#66. How much did your wedding cost?
We definitely went over budget đ
Hey! After detailing all my wedding weekend ~fashion~ two weeks ago including how much everything cost, I decided it was time to ***finally*** find out exactly how much we spent on our wedding.
We started the wedding planning process in the fall of 2022 with an extremely well researched budget. Some things stayed well within their prescribed limits just over a year later when we paid all our final invoices and went on a spree of last-minute purchases, while others gave us a bit of a nasty surprise.
The wedding industry has a way of making your eyes *completely bug out of your head* when you see the total prices of everythingâespecially after secret add-ons like taxes, delivery fees, and gratuity. Of course there are many costs that arenât completely necessary that you can skip to save some coin (wedding favors, ceremonial arches, table runners, etc.) but it was actually surprising how many things felt âmandatoryâ or like they couldnât actually be cut. (Iâve never been to a wedding that didnât have an open bar, have you?)
Let me just say before we get to all the numbers and good stuff: Endless thanks must be bestowed upon my parents for their unbelievable generosity. Without their monetary donation to this wedding, we wouldnât have had it, so please bear that in mind as we go through every item. Mom, dad, youâre amazing. Thank you.
Below, Iâve listed everything we bought for our wedding and how much it cost, who paid, what our budget was, and what the average cost in 2023 was across the entire U.S. Iâve also given each item a rating (on a scale from super save â super splurge) to show how we did compared to the average, and a score, which is how great I think that thing turned out on a scale from A-F.
Some of these really surprised me!!! Letâs start with the first thing we bought:
VENUE: $15,000
Rating: Average
Score: A
Budget: $15,000
Average wedding venue cost in California: $16,200
Average wedding venue cost in the U.S: $12,800
Who paid: My parents
Choosing a venue was the absolute very first thing we did, before we even got engaged. We did spend a lot on our venue, for sure, but we both absolutely fell in love with it. And hereâs the thingâa lot of cheaper venues are less expensive because they sometimes donât include tables, chairs, staff, trash removal, cleanup, power/electricity, permits, a kitchen, bathrooms, and a venue coordinator who manages all the other vendors loading in/out. Renting or paying for all of those things separately and bringing them all in adds up very quickly, not to mention adds layers and layers of complexity that you are completely responsible for!!! Yeah no thank you, not for me.
For our wedding we were absolutely going for more of a Delta âmain cabinâ vs. Spirit experience (where you pay for absolutely everything separately and it seems cheaper at the beginning but all of a sudden youâve spent way more than you intended after a carry-on, seat assignments, drinks, snacks, early boardingâyou know what I mean????) Our venue took care of basically everything for us except for taking out all our flowers at the end of the night, which my parents were happy to do. We were contractually obligated to clean up the venue after my sisterâs wedding 11 years ago, and slightly drunk with blistered feet from dancing too hard until midnight, I was not about it. For California, we actually came in slightly under the average cost of a wedding venue which surprised me. Our venue was everything we hoped for and I have only one regret (which weâll get to further down below).
FLOWERS: $1,240
Rating: Super save
Score: B+
Budget: $1,000
Average wedding florals cost: $2,800
Who paid: We did
Let me say it here first: doing my own flowers was not that stressful!!! I had a momentary panic attack when Paul decided he wanted to source all the flowers locally instead of driving up to L.A., but it wasnât that hard, and putting them together was fun, even if they didnât end up looking perfect (I think the arrangements got a little jostled during transport to the venue). We spent $540 on vases and $700 on flowers. All the vases are different and currently on display in our house, and I love that they are all quirky and fun. We got most of our flowers from Trader Joeâs and two different flower shops in Palm Springs.
On Friday morning, we invited a few of our close friends over to our Airbnb to put everything together while we had donuts and mimosas, and it was a genuine good time. Together we made 14 centerpieces of varying sizes for the tables, and I made my bouquet later that day using flowers I bought from Trader Joeâs and a flower shop called Hermano. We also had my nephews hand out flowers during the ceremony which are included in this budget too (mostly gerbera daisies and peonies from Trader Joeâs), as well as the flower necklaces our parents made for us.
Though I went a little over my initial budget to get some really pretty vases from Anthropologie and some more expensive stems I just had to have (peonies, ranunculus, delphinium; give them all to me!!!!), I feel really good about where we ended up here! Most wedding budgeting tools will tell you to budget 10% of your total budget for flowers, but our flowers ended up being way less than that, so Iâm calling this a super save.