Hidden Wedding Costs: What to Budget For That No One Tells You
By Caitlin Hoare
Hidden wedding costs can sneak up on even the most organised couples, turning a carefully planned budget into a financial headache. While you’ve likely factored in the big-ticket items like your venue, dress, and catering, there are plenty of unexpected expenses that can catch you off guard. From postage fees and vendor meals to wedding insurance and last-minute equipment rentals, we’re uncovering all the often-overlooked costs that no one warns you about. With this guide, you’ll be fully prepared to budget smartly and avoid any costly surprises on your big day!
In these days of Pinterest perfection, where our social media feeds are full of highly styled wedding imagery, it’s more important than ever to get to grips with your finances and create a realistic wedding budget. It might be easy enough to roughly budget for the big ticket stuff like your wedding dress, photography and venue, but there are so many hidden costs, and that is where many wedding budgets come unstuck. Fear not though, folks, in this guide to hidden wedding costs, we’ll get stuck into the nitty gritty of what nobody tells you to budget for!
Let's be real here - creating a budget for your wedding is probably the least fun of all wedding planning tasks. Unless you love spreadsheets and drilling down into costs, then your wedding budget is probably going to be pretty low on your priorities list, right next to deciding on your seating plan! Whilst it might be tempting to simply jot down a few rough estimates and guide prices and hope for the best, in the long run, you’ll thank yourself for getting super specific - and a big part of that is… you guessed it, those pesky hidden costs! Here’s a rundown of some of the most commonly overlooked wedding expenses.
Postage
Picture this: You’ve got your fancy foiled invites printed and ready to go, but shock-horror, you forgot to budget for postage, and with a 200-strong guest list, the cost is really mounting up - throw in the save the dates, and you might just have to remortgage your house to get them all delivered! Ok, we’re exaggerating a bit, but postage isn’t cheap, and there’s nothing the post office likes more than a cheeky price hike, so make sure you budget accordingly and stay on top of any changes.
Of course, if you want to avoid paying postage altogether, a RSVP wedding website with digital invites is a great alternative - you can email your guests their invitations, then sit back and relax as you watch the digital RSVPs pour in!
Wedding Insurance
If there were a list of the least exciting things to spend your wedding budget on, wedding insurance would surely be right at the top, but if there’s one thing we learned from the pandemic, it’s that a good wedding insurance policy is an absolute must. Planning a wedding is a substantial financial commitment, maybe one of the biggest of your lives, so insuring your wedding is a no-brainer - after all, you wouldn’t book a holiday or drive a car without insurance!
Wedding insurance isn’t just about covering you in the event of a global pandemic (hopefully, we won’t see another one of those for a while) - it covers all kinds of things you might not have considered: wedding vendors or venues going bust, problems with your photos or videos, and even your drunk mates accidentally smashing a window with their flamboyant dance moves. Insuring your wedding is an easy way to reduce stress levels and give you peace of mind that the money you’ve invested in your big day is safe, no matter what happens.
Extra charges from your vendors
Things are rarely as straightforward as they seem, so whilst your vendors might have their prices online, don't take those at face value. You won't know the actual cost of a service until you've enquired with your photographer, videographer, or even band - don’t forget to double-check how much they charge for travel and accommodation (especially if you're having a destination wedding) and whether they expect a meal on the day.
Do I have to feed my wedding photographer?
This question has had a fair bit of air time on various Subreddits and Facebook groups. Still, the general consensus is that yes, it’s good practice to offer your photographer, videographer, and band a meal and refreshments on the wedding day. Many people baulk at this additional expense, but check with whoever is catering your big day, as more often than not, they will offer a simplified supplier meal at a lower price per head to keep catering costs down.
Wedding cake hidden costs
That beautiful tiered wedding cake you've been dreaming about might end up costing more than you'd bargained for once you've factored in delivery and setup charges - double check that your wedding cake designer has included all extra charges in their quote. It's also worth checking with your venue to see if they charge "cakeage" - yep, like corkage fees but for cutting and serving cake!
Extra equipment
Have a run through your wedding day in your head - what extra equipment might you need? Whether it's a dress steamer for the bridal party or a projector for the best man's speech - think about whether you need to hire anything extra. Most wedding venues will have an in-house sound system, but it’s always best to double-check - you don’t want to arrive on the day to find out you’re having a completely silent wedding! If you’re hiring a band or DJ for your wedding reception, they often bring their own PA, so it might be that you just need a good Bluetooth speaker for the ceremony and meal.
Guests' gifts and wedding favors
Whilst you've probably budgeted for wedding favors, many couples also like to give extra gifts to some of their VIPs: from flowers for their mothers to gifts for the bridal party and groomsmen; make sure you allow a realistic amount for these kinds of gifts as the cost can start to mount up!
Planning a wedding is notoriously expensive, and hidden costs have been the downfall of many carefully planned wedding budgets! However, we hope our list of hidden wedding costs has helped you to prepare for those sneaky extra charges and create a realistic budget for your dream wedding—all that remains is for you to switch into geek mode and get stuck into your spreadsheet. Happy budgeting!