{"id":17860,"date":"2025-11-28T10:31:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wedding-budget-template\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:31:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:31:20","slug":"wedding-budget-template","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wedding-budget-template\/","title":{"rendered":"Wedding Budget Template"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let me tell you \u2013 when my now-husband proposed during that chaotic family BBQ (my nephew dropped a plate of potato salad mid-knee-bend), I immediately dove into Pinterest boards thinking \u201cHow hard can budgeting be?\u201d Spoiler: I was wildly unprepared. Turns out, planning a wedding with your midwestern mom, your fianc\u00e9 who\u2019s allergic to spreadsheets, and your inner Bridezilla is like herding cats through a HomeGoods store.<\/p>\n<p>Our first budget meeting went like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Me:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019ll just use this cute template I found!\u201d <em>(pastel colors, floral tabs \u2013 zero functionality)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Reality:<\/strong> By month two, we\u2019d blown 30% of our budget on&#8230;wait for it&#8230;<em>linen rentals<\/em>. (Turns out \u201civory chiavari chairs\u201d cost more than our car payment.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The wake-up call:<\/strong> My maid of honor \u2013 a total Excel wizard \u2013 sat me down with cold brew and said \u201cGirl, you\u2019re tracking expenses like my toddler \u2018organizes\u2019 Legos.\u201d She showed me her own wedding spreadsheet from 2018, complete with color-coded tabs that actually made sense. Three things I stole from her:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p><strong>The 50\/30\/20 hack<\/strong> <em>(but for weddings)<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>50% on \u201cBig Rocks\u201d (venue, food, photos \u2013 stuff you can\u2019t DIY)<\/li>\n<li>30% on \u201cDetails\u201d (decor, attire, invites)<\/li>\n<li>20% buffer for \u201cOh Crap\u201d moments <em>(like when our bakery quoted $800 for a gluten-free cake\u2026for 12 people)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Track EVERY transaction<\/strong> <em>(yes, even the $9 Etsy \u201cBride Squad\u201d koozies)<\/em>:<br \/>\nWe used a shared Google Sheet that auto-tallied totals. Game-changer. Protip: Name columns after your wedding party for laughs <em>(Aunt Karen\u2019s Opinions | $0 but emotionally costly)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Budget \u2260 diet<\/strong> \u2013 it\u2019s okay to splurge where it matters:<br \/>\nWe cut fake flowers (turns out Trader Joe\u2019s peonies are $12\/bunch) to afford our dream photographer. Zero regrets.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>What I\u2019d do differently:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Stop assuming \u201chidden fees\u201d were a myth<\/strong> <em>(looking at you, $200 \u201ccake cutting charge\u201d)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Talk money WAY earlier<\/strong> with vendors. Pro move: Ask \u201cWhat\u2019s the <em>lowest<\/em> package you\u2019ve done for this service?\u201d before they upsell you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use cash envelopes<\/strong> for last-minute buys. My mom\u2019s church basement sale score ($40 for 60 mason jars!) saved our centerpieces.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Funny story \u2013 we accidentally budgeted $0 for marriage license fees because \u201chow expensive could a piece of paper be?\u201d (Answer: $87.50 in Cook County, IL. We scraped quarters from my car cupholders.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Want my actual template?<\/strong> It\u2019s got Midwest math, some sassy comments in the margins, and a tab called \u201cNope\u201d where we dumped overpriced ideas. Shoot me an email via the contact form \u2013 I\u2019ll send it free. Just promise me you\u2019ll add a line item for emergency tacos. You\u2019ll need \u2018em.<\/p>\n<p><em>Final thought: Your wedding isn\u2019t a spreadsheet. It\u2019s okay if the numbers get messy. Our \u201cperfect day\u201d included a groomsman\u2019s pants splitting during the hora\u2026and you know what? That memory\u2019s priceless.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me tell you \u2013 when my now-husband proposed during that chaotic family BBQ (my nephew dropped a plate of potato salad mid-knee-bend), I immediately dove into Pinterest boards thinking \u201cHow hard can budgeting be?\u201d Spoiler: I was wildly unprepared. Turns out, planning a wedding with your midwestern mom, your fianc\u00e9 who\u2019s allergic to spreadsheets,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}