Today I’m here to set the record straight. It’s time to understand how much do weddings cost before you start creating a wedding budget. All weddings are not created equal…and neither are the budgets that fund said weddings. You can also check out this calculator from The Knot to get you started.

Let’s breakdown the cost of weddings

Imagine being a senior in college with aspirations of buying your first brand new car- no help from the parentals and you want to do this 100% in your name. So Junior year you started saving up all of your earnings from your part-time gig and you figure you’ve saved up for a whole school year so you’re ready to buy that car. You go to the car dealership (ok, you log on to the dealership website) to look up listings of that Lexus LS you’ve been scoping out. You think…surely this can’t cost more than $30k (the amount you’ve been pre-approved for). But wait…the MSRP on a brand new Lexus LS is $75k. (yes you read that right, no you do not need to borrow your fiance’s glasses)….MSRP is $75k on a 2020 Lexus LS. And the max you have to spend is $30k. Let that sink in.

Now you may not even like Lexus brand automobiles but I hope you can understand from this illustration that no matter what you want to purchase, if you have no idea how much it costs, (or even a starting price) there is NO WAY you can save up for it! Planning a wedding is the exact same way. I’m going to break it down a little further for the people in the back….ehem…

Where to start with a wedding budget

You need to understand the starting price for wedding-related purchases before you can even begin to save up or set a budget for your wedding. Understanding just how much do wedding cost is crucial to the experience you will have on your wedding planning journey.

While wedding prices vary by market (what city or exotic destination you’ll get married in), there are some starting prices that are pretty consistent in the United States that I want to share with you the starting price for the major vendor categories you need for your wedding.

Wedding Vendor Starting Prices

Venue: $1.5k- 10k

Photography: $1.5k – $6k

DJ: $1.5-$2.5k

Catering: $25-$100pp

Now that you have an idea how much weddings cost

This should at least help you wrap your head around how much you can start putting away now to avoid sticker shock later. If you are already engaged and currently researching vendors and establishing a budget and these numbers seem as far out of reach as that Lexus LS, don’t fret there are tons of ways you close the gap between your dream wedding and current budget.

If you want to find out the starting price for more categories, I’m here for you. I include it as a bonus just for reaching out for a proposal for wedding planning. Get in touch to shed some light on how to best establish your planning budget.