Planners and brides alike create budgets for a reason. Why? To stay in control and not overspend. Overspending leads to buyers remorse and regret. We want to eliminate as many negative feelings as we can during the wedding planning process. One thing that we constantly reinforce is to stay either within or under budget in the different sections of your wedding. We know you hear it all the time, but let me actually show you what can happen by adding little things here and there:

Let’s say you have a projected budget of $10,000 for your wedding. Keep in mind that this is all hypothetical and for illustrative purposes. Your budget breakdown might be as follows:

• Wedding Dress and Accessories: $1,200
• Groom’s Tux: $200
• Reception Site: $1,300
• Rentals: $1,200
• Photographer: $1,800
• Cake: $400
• Ceremony Site: $500
• Officiant: $100
• Flowers: $1,000
• Decor: $1,100
• Catering: $1,200

Now let’s say you found THE dress, but it’s $1,800 with alterations. That’s only an extra $600, right? Your groom wants to look good and decides to pay the extra $50 for a nicer tux.

Then, the florist showed you these amazing centerpieces for only $40 more each. That may take you an extra $200 if you have 10 tables.  Now you think your reception needs a little more umph, so you upgrade your rentals to include these beautiful table cloths. That will bump you up another $250 assuming you have 10 guest tables, and the cloths you want are $25 each.

You want one more hour of coverage by the photographer…only an extra $100.

Now for the food. Your cake is nice, but you really want that raspberry filling which is an extra $5 per layer. And you saw a picture of a cake with some piping and details that you want to imitate. That will tack on an extra $100 for the design. For a three layer cake, this will add an extra $115. Catering, you stayed on budget, even a little under! You found someone who can provide what you want for $1,000.

Your ceremony site isn’t working out. You don’t like the look, it’s too cramped, and it’s near a bad part of town. You decide to look around and you find a stunning church. It’s only an extra $300! You’re sold.

You manage to stay on budget for the rest of your wedding. So what’s the damage? Here’s the new breakdown:

That’s $1,415 overbudget. No big deal! But that’s a 14% increase. This means less honeymoon money, less money to put into the house, less money to put down on a car, etc.

Now $10,000 may not seem like much to some brides. If your budget is $20,000 and you go over by 14%, that’s an extra $2,800.

Moral of the story: stick to your budget. You created it for a reason, whether your finances are an issue or you want a wonderful honeymoon. The more you go over, the more it affects other areas of your lives.