Wedding planning today often hits newly engaged couples with a harsh reality - it is crazy expensive! According to Zola, the average cost of a wedding in 2023 sits around $20,000 to $40,000. This can even be higher is a high cost of living area. There is a lot I don’t know about personal finance, but I know spending that amount of money on one day just did not sit right with me. Especially, when I know that money would be taken from savings for a down-payment on a house. At the same time, I still wanted to make the day special and wanted a step-up from an elopement or courthouse wedding.
I want to add that I do not intend to shame couples that have spent or want to spend that amount of money for their wedding, but it was not something that me or my partner felt good about given our personal situation, values, and financial goals. We thus decided to aim for a budget of $10,000. When I began wedding planning, I was searching for a site that laid out all the costs and was not able to find any in my area with a similar budget. I know posting about wedding expenses or finances in general can be considered taboo, but my hope is that this transparency helps out other couples!
Vision 🔗
With our budget in mind, we narrowed down our priorities. Our first decision was on location as essentially all of our guests would be coming from the midwest, but we were located in Arizona. We concluded that we wanted it to be in Phoenix as that is where most of our relationship had taken place, and logistically it is easier to plan a wedding in the city you are in. We also wanted a more intimate wedding (35 guests total) because in the end we wanted the day to make us comfortable, and we felt inviting 100+ people would make the day and planning process incredibly stressful - especially for so many people coming in from out of state. The extremely difficult part of that decision is that there were absolutely people left out from our Arizona celebration that I would have loved to be there, but we needed to keep the Arizona guests to only our very closest circle. Partially because our reception venue only has seating for 35 max. Our caveat is that we would host a casual celebration in the midwest after our wedding to include more of the people that we would have loved to be present on the day.
Armed with these important details, we began the wedding planning process.
Expenses 🔗
Wedding Rings - $515 🔗
I am someone who does not wear a ton a jewelry, and when I do it is very simple. I also know I lose things - A LOT. Given that, I did not want Jacob spending $1,000+ on an engagement ring when perfectly suitable dupes exist online for $10-$20. Looking back, I’m so glad we did this because I’ve already lost one $15 ring to the pacific ocean. We agreed we would spend the ring budget on real gold wedding bands which we would wear regularly.
I am considering buying silicone rings instead as those are more functional for active lifestyles.
Our budget for wedding bands is $500 for both bands. We have yet to purchase these. We purchased this engagement ring for $15 (now for only $10!).
The average cost of wedding bands for a bride and groom is $1,650 and most couples spend over $6,000 for an engagement ring.
Engagement Photos - $0 🔗
We asked Jacob’s brother to take our engagement photos using his nice camera. Super happy with this decision!
We spent $0 on engagement photos.
The average cost of engagement photos is $200 - $275.
Save the Dates and Invitations - $24 🔗
Save the Dates were something that I created using Canva, and we sent these out electronically. For invites, I found Costco has a bundle of 25 invites for only $16.49.
We spent $24 on save the dates and invites.
The average cost of save the dates is $50-$150, and the average cost of invites is $530.
Officiant - $0 🔗
As neither of us are religious, we opted to have our ceremony officiated by Jacob’s brother. We researched and wrote the wedding vows ourselves.
We spent $0 on an officiant.
The average cost of an officiant is $200-$450.
Ceremony Venue - $1200 🔗
We originally knew we wanted to have our ceremony at the Desert Botanical Gardens (DBG). They offer a variety of venues, but our favorites were out of our budget. We then looked at all-inclusive venues that could host ceremony and reception but those were already over 10K without key services like photography, dessert, lodging, attire, etc. We ultimately return to DBG and decided on the Amphitheater location. This site has built in seating and is in an intimate setting. The benefit to the DBG is that it is a central location (close to hotels and airports for all of our out-of-town guests), plenty of parking, and guests get access to the gardens for the entire day of the wedding.
We spent $1,200 on our ceremony venue.
The average cost of ceremony venue is $600.
Ceremony Wedding Insurance (Required) - $200 🔗
We are required to have a minimum of $1 million liability coverage for our ceremony venue. Estimates on WedSafe say this will cost $175.
Our budget for wedding insurance is $200.
The average cost of wedding insurance is $160.
Entertainment - $480 (includes tip) 🔗
Since it is such an intimate setting, we felt some live music for the ceremony would be a nice touch. We opted for a violinist for one hour.
For the reception dinner, our venue has AV equipment where we will set up a phone to play a custom spotify playlist.
We spent $480 on a violinist.
The average cost of wedding entertainment is $780 to $2,000.
Reception Venue: Food and Drinks - $3200 (includes tip) 🔗
Good food was definitely not something we wanted to sacrifice, so we chose to have our reception at a centrally located highly rated restaurant that offered group dining options. We were able to reserve a private room in the restaurant and the group dining options include bread, salad, choice of entrée, and dessert. We will be hosting open bar as well. Our food and beverage minimum is around $2000, but we are estimating costs to be around $3200 (including tip). This very well could be an overestimate.
Our budget for food and drinks is $3200.
The average cost of a reception venue is $12,000 - $14,000.
Photographer - $2300 (includes tip) 🔗
The photographer was also something I thought I did not want to sacrifice on - although looking back I think this is one place where we could have saved money if I had done more research. We ended up hiring a highly rated photographer for 5 hours. We expect the time to cover some getting ready shots at the hotel and then group shots, portraits, and ceremony coverage at the DBG.
We spent $2300 on a photographer.
The average cost of a wedding photographer ranges from $1,150 to $3,000.
Hair and Makeup - $1036 (includes tip and travel to hotel) 🔗
My hair and makeup artist was another item that I did not want to sacrifice since I am terrible at both of these. Similar to the photographer, I think this is another place where we could have saved money if I had done more research.
This price includes hair and makeup for myself (includes a trial). I also gifted my bridal party hair and makeup if they desired, so the total also included hair and makeup for one bridesmaid, hair for another, and makeup for a bridesman.
We spent $1036 on hair and makeup for bride and bridal party.
The average cost of bride’s hair/makeup is $300-$600, while average cost of a bridesmaid hair and makeup is $50-$300.
Wedding Attire & Alterations - $1000 🔗
I knew that I didn’t want to spend $1000+ on a dress that I would wear once, so I set my
budget at $500 max. I had bought a lot of dresses from Lulus, trying them on, and returning the ones that I did not like.
Although the dress I decided on was not necessarily my dream dress, it was perfect for the price.
It cost $200 (originally it is $260, but I had a discount code), had great reviews, was comfortable, and within budget!
I also bought my shoes from Lulus for $40. I will need to get the dress hemmed which I anticipate costing anywhere from $100-$200.
Lulus was a great site to look for affordable dresses, but other sites I looked at included StillWhite, ASOS, David’s Bridal, and Nordstrom. Lulus ultimately
had the best prices, return policy, and styles in my opinion.
I wanted a white clutch or small bag as well, which I was planning to just buy for cheap (~$20). But I got extra lucky one day. Jacob and I walked into a goodwill at Scottsdale and I saw the familiar YSL logo on a white mini bag. I picked it up and realized that the stitching, hardware, product id, tags, and exterior leather, interior light colored suede looked and felt way too real. I bought it for $7. I later find what looks like the exact bag listed for $2400 on the YSL site. Either I struck Goodwill gold or purchased an insanely real replica. Either way, I couldn’t be happier! I will also need to budget for earrings.
Jacob purchased a linen-cotton blend unstructured suit. for $400. The linen material was especially important as Phoenix weather in October can be pretty toasty. We expect to spend $20 on a black tie. The white dress shirt, black belt, and black shoes are something Jacob already owns.
So far, we spent $250 on bridal attire and $420 on groom’s attire, which leaves $350 for alterations.
Our budget for wedding attire and alterations is $1000.
The average cost of a wedding dress (not including accessories or alterations) is $1,600. While the average cost of a groom’s attire is $200 - $500.
Flowers & Parasols (for ceremony and reception) - $300 🔗
I was originally planning to purchase Costco flowers - Either soft grace or orange sorbet package (includes 1 Bridal Bouquet, 2 Bridesmaid Bouquets, 3 Pin-On Corsages, 3 Boutonnieres, and 1 Bag of Rose Petals); however, I saw too many reviews that mentioned the quality was not great and the flowers had wilted or turned brown. Since I didn’t want to worry about flowers dying, I decided to try another route.
I recently purchased silk flowers from Amazon including a pre-made bridal bouquet, two boutonnieres, extra florals/greenery to create two vases of florals for the ceremony backdrop.
Instead of buying bridesmaid bouquets, I opted for white nylon parasols which will be practical to block the sun in case it is hot out. It also worked out that it goes with the garden setting.
I also expect to buy one or two bouquets of real flowers and use some stems for the centerpieces (Budget $5-$20).
I purchased three parasols for $50 and florals for $230.
The average cost of wedding florals is between $700-$2,500, with most couples spending $1,500.
Other Decor (for ceremony & reception) - $330 🔗
-
30 Ikea cushions for ceremony amphitheater seating: $165
-
6 vases for centerpieces: $15.
-
2 vases and fake flowers for ceremony backdrop: $10
-
Table Numbers: Frames were $10. I created the design on Canva and printed on stock paper using my home printer.
-
Two panels of white and terracotta fabric and wedding arch (arch we plan to reuse for our garden) : $50
-
Photos of loved ones who have past away: $0
-
12 flameless candles & candle holders: $30
-
5 Table Linens: $50
-
Seating chart - $0 (Canva, use existing frame)
Our budget for wedding decor is $330.
The average cost of decor for an outdoor wedding cost around $1,000 to $15,000.
Lodging / Bridal Suite / Groom Suite - $700 (for three nights) 🔗
I was nervous about booking lodging for the wedding weekend. I knew we needed something central (close to the venue) with plenty for space for both parties to get ready in separate areas. I also knew we needed to be cost effective, largely because I did not want our party to be spending a ton on scottsdale hotels when they are already spending money on travel costs. I found one resort where we could book one two story villa (900 square feet) for the bridal party and one casita (3000 square feet) for the grooms party and to act as a base if we all wanted to hang out together. The casita also had a separate king-sized bedroom that would double as our honeymoon suite for after the wedding. We were able to book these rooms for three nights (the entire wedding weekend).
As for cost, I fronted the $1300 for the villa and Jacob fronted the $1800 for the casita. We would then ask our party to split the costs among the people who stay in each space. I had been saving credit card points on my cash-back card for about four years and had saved $800 worth. I used those acquired points to cover the cost of the share for Jacob and me which came out to be $700 for three nights.
The benefits we saw in sharing large suites is that everyone can stay on one property together, and it helps to keep individual loding costs low. Other benefits to our resort is that it is 10-15 minutes away from our venues, had spaces large enough to host people getting ready, and offered a complimentary shuttle for guests.
It may not be the newest or modern resort around, but we prioritized cost, square feet, and proximity to our venues.
After the up-front costs are settled, we would have spent $700 on lodging for our wedding weekend.
The average cost of wedding lodging for three nights is $810 per person.
Wedding Day Brunch - $200 🔗
The day of the wedding, we will likely cater brunch from a nearby breakfast place like Einsteins Bagels or Original Chop Shop and also gather some items from Costco. We expect $200 to feed 16 people.
Our budget on the wedding day brunch is $200.
Marriage License - $50 🔗
The marriage license costs about $50
Our budget on the marriage license is $50.
The average cost of a marriage license is between $10-$115.
Transportation - $50 🔗
We are not planning to reserve any transportation in advance. We will plan to either rely on ride-share services or use a rental car/van. Since this wedding had turned into a destination wedding (we are moving cross-country), we were planning to rent a vehicle regardless.
Our transportation budget is $50.
The average cost of wedding transportation is $706.
Rehearsal Picnic - $500 🔗
The day before the wedding we are hoping to host a welcome/rehearsal brunch picnic at a local park. We expect that the reservation of a ramada and the liquor license to be about $75. That will leave about $400 for food and drink that we expect to cater from a breakfast place and buy additional items from Costco. If you can not tell thus far, a costco membership is key.
Our budget for our rehearsal/welcome picnic is $500.
The average cost of a rehearsal dinner is $1,900.
Welcome Gifts - $200 🔗
To welcome our guests, and thank them for traveling we hope to put together small welcome gifts. Some items we hope to include are prickly pear tea bags, macaroons or chocolates, small thank you / itinerary card that will be made using Canva.
This budget also includes a gift for groomsmen and bridesman. We will plan to gift each a burnt orange bow tie
Our budget for welcome gifts is $200.
Thank You Cards - $10 🔗
Our budget for thank you cards is $10.
The average cost of thank you cards is $50.
Final Thoughts 🔗
Is this the perfect budget? Probably not. I’m sure there are places where we could have saved even more and there are things we left out of our wedding due to budget. Would I recommend others follow the same? No, because everyone has different priorities. Overall, I’m happy with our choices and felt as if we did not have to sacrifice too much.
If we were not moving across country, I think we could have reduced costs even further. However, having the wedding in state where we will no longer live and have no friends/family makes the planning/storage of decor a little more difficult.
Total Gross Spent = $12,295 🔗
Adjusted Total = $10,095 🔗
- removed cost of attire since we can reuse those items (-1000).
- removed cost of lodging since we used my saved credit card points (-700).
- removed cost of gold band rings since we consider gold an investment (-500).
Other Related Expenses - Not included in Calculations/Budget 🔗
Honeymoon 🔗
We decided to keep our honeymoon budget separate as we may not go on the honeymoon right away. Our plan is to go to Costa Rica for one week.
Midwest Celebration 🔗
We hope to have our midwest celebration as a backyard cookout and plan to budget about $1000.