The Biggest Reason your Average Chicago Wedding Budget is Blowing Up
Wedding planning in Chicago is incredibly stressful for so many reasons. The most prevalent and obvious reason is the cost that comes with planning a wedding and it generally is the main thing that drives a couples’ decisions.
While most couples come in with a budget, a good majority of them end up spending more than they expect. This unfortunately is the norm for many reasons - the venues and vendors need to keep up with inflation is a huge part of that. However, there are definitely other factors at play while wedding planning that will make your wedding budget go out the window. Here we will dive in and count down for the biggest reasons that wedding budgets generally blow up.
Reason No. 3
You haven’t set a budget before you started wedding planning
This problem isn’t the most common reason that couple’s go over their ideal wedding budget, but this definitely is a reason that might happen. Many couples just assume that they will track their spending along the way, but this is incredibly difficult to do because of the amount of money you spend on each vendor, and also that their costs are usually split into multiple payments. So it might seem fine to spend without really considering the totals, but once you get about a month before the wedding, all of the final payments are going to hit at once and this will hugely affect your wallet right at the end of wedding planning. You definitely need to start your wedding planning with your priorities and dreams, and then figure out how much you are actually planning on spending for your wedding day. If you are planning a wedding and haven’t put together a realistic wedding budget, here is a blog post that we have on how to create an accurate budget.
Reason No. 2
You haven’t looked at your budget since you made it
Along the same lines as the first mistake that couples make while budgeting for their wedding, couples will often set a number, do their research on vendors, and then throw their budget out the window when they realize how expensive things are going to be. It’s important to keep track of your spending when you can, because it’s easy to spend lots of money on your first key vendors and then be stuck without enough money for the last-minute vendors like your transportation or hair/makeup. After booking each vendor, you should evaluate how that affects your total budget and if you need to adjust your spending in other areas (or for other vendors) to make sure that you are as close to being on track as possible. If you need a tool for this, check out our free budget spreadsheet that you can make a copy of and edit with your own budget, adjust the percentages for each vendor to match your priorities, and plug in your actual spending to see your final cost for your wedding.
Tip No. 1
You don’t know how expensive your taste is
Most people that are planning a wedding are getting married for the first time, or getting married again years after their first time. This means that the market has changed or that you just don’t know what you don’t know. For most couples, they probably don’t have any background knowledge on what all goes into a wedding day, and what those things cost on average. If you’re looking for some accurate breakdowns of the cost, you can look at this blog post for the average costs of vendors from our couples in 2024. However, most couples will plan their wedding budget prior to actually researching their vendors, but usually after they have decided on what they want their day to look like. If you have a dream of a live band at your wedding, decadent, colorful florals all over the space, or even a wedding in the city of Chicago, you have a dream and a budget that hasn’t been checked alongside your priorities yet. Live bands in the Chicago area are easily about $9,000, florals typically start at a minimum of $3,000, and venues can be anywhere from $7,000-15,000 depending on the space and just for the space alone. It’s tough because most couples first start their search for their wedding planning on Pinterest, which has no price tags and shows the biggest and best of the best. It’s important to do some background research of the averages for vendors in your area, but keeping in mind that the average might have a huge swing depending on the style you’re looking for.
Wedding planning is difficult and keeping to a budget can be stressful, but knowing what you’re gearing up for is the best way to have a more accurate wedding budget.
There are so many factors to consider when putting together the wedding budget, but knowing that there’s a lot more to it than just picking a dollar amount that sounds comfortable will be key to making sure you aren’t stressing about your spending nearly as much.
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