The Biggest Wedding Purchases, Ranked By Importance
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By PAGE Editor
The average cost of a wedding in the US stands at around $35,000, yet all too often, articles that talk about weddings group all the expenses that make up that budget equally. In reality, some are naturally more important than others — and that provides an opportunity for couples who are looking to prevent their wedding day costs from spiraling out of control to treat some expenses with a higher priority.
As well as helping to potentially save money, knowing where each expense falls on the importance scale also helps couples to figure out where best to put their energy. It’s worth going above and beyond to get the right photographer; spending days deciding which wedding guest invite design to use is less logical.
If you’re getting married, or thinking about getting married soon, then this page, in which we rank the big wedding expenses in order of importance, should help to streamline the organizing process.
The Wedding Venue
The wedding venue is normally the top expense that couples shell out for, and you can argue that it justifies the high price tag, which typically accounts for around a quarter of the total wedding budget.
After all, the wedding venue helps to set the wedding’s romantic, magical tone. Choosing a stunning venue ensures that your guests are impressed from the very first moment they arrive.
Plus, taking the time to find the right venue can also just help make planning the other wedding details, such as how many guests you’ll have and what decor you’ll need, a lot more straightforward.
Photography and Videography
You might be surprised to see photography and videography so high up on this list, but there’s a reason why we’ve put it in the number two position. Everything else about the wedding day, such as the food and flowers, is gone the following day — photos and videos live forever. They’re the one truly irreplaceable aspect of the wedding, which is why we gave them the edge over wedding rings.
Photography is also one of the areas in which couples try to save money, often by asking guests to capture the day on their behalf. That can be a good additional idea, but there’s value in paying a wedding photographer to do the job properly. The few thousand it costs to hire them will eventually be forgotten, but the high-quality photos of you and your partner having the best day of your life will have pride of place in your home for the rest of your lives.
Wedding Rings
Wedding rings play a starring role on the wedding day itself, but their real value comes later. A quality gold, titanium, or diamond wedding ring will look just as good many years down the line as it does on the wedding day itself. And of course, wedding rings are about more than their beauty; they’re imbued with significant sentimental value, often becoming one of the most important items that the wearer owns.
The wedding ring is one of those things that justifies its positioning at the top of the most important wedding purchases. Indeed, we could have put it in the number one position, especially when you account for the overall value.
Catering
The wedding meal is a one-time event that non-foodies might wish wasn’t so important, but that’s not the case. Wedding guests expect to have a top-class meal. What’s more, while it’s fine to simply serve a good, not great meal, that’s about as low as the floor will go. Bad wedding meals get talked about for years, and in fact, are often the only thing that’s remembered. For that reason, it’s worth spending the right amount of money to ensure that your guests have nothing to complain about.
The Honeymoon
The honeymoon isn’t just another getaway. It’s the first step on what will become the rest of your life. Perhaps it’s because of all the other expenses that a wedding involves, but many couples actually end up underspending on their honeymoon.
You don’t need to spend the earth to have a memorable time, but it is worthwhile pushing the boat slightly. If there’s a place that you’ve always dreamt of visiting together, then the honeymoon will likely be the best opportunity to do so. Many couples opt for a lower-key getaway with a vow to take a real trip later down the line, but that becomes increasingly difficult once other aspects of married life — homeownership, children — come into play.
Wedding Attire and Makeup
Wedding attire is an interesting one — it’s very important, but how much people actually spend on it can vary significantly. There are couples who spend $15,000 on both of their outfits, while others are more than content to spend $1000.
It doesn’t really matter how much you spend on wedding attire, actually. The main thing is that you feel confident and that you’re happy with your look. The only thing that we’d recommend is to try to have a full understanding of how much you’ll actually spend on your wedding appearance. There are often some unexpected costs that can eat into the wedding budget, such as pre-wedding makeup trial runs and the cost of transporting the makeup artist to the wedding venue.
Flowers and Decor
Many couples spend thousands on their wedding flowers, but this is one of those things that can be trimmed significantly for those looking to save money or put more money elsewhere. While flowers and other decor selections can look beautiful on the day, they’re also the things that are forgotten about the quickest. If you think back to all of the highlights of any weddings you’ve been to in the past, it’s unlikely that the floral arrangements come to your mind.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t invest in this part of your wedding. Flowers really can elevate the space, but if you’re weighing up flowers versus adding an extra leg onto your honeymoon, then the money will likely be better added to the travel budget.
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