When The Money Runs Out! Part I: Audit

The economy was NOT supposed to affect your wedding and ultimate passage into marital bliss. How could you have planned around something that is completely not under your control? But it has. Now what?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are aware that the “economy” is in bad shape. Simply Beautiful will break it down in a series to give you advice on, When the Money Runs Out.

If you and your fiancé find yourselves in a situation where you must take a timeout from the wedding plans to seriously assess your finances and the question has come up as to whether or not you can still have a wedding, you are not alone.

Do Not Panic. (If you have to, take some time out, freak out and then pull it together. We’re human.)

First things first, audit your wedding. If you have contracted the services of a Wedding Planner/Consultant, they may be able to create an audit report based on the tracking they have done on your behalf. You may have kept meticulous records of your spending or files of receipts that will also help with the audit. However, if you are in this position, something probably went awry in the financial planning and execution.

For an Audit, the following things should be determined:

1. How much have you already spent on your wedding?

Include only deposits/retainers, payments and actual purchases.

2. What are the balances left on your contracted items/services?

Include items or services that you have signed a contract for and require an actual cancellation.

3. Determine the items or services that are pending purchase, payment or reservation and their respective costs. Use your budget worksheet, quotes and proposals to gather these figures.

Now you have an actual financial picture of how your wedding is shaping up.

So what do you do?

Cancel the Wedding

Raise more Funds

Postpone the Wedding

Check out these Simply Beautiful posts for more budget advice: Wedding Costs, Financial Cold Feet, Realistic Wedding Budgets.