Let’s be honest, besides buying a house, a car, and/or college tuition, it can feel like your wedding can be one of the largest budgeted things that you do in your lifetime. However, it doesn’t matter what your wedding budget is, be it $20,000 or $80,000, unexpected costs can throw your budget for a loop. Factoring in these top four hidden wedding budget costs can help you avoid being surprised when trying to stick to your budget.
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Invitation Postage
The actual wedding invitations that you send to your guests will not be your only cost in postage. Additional postage costs will include your Save the Dates, as well as your RSVP return cards. Also, be mindful of the weight and size of your invitation. If your invitation weighs more than the standard stamp rate or if the shape is not a rectangle, there will be additional postage. An easy way to figure out this cost would be to bring your desired wedding invitation suite to the post office where they can weigh and calculate the cost for you. This way you won’t be blind-sided when you go to mail your invites to your guests.
Taxes, Shipping, Delivery, and Gratuity
One of the most common things couples forget to plan for in their wedding budget are taxes, shipping, delivery, and gratuity. When you rent items, such as tables and chairs, tax and delivery with be added. Also, if your caterer quotes you $79 a person for dinner, this will not include the gratuity for the staff. Ask your vendors for the final totals when getting quotes. This way when you make your final decision on which vendors that you are using, you have the final total to calculate into your wedding budget.
Wedding Party and Parents’ Gifts
Gifts to your wedding party and parents on your wedding day are optional. However, it is always a nice token of appreciation for those that have been by your side before your engagement, during the planning, and on the day of your wedding. How much you’d like to spend and to whom you’d like to gift is totally up to you. Wedding party gifts on average range from $30-$50 each. Depending on the size of your wedding party, this cost can add up quickly.
Extra Hours
When you are planning your wedding, it is easy to look at it as the party of a lifetime. There are not many other life events that you will go all out on. With that being said, the average wedding festivities last about 5 hours. Although it may be tempting to party all night with an eight-hour reception, those extra hours will add a large amount to your budget.
Be mindful that you are not just paying for the space. You could also be paying for late-night snacks for guests, extra hours for your wedding vendors, like your photographer, bartender, wedding planner, etc. If you are looking to extend your reception, ask for the rates of the vendors that will be contributing to this when getting your quote.
The great thing about a wedding budget is that it is personalized to you and your fiance. There may be things that are absolutely a must at your wedding and some that you feel can be skipped. No matter the size of your wedding, it is always important to lay out your top wedding priorities and what you are wanting to spend. This way you can calculate all costs involved.
Hiring a wedding planner is a great way to get help on your wedding budget. They are experts in making sure that their couples’ wedding budgets are in line. However, if you are looking for budget help from your wedding planner, hiring one would have to be done early. This is because creating a wedding budget is one of the first things that you will do in your wedding planning process.
Whether you decide to work with a wedding planner or go on your own, we promise that creating an accurate wedding budget will reduce the stress of wedding planning, which will make the process must more enjoyable.
Thank you to Kim Tran of Pearl White Events, who helped provide the information for this article.