OK, so you have your heart set on the top banquet facility in the area. The only thing is once you've done that, your wedding budget is shot. The $75/pp meal charge quickly becomes $100/pp with the 18% gratuity & other hidden charges. Your heart races as you hear that the facility won't even lock in the prices. You book your wedding in 2004 and by the time the wedding comes around in 2006, there could be a 10-20% increase in price.

Once your budget is blown on the banquet facility - the thing is - you've doomed yourself. Now, you have to compromise on your photographer and which package that you wanted. You end up with a $500 DJ instead of the $1,500 one that you really liked. You can't afford a videographer and the roses you wanted quickly become carnations.

Let's look at the numbers - if the 150 guests costs you $100/pp - that's $15,000 of your wedding budget. If you were to look at a facility that was one step down in pricing - say $75/pp - now your budget is only a bit over $11,000. That extra $4,000 in savings could be the difference between all the other budget items that you wanted or wanted to upgrade.

Take a very close look at what you spend in what area of your wedding budget.

Remember, the meal is done in about an hour.

There are 5 hours in a typical wedding reception.

Spend a better part of your budget on a quality photographer and entertainment and you'll be much happier in the end.