You’ve picked out your color palette, found the perfect wedding invitations, decided on a tasty meal for the reception and selected the wedding gown of your dreams. But when it comes to footing the bill, who pays for what? There are a few ways to go about financing a wedding, but the traditional wedding-budget breakdown goes a little something like this:
Rehearsal dinner
The rehearsal dinner is traditionally taken care of by the groom and his family. This means they also have to organize the event, which can range from an intimate dinner party at someone’s home to a big group event in the ballroom of a hotel.
Ceremony
Ceremony costs are often split. The bride’s family takes care of the venue, while the other spouse’s loved ones foot the bill for the marriage license and the officiant. As for the rings that you’ll be slipping on each other’s finger, it can depend. Some brides pays for it themselves, while other brides have their family help. The same goes for the groom’s bling – either the groom or his family pays.
Stationery
There’s a lot of stationery for you to pick out for your big day including, save the dates, wedding invitations, reception and response cards, wedding programs, menus and place cards. Traditionally, the bride and her family take care of all these paper products.
Transportation
How are you and your other half planning on getting to the ceremony and reception? Whether it’s a limousine, a vintage car or a horse and carriage, the bride and her family are responsible for taking care of the bill. They also pay for the transportation of the bridal party.
Reception
There are a lot of expenses that fit in with the reception. The bride and her family are the one’s who traditionally pay for this part of the big day – including the food, wedding decorations, bar and the DJ or live band.
Flowers
The flowers are often split between the bride and groom’s families. The bride and her loved ones take care of the arrangements for the ceremony and reception, including the bouquets for the bridesmaids, while the groom and his family buy the bride’s bouquet, corsages for the mothers and grandmothers and finally, the boutonnieres for the groomsmen.
Keep in mind, these are only the traditional breakdowns for your wedding. If you and your future spouse would like to pay for the wedding yourselves, go for it! Or maybe you would like to split the whole event down the middle between the bride and groom’s family. Whichever works best for you and your future spouse is the direction in which you should go.
Will you be following the traditional breakdown of wedding costs or are you opting for a different solution? Share your thoughts with us!
