In honour of my recent wedding and Michelle’s upcoming one, I’d like to spend some time talking about wedding budgets and my wedding budget. Sure, it’s not the most glamorous part of the big day. It’s not something you can gush about to your friends.
In fact, a wedding budget is probably barely mentioned at all by most people. That said, if you don’t want to start out life as a newlywed with a ton of debt, it’s very important to have a budget.
Side note: Here are some of my past wedding posts in case you are interested:
- My Wedding Pictures
- How Much Did Our Wedding Cost? – $22,230
- I Got Married!
- The rest of my wedding related posts can be found here.
Do Your Research Before You Set A Wedding Budget
Did you know that the average wedding costs $26,000 (some even say higher!, see this article)? When I first heard that wedding budget number, I was shocked. That’s almost the same amount that I owed in student loans after my undergraduate degree. That could be used as a down-payment on a house, or to buy a car outright!
Clearly, weddings can be expensive. The venue, the dress, the food, it all adds up, and quickly. Before setting a firm budget for your wedding, do a little preliminary research on the going rate for various aspects of the wedding in your area.
Costs can vary widely, so the more you know, the easier it’ll be to come up with a reasonable number. My budget ended up being around $4,500. Check out how I saved money on a lot of the costs here.
Figure Out a Savings Schedule For Your Wedding Budget
Once you have a ball park figure of how much it’s roughly going to cost to have the wedding you want, you need to figure out where that money is going to come from.
Many people receive donations from family members to help cover the costs, which can be a huge help. Many times though, the engaged couple will have to cover at least a portion of the expenses.
For my wedding, my fiance and I were very fortunate with some help from family members, and a rather large tax return. As a result we only had to cover about $2,000 of the costs ourselves. I made a savings schedule that got us there in about a year’s time, and we barely felt the pinch on our budget.
If you’ve figured out how much you need to save, and it just doesn’t seem doable in your time frame and projected expenses, don’t turn to credit! There are tons of ways to save money on weddings while still enjoying a beautiful event with friends and family. All it takes is a little creativity.
Remember There’s No Prize for the “Best” Wedding When Setting Your Wedding Budget
Possibly the worst part about setting a wedding budget is remembering that you don’t have to have the nicest wedding of the summer, or the cheapest. There’s no prize for DIYing every last detail and having an uber cheap wedding, so if that’s not what you want to do, and you can afford it – don’t do it!
In the same vein, if there are things that you simply don’t care about (for me it was things like invitations and many of the traditional events) there’s no reason not to go the cheaper route or eliminate it all together, especially if you are having problems getting your dreams to match your financial reality.
Weddings can be a touchy subject because they are so easy to compare. They are all basically the same, but each couple’s choices reflect who they are, which makes it easy to feel like you must conform (and spend more money while you’re at it).
At the end of the day, you are the one footing the bill, so set a budget you’re comfortable with, and pick and choose what’s important to you.
I spent $4,500 on my wedding, how much did you spend on yours? What was your wedding budget?
Related Posts
Are Wedding Loans A Crazy Idea? 10 Things To Think About For Your Big Day- How To Save Thousands On An Engagement Ring
- Bad Money Mistakes Couples Should Avoid – They May Be Making You Poor and Stressed Out
- DIY Wedding Ideas – Worth It Or A Waste Of Money?
- What To Think About Before Having An Outdoor Wedding Plus Craziness That Happened At Ours
- How Much Did Our Wedding Cost? – $22,230
Thomas says
I cant see spending 25k or more on a wedding especially when there are so many more things in life that I want to accomplish that the money could go towards. I understand its a very special day but lets remember it is one day. Thats a lot of money and unless I am financial secured its too much. I can see spending 4.5k but we spent a little less. We went to the court house and had a small reception. In the end I got what truly mattered, my beautiful wifey.
Holly@ClubThrifty says
We spent less than $3,000. We basically eloped and had two big receptions (our families are in two different part of the country). I bought my dress for $200 off the rack and I actually bought my invitations and unity candle at a garage sale! lol
DC @ Young Adult Money says
I think the biggest thing is deciding what you care about. My wife wanted our wedding to be a celebration/one big party so we cared much more about the DJ, venue, and being able to invite a lot of people. It definitely turned out the way we hoped! We spent about $20k when it was all said and done.
GamingYourFinances says
Ours ended up costing a little over $13,000. By no means was it inexpensive. We did try and keep it simple and avoided some of the extras that our guests might not notice anyway. We did 1hr of photography instead of a full day, we had pizza at midnight rather than a late night buffet, that was $200 vs $1300! In the end everyone is there for you and to celebrate this great day!
Jaclyn says
We spent a whopping $18,000ish on our wedding which we completely cash flowed by saving for about 9 months. Of course, this was back before we had a mortgage and could afford to save that much at one time…. oh if I could go back and do things differently!
Michelle says
We’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and now we are hoping to spend less than $10,000. We are going to try and do a lot more things ourselves so that we can save money!
Daisy @ Prairie Eco Thrifter says
We plan to spend around $7500 on ours when we tie the knot. My parents are contributing some money, but we’re on our own for most of it. It’s still a TON of money.
Pauline says
I think if I get married it will be about that cheap. My sister had a $20,000 wedding and it was really nice but I can’t justify that much money for just a day. Having a few loved ones around is all I need.
John S @ Frugal Rules says
Thankfully my father-in-law had money set aside already to cover for our wedding. He had $10,000 set aside and it was great knowing what we had to deal with as it made decision making much easier.
Matt Becker says
I think the important thing is to set a budget BEFORE you start planning everything. If you can really afford a $20,000 wedding, you should be able to decide that by looking at your finances, not by checking to see how much things cost. Let your financial situation dictate the things you include in the wedding, not the other way around.
Alexa says
Like Holly, me and my ex husband basically eloped. We spent no money. I think a wedding day is different to everyone. Some people need to have the day about them and have a huge celebration while others are just happy to be marrying the person they love and that’s enough for them. I think both options are perfectly fine, whatever makes the person happy!
Cat says
Mine was between 10-11 grand. We went slightly over budget, but still had the money to cover it. My Dad really wanted an open bar. 🙂
Brian @ Luke1428 says
So according to statistics, with two daughters, I’m looking at 52k for two weddings? Yikes! I don’t think so! We will be skewing that number lower. Of course, I say that now. My emotions might get in the way when that day actual comes. 🙂
Morgaine says
We spent about $13K all in mostly the venue with food and booze added. I did DIY a lot of items (invites, programs, bouquets, centrepieces, etc) and some helped with the costs, some didn’t. I love that you got a lot of items for free and a lot of help from family, that’s awesome. The one really good thing for us is that we saved the entire amount ourselves (it took just over 2 years) but meant all the money we “made” at the wedding went towards our honeymoon so we didn’t go into debt for that either 🙂
Adam @ Debts & Dollars says
We spent around $4,300.00 dollars on our wedding. I refused to go anywhere above $5,000 and we were still able to have a catered service, a nice banquet hall, and cover several other misc expenses. Instead of doing an open bar we bought several bottles of champagne and had that served instead. A friend of mine is a DJ so he hooked us up. Another friend was a wedding planner so she took on that role and a pastor did the service for us slightly over $100 bucks. My wife got her dress from China and then had it fitted once it arrived and we saved a few grand doing that alone. It’s all about networking and using every available resource you have. We got a ton of compliments on how nice everything was and we weren’t broke because of it.
Drop that Debt says
4.5K is pretty great! I don’t want much. Small crowd, nice, minimal decorations, etc. BUT the dress is the one thing I’m worried about finding for cheap. I have a very particular dream dress I’ve wanted for a few years and it’s designer but many years old.. that being said if I could find another one that I loved for cheap I would gladly get that instead.
Oh wait… I guess I need to get engaged first? haha
Snarkfinance says
I am on track to completing my wedding for around $5K, which I am very happy with. Its a seriouse “do it yourself” wedding, but I like that. It is a good reflection of my fiance and I, rather than a pumped up affair that has nothing to do with how we live or who we are.
Justin @ The Family Finances says
Our wedding came in right at $10,000. That was the amount my wife’s father was giving us, so we made sure we stayed under budget. For us, it was pretty easy. We spent on what we felt was important (food at the reception and a really good cake), and cut back on other things. We also knew an amateur photographer and an amateur videographer and saved a ton by using them rather than professionals. And the photos and video were absolutely awesome, too!
Jw_UmbrellaTreasury says
Yep, great tips! I agree with all of these. I wrote a similar post s few weeks ago on how we set our wedding budget. In the spirit of full disclosure, we spent a pretty penny on our wedding. Could we have done it for less? Yes, absolutely. But we don’t feel like we wasted money. We spent in areas that were important to us and don’t regret how much we spent. We also made certain that our wedding budget would not derail our other financial goals.
I especially like your point about their being no prize for the “best” wedding. This can be so hard to remember when planning a wedding, especially with the popularity of sites like Style Me Pretty. But you know what? I’ve been to $7,000 weddings and $70,000 weddings. From a guest’s perspective, they were equally lovely.
Sean @ One Smart Dollar says
I can’t believe the average wedding costs so much. We had a really nice wedding and ours was $10,000 less than that number.
Tara says
Booze is a major reason why weddings can be so pricey. If you don’t want a full open bar at your wedding and you don’t need the reception in a fancy place, you can save a ton.
We were quoted at $120 plus tax and gratuity for so many reception sites in my area. If we’re looking at having 120 people (max), that’s a lot of money.
We were able to find a place that was $80 with tax and gratuity that wasn’t as fancy as a country club (it’s large outdoor white tent on a public golf course) but it’s a huge money savings. And although I’m disappointed in some of my friends not being able to attend, it’s better for the budget if you don’t get your max amount of people attending so having less folks there does have a silver lining.
I think with all the costs: reception, cake, dj, photobooth, photographer, wedding dress, wedding party gifts, table settings, wedding favors, and miscellaneous expenses, our total will probably come to around $15,000.
Lisa E. @ Lisa Vs. The Loans says
I hope to spend half the average at MOST! $10-13K. We can’t avoid a large party, but that doesn’t mean it has to be expensive! DIY will be my bestie 🙂
Peter says
We spend 30K on my wedding, little over average I guess according to this post, but I was doing very well financially in year 2007, so I guess it was okay. However, I regret spending that much for a wedding. I’ve attended lot smaller weddings after and it was so much more romantic and special. $4500 is just perfect.
Mr. Utopia says
A tidbit of advice:
Your wedding is your day. It’s your party. Guests come to celebrate you and your newlywed. So, don’t worry at all about how little you might be spending. If there are any concerns that certain guests might be judging or comparing, then perhaps they shouldn’t be guests to begin with!
My wife and I ended up spending about $13k or so, but we live in a high cost area so relatively speaking it was a more modest wedding. We got married and spent that money right in the middle of an aggressive plan to pay off over $140k in debt too (which we did in less than 3 years)! Looking back I’m not even sure how we squeezed in $13k for the wedding.
femmefrugality says
We’re paying for our own…planning on keeping it in the $3-4 k range not including the honeymoon. We’ve got a long way to go lol.
Alex @ Searching for Happy says
We spent about the same on our wedding, and that included a lot of our honeymoon too!
Marissa @ Thirty Six Months says
Hi Jordann,
Great tips! But you know what, personally, I think that weddings (although they are considered one of the most special/celebrated occasions in life) don’t have to be that expensive. What is important is that your loved ones (family and friends) are there to witness and celebrate with you the most important day of your lives as a couple. Cheers!
Free Money Minute says
The average wedding cost always amazes me. Does anyone ever take a step back to put this ONE DAY into perspective? I know it is important, but it is worth your financial future and possibly the next decade of payments?
Vany says
I am currently planning my wedding and it’s such a headache. We’re looking at close to 40k right now (sounds crazy I know) and I’d like to figure out ways to bring the cost down and still have the wedding of my dreams. Do you guys have any other advice to save on wedding related cost?