What’s hot right now? Other than the uncharacteristically scorching heat waves we’ve been experiencing recently, it’s weddings, of course. But I can also imagine just how hot a poor bride must be feeling under all that fabric she carries and drags around during the sizzling days of summer.
For the most part, those days are over for us — we’re over the age when we’re required to attend our particular generation’s weddings. Unless you count 2nd trips down the altar 
. But it hasn’t stopped me from checking out the latest on wedding trends, as I secretly enjoy planning pretty celebrations of the sort. I am slightly envious of a few old friends who’ve gotten into the event planning business and who craft elaborate wedding parties for a living. It sounds stressful but it’s a dream business for the creative type, and if everything goes well, can be fulfilling, festive and lucrative too!
How Much Does A Wedding Cost?
Just see how wedding costs have increased over the years — I got these figures from various wedding articles across the web (including this source). From these reported numbers, it appears that wedding budgets increase at the rate of approximately 3% to 4% a year.
| Year | Average Wedding Budget |
|---|---|
| 1990 | $ 15,208 |
| 1995 | $ 17,000 |
| 1997 | $ 19,104.00 |
| 1999 | $ 18,874.00 |
| 2000 | $ 21,100.00 |
| 2002 | $ 22,360.00 |
| 2005 | $ 27,852.00 |
| 2007 | $ 28,800.00 |
| 2008 | $ 28,700.00 |
| 2012 | $ 31,010.00 (estimated) |
Though it seems that fewer people are getting married these days, the wedding budget has increased. Specifically, the average wedding budget has increased by around 75% over a span of 15 years, and has close to doubled in 18 years.
So wedding inflation is alive and well! The reason? The market can bear it: the average age of folks getting married nowadays has climbed. While people used to marry in their early 20′s, they now wait till they’re almost 30 before they tie the knot.
Itemizing The Wedding Budget
I found this cost breakdown for some typical albeit weighty wedding budgets:
Table from SmartMoney.com
That’s a lot of moolah for a one day event! As we’ve already shown, the cost of a wedding this year hovers around $28,700, which is the national average. So depending on where you’re based, your wedding could cost a lot more….or less.
Where I live, I get these rather insane statistics, showing an even wider discrepancy between the low and high end budgets as provided by this Cost of Wedding web site:
On average, couples in my neck of the woods spend between $24,908 – $74,723 for their wedding. This does not include the costs for a honeymoon or engagement ring.
Say what?! Almost $25,000 for the cheapest wedding around here? And $74,723 for any sort of wedding seems unheard of (well, except in the East Coast…). I’m not even sure how the cost of living around here can possibly explain these figures. Nope, can’t blame it all on cost of living. It’s about demand: maybe the ghost of the dot com boom still permeates this region to some degree.
In general, people normally start off with a budget that is 50% less than what they end up spending for their big day, according to the Cost of Wedding site. Seems like people need a better way to budget more accurately, or maybe they’ll need to try harder to stick to their budget!
Basic Budgeting Rules For Your Wedding
Okay so now that I’ve picked up my jaw from the ground (no thanks to those crazy cost figures), how about a few suggestions to help with the wedding planning process?
#1 Set expectations and be realistic.
If you’re like most people, you’d care about saving money on your wedding. Who wouldn’t want to have a dream wedding that was also affordable at the same time? So it’s often the case that when nuptials are being planned, wedding budgets are first set to an admirably low number. But as the preparations move along, that budget often grows…and grows…and grows.
To develop a more accurate budget that you’ll be able to stick to, it’s a good idea to canvas brick-and-mortar, online and even printed wedding resources (stores, web sites, bridal shows and events, magazines) for ideas, and to get a feel for how much things could really cost you before you even start writing down numbers. Doing some preliminary research helps you set expectations and to be realistic about what you’ll get for the money you’re willing to spend.
#2 Work off a wedding checklist!
A wedding involves a ton of nitty-gritty details, so if you are going the traditional route, going with a plan and a checklist are a must. A trusty checklist can help you achieve quite a few things. It’ll help you:
- Delegate tasks to those who are helping you out with your planning.
- Determine who’s going to pay what!
- Work out your budget.
For some advice on figuring out how your family can share your wedding costs with you, take a look at this About.com article called “Who Pays For What? At The Wedding”.
#3 Prioritize your wedding requirements.
Know what’s important to you. We all have different ideas about what our wedding should be like. While some of us want it to be simple and understated, others will insist on having the grandest thing that’s ever happened in their lives. Based on what you care about, you’re going to fashion just the right kind of budget that will fit your requirements. But it becomes tricky when you and your partner have opposing ideas about your wedding; then there could be fireworks before the marriage even starts! It all boils down to expectations, what you hold dear and how much you’re willing to pay for it all. And because it’s all personal, anyone who’s about to get hitched will have to negotiate some of these things with their partner.
#4 Get inspired by the stories of other couples.
Whether you’re out to save money or to spend it on a grand event, seeing how other couples have worked things out may lend you some perspective. How about finding some inspiration from what others have done before you? By taking a peek at how others have tackled their wedding, you may pick up some lessons learned or feel reassured that you’re on track with your plans.
For instance, I found this entry made at a bridal forum particularly inspiring:
When coming up with our budget, my fiance and I looked at it this way: $26,000 is a down payment on a house, a new car bought outright, a trip to practically every country in the world or a nice nest egg, and, it’s only one day. And I think it should be as nice as you want it. I have no issue with people who want to spend that much, but personally for us, we weren’t interested in spending that much money. We set our budget at $5,000. It definitely won’t be as nice as some weddings, but it will be what we want. We’ll offer all the traditional wedding things: food, drinks, cake, and dancing, just a scaled down version. He’s lucky I have simple tastes.
#5 Know what you want and prepare to make tradeoffs.
When you’ve scoured through your wedding checklist and priced the items on the list based on costs in your area, you’ll be able to make decisions about the stuff you’d like to retain and those you’d like to trim off your budget. If you keep an open mind about the features of your wedding, you’ll find that your flexibility will make budgeting easier. Just make sure that if you’re allocating more money to one thing, that you think of reducing your budget allocation for other items that are less important. By making and accepting tradeoffs and setting budget priorities, you’ll control your bottom-line so much more successfully and resist budget creep!
Copyright © 2008 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
When my wife and I married a little over a year ago we did it to the tune of about $5,000. We found that setting priorities was really important and ending up spending 20% of it on photographer because we definitely wanted good pictures to remember our day with. It was also a lot easier for me to think in terms of our budget than it was for my wife. Her difficulty may have had something to do with our culture that encourages young girls to start planning their wedding when they are not even in their teens! But in the end we had a beautiful wedding that both of us look back at very fondly – because weddings are about way more than decorations, entertainment and food. They are about love, beauty and
tax breakscommitment.You absolutely have to set a budget for a wedding. It is easy to keep adding more extras. You might think ah, it is only an additional $100 for this cake, but those extras add up.
Great tips!
I’m planning a wedding and we’ve had to have an open mind when it comes to shifting line items on my budget around.
For example, my dress cost almost $300 more than I had budgeted, so I’ve decided to forego a wedding band (I have a thick, asymmetric engagement ring, and the jeweler assured me that it can stand on its own — I’m told more and more women are going this route).
Yes, it’s always wise to be flexible — love your idea, Heidi, of the engagement ring that can stand for both a wedding band and engagement token as well.
But since weddings are such emotional events, people sometimes get attached to ideas and a certain vision for their celebration, which can cost quite a bit. I agree though, that by being resourceful enough, you may find options that are reasonable and can be great substitutes for what you expect.
My top priority expenses for a wedding: videos, photo and location.
Really great tips and I especially like the charts and graphics. Here in the UK the situation is even more extreme, with the average British couple spending a reported £20,000 ($39,500) on their wedding!
But I’m not so sure about your projected increase in spending – with the economy looking shaky on both sides of the atlantic, extravagant spending on things like weddings is bound to be one of the first casualties, and budget tips like yours are going to come in very useful.
Personally my wife and I got married last year on a total budget of less than £5,000 ($9,900) and still had a wonderful wedding. Our secret: the internet! Google enough and you will find the best deals on suppliers, and ebay is a goldmine for supplies from cake stands to confetti…!
I’m always amazed at these numbers. Maybe I just hang out in the wrong class of people or maybe costs in my are aaren’t what they are anywhere else, but I’ve NEVER seen a $28,000+ wedding. The closest was a friend with well-to-do parents who rented a LARGE room at the Fargo Dome and invited about 500 guests. Even her wedding was only around 18 or 19 thousand. My wife did the DJing, but didn’t knock any off the price because the wedding was in June and she had to turn away business to keep the date open. I also know that she didn’t get much of a discount (if any at all) by getting her favors and such through an associate of mine.
$28k for a wedding – wow! Check out the search trend for ‘Wedding Budget’ Wouldn’t it be better to spend the money on an around the world trip? Rather than spending it all on 1 day!
With the rising cost of living, the case for keeping it simple (and cheap!) is more compelling than ever. I like the comment from the brides.com forum… less is more
I can understand spending a little more for a once-in-a-lifetime event. The deal is to set your budget, your priorities and stick to them. We had a very nice wedding and spent the money where we felt it would do the most good.
- Allen
Top Ten reasons why I won’t be getting married any time soon:
No.1 $$$
No.2-10 See number 1.
I think these figures are crazy? How am I ever going to afford a wedding?
This is great information and great tips that any couple planning a wedding should follow to prevent that “blindsided by the cost” feeling. Great read!
Great post. In this day in age, you’ve simply got to plan ahead or things could get away from you quickly.
Weddings are expensive and what I’ve found works well with budgeting is to pick out the items that are very important to you and the items that are a not vital to making your big day perfect. Then reallocate funds to the more important items and go cheap on the things that you feel you need but don’t care as much about. For my friends wedding, flowers were no biggie so they hit up the farmers market the day before for the table settings – not the bouquets. But, because they knew they would have their pictures forever, they spent more on a really great wedding photographer and they got a photo booth – it was a great touch and everyone had fun with it! Best of all – they had memories that will last a life time.
Since it is a once in a lifetime thing for most people you can expect them to “splurge”. With economic times as they are now those numbers may go down.
For our wedding we made alot of stuff ourselves including the favours, table placements and cake! That was 4 years ago and I wouldn’t have had it any other way it was so much fun to get inviolved and well worth it in the end! It was still an expensive affair IMO and I think that more brides should get involved in making what they want – it makes it far more personal and is also cheaper.
Thinking of your budget is important but picking good vendors will save you money and headaches on the most important day of your life. Surrounding yourself with professionals will make sure that your day will come off without a hitch.
Excellent article, and extremely topical for this economic climate. With #5, I agree that there are certain things people don’t want to skimp on, and other areas where it won’t make a huge difference in the enjoyment of the wedding for you or the guests. Like most people can’t tell the difference between thank you cards that were 30 cents and ones that are $1.00 each and that’s a 70% savings, substantial.
Very good advice. What a lot of people don’t realize is that they need to start saving early if they want to have enough saved up to pay for their wedding. If you’re 20 years old, you should be saving as much as $100 a month, if you want to have enough saved up by the age that most people statistically get married, but how many people do that?
I think these ideas are practical and informative. I agree that though times are hard, couples still want a stylish and grand wedding. Thanks for the nice discussion here.
I think your first point about being realistic about the wedding budget is probably the most important step. If you’re not realistic, there’s no way you will be able to organise your wedding within it.
There are so many brides who are willing to share their ideas on how they cut costs on their wedding, it’s worth asking the question in wedding forums as it’s sure to generate ideas.
Excellent tips and advice. The budget for the big day is the absolute key factor in planning a wedding. It is the starting point and the ending point. Having a good wedding planner book is also very essential to stay organized and on budget.
It’s true, I have personally seen many people spending exorbitant amounts on their weddings. Even though it is a major once in a lifetime event, I sometimes can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t be wiser to have a smaller wedding and then perhaps put some of your savings into an investment like a home purchase where the money will grow over time. I’m sure having a smaller wedding would require more discipline to stay on budget because we all want the very best for our big day.
It’s the women who are behind this enormous increase in wedding expenses.
Wow, that is a lot of money to spend on one day/night. Enough for a deposit on a house! I do think it’s nice to celebrate your love and your union but surely there are cheaper ways. After all it is about the love of two people and their closest friends and family, not the table arrangements.
But then again, they are a hell of a lot of fun!
You really do need to think carefully when planning your wedding as the money levels can get so extreme. Remember it’s the marriage that counts!