What Is A Wedding Budget?
To save money on your wedding, having a wedding budget is the ideal way to prevent overspending!
Before you go Googling for wedding budgets or endlessly scrolling on Pinterest to find a realistic budget – you can take a deep breath of relief that you have made it to where you belong.
This article will help you better understand what really should go into your wedding budget, and what to expect for how much wedding costs. Are you finally ready for some answers?
But before anything else, I’m Scarlett and I’m so excited for you to be learning about wedding budgeting because I help everyday women like you overcome real-life money and investing problems by providing down-to-earth guidance. It’s like sitting down and talking to your nerdy friend over a cup of coffee!
Here are the top wedding budget allocations and average pricing in the US:
| Budget Category | Budget Allocation | Average Price |
| Venue | 40% | $2000-$15,000 |
| Food | 40% | $10-$30 per person |
| Media | 15% | $1500-$7000 |
| Flowers | 10% | $5000 |
| Ceremony | 3-5% | $2000 |
| Reception | 5% | $500-$5000 |
| Alcohol | 3-5% | $2300 |
| Cake | 2% | $500 |
| Dress | 2-5% | $500-$5000 |
| Invitations and Stationery | 1-3% | $250-$1000 |
| Groom | 1-3% | $250-$1000 |
| Bridesmaid | 1-2% | $150-$400 per person |
In the article below I’ll outline how to begin a wedding budget and details on wedding budget allocations and percentages for what to expect with planning your future wedding!
Starting A Wedding Budget
Prior to diving into wedding budgets, it’s important to brief over what budgets even are!
Planning a budget is when you set a specific number that you want to spend and then allocate your funds across categories. You can see a full demonstration of using budget allocations and percentages in the video below!
The point of a budget is to help prevent you from overspending. Weddings can get extremely expensive, so the fact that you want to learn about a wedding budget really shows that you are planning on being intentional with your money!
Here are 6 easy steps to starting your wedding budget:
- Discuss with your family and fiancée how much everyone is willing to spend.
- Write down your “must have” list including details for wedding ceremony, reception, and honeymoon
- Research local prices of your “must have” list and have at least 5 options for each category
- Spend time to research and write down other details you may want for the ceremony, reception, and honeymoon. (ex. guestbook, backdrop for photos, signage, luggage tags)
- Write down pricing averages of each detail
- Allocate your money to each of the main “must have” categories and spread out the fund amongst the remaining details you wrote down in Step 4
Wedding Budget Allocations
I want to provide you with information on how to allocate the most important categories for a wedding.
With each of these categories, I want you to do your research for what you may want for your wedding. Then, write down the average prices you find.
Remember that everyone’s budget will look different! Use these numbers as a guide for your official wedding budget.
Let’s start with the big categories:
Venue
This is typically the largest wedding expense. The average costs for a wedding venue range from $2000 to $15,000.
Be prepared to allocate 40% of your wedding budget to your venue.
Food
Similar to a personal budget, food is usually the second most costly part of having a wedding! The average costs for food ranges from $10 to $30 per person. This can skyrocket to up to $70 a person, so watch out!
It is common to allocate 40% of a wedding budget to food.
Media (photo and video)
The cost of media in recent years has risen. You’ll easily find photographers with pricing averaging $1500 to $5000. You can find videographers with prices from $2500 to $7000.
Most brides set aside 15% of their wedding budget for photographers and/or videographers.
Flowers
Flowers are typically another huge expense that brides are surprised about. The pricing changes drastically depending on if you choose real flowers or fake floral. This includes floral for tables, boutonnieres, bouquets, the ceremony, and everything in between!
The average cost for flowers at a wedding is $5000. Be sure to allocate 10% of your budget for your floral.
Ceremony
The wedding ceremony has multiple sub-categories within it that should be accounted for. This can This can include everything from the officiant, to decorations, an arch, a unity ceremony and more.
Expect to allocate 3-5% of your wedding budget for all the extra details for your wedding ceremony itself. This can cost approximately $2000 for everything you need.
Reception
The reception also comes with many extra details that need to be researched and budgeted for!
This can include DJs or bands, centerpieces, and photobooths. Each of these can rack up the pricing very quickly, so be aware! There are many ways to scoot around having a professional photobooth or having a DJ.
Check out my YouTube channel for ideas for a budget wedding!
These extra details can cost you anywhere from $500 to over $5,000. Be sure to allocate 5% of your budget for these items.
Alcohol
Alcohol gets it’s own category, even though it could fit within “food” or “reception”. The reason being, alcohol itself can get really expensive. I’ve heard of friends spending over $7,000 on alcohol at their reception.
However, the average cost for alcohol at a wedding is $2,300. Or, allocate approximately 3-5% of your budget.
Cake
Many brides get surprised at how much wedding cakes cost. There are budget methods to get a cheaper cake, but the average price for a wedding cake is $500.
Remember that there may be extra fees to this, including a cake table, silverware, cake cutting utensils, a server, and delivery. Be sure to allocate 2% of your wedding budget for this category.
Dress
Brides dream about their wedding dress being perfect, but perfect comes with a price!
The average cost of a wedding dress ranges from $500 to $5000. Be sure to also research jewelry, shoes, undergarments as well!
Allocate 2-5% of your budget for your wedding dress!
Invitations and Stationery
A large expense that many couples forget is the cost of invitations and stationery! This can include wedding programs, save-the-dates, wedding invitations, bridal shower invitations, engagement party invitations, thank you cards and stamps.
These all add up quickly! It is easy to spend $250 to over $1000 on these so be sure to allocate at least 1-3% of your wedding budget for stationary!
Groom
Another cost that can take you by surprise is the price of a suit for the groom. Even rentals can be expensive!
The average cost of a groom’s suit ranges from $250 to $1000. Prices vary, especially regarding where you buy the suit and accessories from. This will be 1-3% of your budget.
Bridesmaid
It is becoming more common to have 4 to 10 bridesmaids in a wedding. Long gone are the days where there would only be one person standing up by the bride!
This comes with a price, however. The price of having bridesmaids ranges from $150-$400 per bridesmaid. This can include their dress, gifts, and jewelry for example.
Allocate at least 1-2% of your budget for your bridesmaids, and up that allocation based on how many bridesmaids you have!
Summary
One important factor to remember is that you do not need to spend much money to have an amazing wedding!
The prices listed in this article may seem huge to you or may seem normal. Where you live usually is the biggest factor to wedding prices, typically due to venue.
In fact, I was able to have a great wedding for under $5000! It is absolutely possible. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube to see the latest on my wedding playlist, to learn about how to have a wedding on a budget!
Additionally, there are so many small items that you need to be aware of and set aside money for in your budget. That’s why I’ve put together an even more extensive article and video duo describing the little details to not miss in your budget. You don’t want to mess up your budget by forgetting any of these small items, so go watch that on my YouTube channel now!