The Average Wedding Cost and Budget you’ll need for a Wedding in Chicago

As you probably know by now, weddings in Chicago are much more expensive than other places. The city has a higher cost of living in general, and that definitely translates over to the budget for your wedding if you’re planning on getting married in Chicago too. We usually do about 60% of our weddings in Chicago and we know it definitely is an expensive area - even the weddings in the suburbs tend to cost more than other states do. We have gathered data on all of the weddings we have done in 2024 inside and outside of Chicago to find out the average budget you would need for your Chicago or Chicago area wedding for each vendor, and we would love to share the numbers with you so that you are best prepared for budgeting for your wedding!

Google claims currently that the average wedding budget is about $56,000, which we can see if it is pretty accurate here to what we see with our couples. Last year in 2023, our couples had an average of $53,944 for their total budget as far as we could track, so we will definitely anticipate a jump from that! This blog is definitely going to have a lot of meat in it, so make sure to bookmark this page while you’re wedding planning so you can come back to the averages while you’re looking for each vendor.

Average Guest Count: 137

It’s important to consider the average guest count of the weddings we are tracking. Google says the average Chicago wedding is about 120 people which is pretty close to what we are seeing too - and remember, this will include everyone on every end of the spectrum from 50 guests to 300.

Ceremony Venue: $2,003

This number is almost twice as much as it was the previous year, which is definitely surprising. This is also a number that is created only when couples have a ceremony venue that is separate from the reception venue or when we saw a ceremony charge as a separate line item at a venue. Many churches are between $700-1,500, whereas those reception spaces that have ceremony charges are more like $2,000-3,000 that are usually baked into your full cost of the venue.

Reception Venue: $8,925

Reception spaces have drastically different pricing structures, so some of these numbers were from places that were exclusively the reception space, places that require a $20,000 minimum for the food and beverage that didn’t have a line item for the reception, and everything in between. We always tell our couples that are looking for hotels/banquets to expect the catering/venue cost to be lumped together, but spaces that are separate from the catering to be more like $10,000 in Chicago.

Photo: $3,849

Photography has lots of variance with how companies structure their business, and it really shows in their pricing. Photographers that are single-owned tend to cost more because of the service they provide because you generally know exactly who you’re working with. We did include any pricing that was set with second shooters and the amount of hours for both photo and video because we wanted to keep it as realistic as possible to what our couples usually opt for; however, we didn’t include any engagement sessions or add-ons besides those because we figured that was a variable that some couples don’t take advantage of, so if you do plan on having photo albums or engagement sessions you’ll likely be higher than this average.

Video: $2,778

Some of our numbers here are split from photo/video-joint packages, but we do feel that this is pretty accurate outside of companies that offer both photo and video.

Coordination: $2,205

This is our average from the start of the year to the end of the year, with our current pricing being $2,450. We of course know that there are coordinators out there that cost less and more than this, but this is definitely a healthy budget to dedicate to booking a professional service that will really be the most beneficial in creating a stress-free planning journey and wedding day.

Hair/Makeup: $605

We lumped both hair and makeup together because we tend to see companies that offer both hair and makeup, but we know that if you booked these separately it’s likely going to cost more than this average too. This year we also added in the trials that we saw because that still is an expense that you have to consider and that most couples to end up doing too. This isn’t considering though the costs for your wedding party or other members that are getting their hair and makeup done.

Florist: $5,623

Florals definitely have a huge variance in the highs and lows, so this average really is pulling from all kinds of weddings and budgets. We have seen that this average is pretty solid for a more “standard” amount of things (like bouquets, boutonnieres, and centerpieces that focus more on greenery and candles than large florals), but if you want to add more variety, items, or general life to the party, this might need to go higher than you would expect. Florals definitely are one of the most shocking prices to our couples because it’s really hard to understand the labor involved, so you’ll likely need to devote much more to this category than you think!

Ceremony Musicians: $1,023

Ceremony musicians like pianists or cellists are definitely becoming bigger this year! This cost is actually twice as much as we averaged last year and we know that that range is here to stay.

DJ: $2,345

The DJs of this year definitely had the least amount of variance in the highs and lows - this average is really close to the lowest and the highest DJs that we have seen for the year! DJ prices don’t generally change much from your guest count unless you are having weddings with 200+ people, which makes sense they are all pretty comparable for the cost.

Band: $6,040

Bands that we have worked with generally are groups that hire out their musicians on an “as needed” basis, which means that they don’t cost as much as other bands that have the same group of musicians every time. If you are seeing bands that are upwards of $10,000 or $15,000, this is actually pretty normal for this category too.

Catering: $19,938

Catering has a HUGE variance depending on the guest count, the style of food service, and if alcohol is included. Catering can be as low as $7,500 and as high as $50,000 depending on the venue’s rules for what kind of catering is required or allowed. We really have seen it all for this though!

Dessert: $690

The dessert category is tricky because many venues that have their own caterers have their own in-house bakeries that we don’t have much contact with, and there are also caterers that offer this themselves too. This average is usually for cakes or outside desserts that we had seen the contracts for.

Alcohol: $5,053

Sometimes alcohol or the mixer packages are included with catering, so this number definitely has some of the most variables. Venues that have in-house alcohol packages tend to drive up the costs to closer to $10,000 sometimes, but if it was listed as its own line item that we could see, we took those costs out of the catering or venue category to know generally what you might expect as a total average.

Transportation: $1,584

Transportation for your wedding party or your guests seems to still be a popular route for couples and we definitely recommend it in the city. We usually recommend a trolley or a bus for you and your wedding party at the least, so that is a good majority of where this number comes from!

Hotel: $378 per night

There are plenty of factors with the hotel you’re planning on staying - are you getting a suite upgrade? Are you planning a multiple-night stay? Are you splitting the cost with any wedding party members? Those things aren’t really included in this cost - this is more to know what it costs for an average king’s bed or suite that we saw our couples book.

Officiant: $893

Many of our couples don’t actually hire officiants and instead have a family member or close friend officiate their wedding. In that case, this category is free because it doesn’t cost any additional money! However, for the folks that hired an officiant, we averaged out those costs to know the estimate of what to expect to spend.

Extra Vendors: $1,552

There are plenty of different vendors that we haven’t listed here that couples add onto their wedding day. We specifically found that we had photo booths, live wedding painters, mariachis, coffee/espresso carts, valet, or extra rentals like draping, furniture, or dance floors in this category. Most of these extra vendors are meant to enhance yours and the guest experience and are more of add-ons, which is why we lumped this together. This also doesn’t include additional necessities like liability insurance that many venues require, which would likely be an additional few hundred dollars on top of this.

Total Budget: $61,292

We do typically tell our couples that it’s expected to be about $40-55K for weddings in the Chicago suburbs and more like $60-75K for weddings in Chicago specifically, so this does sound pretty accurate to us! Of course, there will always be drastically different ends of the spectrum from couples that elope to couples that have million dollar weddings. We know that it’s important to know what to expect when wedding planning so that you can allot your money and time effectively into your wedding day planning! We didn’t include some other important costs, like wedding bands, gratuities, or wedding attire that would likely need to be factored into your wedding budget.

If you’re overwhelmed and need some help making sure your wedding is stress-free and you can enjoy yourselves without thinking about all of the logistics, feel free to reach out to us on our contact page. We would love to take all of the worry off your hands thinking about whether or not your money will be well-spent so you can focus on having fun celebrating your love with your family and friends.