For most people, getting married is a once-in-a-lifetime event. They want to do it right and make it memorable. But, memories don’t have to come with a high price tag. Enjoy a day to remember and keep some money in the bank with a wedding budget.

 Budgets are not handcuffs to keep you from getting what you want. In fact, their purpose is just the contrary. You can spend what you need to but a budget gets you to consider alternatives. It is a guideline that allows you to have what you want on your big day.

 There are a few keys to setting up a budget for your wedding.

 Decide on your categories. What do you need to spend money on? For instance, there’s the ceremony, the flowers, the music, the rehearsal dinner, the reception and etc. you get the idea. Each category is assigned a certain percentage of the total budget.

 Choose a budget amount. This budget amount is made up of all the sources of income you want to devote to your wedding. This includes what you parents and future in-laws will contribute, what you have saved and any other monies. Nowadays it is not uncommon for couples to set aside money to have the wedding of their dreams. Parents can’t foot the bill like they used to since tastes have evolved and become more expensive.

 Leave a discretionary fund. Leave at least three percent of the budget for last minute snafus. You don’t want to get a big bill at the last minute that sinks the wedding ship.

 Use your imagination. What is the most important part of the ceremony to you? It is great to decorate and have party favors but how much money do you have to devote to them? If your church or venue is already beautiful as is, less money has to be spent on enhancing it. Party favors don’t have to be expensive to look nice and be appreciated. More money can be shunted to the dress or the cake when less is spent in other areas.

 Enlist the help of professional friends. We don’t mean hire people to be your friends. Know any friends who are professionals? If one is a florist or owns a print shop, they can give you a discount or do your flowers or programs as a wedding gift.

 A budget is not to constrain but to sharpen your focus for the big day. Use these suggestions to get the ball rolling. Even if you can afford a $20,000 wedding, you don’t have to spend that much to get what you want.

        

Pre-Wedding Counseling: Avoid Relationship Pitfalls

The wedding day is not a culmination of your life but the beginning. From that point on, you will be spending your life with the one you love. Pre-wedding counseling helps make you aware of the small issues so that they don’t become big problems.

You are not the first to be here. You meet someone that fills your heart and your head. For several months (or years) it seems you both are living in a cloud of bliss. The air is rare up there and you never want to touch the ground again.

Eventually there will be talk of an engagement and a wedding. You both have never been more in love. Unfortunately, when you are so enamored with each other, life issues don’t usually come up. Things like religion, sex, children, personal values and money are nowhere in the equation at this time. To that end many wake up one day after several years of marriage wondering who this person is that they married.

Pre-wedding counseling is a solution to the nightmare of divorce and unhappy marriages. Counselors know that your love overshadows everything else at the early stages of your relationship and their job is to make you aware of the issues before entering into a lifelong union.

The Counselor – Counseling is usually done by a minister or priest. Most people marry in a church and it is sometimes policy for the couple to engage in counseling before they are allowed to walk the aisle. If you are going for a non-traditional wedding, your counselor can be a licensed family therapist who has experience with pre-marital counseling.

The Sessions – Counseling sessions can range from one or two to an entire course. It is up to the counselor and the couple. The couple and the counselor meet alone to discuss issues that are important to a marriage like the ones mentioned earlier. It is necessary for couples to sort out their individual thoughts on these and other matters to see if they are compatible at the deeper levels of a relationship.

The Outcome – A firm foundation secures the home that is built upon it. That is the goal of pre-wedding counseling – to build firm foundations. The time to discuss children is not after three years of marriage when the biological clock is ticking. Money issues can’t wait until the well runs dry.

The goal of pre-wedding counseling is not to break up couples but to get them to see the big picture of their lives. Think of it as another part of your wedding plans.