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Forgotten Wedding Expenses
Weddings are expensive! Unfortunately, it can be very easy to forget a handful of items that skyrocket your wedding’s overall cost.
With that in mind, I am excited to talk to you about 20 commonly missed wedding budget items! That way you can feel confident that you’re ready for your big day!
This article will outline wedding items that brides typically forget! Don’t overspend on your wedding because you missed out on these easy-to-forget wedding expenses!
These are the 20 commonly missed wedding budget items:
- Specialty Undergarments
- Bridal Shoes
- Makeup Trials
- Signage
- Stamps
- Hotel Rooms
- Wedding Planner
- Snacks and Cocktail Hour Food
- Honeymoon Activities and Souvenirs
- Wedding Dress Cleaning and Preservation
- Wedding Flower Preservation
- Hair Stylist and Accessories
- Glassware and Silverware
- Tips for Vendors
- Transportation
- Marriage License and Administrative Costs
- Thank You Gifts
- Prints and Additional Media Expenses
- Extra Wedding Stationary
- Wedding Day Food
Google and Pinterest can be a never-ending rabbit hole when it comes to wedding planning. You always feel like you’re missing something! The twenty items listed above are huge to pay attention to, so be sure to keep reading on!
Side note: If you haven’t already begun watching my popular Wedding Budgeting Series on YouTube, be sure to head over there right now to get even more details on how to have an amazing wedding on a budget!
This wedding budgeting series will introduce you to how to create a budget, how to budget using a unique free printable I provide, and step-by-step guidance. Go check it out in the link above!
20 Overlooked Wedding Budget Categories
I don’t expect that you will spend on all of these of items, but be aware that you may not have thought of most of these wedding budget categories!
1. Specialty Undergarments
One of the first forgotten wedding items that I had experienced was needing to buy specialty undergarments.
What do “specialty wedding undergarments” mean? This could be “boob tape”, as I like to call it, it can be different shapers or even a specific bra for your wedding dress.
Bridal specialty undergarments are typically pricey, ranging from $40 to over $200.
2. Bridal Shoes
The second item that is commonly missed out on are your bridal shoes.
Now, I understand that you may think that you would never forget about something as obvious as your wedding shoes, but most of the time women become obsessed with figuring out the dress that the shoes become a last-minute purchase.
Popular wedding shoes can range anywhere from being cutesy sandals like these on Amazon to being custom heels off Etsy.
Be sure to watch out though, because this can be quite an expensive last-minute decision! Many popular wedding shoe styles range $100 for a pair.
Therefore, make sure to add this to your budget, or spend time doing research on less expensive shoes!
3. Makeup Trials
You really don’t want to miss out on budgeting for your wedding makeup trials!
When I got my hair and makeup trials done, it cost around $60 just for the trial itself. Be sure to have this money set aside, or to negotiate the trial with your hair or makeup cost.
4. Signage
Signage is typically an overlooked wedding budget item. There are lots of examples of types of signage that you’ll need!
These are 5 common examples of wedding signage:
- Welcome sign
- Food signs
- Outdoor signs pointing to venue
- Order-of-service sign
- Backdrop signs
This is a wedding expense that many brides explore near the end of wedding planning. Due to this, however, it can negatively affect your budget and cause you to quickly overspend.
5. Stamps
One of the costs that I rarely see in wedding budgets (but just blew me away in regards to the cost) was stamps!
Keep in mind that you’re going to need to mail out save the dates, wedding invitations, and thank you cards.
The more people you invite, the pricier it gets!
6. Hotel Rooms
The next commonly missed wedding budget item is the hotel room.
It is common for wedding parties to get ready in a hotel room. Or, you may plan on having a hotel room for your wedding night.
Depending on your plans, wedding hotel rooms could easily be over $200 so make sure to add this wedding budget category to your list of potential expenses!
7. Wedding Planner
It has become much more common for brides in cities to have wedding planners!
I didn’t personally hire a wedding planner but I do know a few friends who did. This is something that surprisingly isn’t part of many bride’s budgets, so really it really be aware of how much it would cost to have it wedding planner and put that into your budget!
8. Snacks and Cocktail Hour Food
Food and drinks during your cocktail hour is important to spend extra time considering into your wedding budget!
This can range from simple snacks in self-serve bowls or more elaborate food displays and servers.
Keep in mind that this expense can range hugely but if it isn’t planned for ahead of time, it can really add up!
9. Honeymoon Activities and Souvenirs
You definitely don’t want to miss out on planning for all the souvenirs and activities that you can experience on your honeymoon!
I recognize that this forgotten wedding budget item isn’t specifically for the wedding day! However, I always tell brides that your honeymoon costs should be part of your wedding budget!
This budget category can be as simple as planning to not spend more than $200 on souvenirs, for example. Depending on your honeymoon plans, you can quickly overspend, so watch out!
10. Wedding Dress Cleaning and Preservation
This wedding budget category is typically one of the most forgotten items!
It can cost a lot for your wedding dress to be professionally cleaned. Consider anywhere from $100 to $300 for professional wedding dress cleaning.
Going off of that, to have it professionally preserved, you may be looking at anywhere from $150 to over $400. Make sure to do your research early!
11. Wedding Flower Preservation
If you plan on having real flowers for your wedding day, know that there are a lot of cute ways to preserve your wedding flowers!
However, depending on how you want to preserve your flowers, this can add up to be hundreds of dollars. Wedding flower preservation ranges from $40 to over $300. It’s important for this to be part of your wedding budget!
12. Hair Stylist and Accessories
It is really important to watch out who you get your wedding hair done from! This can cause your price to increase.
Additionally, make sure to budget for your hair trials!
There are a lot of expensive bridal hairpieces, veils, and flower crowns that cost over $100 each. Make sure to do your research on these items and budget so you don’t overspend!
13. Glassware and Silverware
This next category of commonly missed wedding budget items differs for every bride. Depending on if you plan on catering, doing a potluck, or providing food on your own, you may have different expenses that can really increase the price.
Glassware for example is typically a cost you need to cover. And what about napkins and silverware?
You could buy these off Amazon or even at the Dollar Tree as I did.
14. Tips for Vendors
It is common to tip up to 20% for all the vendors that help with your wedding.
This ranges anywhere from servers, limo drivers, or your DJ. Being aware of this expense and planning for it can save you hundreds of dollars for your wedding!
15. Transportation
This next forgotten budget item is important to consider!
Who do you plan on transporting you and your spouse to/from the wedding? Are you going to have a specific type of transportation like an antique car or a limo?
These rentals can add more than $100 to your wedding budget so make sure to plan ahead!
16. Marriage License and Administrative Costs
The marriage license and name change costs add up to over $100, no matter where you live in the US!
Be aware that you need to research what your state specifically has for your marriage license cost since each is different. Also, be aware of what your costs are for changing your driver’s license and name or address change for all of your other cards and services.
17. Thank You Gifts
Thank you gifts are common to give the bridesmaids, parents of the bride and groom, spouse gifts, flower girls, groomsmen, and ring bearers.
With this in mind, be aware of what you’d like to give and how much this can add up! It is so important to make sure that at least there’s a line on your wedding budget for these expenses!
18. Prints and Additional Media Expenses
It is very common that couples purchase hard copies of their wedding photos, get photos framed, and buy photo albums.
These are just a few examples since there are many ways you can decorate or make products that involve your wedding photos and video.
However, these wedding costs can be expensive! Wedding photo albums alone cost $100 to $300, so make sure that if you want those different specialty items to put some money aside.
You want to share your beautiful wedding memories forever but not have to go into debt for it!
19. Extra Wedding Stationary
Another overlooked wedding budget category are all the wedding programs and thank you cards.
This goes along with the stationery, invitations, and stamps that were outlined above.
However, it is important to recognize that some people have wedding programs and others have specialty thank you cards. Not just that but there are many other different stationery items that can be included with weddings.
For example, do you plan on having printed meal order cards? And what about transparent inserts in your invitations or RSVP cards?
Make sure to know that what you see on Pinterest is not what you absolutely need! But also be aware that stationery can be really pricey.
20. Wedding Day Food
The last commonly forgotten item for your wedding budget that we’re talking about in this article is all the wedding day food.
Now, you may be thinking, “I already have the food figured out! I’m going to have a catered” – but this is different!
If you are planning on having a wedding day where everyone is going to be with you from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM then you probably need to feed them for breakfast and lunch.
This could include the entire bridal party, a lot of your family members, the pastor, and other venue assistants.
I’ve seen brides have premade sandwiches or easy-to-eat catered food. Whatever it is, like said many times in this article, these expenses can add up!
Summary
I recognize that you really haven’t considered a lot of these items yet!
Hopefully, this list of commonly missed wedding budget items can help you make smarter financial decisions.
With this in mind, I am excited to share that I recently had a wedding for under $5000 – which, honestly, is kind of crazy nowadays! Plus, my budget included pretty much everything in this list.
I recognize you may not have a lot of money to spend or you may have a low dollar amount that you’re budgeting for your wedding.
That is why I put together an in-depth wedding video series that goes over everything you need to know about how I budgeted for $5000 wedding and how you can do it easily, too! I promise you’ll love this series so be sure to go check out that video series on YouTube right now!