Discuss what aspect of the wedding is the most important to you and to your fiancé. Yours may be the wedding gown, and his may be the Cars. Plan to spend a little more than average on these two items. Work out how much money you both have to spend. Look at both your savings and the money coming from one or both sets of parents. Meet with the parents and tactfully explain that you are trying to work out your wedding budget and it would be helpful to know what contributions they are making.

If you are borrowing money from a bank or lending institution, find out how much you can borrow, the interest rate and monthly repayments. Never borrow so much that it will be difficult to pay back or put stress on the relationship later on.

When you know how much money you have to budget, you can work out how much you are willing to spend on each aspect of your wedding. Replace the sample $20,000 with your budgeted amount and the planner will automatically convert the amount for each category.

You can change the percentages if some aspect are more important than others. If a beautiful dress dress is more important to you than having a large gathering, select it. Keep track of what you actually spent and fill in this amount next to the "desired estimate" column. The budget planner will keep you informed of your over/under spending and allow you to make adjustments to keep the spending within budget.

Download Bride Online Budget Planner
Microsoft Excel© Format
To Open: Left Click Link above
To Save: Right Click-->Save Target As

If you do not have this version a free viewer is available here:
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/xlviewer.aspx