How to budget a wedding? If the headache has not begun, we’re afraid it soon will. It will start small and grow from there. But we’re pretty sure this is something you can overcome. Think about it, all of those others planned, got hitched and survived. It’s quite likely you will too. Take a deep breath.
As you’ve seen, there’s a plan for any price range out there and with that comes unlimited details to dissect. Begin the headache. While your mother will insist that this item simply cannot be done without, all your girlfriends might be rolling their eyes. Your lovely fiancé will not budge on an item that you are perfectly happy leaving out. Headache upgrade. Outside of the social circle, a quick trip to the internet will immediately inundate you with many many opinions towards the must haves and the less important aspects.
Headache Apex Imminent
So let’s take another deep breathe here. Really, do it this time, I’ll wait. In, then out. Well done. No need to get worked up, it is just you and I here, no fiancees, in-laws, bridesmaids or other pesky friends with conflicting opinions.
So before another conniption hits, let’s boil this thing down to the basics: the absolute simplicity required to make the wedding wheels turn. Those bare minimum items are a cake, a dress, a DJ, a photographer and a place to make it all happen. Throw in these items, have someone officiate it and no one can say you didn’t get married. See that isn’t so bad, right?
Now obviously you want to up the bare minimum, but we just wanted to point out how easy it can get. Everything else is extra. Remember, it’s all about perspective with these big-picture projects. However, once we begin to partition these aspects the headache returns again, so we’ll take it slow. And since we’re here to discuss some slick photography, let’s start there. And with that we recommend roughly 15-20% of the overall budget going to cover photography and a video made.
Perhaps that number made you gasp, but hear us out. After all the planning and buying of fancy items for this undoubtedly fancy wedding, what will you actually get to keep and hold forever? Your wedding dress, a slice of cake, a few of the invitations and then of course all of that awesome photography. And to look at it with more scrutiny, say 50 years from now, the dress might be nice to slip on, and the invites pleasant to pull out, but it’s really the photography that counts for the memories in years to come. It’s not to be underestimated!
In other words, if you’re going to put all this money into a perfect wedding, what a waste it would be to not ensure you got some great shots out of it. Imagine after all that time putting painstakingly small puzzle pieces together you do not even have adequate photography to show it all off? We know we’re a photography company and self-promotion is key. We know that insisting you spend 20% of your budget on photography is something you would expect us to say. But we hope the point of this paragraph transcends that. While yes, we would love to photograph your wedding, we ultimately want everyone to be happy. That said, if you don’t get quality photography for your wedding, then what’s the point of the extravagance? The photography is what you will cherish for those years to come.
How to Decide
To get the most out of your budget, you need to decide exactly what you want and do not want. Do you even want a video? Do you simply need more than one photographer on the day of to not miss a moment? What kind of albums and prints will you want available afterwards? Do you want someone to stick around for the whole day or just part? Being knowledgable about what you don’t want is just as important about knowing what you do want. Be clear with your photographer about your needs and the money put into photography will speak for itself. However, not deciding what’s important, or being unclear with your photographer will also lead the results to speak for themselves, but for the worse.
We know that these are times when everyone is on a budget. It’s simply the economy we live in today. But that does not mean you cannot make an informed decision on who to hire as your photographer. There is talent out there for every price range and need, they simply need to be found and matched together.
Decide what you want, do your research into what area photographers can offer, and be sure those two points complement each other for the final decision. At Lux Picture we have wedding photography plans to accommodate any budget and the experience to bring in and show off all the details you painstakingly planned. Visit our galleries at Lux Picture to see our work and various wedding packages to fit any need.
Good luck! Either way you’ll likely make it through in one piece. Remember to take lots of deep breaths.
