Planning a wedding is super exciting, but let's be honest, the costs can add up quickly! If you're wondering how to manage your money without stressing out, this is a must-read. Setting a clear wedding budget from the start is one of the smartest things you can do. It helps you stay organised, avoid surprises, and ensures you can enjoy your big day without a financial hangover.

I’ve pulled together insights and statistics from top wedding resources, alongside my own experiences getting married, to give you a comprehensive, actionable guide.

The First Step: Know Your Total Wedding Spend

Before you get lost in Pinterest boards and venue tours, the very first thing you need to do is figure out your total budget. This means sitting down with your partner (and anyone else contributing financially) to have an honest and open chat about what you're comfortable spending.

According to Hitched's 2025 data, the average UK wedding cost is £23,250. This isn’t to say this should be your goal, a big budget doesn’t automatically equal a great wedding. These figures are just to give you an idea of what other people are spending, so you can prepare yourself.

Your budget should reflect what you can and want to spend, whilst it can easily get expensive, there is a huge window to work within and ways to keep your costs down. This number will be heavily influenced by how many guests you invite, so this is also a good time to start working on your invite list. When you look at venues they will ask what your estimated numbers as not only to check the venue works for your number, but also to give you an accurate quote for their packages. Remember that evening guests are considerably cheaper than full day guests as they wouldn’t usually be getting the main meal.

How to Break Down Your Wedding Budget (Percentage Guide)

Once you have your total figure, the next step is to allocate that money across different categories. This is where a percentage breakdown comes in handy. It helps you see where your money will go and allows you to know what you are aiming to spend in each area.

The Big Spenders: Venue & Catering (40-50%)

Creeksea Place Wedding Venue Outdoor Ceremony

This is usually the largest chunk of your budget. 40-50% (£9300–£11,625 for an average £23,250 wedding) for venue hire and catering. This price does often come with more than just the base location hire and food. Venue packages can include welcome drinks, canapés, cake stands, basic decorations, all sorts of extras. So it’s important to think about the individual costs of those aspects, and what you are passionate about having or not having on your day.

For my own wedding, the venue we had allowed us to remove the toasting champagne and canapés from our package, saving us well over £1200, of which we paid a few hundred towards a beautiful cheese board to replace the canapés. This made a significant difference to our budget, which we could put towards other things we felt were more important. When talking with a venue, it’s important to ask questions to find out everything you can early on, so nothing comes up as a surprise later-on.

Capturing Memories: Photography & Videography (10-15%)

You'll want to remember your day forever! After the venue and food, this is one of the most important categories for you to get booked. After your wedding day, it’s one of the very few things you are left with, good photo and video can help transport you back to the wonderful memories you’ll create that day. Read more about that here.

This is usually the next biggest slice of your budget, often around 10-15% (£2325–£3487 for an average wedding). On average, a good experienced photographer or videographer alone costs at least £1,500. Often you will find package deals with companies or individuals who have teamed up, and can offer a discounted rate for both photo and video together. This can be a good idea as not only is it less hassle for you to find and book multiple different people, but you can be confident that they will work well together on the day. It’s also important to make sure you’re choosing a package that gives you exactly what you want from the day. Think about the style of photos you love, if you want to be able to watch back all of the speeches in full, if you want a drone to show off your beautiful venue. For more information about Photography and Video packages, check out this blog post here.

Looking Your Best: Attire (8-12%)

Your wedding outfits are a key part of the day. Based on your plans, this could be just for both of your outfits, or it could also include some or all of the suits/ dresses for the grooms men or bridesmaids.

For my own wedding, my grooms men bought their own suits that we went shopping for together, but I bought one of the items of clothing for them. My wife did the same with her bridesmaids. There is no right or wrong way of doing this, it just has to work for you and the people you have in your wedding. You should also consider the potential for alterations to your clothing. A lot of shops will include free alterations in their prices, but if you buy online, it might be down to you to find a tailor or seamstress to make your outfit fit perfectly at an extra cost.

This category also includes any hair and/ or make-up artists you have in the morning to help with your prep. This element is very adaptable to your preferences, and if you do have make-up, it’s important to do a trial with them, so you can be confident that they understand your personal preferences.

8-12% of your budget (£1860–£2790 for an average wedding) is what you’ll expect to be paying. The biggest expense is usually the wedding dress, which averages around £1500. This is one of the items you may end up spending more money on than you had originally assumed going in, but sometimes the perfect dress can’t be denied, and will make you feel as good you deserve to.

Setting the Scene: Flowers & Décor (7-10%)

From bouquets, to buttonholes, to table settings, these details can add atmosphere to a venue, a beautiful finishing touch to an outfit and act as a personal touch to help make your wedding feel unique to your tastes.

This will be around 7-10% of your budget (£1,627–£2325 for an average wedding), with basic flowers costing around £800 on average. It can be hard to think of all the little details you want to really make the venue look complete, luckily a lot of florists offer package deals that include a lot of extra details that are worth considering. Like general venue decor, centrepieces on reception tables, aisle flowers, buttonholes, hairpieces etc. So it’s worth asking about all those, to get the kind of accurate quotes you’re after.

Keeping the Party Going: Entertainment (5-10%)

Music is essential for a memorable celebration! The evening party is where you and your guests can let loose and really get into the chaos of a wedding party mindset! The main comparisons are usually between DJ, live band or a little mix of both. It’s become more common in recent years for DJ’s to do packages with individual musicians, like a saxophonist or singer, to accompany them for some performances in the evening. A performer is also something to consider for your ceremony aisle walk and for the reception/ canapé time. The most common choices of performer are singer, violin, harp and piano.

You could also consider alternative guest entertainment during the day, like a magician, or a photobooth in the evening. In total, this would work out to be around 5-10% of your budget (£1,162–£2325 for an average wedding), with a basic DJ package expected to be around £400-£700.

The Paper Trail & Little Touches: Stationery & Favours (2-4%)

All the small details that can make a big difference. These aren’t the sort of things that will make or break your day from your perspective, but it’s often the little touches that make the whole event come together nicely. A lovely personal touch for decoration can be using old photos of both of you with your friends and family, leading up to current day couple photos.

This category can average out at around 2-4% (£465-£930 for an average wedding). And the things to consider here are custom decorations, save-the-dates, invites, menus, name cards, table plan, order of the day, card box, guest book etc.

If you’re feeling particularly crafty and have access to a decent printer, you might be able to do quite a few of these things yourself. You could also take advantage of the great wedding stationary designers on Etsy to do the hard bits for you, purchasing their PDF designs for all the items you need, then print their designs with your custom details added in.

It can be tricky to think of favours to gift your guests. It’s mostly thought of as a kind gesture to have something for your guests to take home, but that can vary hugely from simple snacks up to more indepth ideas. Get some ideas for your favours from Hitched.

Making it Official: Ceremony (3-7%)

The legal bits and rings, very important to remember, as this is the whole reason you’re doing any of this!

This includes registrar fees, the marriage licence and your wedding rings. On average this should be 3% (£698-£1,627 for an average wedding).

This price really depends on what county you’re ceremony is in and how expensive your dream rings are, it’s worth doing a bit of ring-searching to see the kind of prices the rings that you like are coming to.

If you’re on a tight budget, Etsy or alternative style independent jewellery websites can offer you a different option for lower prices. If ordering online, I would highly advise going into a jewellery store first so they can measure your finger for you. This way you can make sure you are getting the right size ring, wherever you shop.

Sweet Treat: Cake (3%)

Wedding Cake with a Pink Rose Flower Decoration

A nice excuse for a photo of you both cutting it on the day, something to share with the guests, but mostly something you’ll take home with you afterwards, eating a little bit too much of for the weeks after the wedding! Or maybe you’ll be able to resist a little and freeze a slice!

If you know a particularly good baker in the family, you could always save money by asking them kindly to make your cake, but know that the stress of making something that important and transporting it to the venue, keeping it in fresh and in good condition, is no mean feat!

Something else to consider that has become common practise is to have a normal-sized, nicely designed wedding cake for cutting, then purchase a good quality supermarket cake for the venue to cut up and serve for your guests. It saves money not having a baker making a huge 3 tier cake for 100 people, and you can get the best of both worlds. You could also get cupcakes instead of serving up cake to guests, this bite-size option usually goes down well with guests, and it can be nice to offer multiple flavours.

This element usually works out to around 3% (£698 for an average wedding).

Getting Around: Transport (2%)

If you aren’t staying at the venue and need to get to your accommodation after the party, or if you need to get from your morning prep location to the ceremony, you’ll need to plan some transport.

Often a local taxi service in the evening works well, but you may want to splash a little on a fancy wedding car for your grand entrance.

If you do, make sure you request that the driver arrives to your prep location early so you can get some photos and video with the car. You should expect to pay around 2% (£465 for an average wedding) on this, but it’s also something that you might not need to consider depending on your location set-up.

The Buffer: Miscellaneous & Contingency (5%)

Always, always have a buffer! I recommend giving yourself up to a 5% (£1,162 for an average wedding) buffer for last-minute costs or unforeseen extras. I think this is important because, even if you feel as though you’ve gone super in depth with all your research and thought of every possible cost, there are always things you miss or just don’t even know about. And if you want to stick to your budget, it’s important to give yourself a little leeway.

This is also the section to include admin bits such as the all important wedding insurance. You may want to use some of this budget to go towards any stag or hen do’s, and if you (by some miracle) have any money leftover in your budget, you could also put that towards starting your honeymoon fund as well.

Optional Add-on: Wedding Planner

When you’re looking at wedding venues, they almost always include someone in their packages that help plan and put together your wedding day with you. But sometimes you might find one that is just a venue for you to use, and you have to organise to do everything yourself.

In this scenario, it might be worth considering a wedding planner. Not only will they be able to co-ordinate the planning and prep of all the vendors, they will be present on the day to make sure everything runs smoothly and you never have to worry about anything. This can be up to 10% (£2325 for an average wedding) for a full-on planner and organiser.

Making Your Budget Work: Tips for Success

1. Prioritise What Matters Most to You

Every couple is different! Before you start allocating percentages, decide on your top three priorities. Is it amazing food, stunning photography, or a killer party? Whilst cost is always a major factor in deciding these things, couples often prioritise guests having a good time, personalisation, and food/drink on the day. But it’s important to remember that you, as a couple, are just as important as your guests! You need to make decisions that, first and foremost, make you both happy. If an incredible cinematic video is your dream, you might spend more there and cut back elsewhere.

2. Get a Spreadsheet and Track Everything

This isn't just a suggestion, it's a must-do! A detailed spreadsheet helps you track every decision and vendor for your wedding. You can manage everything from expenses, payments, orders, RSVP’s, meal choices and dietary requirements. Put in every quote, every deposit paid, and every final invoice. This prevents costs from spiralling out of control and helps you make sure you’re on track and aren’t forgetting anything.

3. Review and Adjust Regularly

Your budget isn't set in stone. As you get quotes and make bookings, you'll need to review and adjust regularly. If the flowers of your dreams come in more expensive than expected, you might need to find savings in another area, or adjust your overall budget. It is extremely common for couples to increase their budget at least once during planning, due to economic impact or unexpected costs. All you can do is try your best to make smart decisions and support each other through the process.

4. Smart Ways to Save Money

Worried about blowing the budget? Here are some top tips from experts:

Book Off-Peak: By choosing a weekday or late Autumn/ winter wedding date you can get significant savings on venue hire and even on some suppliers.
Trim Your Guest List: Each day guest can cost you upwards of £250. A smaller guest list is the most substantial way to cut costs, or even just changing some day guests onto the evening list.
Simplify Catering: There’s always the option of skipping a course from the main meal, opting for sharing platters, or even booking a food truck instead of a formal sit-down meal. A posh meal isn’t always the right fit, especially if it doesn’t match your overall vibe as a couple.
Go Digital for Stationery: Save by sending digital PDF save-the-dates and invites. You could also direct guests to a wedding website to save on printing and postage.
Repurpose Flowers: Use your ceremony flowers or wedding party bouquets as centrepieces at the reception, and if you’re feeling particularly creative, maybe go for a smaller package from the florist for the important parts, and put together the rest of the flowers on your own for the smaller pieces. Dried flowers work nicely and allow you time for weeks before the wedding to create your pieces.
Borrow Accessories: Your 'something borrowed' can also be a money-saver! It could be decorations, candle sticks, log slices, lighting, anything!
Honeymoon Fund: Ask for contributions to your honeymoon instead of physical gifts. This is something I did for our wedding, through setting up a QR code that went to a paypal page. You can read here about how I did that, and for getting your guests phone photos sent to you as well.
One Venue for All: Keeping your ceremony and reception at the same venue can often save on any extra hire and transport costs.

TLDR: Your Mini Budget Breakdown

Set Your Total Spend: Know your absolute maximum budget before anything else.
Prioritise: Decide what aspects are most important to you as a couple.
Allocate by Percentage: Use a percentage breakdown to guide your spending for each category.
Track Everything: Keep a detailed spreadsheet for all quotes, payments, and due dates.
Review & Adjust: Regularly check your budget and make changes as needed.
Look for Savings: Be smart about where you can cut costs without compromising your vision.

Final Thoughts

Organising your wedding budget doesn't have to be a chore. By following these steps you'll feel much more in control of your planning and spending. Remember, it's about making smart choices that reflect your values as a couple, to help create the most incredible day possible. Happy planning!

Video and Photo Packages

How To Plan Your Wedding Budget: A Cost Breakdown