For Couples
I remember a conversation I had with a bride recently about how much people normally spend on weddings. In our 7 years of experience we’ve seen as much as $60,000 being the price tag of some weddings.
It’s crazy. Even with an average threshold around $30,000 in America, 60 grand isn’t that far of a leap. It’s an incredible time to be involved in the business of weddings, but as documenters where does the business stop and the wedding begin. I’ve witnessed some incredible weddings that surely have the cashflow to back that up, and being that we as a society generally live to work, we have every right to spend what we earn on whatever kind of party we want.
The thing is, with costs rising so much for both the vendors and the couples, are we building a tower that’s unsustainable? I think yes. More money into one day (or 3 if you’re like us and staying at your wedding venue) is getting crazy pricey and the last thing you want to start off your marriage together is debt.
Now, I say this with caution because we get to support ourselves well because the industry generates a competitive revenue cycle for vendors, but you don’t necessarily have to go into debt to have a wonderful and beautiful wedding.
You don’t have to spend alot to get a alot.
This is my personal message to couples: spend within your means.
It’s something we don’t do very well as a society because we’re built on credit. However, there are so many ways to spend within your means and achieve the same goals. So I’m not saying to be cheap and I’m not saying to save. Hell, this is your wedding and you shall, do whatever you damn well please.
However, I do say to spend within your means. If you want that extravagant wedding with doves and ponies and fireworks go for it! But please make sure you have the means to support that decision. You can model our example when we were faced with the same issue: we wanted our wedding to be beautiful on camera and not make our family members work in it, so we compromised on what to splurge on and what to budget on.
It’s a little bit of a time investment on your part, but it’s a great precursor into married life because you’re practicing what it means to compromise without sacrificing the main goal.
In this case: a beautiful wedding that doesn’t feel cheap to you and lets you enjoy your wedding because you’re not in-the-hole about something arbitrary, like an ice sculpture or something.
This article might be a bit obvious, but to help you figure out your budget, I would encourage you to think within these bounds: What can we earn or cover comfortably? What ambiance are we looking for and how can I get the most of what we’re spending? Smile Smooo schmooo
In our experience, we figured, if we’re going to spend this much at a venue, might as well stay there a couple of nights and make a mini-wedding vacation out of it. In doing that we said that table centerpieces weren’t that important and made that minimal. Also since the venue was practically already well furnished, we didn’t even have to spend on adding decorations and so on.
In this way, you can spend your money on the things that matter the most to you instead of all these little things that add up.
Some things that are definite must:
- A DJ and Emcee
- A designated planner/ coordinator
- Event Insurance
- Good tasting food
- Alcohol – dry weddings are just that…dry
