Budget

A wedding budget consists of two kinds of cost, and separating them is half the overview. One part falls due regardless of how many people come — venue, music, photography, stationery. The other hangs off every single guest: food, drinks, a seat, a place setting. That is why one deletion from the guest list changes the budget more than any negotiation with a supplier.

The second useful step is to think in proportions rather than amounts. What an evening costs differs considerably between regions and seasons; the ratio between the items much less. Knowing which block is the largest in your case also tells you where saving achieves something and where it merely hurts.

And then the buffer, which is almost always missing. Something shifts — usually late, when alternatives are expensive. An amount left unallocated from the start stops a change from forcing a cut somewhere else. This section covers the split, the order of decisions, and the items that are regularly forgotten.