As a young bride in 2005, I knew the importance of budgeting and preparing for a wedding. However, as time went on no one gave me a full explanation of how much a wedding would cost. Traditionally the bride’s parent’s pays for the wedding and the grooms parent’s pays for the rehearsal dinner. In today’s society more couples are paying for the brunt of the wedding.
In April of 2011, the royal family had a wedding that cost $48 million paid on the taxpayer’s dime, as stated from theknot.com. According to the The Knot the average American weddings cost $26,984 excluding the honeymoon. Editor and chief Carley Roney stated, “Brides remain committed to planning a luxioruis, memorable event and are willing to spend despite the state of the economy”. With sites like the “The Knot”, The Wedding Wire, and Brides a bride and groom will find the tools needed to ensure they are budgeting and using their money wisely.
While planning my wedding I knew that I wanted the biggest bang for my buck. I made myself aware, that this day is just for a couple of hours and our biggest ticket item would be our photographer. A photographer plays a big factor on how the wedding day will be portrayed for years to come. Stated on this graph the average amount for a photographer is $2,320. For my husband and I, we wanted those pictures to tell a story where a caption isn’t needed, the images speaks for it self. The average reception site cost #12,124 and the average amount spent on each guest is $194. Again, newly engaged couples know their wedding will cost but you never really get grasp until all the ideas and thoughts one dreamed of having has a price tag with it.
There are many ways to become cost effective while planning one of the most important days of your life. New ways to cut down on cost would be avoiding the peak season of June-September as stated in the graph. Instead of finding a business to do desserts or centerpieces find a family or friend who is skilled in that area and have them create them for you, cutting your cost drastically.
If I could do my day all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I loved every color, venue and item chosen for our wedding. We did kind of miss out on the huge party reception after our ceremony. However, in three years we will celebrate 10yrs of marriage. So the planning has begun and the venue has been chosen. We have prepared our family and friends for an all-night party until you drop celebration, because no one said to throw a fabulous event you need to have the money; maybe not 48 million, but somewhere closer to that 27K range to make it memorable. Happy budgeting!
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