How Much Money Should I Spend on My Wedding?

So you are wondering how much money you should spend on your wedding, right? Well, unfortunately, there is no magic number on how much money a wedding costs or how much money you should spend on your wedding. 

 

According to Wedding Wire, the average wedding in America costs around $30,000. Obviously, this cost can vary depending on location and time of year. I know if I had spent $30,000 on my wedding I would have been around $20,000 in debt. So instead of telling you how much money you should spend, I want to give you ideas on where to get the money.. 

 

So, where do most couples get their money for their wedding?

Their Parents

There are three main sources couples typically get money from. The first being their relatives. Close relatives, like parents, legal guardians or grandparents are typically the first place that couples go to fund their wedding. 

 

Traditionally speaking, the parents or legal guardians of the bride are the ones to have paid for the wedding. This was customary because the groom was expected to pay for the house and support the bride from that day forward. We can take this tradition back even farther to the time when (in certain cultures) women were considered property and the parents of the bride provided the groom with a dowry in order to secure her continued livelihood. 

 

While I am not a fan of this tradition due to the discrimination of women that is wrapped up in this tradition, my parents were the ones to pay for my wedding. I had gone to them and asked for some money to use for the wedding. I knew that my now husband and I were not able to afford a wedding without a loan and I personally did not want to go into debt for a wedding. So we decided it was best to ask the ‘rents. My mom put in $4,000 and my Dad $6,000. His parents agreed to pay for our rehearsal dinner (as google told them was tradition for the groom’s parents) and gave us some money as a gift to go towards our honeymoon. 

Your Savings

The next source of money for their wedding couples get is actually from their savings. 

 

I know many couples plan for a very long engagement so that they are able to budget for the wedding themselves. With payment plans that many vendors work with, the couple is able to put money down to save their date and work to pay off the rest at a later date. Getting a side job is one way many couples increase their earnings to save up more. 

Loans or Credit

The last source of wedding money that I know of are loans and on credit. 

 

The couple gets a small personal loan from a bank or they use their credit cards so that they can pay it off over time instead of having to have the money up front. This is a good option for couples that are trying to increase their credit scores. However, it can be a double edged sword if you don’t end up paying the monthly fees. So I want to caution couples about this option. If you decide to go with this option, just make sure that you are paying at least the minimum monthly fee. Hopefully you can budget it to where you are paying double the monthly amount so that you can pay it off quicker. 

 

 I personally had an issue with this option because I was already trying to finish paying off my student loans (I’m still working on paying those off), I did not want to increase my debt for one day of bliss. Of course, I was super lucky in having parents that gave me money for my wedding. If I had not had this option, I probably would have had a very long engagement and tried to save up cash money for my wedding and would have gotten a side job to compensate. 

 

Of course, you can always mix and match these options. Don’t feel like you have to use just one option of the above. Maybe you can get a couple thousand from parents that you put towards your photographer, dress, dessert, etc. Then you use your credit card to pay the venue and pay it off over time to increase your credit score. And then you get a side job watching dogs on the weekend with Rover to cover the tips and decor items. 

 

I’m also sure that I probably don’t know of every single way you can pay for your wedding! If you have ideas or if you paid for your wedding in other ways be sure to leave a comment and let me know about them!

 

Looking for help to allocate your budget? Be sure to check out my other blog: How to plan a wedding Step One.