The Most Forgotten Wedding Budget Items

You’ve made your wedding budget list and checked it twice. When you don’t have experience planning a wedding, it can be easy to forget things- you don’t know what you don’t know! Weddings are expensive. The average RVA wedding is around $30,000. When spending that much money, you want to make sure you account for EVERYTHING. After a few years planning hundreds of weddings, we’ve learned a few things that couples most often forget about.

All the documents…

There’s documents you need for your wedding to result in a marriage and documents you need to hold your event.

Marriage License- this costs $30 at the courthouse. You purchase it no sooner than 60 days prior to your wedding day.

ABC License- your caterer and venue likely require that you have an ABC license if your serving alcohol, this costs $60 on the ABC website

Liability Insurance- again another likely requirement of your venue. Event insurance- you can get this from your homeowners insurance provider, it usually costs around $200

Food for getting ready

Wedding days are long days. Ladies, you usually will begin getting ready not too long after waking up. You’ll want to account for breakfast and likely lunch while you’re getting ready. Make sure to account for your spouse as well! You’ll want to make sure you have plenty of water while getting ready as well.

Alterations

The cost of alterations will vary greatly. If you’re just hemming and adding a bustle, your cost will likely be less than someone completely changing their dress. Fabric comes into play as well- lace, beading detail and other factors will also impact the cost of alterations. However, we generally tell brides, your dress alterations will likely be 1/4-1/3 of the cost of your dress. So, if your dress was $1,600- expect to pay $4-600 in alterations. If you want to spend a TOTAL of $1600 on your dress including alterations, then you should purchase a bit lower- around $1200.

Rentals

If your venue includes tables and chairs- that’s fantastic! However, that still leaves linens, flatware and glasses- which all add up. Make sure when inquiring with caterers that you add in these additional costs.

Transportation

Think about how you and your wedding party will get to your venue (even more important if your wedding ceremony and reception are in different locations). If your venue is far out from hotels and such, consider providing transportation for guests. Last but not least, factor in how you and your new spouse will get to where you are staying from the venue.

Of course, this is not a full list of everything you should include in your wedding budget but after years of planning weddings, these are items we’ve seen forgotten often!

If you’d like guidance on your wedding budget or any part of planning your day, contact us!