Everybody gets the jitters or cold feet just before their big day; it's perfectly normal to wonder, even worry that everything will turn out okay. So it's little wonder then that one of the greatest causes of people worrying is related to the wedding budget. People who can afford too, and alarmingly people who can't, will often spend way more on the wedding ceremony and wedding reception than they need to. Sad really, when you think about all those classic inexpensive wedding ideas.

Remember when a wedding had a focus on love and commitment and wasn't just about cold hard cash. Let’s try and start afresh and plan our wedding by saving money wherever possible, without sacrificing the quality that every bride deserves. Impossible you may think, but you’d be wrong!

The problem as I see it is that credit is too easily available. A wedding couple with limited funds can go out and buy everything on tick, and for some this is exactly what they do. Their prime focus is on their wedding day, and to hell with everything else, no matter what the cost. Unfortunately, this kind of wedding planning is all too common, with couples raking up huge debts with no real way of ever paying off the interest, let alone settling the balance.

Tying the not should not be about going bankrupt, or plummeting deeper and deeper in debt. It should be about celebrating the unity between you and your partner with the help of family and friends.

So how do you ensure you don’t overspend? Simple really, you need a wedding budget, a wedding plan and the mental aptitude to stick too it.

So first things first, you need to work out with your partner just how much you can afford to spend. My wife and I were extremely fortunate in that both our parents wanted to contribute to our wedding. This meant we basically split the cost three ways. However, you shouldn’t assume that your parents will contribute anything. The days of the Brides parents paying for everything are long gone. Approach the subject carefully as more arguments relating to weddings are money orientated than any other.

One you know exactly how much money you have to spend it’s time to start planning. Open up your spreadsheet and write down the key categories to your wedding. For example you will likely have something like the following:

Wedding Venue:

Wedding Reception:

Honeymoon:

Transport:

Wedding Attire:

This is just an example and you will likely have lots more categories. Now you need to expand each category into sub categories. For example:

Wedding Reception:

Food

DJ

Cake

You get the idea right? Continue filling in your spreadsheet until you have a comprehensive list of main categories and sub categories that make up your wedding plan. Don’t worry if you miss anything at this stage, you can always go back and add it in later.

Now you need to fill in the approximate cost of each sub category and hopefully you will not be far short of your wedding budget. Play around with these figures until you’re satisfied how much your wedding is likely to cost and that you haven’t overspent.

Now it’s time to start sourcing those killer deals in order to further drive down the cost of your wedding, by doing so you will have extra cash to play with to put towards you dream honeymoon.

For more information on planning a cheap wedding including cheap wedding favor ideas make sure you visit planning-a-cheap-wedding.com today.