and how they can quickly escape your control. Unforeseen costs, hidden expenses, and those big bills that hit you at the end – I unpack it all for you with a good dose of honesty and reality.

But, it's not all doom and gloom. I'm here to give you with the knowledge and strategies to manage your budget effectively. Let's discover how to identify your wedding vision, set your priorities straight, and decide what's non-negotiable for you and your partner. We're getting into the nitty-gritty of wedding expenses, so you don't find yourself in a financial rut when the final bills come knocking. Remember, this is your first time planning a wedding and it's okay to feel overwhelmed – but you’re not alone. Together, we can navigate the challenges and turn your wedding dreams into a reality.

Visit our website HERE for full shownotes and the link to our FREE Workshop for this episode.

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Yvette Sitters:

Welcome to the Manage my Wedding podcast, where we believe your wedding is the most important time in your life and you deserve to feel supported and organised when planning the wedding of your dreams. I'm your host, yvette Sidders. Hello, welcome back to the Manage my Wedding podcast. I'm your host, yvette, and I am talking all about why your wedding budget will go over. I hear you say no, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that because, look, it's not a pleasant topic, but it's one of the most important, and managing your budget correctly from the start and the entire duration of wedding planning is going to make their planning much more enjoyable stress free and less arguments with your partner, which we all want, right? No one likes the stress of money conversations and the stress of money and money running out most importantly as well, especially when we're wedding planning Now. It's a topic that we have to discuss regularly so that you don't end up overspending and not having enough money to pay for your largest bill at the end, which is, honestly, usually what happens, because what happens is we get to the end of planning and we have to pay in those final couple of weeks, the venue or the caterer, which is at the largest expense and not having enough money is super common, really, really common. Like it would be way over 60% and I'm plucking that number from Thinniad, but honestly, from all the weddings that I have managed over time it would be over 60% of people that start running out of money and getting stressed.

Yvette Sitters:

So the overspending of the budget happens at the very, very start of your planning, which people don't actually realize. It actually is the first it starts to. You start to overspend at the very beginning, because it looks a little bit like this you know you pick a number you can afford. The very first thing you do is you pick a number you can afford and that's what you pick as your budget. So you get the money from whoever's going to help with your money. You're like, yes, this is how much we want to max it out, this is how much we can afford out of our pays and everything else. That's our budget. And that you randomly pluck that number, which it's not randomly picked to you because it's what you can afford. But when it comes to wedding planning, that is a randomly picked number. So you've picked that number. You then find your dream venue and you book it in. Then you book in all the suppliers that you loved and then you realize you're going along and that there's all these hidden costs or things that you actually didn't realize would cost you money and you start going over your budget and then you get to that final month and you're beyond stress that you can't afford the wedding or the last expenses. And for many of you that even happens like way before the final month, like for some people that happens six months out or you know it's all different stages for everyone, but that's honestly how it looks.

Yvette Sitters:

Now, I know that's not painting a pretty picture, but it is exactly how it is and it's not your fault. I want to say that now, like you have never done this job before and yes, I call it a job, because wedding planning is another full time job to add to your play and really you weren't to know how much things would cost and what things would creep in, because it's something brand new to you. You haven't done it before. And let's not add in inflation. Right At the moment, inflation is adding on costs to everything. So you're spending more on your wedding, you're spending more on your home life and when you spend more on your personal and your home and everything else that takes away the money that was probably for your wedding as well. So that is truly how it often looks.

Yvette Sitters:

But this now I'm going to paint you a prettier picture of how it should look, but for many it doesn't, because no one knows how to make this happen. So how should it look? Firstly, you should be mapping out your wedding vision, which I talk about all the time, so that you know your wedding priorities and what's negotiable and what's not, and that must be done with your partner. It must be. Then, when you know that, you can now go and estimate what those expenses might be and we give you a very detailed breakdown in the car bride planner of how to do that properly, because that's a very hard thing to do estimating and then comparing costs. But you have to do the estimate because, again, you've never done this before. So how are you meant to know? You know what things are going to cost as you're going along. So it's really important to estimate the costs after you've done that vision, before you lock anything in Now.

Yvette Sitters:

From doing those two first steps, you then know what you can and can afford and you protest those things that were non-negotiables and you go and you put the negotiables because they're not as important and they're not a priority on your wish list and it also then helps you, like, reevaluate what is and isn't important to you and your partner, right? So these three steps can then keep your budget in check during the whole process and they keep the arguments that they over money, because you know what your true costs are and you know what you and your partner both didn't, didn't want. So you know what you can say yes and no to, and that, in turn, gives you a more enjoyable wedding planning experience and gives you your perfect wedding day. Now you can even go one step further and you can ensure you prioritize the things that people actually care about and do notice and not notice at your wedding. You know it breaks my heart because I see so much money getting wasted on what the couple think is important for guests, and they're the things that they don't even notice or care for.

Yvette Sitters:

You know, in the end, we all honestly let's be honest we all want a wedding that everyone thinks is the best wedding ever and it's talked about for years and years and years to come. Right, you might be like, no, no, that's not what I want, but we do. We don't want to spend all that money. And people went oh, that was an average wedding. Come on, let's be real. We all want everyone to go oh my gosh, that was the best wedding ever.

Yvette Sitters:

And they remember things, certain things, forever. But there's so many things that we spend money on that they don't even discuss ever again with anyone else when they're reminiscing about your wedding. And there are the things that you, which you don't realise as you're planning, also don't remember or reminisce about yourself. And they're not the things that when you're looking at the photos, you're going, oh, look at all that money you spent on that or this. You're not. You're looking at the emotions on your face and other people's faces. That's what you're doing. But you know that's a whole other conversation, separate to this episode, and it's one that's very important. So I went and created a brand new free workshop it's called the Secrets to Successful Wedding Planning where I cover what the four key components are to the best weddings and at the end I also give you a free workbook to work out your own wedding priorities so that you can stay on track with planning and your budget. And it's all free, so you can find the link in the show notes or just go straight to it and visit managemyweddingacademycom forward slash wedding secrets.

Yvette Sitters:

You know it's very, very important step that you should take in your planning, no matter what stage you are at. It is very best done, obviously, at the start so we can get off on the right foot. But if you're partway through planning, it's honestly just as important as it, because it can you bring you back on track and knowing you're doing the right things to have a successful wedding. It can also be super, super helpful when you start to get a bit stuck with planning and you're like I'm so sick of planning, it's taking over my life or I'm so sick of spending money. You know this workshop will actually make you constantly realize what you're doing it for and what's right and wrong during the planning, and you'll avoid that like overwhelm feeling and the stuck feeling and the overspending and all those things that come with it. So that is it.

Yvette Sitters:

I want you to not be afraid of the wedding budget. We're all afraid of money at the moment. I think let's be honest, but instead I want you to embrace it. I want you to stay on top of it and with regular communication with your partner so you can enjoy the planning more and more and more. Now, if you're using the Manage my Wedding app, please regularly go into your Budget section, regularly, update it. I say update it every day Before you go to bed. Did I spend any money and update it? If you're in the Canberra planner, I tell them to do the same. But that gives a much, I think, a much more detailed checklist so that you can easily update it, maybe once a week or once a month.

Yvette Sitters:

But the more regular that you update your budget, the more you'll stay on track. Because it's amazing like you forget, like you might buy cake knife and that was $70, but you don't put it on the Budget Tracker and then you don't realise why you're running out of money. So everything has to go on there. So it's $2, $100, whatever it is. So please keep on doing that and please go and take the free workshop, because I really I want you to enjoy the planning, I want you to get the best wedding ever, because you deserve it, and you want to wake up the day after your wedding day with the best feeling in your heart and your stomach and your head saying oh my God, my wedding day was perfect. I want you to have that, so make sure you go and take the free workshop, please, at managemyweddingacademycom. Forward slash wedding secrets or the link is in the show notes. But until next time, enjoy being engaged and staying stress free and organised by planning the wedding of your dreams.