Saving

I think the main thing for this is being realistic. Work out what you and your partner take home minus all the normal monthly expenses + buffer. Then it depends on what your saving pot situation looks like. If it’s completely empty or very low (less than a months take home pay) then most people would want to focus on getting their savings pot to a healthy level first (at least 3 months monthly outgoings/3 months pay).

Providing you have healthy savings and it’s more like saving for the wedding vs saving for holidays etc., it all depends on what you’d rather prioritise. For us we sat down and worked out the wedding we’d like, got all the rough costs together for that in a spreadsheet (Google is your friend - but do take a look at suppliers in your area for more accurate costs) and then when we had the total number, add about 20% as a buffer. From there we worked out when we’d like to get married (I knew I wanted a summer wedding) and then looked at whether saving that much each month was achievable and if so how much we’d have left over for other things (birthdays, holidays, Christmas, other people’s weddings etc). You may need to then compromise and push out the wedding or you may be completely fine. We have separate saving pots that we then put the money into when we get paid, that way it’s not in our main current accounts accidentally being spent.

It’s not the most interesting part of wedding planning, but that spreadsheet is what keeps me sane now and reminds me I can afford this wedding, so it’s definitely worth doing Hope that helps & good luck with the planning!