My biggest fear for my wedding was the amount weddings usually cost. The thought scared me, and with my plan of having a destination wedding and two receptions being enough to make me question whether I was really having a sustainable wedding or not, it was all getting too real. So I took to the world wide web for answers on how much weddings usually cost, and how I could make sure that I was within our budget. But, EEK! What was our budget? Where should we begin? Yes, Mr P is also Mr Financial Advisor, but his advice would've been something I didn't want to hear.

Now, when people think of weddings as being ethical, sustainable or eco- we may conjure images of loads of DIY projects, which will not only save you loads of money, but may also be a greener approach (depending on what it is you use). A friend of mine asked if I was "going to pick flowers from the fields and tie ribbons on mason jars?" Hmph, I will tell you that I was not far away from doing that for the US wedding. I told her that my wedding would NOT look like a backdrop for a Mumford & Sons music video, and would be like any other wedding, just without all the unnecessaries. 

YES! The "UNNECESSARIES," as I am calling it, was my first step towards creating a budget. Items like flowers was one of them, especially as we could not enjoy them in most of the locations. In Italy, we only had flowers on the Priest's table during the ceremony (and which we gave to him as a Thank You) and  I had a small bouquet of six white roses, which the Italian florist just wouldn't let me leave without taking (sigh, sometimes you just have to concede, especially when your Italian is sub par like mine). In the UK, we only had seasonal flowers, and just centrepieces which were a gift from Mr P's parents, and we used those centrepieces as wedding favours for the "special" guests. In the US, my mother was not having any of it, I refused to have flowers, but came down to the kitchen one day to find that "WE" had already consulted with the florist/family friend, who gave us the flowers for free (Money spent $0). However, you could completely remove things like flowers, which I find wasteful when in excess, and substitute as our guest blogger Alex L. did when she made a Brooch Bouquet.

Yet, there is more to creating a budget within your reach, and even more to sticking with it. I needed help! I typed "Creating a Wedding Budget" in Google, and was presented with thousands upon thousands of resources, but luckily my second pick was as far as I needed to go. I followed the steps and voila, we were within our budget. Happy as happy can be, and managed to stick with MOST of our sustainable goals in the process. Now, I wish to share this with you, so take a look at this rather straightforward Infographic and tell us how your wedding budget is coming along.