As part of their consultation I naturally ask clients if they have a budget, in past years clients would give me a rough budget but I’ve noticed a bit of a trend recently when clients say there is no budget determined. Far from being helpful this makes it very difficult to price what their wedding will cost.
After all there is a huge difference in weddings costing £10k compared to £30k and even more when the wedding is £80k+. Without a broad spectrum of a budget I have no idea as to what they want for their wedding. I pride myself on being an honest wedding planner so when a client gives me a budget I don’t set out to spend every penny or intentionally go over budget so I earn more! In fact my budget breakdowns are pretty accurate and we rarely go over the agreed budget.
Think about it another way, I have suppliers I recommend in each price bracket and I only recommend those the client can afford. There is nothing worse then seeing and falling in love with something only to discover it’s out of your budget. For example the bands I use can range from £700 - £4,000. Is there a big difference between them? To be honest yes, my top bands are fantastic but I only recommend them IF the client can afford it.
The same can be said of flowers, you could enter a meeting with a florist saying there is no budget, the florist will then quote giving you everything you wanted, you receive the quote and fall off your chair because you don’t want to spend that much so ask them to cut down. Wouldn’t it have been easier to say this is my budget in the first place?
So, the moral of the story is not every supplier is trying to spend ALL your money. We are only trying to give you the wedding or party you desire but without knowing what you want to spend, expectations are rarely met.
Please be honest with us!
