How to Budget For the Holiday Season & Your Wedding Simultaneously
Deck the halls with wedding bells!
It’s that time for Christmas trees, holiday baking, and playing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” on repeat (IYKYK). If you’re a bride who’s planning to have her wedding during the holidays or in the few months after the peak holiday season, not only do you have to buy gifts, but you have to pay for your wedding as well! The pandemic has already created an additional financial strain for a lot of brides, putting a wedding and gifts on top of that would be difficult for anyone. This is why it’s important to create a holiday budgeting plan that will not only keep you within budget for buying gifts, but also for your wedding. Finding ways to spread out your costs over a longer period will keep you from hemorrhaging your bank account and spending a large amount of money at once. In the spirit of the holidays, we’ve put together a list of a few ways you can budget for the holiday season and your wedding simultaneously (cost saving is a guarantee)!
Create Holiday and Wedding Budgets
First order of business, make a list of how many people you need to buy gifts for and a separate list of all the items you have left to buy on your wedding checklist. Realistically calculate how much each list will cost you, if the numbers are too high for your overall budget, it’s time to make some cuts. Go through your gift list and eliminate any people that aren’t in your immediate family or close friend group. If cutting down your gift list won’t work, set a $20 limit for every person. The maximum gift price can be more or less depending on your budget. Having a maximum budget for your gifts and your wedding will help guide you through your purchases. Make sure to track your purchases to keep you within budget and see if you have any extra funds to work with.
via Unsplash
Look Out For Sales
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’Tis the season for holiday sales! In-store shopping for Black Friday is a thing of the past, almost all holiday sales are already happening in the form of weekly deals or just a full-on price cut for most items online. If there are particular businesses you are looking to buy from, like Sephora or Nordstrom, sign up for their email list to be up to date on any deals. Take the time to look through all the sales and clearance sections of a website for any items that would make great presents for any of your loved ones. You can also use these sales to find decorative items for your wedding. Use this as an opportunity to look out for discounted shoes, undergarments, veils, wedding rings, or other accessories for your bridal ensemble. If you’re planning to DIY any decor like a lounge space or centerpieces, search for vases, couches, etc. that you can use for your wedding.
Ask For Wedding-Related Gifts
The easiest way to cut costs during the holiday season is to ask your loved ones for wedding-related gifts. This could be anything from your veil and shoes to a contribution to your honeymoon funds. Using holiday gifts as a way to check items off of your wedding checklist will remove some of the financial strain from you. You can then use any money you saved from those gifts and put it towards other wedding items like an open bar or any extra “must-have” items that you wanted but weren’t able to initially fit into your overall budget.
Photography by Becky from the Thompson Photography Group
Price Check All of Your Gifts
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Little known holiday secret: many retail stores like Target and JC Penney have a price match policy where if you find the same item for a lower price at a competing store, they will give you that price. Even if the store you’re shopping at won’t give you the cheaper price, you now know where you can buy the item for less. This can apply to wedding items as well, make sure you do your research for gifts and venues alike. If you’re buying a lot of decoration pieces yourself – i.e. vases, rugs, throw pillows – double-check the prices at multiple stores. Don’t be embarrassed to use coupons as well, for many stores the online price is often cheaper than the in-store price, but beware of any shipping fees!
Share this with a bride who’s planning her wedding through the holiday season and check out our lookbooks for some holiday wedding inspo!
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