Regrets about money spent at wedding?

I wish I would have splurged on a better florist. She was newer to the business, but I trusted her because she was the florist for my brother's wedding and did an amazing job. However, she messed up so many things for my wedding. I had flowers from bouquets literally falling apart during the ceremony and photos because she used bouquet holders she never used before.

While this isn't a splurge, I wish I had let my girls pick their own styles of dresses in the same color rather than trying to have all of them in the same dress. My sister, who was my maid of honor, told me she liked the dress I picked, but apparently she only said she liked it because she was tired of shopping. She waited a week before my wedding to tell me she hated the dress and wasn't comfortable being photographed in it. I ended up going to a David's Bridal here and getting a different style dress in the same color, fabric and length as the dresses the bridesmaids worn. I spent $200 and then like another $20 to mail it with one day shipping and our seamstress was amazing and had it altered within a day. My husband and I really liked the consistent look of the girls in one dress, but it turned out not to be worth the headache.

I will say we had a wedding of 75, and I DIY all the signs, decors, etc. The wedding itself we kept under 5,000. I did splurge on the venue, and the photographer, and the only regret that I have is I wished I would have booked a videographer. So I’m not sure how much your budget is, but I zero regrets for anything I did! However, we also just bought a house and two new vehicles the year before our wedding, so we weren’t trying to save for anything else! Hope that helps you!

Hmmmm there are some aspects of my minimony I can look back and say I did not need to spend that but I feel I kept things reasonable. So I cannot say I fully regret but our rule was this, we did not want to owe money on the wedding after so we saved and bought and stayed within our means so I feel as long as you are not running into debt then you are good.

View Quoted Comment My budget is actually the same! I want to spend the most on a photographer and a venue, so I have definitely been looking at DIY for the decorations. We are actually closing on our house this month. Then we can fully focus on the wedding, so luckily we won’t be worried about saving for much else. Thanks for the input!!

We are still planning our wedding, but have already locked in/signed contracts with all our venues. When I initially started planning, I was trying to be frugal with everything. But I realized quickly that I was going to still be spending a lot of money, even for the cheaper/more frugal options. So we decided to just splurge on the things we really wanted- we would rather spend more and have the wedding experience of our dreams. And to be honest... I don’t regret a single penny! I think I would have regretted settling for things that were “acceptable”, but not what I really wanted. The way I see it is, I get exactly one chance to marry my fiancé... I don’t want to ever look back with regrets. We can always make more money, but we can never have that experience back once it’s over.

I do wish I had splurged on some more things! We had the funds, I just was convinced it wasn’t “worth it”.


1. A better florist. Ours was dirt cheap ($1,000 for 8 bridesmaids bouquets, my bouquet, 10 greenery centerpieces, three corsages and a few palm plants to fill in our reception space). She also was SUPER late delivering our flowers so the only photos we have of the bridal/bridesmaids flowers are walking down the aisle/recessional. My bouquet looked nothing like what I had sent her or the sample photos she sent me and the bridesmaids bouquets were so so tiny and not the look I envisioned. Because our engagement was so short, I went with a floral look that I enjoyed at the moment but was not the lush design I know I ultimately would be happier with. I wish I had chosen a better florist and paid extra for a virtual mock-up session and better florals.
2. A day of coordinator. Our venue insisted we didn’t need one, that they had an event person on staff whose job it was to fulfill this role. Nope. She was terrible.
3. Designer outfits for my pre-wedding events. I only really loved one of my outfits.
I’m glad I saved on stationary, signage and by not having a DJ.

Nah...I spent a looottt of money making sure my guests were happy and comfortable — some extra expenses I may have never chosen for just myself . And my guests were so freakin happy, so I wouldn’t have changed a thing!


I did skimp on a few things— unimportant to anyone’s enjoyment of the day. Flowers are a good example , I kept that very cheap and DIY. My tables weren’t as beautiful as some, but....I don’t care. I didn’t care then and now a couple years later, I really don’t care at all! I still get comments about how much fun everyone had, so, I call it a win.
I think it’s a lot of determining what your priorities are - if you’re set in them in the planning stage, you’ll feel good about them in the future if you accomplish them. But , they vary for everyone!
The amount of money we spent on one day does kind of boggle my mind, but I try not to think too much about THAT. I think about the memories!

I was extremely worried that I would, but I have no regrets about the money we spent. That being said, I think the reason I don’t have regrets is because I only spent money on things that actively contributed to my/my husband’s experience and our guests’ experience. For example, we splurged on a beautiful venue and good food. Everyone had a wonderful time and a wonderful meal. I don’t regret that. We splurged on photography and videography. I look at our photos and watch our video all the time. I don’t regret that. But had I spent $5k on a dress or $2k on flowers or something? I probably would’ve regretted that. Though some people may not! Its such a personal and individual thing, I really think it just depends what your priorities are, and how good you are at identifying what your own priorities are and being able to put the money towards those things while being able to say “no” to the potential splurges that aren’t priorities to you.

Still planning our wedding but I definitely wished I had convinced FH to truly elope w/o our parents bc things wpuld be 100% our way and it would be cheaper.

No regrets! We had our dream wedding and it was worth every penny. The way we looked at it was you only get married once (hopefully!), so it might as well be the wedding of your dreams. That being said, we were money conscious on some things. If I had to replan my wedding, I wouldn’t change a thing we did.

No regrets and we went waaaaay over budget. But to fair our original budget was unrealistic for what we wanted to do and even though we went over, it only took us a few months to pay it off.

We live in a pricey area, so we prioritized what we spent on... and we regret nothing. Really, it's a matter of figuring out what you remember from weddings you've attended. Once you've done *that* - those are the things you care about and what you should spend money on.

We remembered food, music, photography, and personalized ceremonies.

We spent our money there, and saved on fake flowers, transportation, and so on. I even went to a sample sale on a lark, and found my dress... for 90% off. It was exactly the dress I wanted, too, so I got lucky, but that freed up a lot of budget for other things.

TL; DR: if you figure out what things you *really* care about, and spend your money there, you should be good.

There were days i had regrets about it because i spent like $16k and when you think about it - THAT'S A CAR haha. or just the idea that i could have still had that much in my account. but overall i don't regret the day and the event and in the end i was blessed to have had enough monetary gifts from guests that actually covered the wedding

My only regret is spending twice my budget on my wedding dress. And I only regret it because I didn't get to wear it. Thanks covid. If I had been able to wear it, I don't think I would have regretted it!