The average wedding budget nationally is $33,391. Obviously, it varies dramatically depending on where you live. San Francisco and New York City will be a lot higher than Baltimore or Columbus. Regardless of where you live, you can experience a great wedding for less if you heed the advice of brides who lamented that they overspent on their weddings in the wrong places.
This is really helpful advice. It comes from Zola who surveyed 750 couples after their wedding celebration had come and gone.
The bills had all come due, and they had a chance to reflect on their decisions. They had some regrets.
Specifically, these couples blew past the average wedding budget in key areas:
- 22% overspent on flowers & decor
- 20% overspent on hair & makeup
- 19% overspent on catering
- 19% overspent on day-of-wedding attire
- 17% overspent on invitations.
Denon & Doyle believes EACH of these areas are important. But you can learn from couples like you who realized when all was said and done, they didn’t need to spend as much as they did on these areas. Obviously, these areas still need a lot of consideration. Catering, for example, is worth spending money on to ensure that your guests are well-fed. If your guests are hungry, they’re not going to enjoy themselves and they’re going to leave early to find their own food. Find affordable event catering that is within your budget, but that will also provide your guests with plenty of options. There’s no point in serving dishes that are too complicated – it’ll drive the price up. Consider a buffet so that guests can choose what they want for themselves, and keep things simple.
By contrast, the same couples wished they had spent more on these areas:
- 25% wished they had spent more on videography
- 22% wished they had spent more on photography
- 20% wished they had spent more on a wedding planner
- 12% wished they had spent more on flowers & decor
- 10% wish they spent more on entertainment
It seems that most people were comfortable with the price they paid for their venue, whether that be a marquee from dynamic marquees for a backyard wedding or perhaps renting out a part of a hotel. Usually, the venue is one of the biggest payments for the whole wedding so it’s good to see that couples are happy with their purchases. But, clearly, things like photography can also really have an impact on how a couple sees their special day. With photography, it’s always best to do extensive research, whether you are looking for a Newport Wedding Photographer, or one closer to you, to make sure that you will get images you will treasure and still want to show people in years to come. A few reactions on finding the sweet spot for the average wedding budget: flowers and decor made both lists. Keep your emotions in check when planning your decor. Purchase only the quantity of flowers you really need. By the same token, if you’re not particularly artsy, don’t overly scrimp, because the tasteful use of flowers can make your event so beautiful. If you want to set up a picture area for everyone to take part in, you can cordon off a section with props, decor, chairs, etc. and then put up a backdrop with peel and stick wallpaper and lights, so that wedding guests can have professional pictures taken with everyone there. You can find cheap and good quality resources if you shop around and check out deals.
The last bullet is really important because entertainment makes the event. When dance floors are packed all night long, like Denon & Doyle will do, the fun is so contagious that couples wish they had more photography and videography on hand to capture it.
This is what matters after your event has come and gone: couples want to relive the fun created by a great DJ.
And they wished they had a little more wedding planning. We offer planning tools that can help on that score as well. There’s no need to have wedding regrets when you select Denon & Doyle.