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When planning a wedding, it is important to first create and stick to a budget. Without a budget, it is easy to find yourself mired in debt with only part of your planning taken care of. With just a little forethought and effort, you can easily create a wedding budget that works with your finances while still affording you the opportunity to have the wedding of your dreams.

First, determine your overall budget. As with most things, especially in the current economy, it's best to try to avoid going too deep into debt. Be realistic about what you can really afford - if you don't have much money saved up and you don't have help from family, it would be imprudent to budget $60,000 for your wedding. Dream big, but then scale back your dream to fit reality. If you can't pay it off in a year or two, it's too much.

The second step in creating your budget is to break it up according to each item. If you are unsure how much things cost, call around. Call a few different reception venues, caterers, DJs, photographers, etc. to come up with an average cost. You can set your own budget for things like your dress, tuxedo rentals, favors, invitations, and so on - those things are typically available for a wide price range, so you can go just about as low or as high as you need and still find something that you're happy with. Leave these items out of the budget until you have determined how much you need to set aside for the bigger-ticket items.

Now that you have your budget made up, here are some tips on how to stick to that budget, or maybe even bring it down a little bit.

* Give yourself a little leeway.

Include some padding in your budget in case you underestimate the cost of something. A good rule of thumb is to leave five to ten percent of your total budget as a buffer. For instance, if you have $10,000 total to spend on your wedding, make sure to leave yourself at least $500 to $1000 that is not accounted for in your breakdown. This way, if you simply cannot get catering for the amount you had budgeted for it, or if you just have to have the more expensive invitations, you have a little built-in breathing room in your overall budget instead of having to go over.

* Prune your guest list.

If you're on a budget, you won't want to be spending a lot of money feeding and entertaining people that you don't know well or aren't close to. You don't have to invite your boss's 10 children if you don't know them, and you don't have to invite all of your mother's friends just because she

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