How to Set a Wedding Budget or Handfasting Budget

Well, first of all your budget will depend on what you can afford. The real question is how to allocate slices of this budget to the items and suppliers you need or want.

Where to start with setting your wedding budget and handfasting budget?

You might think a good starting point to find out what things cost are the big, trusted blogs and wedding websites. Before you head over there, there’s something you need to know about different ways of calculating and the cost of services and items.

Recently, one big blog caused quite some confusion by speaking of average spent instead of average cost. And last week, another one calculated average spent, but described it as average cost.*NadinaTearingHerHairOut* So what’s the difference?

Wedding Average Cost vs Wedding Average Spent

The average cost is calculated using the average that couples, who used a particular service, spent on it. 

The average spent is calculated using the average of what all couples participating in a survey spent, regardless of whether they used a service or not. 

Here’s an example:

10 couples got married. 5 of them used service X at the following prices

Couple 1: £200

Couple 2: £200

Couple 3: £400

Couple 4: £400

Couple 5: £300

Couples 6 to 10: didn’t buy service X, hence they spent £0

Average COST calculation:

200+200+400+400+300=1500

1500/5=300

Service X cost on average: £300

(Add up the prices that couples spent and divide it by the number of these couples who used this service only.)

Average SPENT calculation

200+200+400+400+300+0+0+0+0+0=1500

1500/10=150

All our couples spent on average £150 on service X

(Add up the prices that all the couples spent and divide it by the number of couples participating in the survey, regardless of whether they uses a service or not.)

In this simple example it means that average spent is half of average cost.

This is not only confusing, but actually unhelpful when you’re trying to decide on a wedding budget or handfasting budget.

As you can see, if you’re trying to budget based on average spent, you might not even budget enough to be able to afford a service or item from the cheapest supplier.

So for budgeting, make sure the blog you’re looking at has calculated average cost.

The average spent is only interesting to wedding suppliers. And even for us its usefulness is very limited.

How do you know how a blog has calculated the average prices?

The blog or website should be clear how they came to their final figures. In case they do not explain how their averages are calculated, go to their social media accounts and check out the post where they shared this blog post or infographic.
If the average prices stated are unrealistic, there will be plenty of suppliers commenting to point this out.

Why do suppliers point this out? Because we the ones hearing the heartbreak from our couples every time someone finds out they cannot afford their dream wedding after all because their wedding budget was based on misleading figures.  

Prioritising your wedding budget allocation

Before you start allocating cash, make a list of priorities. Which items and services are most important to you. Allocate a wedding budget for these items first!

Once you have a rough idea of what you want to spend, look at suppliers you like, and get quotes from them. 

Getting quotes is the only real way of getting an idea of pricing in your area.

What to do when the wedding budget figures don’t add up?

Don’t worry, if you find that the figure you allocated for a service or item needs changing. You will be moving budget back-and-forth between items until everything is booked. This is perfectly normal as long as you mange to stick to your total budget.

When I started budgeting for my own wedding, I had an allocation for the photographer, and I had no budget for hair and make up at all.

The photographer we wanted was 30% over our budget. Our photos were too important to us to compromise, so we chiselled away on the allocations for the least important things. And my make-up budged was found when the flowers came in cheaper than expected.

This process of budget reallocation is entirely normal.
However, in order to make sure you stay within your overall budget, it’s important to do the exercise of budgeting and putting figures on paper. Just so you see what is realistic.

It might sound geeky, but I highly recommend an Excel spreadsheet or (for those who don’t get on with Excel) a wedding dedicated notebook.

Do you have to spend a 10% of your wedding budget on the photographer?

Should you allocate your budget using “usual percentages of total budget”? This approach can be used as a starting point and when you have no idea at all yet. However, in my experience it is less precise than using averages of actual cost in your area.

For example: for a bigger wedding with lots of guests, you will need to spend a larger percentage of your wedding budget on catering than for a small one. All the while my hourly rate for example, remains the same regardless of what size your wedding party or indeed your budget is.
The same applies to other services like dress, make-up, musicians, bridal bouquet…

How much does wedding photography cost in the UK or the EU ?

If you would like to find out how much my photography coverage for your day would cost, please fill in the contact form and I will get back to you.

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Bright blessings,

Handfasting & Alternative Wedding Photographer UK & EU