If I asked you right now what you spent on marketing your small business last month, you could probably tell me at least a ball park number. Your website hosting. Your email platform. That brand shoot you finally booked. Maybe you bought a a social media course, hired a blog writer for 3 really strong pieces, or invested in a Pinterest strategist. Whatever it is, you know the number-ish. You paid the invoices and felt a little something about the money you spent.

Let’s talk about marketing budgets. Because for a lot of wedding pros, this is where things get a little funky. You know marketing matters. You know people need to find you. You know that if you want to book better weddings, higher-paying clients, or simply more consistently, your business cannot survive on good vibes and the occasional Instagram post you made at 11:48 p.m. with one eye open.

I see this all the time: marketing is the thing you “want” to do… but it’s never the priority. Not because you’re lazy—because you’re busy, you’re booked, you’re juggling clients, and the last thing you want is to play “guess what the algorithm wants today.”