Wedding Budget and Vendor Breakdown

If you missed last week’s blog, I broke down the first part of your wedding budget that comprises of about 70% of your overall wedding budget. As a reminder, the first thing you need to do is to determine a per person average by dividing your overall budget by the number of your guests to get an idea of how much each guest would cost to attend your wedding. Depending on what state you are planning in, a wedding in the US could average as low as $250 per guests and some lavish clients spend up to $1500 per guest on their wedding. Here in Texas, the average budget our clients spend per guest is about $350 – $750 on their wedding.

Your wedding expenses comprises of so many services and vendors that needs to be budgeted for as we started discussing on the last blog. There are vendors that are essential to your wedding planning needs and there are ones that are considered optional. I advise couples to focus on the essential wedding budget needs before the consider splurging on the optional items. Other expenses that couples tend to leave out of their budget are fees, such as taxes, service fees, and other labor charges. On this blog, I will break down all the essential and optional vendors to consider in your budget, this way you can make the decision on what is most important in your planning and set a realistic wedding budget to help keep you on track.

ENTERTAINMENT

What is a wedding celebration without entertainment right? The essential entertainers at wedding would be your DJ and Emcee and if you want to splurge some more, you can give your guests a great entertainment experience by hiring dancers, artists, singers, comedians and musicians.

STATIONERY

It is customary to send a formal invitation to your guests informing them of your wedding celebration. When you think of budgeting for your stationery, in addition to designing your invitations, you also want to consider menu cards, programs, seating chart, escort cards, thank you cards and any other signage you may need for your wedding.

TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATION

This is an area that couples forget to budget for when planning. Whether you are having your wedding in a local destination or traveling outside of your location; you would need a nice place to stay on your wedding night at the least. I usually inform my couples to book a 3-day suite stay on their wedding weekend. You need the night before the wedding so that you have a room for the bride and bridesmaids to get ready at; most times, hair and makeup session would last longer than the check-out time, hence requiring you to keep the room a second stay.

If you are traveling to a special location for your engagement pictures or to shoot your love story, you certainly want to factor in the travel cost for you as a couple as well as the vendors that will be traveling with you. Some couples also take on the financial responsibility to pay for travel fees for some family members.

Some couples budget their pre wedding travel plans like the bridal shower or bachelor/bachelorette party in their overall wedding budget.

If you choose to have your ceremony and reception in different locations, you will need to budget for a limo transportation to shuttle you from point A to point B. Some of our couples like to make a grand exit and prefer to get away in a Luxury car, horse carriage or a helicopter.

GIFTS

There are variety of gift options to consider; most couples give their wedding party a proposal gift when they officially ask them to be a bridesmaid or grooms man and an acceptance gift usually at the wedding rehearsal dinner or wedding day to say thank you.

Couples may also provide their guests a welcome gift or favors and this couple be an essential or optional part of their budget.

We have inserted some additional informative blogs from our media partners. Click on each image above to check out additional details about that topic from top blogs like BRIDES, Martha Stewart, The Knot etc. We hope you have found this breakdown helpful and best of luck on your planning!