Wedding Planning Step 2 (Budget and Guest List)

So we now have books and books of ideas and your fiance is furious at you for waking up every twenty minutes to write down a new idea right? I do realize this is probably untrue but I want you to pull out that binder with your ideas and create a few new sections: Budget, Guest List, Ceremony and Reception.
I will focus on the first two right now but I like to include them all because they are intertwined subjects. Your first thing is budget, are you paying for this yourselves? Are your parents helping or paying for anything?
I realize that this is a major buzzkill but it's important to know how much your spending off the bat because it will save a lot of time later. This will affect everything from your locations to the date to your guest count. It is important to know that you can have an amazing wedding on any budget, some just involve a lot of creativity and research. I've seen $15000 weddings that are much better than $50000 weddings. As far as you people with unlimited budgets, you should be calling me right now because I would love to plan a wedding with no budget (it has yet to happen but I have my fingers crossed) I would also like to advise you that a wedding doesnt have to bankrupt you, do a little research and see if you can get what you want for cheaper, there is usually an alternative.
You dont need to lay out a detailed budget yet but you shoul dknow a ballpark figure before you look at anything.
I also advise you to both get out your paper and start compiling a guest list starting with your must haves (people that absolutely need to be there, and dont forget your parents) Move down to people that you really like and put them in Group B and then create a Group C as a backup. I know this sounds awful but you want to be surrounded by all of your loved ones but it isnt always possible to invite everybody you've ever known. Most couples only have a few minutes per guest so remember that when you are making this list. Your receiving line is only as long as your guest list.
This also gives you a point where you can see everyone you want to invite, sometimes it is shocking how many people end up on these lists and it is good to know a rough count before you hit the pavement looking at locations.
I know you are excited and ready to get out there and put your event together. If you do these steps correctly than you have a great foundation for really finding everything you need because you know how much you can spend and how many people you have (the two most popular questions among vendors)