Wedding Budget

Whatever you can afford and feel comfortable spending. Don't go into debt for a wedding, but outside of that...no one knows yours financial situation. Some people spend $50 and others spend $50,000 or more. Look at the cost of venues/vendors in your area and think about how many people you may want to have. Then consider how much money you're comfortable saving every week/month and when you ideally want to have the wedding.

Budget will entirely depend on what type of event you want and even more importantly how many guests you have. Try searching online, there are a number of budget calculators out there.

It depends on where your getting at ex a 30,000 wedding in Wyoming will look grand while a 30,000 wedding in New York would be simpler. and what’s important to you where you want to see the money spent, is food and beverage important to you, or are you crazy about flowers? And also think of the time of year, depending on where you want to get married, usually off season months are cheaper than prime months, and week day wedding are cheaper than weekend wedding sit down with fh and go over bills and how much you can realistically afford, than build a budget from there,

Only you can answer that based on what you are willing and able to spend. Don’t get loans or take monetary gifts from others because they come with strings attached.


Sit down with fiancé and discuss your vision of what you want and what you don’t. Do you want a simple intimate party or everyone invited. If you do the small ceremony/reception, that IS your wedding. Anything following is a vow renewal. Make sure you don’t regret whatever you decide because you only get one wedding unless you divorce and remarry. If someone marries at the courthouse, that is a conscious decision and it IS the wedding. It’s not as flashy as a big party but all the basics are still there, and there are many posts on WW where people say “we went to the courthouse but we didn’t say vows and we didn’t get married or have a wedding” but the judge would disagree because that is legally binding and the act did take place by choice of that as opposed to waiting to save money.

It all depends on what you want for your wedding such as venue, flowers etc. After you figure out what you want, research them to see how much it is to determine your budget. Have a conversation about the budget with your fiancé and take it from there.

Is someone asking you how much you will need for a wedding that they are going to pay for? If so, some things to consider first: the number of guests, relative costs of caterers in your area, relative costs of venues in your area, and an idea of what you want included in the day (photography, floral, alcohol, etc). Weddings range quite a bit in cost. Going full DIY, inviting 200 guests vs 20, going full glam, etc. are all things to consider.


If you are trying to figure out how much you and your fiance can afford to spend, start with what you can afford/save for the wedding.

It all depends on what you want
The AVERAGE wedding costs between 20k-30k lol.
My husband and I spent around 8k for our small backyard wedding of 50 people total.

I never knew how much certain things cost until I started asking for prices and did my research. And boy was I shocked lol!

But here is what I spent to get a rough idea. Again everyone will be different depending on who and where you are booking.
Photographer (9 hours) $1,300
Bridal dress and accessories $1,000
MOB and MOG dresses $300
Groom rental $150
Groomsmen tux rentals $600
Venue (we had it at my husband's aunt's house in their backyard)
Rental tables, chairs, speakers, arch, and bar $1,000
Gifts $500 (wedding party including our parents)
Proposal boxes $250 (entire wedding party)
Hair and makeup (paid by my parents $1,200)
Cake (made by my husband's aunt)
Decor (stuff for arch, signs, name tags, and centerpieces $300)
Fake flowers $250
Party favors $80
Bridesmaids dresses $580
Taco truck $500
Bartender $300
Beverages and alcohol $500

Our original budget was $3500, and we ended up spending a little over 7k