The first and most important task a bride and groom must do is to set their wedding budget. Weddings can be expensive, and the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is over $20,000 not including the honeymoon. While $20,000 sounds like a lot of money, keep in mind that it is an average and a lot of weddings cost much-much more than that.

Before we go any further, you must realize that no wedding budget is ever too big. It is your wedding budget not your imagination that sets the limits of what you can or can't do on your wedding day. Formal weddings in hotel ballrooms or other extravagant wedding reception venues will require a much larger budget than a wedding party held at your parents house. In addition, formal weddings are more expensive because everything about them is expensive such as the food, music, etc.

Summer is the most popular and most expensive time of the year to get married. Because hotels and other wedding reception venues wish to profit from the busy wedding season, be prepared to pay a higher price during the summer rush.

The more guest you invite to your wedding, the more money you'll spend. You should calculate your food budget based on a per-head cost for food and liquor. The type of meal you plan to serve your guest is limited by your budget. For example, a seated dinner served is more expensive than a buffet.

Some locations are more expensive than others. Certain cities such as New York and Los Angeles can be expensive, but distant places can be just as pricey due to high travel costs.

Don't panic if your wedding budget doesn't cover everything that you'd like to have on your wedding day. It may require compromises, scheduling changes, or simply begging for more money, but even with a limited budget you can likely plan your ideal wedding.

The decision about a wedding budget is one that needs to be made by the bride and groom and their families-together. While tradition dictates that the bride's family covers most of the expenses of a wedding, that tradition is not necessarily relevant today. The bride and groom primarily finance many of today's weddings.

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