Wedding: What To Consider Before You Book!
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Considerations Before You Start Booking Vendors For Your Wedding
I couldn’t sleep last night & I started thinking about all of the things I wish I would have known before I started the wedding planning process to help clarify mine & Matthew’s thinking. If you’re recently engaged - this one’s for you!
If you are paying for your wedding yourself or if your parents have a set budget, before you book anything I’d recommend asking yourself (& the groom) a few questions:
What time of year do we want to get married? Time of year will impact the premium you pay on the big day and it will impact the weather. The height of season vs. the off season will have huge cost variations.
Where do we want to get married (location not venue)? Picking a location is really important & probably the most influential factor on cost. Different cities or towns have different price points, not only for the venue, but also for the cost of labor & goods. The venue will impact cost as well, but if you are not sure what location you would like to get married in comparing multiple cities / towns is important for avoiding excessive costs. For context our band charged us $3k more based on our location (travel costs & setup)
What type of venue do we want? Beach, farm, resort, old building, restaurant, museums. There are different pros and cons to each.
Do we want a tented wedding? Instagram is filled with beautiful tented weddings. If you are getting married on a beach, it is highly likely that you will need to put up a tent of some kind for your big day just in case the weather doesn’t cooperate. Tented weddings are like building a room from scratch. If you built a house, you’d need to pay for the materials & the builders to do the building - same case with tenting a wedding! There are different kinds of tents that have different costs depending on where you choose to have your event. Some other things to consider - A floor so people aren’t walking on grass or sand, will increase your cost between $12-$20k. You’ll need to add lighting, generators to provide power and likely need engineers to manage the process! All things considered - this will likely increase your cost between $75-$100K.
Who is paying for the wedding? The wedding industry averages are just not accurate, especially when featured next to what you will see on Instagram. Let’s not glorify planners who spend a million dollars on an event & then are praised for how amazing it is. That’s great if that’s you & your budget. For the other 99%, let’s get real with you. If you are paying for the wedding, find yourself a planner who help you creatively get to your budget & advise early in the process on what is a realistic cost. A tented beach wedding will cost you over $60K just on the bare bones structure, power, lighting, labor.
Roughly how many guests do we expect? Food & Beverage costs are between $250-$500 pp.
What is our expectation for how the wedding will look & feel? Review these photos with a planner as you both interview them. Ask what it will cost to do what you want & get specific.
If you are exploring different locations & considering destinations here are some clarifying questions to consider:
Managing Costs:
Are there local vendors that can be used or will vendors need to be brought in? If you are getting married on an island or in a small town, often times vendors will come from other cities & you will need to cover the travel + rooms. Depending on the season this can add many incremental costs.
How often do we need to go to the venue? What is the expense for you to travel to the venue. Is it more cost effective, break even or more expensive when you add in these factors?
What is the cost of a room / night? If a room is over $500 a night this starts to add up!
Guest Experience:
Is the destination easy enough for guests to get to? While people love you, consider the guest experience & the amount of travel you are expecting of others. More than 1.5hrs from a major airport is a no.
What is the average cost of a room in the destination during the time of year? There needs to be affordable options. We didn’t figure out until after we made our choice that the most affordable room was $650 a night or an alternative was a motel. Not great for guest experience.
What is the average cost of flights at the destination during the time of year? This is important because you want to consider travel & you want to think about how many available flights there are. I had a wedding I went to where there were very few direct flights & my flight was canceled the next morning. Eager to get back, I spend $1200. While I had the greatest time, I’ll always remember what a pain it was.
Hopefully through these questions you have a bit more clarity on experience & costs that will come up. From here you’re ready to start interviewing wedding planners and locking in a date! It may seem overwhelming (because it is!), but you’ll thank yourself later for doing the work upfront to make an informed decision!