How much money do you need for a wedding: how to correctly calculate a wedding budget

List of 10 main wedding expenses with prices

When calculating the required amount for organizing a wedding, you should take into account the costs of the main items in the wedding estimate (all prices are indicated in rubles):

Image of the bride and groom. This includes:

• dress of the main hero of the occasion; if you save, it will cost about 12,000;
• festive shoes, men's - from 3100, women's from 1200;
• veil/its alternative (900–1500);
• handbag – 1500–2000;
• underwear – 1500–1900;
• makeup from 1300;
• manicure (1100-1700);
• women's hairstyle - from 1200 and above, men's from 900;
• wedding bouquet – minimum 1000;
• a fur coat or cape for winter, a hat and gloves, the purchase of which will cost approximately 7,000;
• suit for the groom (from 10,000);
• men's shirt (1200–1800);
• tie (from 900) and boutonniere (400 and above)
• boutonniere -300.

Wedding banquet. This includes renting a hall, which is not available in many restaurants, a menu tailored to the number of guests, drinks, a wedding cake, room decoration, photo zone design, and the services of a florist decorator.

Each guest costs approximately 1,100 rubles + additional payment for alcoholic drinks per person is 250–350 rubles.

For example, if the number of invitees is 30 people, the minimum price for all this starts from 27,000.

Wedding procession. This expense item consists of car rental for the newlyweds (a car, between elite and modest, costs from 900 per hour), a bus for guests (1,100 rubles for every 60 minutes for at least 4 hours) and wedding transport arrangements. The latter requires at least 1000. As a result, you need to spend 3000 or more on a wedding procession.

Leading. It makes sense to include his services in the wedding budget when more than 20 people are planned to be invited to the banquet. On average, his work, consisting of hosting a feast and a competitive program, will cost from 15,000 for 5 hours.

Entertainment. These include performances by singers, actors, dancers, clowns, magicians, jugglers and animal trainers. You can order live music. If there are children at the wedding, then you must also include the cost of an animator (he charges approximately 1,500 per hour). It is worth allocating at least 15,000 for this expense item.

Photo and video shooting. To perpetuate a significant event, it is necessary to leave approximately 8,000. Here everything depends on the professionalism of the specialist, on how many hours he will work at the wedding, and on the equipment he uses.

Dance of the newlyweds. A one-time lesson with a choreographer costs at least 2000; when purchasing a subscription for 1 month, a discount of up to 1200–1400 is possible. To stage something professionally, you need to visit the dance hall at least 3 times. So, it will cost about 6000.

Necessary little things. Cushions for wedding rings, a hotel room, champagne glasses, bottle decorations, a wedding towel for the registry office, a loaf of bread, invitations and prizes for guests. To do this, it is enough to allocate 2000–3000.

Wedding rings. To purchase them you will need about 7,000 in the case of gold and 4,000 when purchasing silver.

Wedding planner . If you don’t have the desire to do all this or simply don’t have time, then a wedding planner or agency will help:

• distribute the budget correctly;
• will select a team, starting from a stylist and ending with a pastry chef;
• organizes entertainment;
• resolves the issue of renting premises;
• will help with the image of the bride and groom;
• wedding day coordination;
• resolution of all force majeure issues, etc.

The list of expenses ends with accommodation for out-of-town guests, a room for newlyweds and a honeymoon. Everything here is individual, as it depends on the number of non-local invitees.

This list will help you roughly estimate how much money you need. Of course, the exact figure depends on many factors: your city, time of year, etc.

Banquet

40-50% of the wedding budget is spent on the banquet. This includes:

• rent;
• menu;
• decoration of the hall.

The cost of each of these items depends on the number of guests. If the wedding takes place in Moscow, the average price for the menu per person is 4000-5000 thousand rubles. This price does not include alcoholic drinks. For them you will have to pay about another 1000-1500 rubles per person.

How to calculate a budget for a wedding taking into account the number of guests

First of all, when planning your wedding expenses, you should consider how many people will be invited to it. This affects the cost of the banquet and transport rental. Having decided on this point, the minimum amount of the menu for one person in the selected restaurant must be multiplied by the number of guests.

The cost of alcohol must be added to this amount. The volume of alcohol for a banquet is calculated based on the gender of the guest: usually about 1.1 liters per man, 750 ml per woman.

For 1 man:

1. 0.3 liters of strong alcoholic drinks - cognac, vodka, etc.;
2. wine – 0.5 l;
3. champagne – 0.3 l.

For 1 woman:

1. 150 ml of strong alcohol;
2. 400 ml wine;
3. 200 ml champagne.

The resulting numbers are multiplied by the number of men and women invited (children do not count). This way you will find out how much it will cost to organize a feast.

The same applies to determining the cost of renting a vehicle. In order not to overpay, the bus is hired based on the number of guests.

If children will also be present at the holiday, then you should definitely include in the budget the costs of animators and clowns who will not let them get bored.

You should also think about vegetarians, for whom you need to create a completely different menu.

Expenses for everything else are purely individual, and when calculating them, it is better to proceed from the total volume of the wedding budget.

A feast for the whole world: how much Russians spend on a wedding

Experts have calculated how much the rings, banquet and limousine will cost

Photo: Evgenia GUSEVA

On the occasion of the Day of Love, Family and Fidelity, which is celebrated in Russia on July 8, several studies have been published on wedding expenses. Judging by these data, Russians are not used to skimping on celebrations.

Even the most modest wedding with a minimum of guests will cost about 72 thousand rubles. And this does not take into account the services of a photographer or, say, a honeymoon. While the average salary in the country is a little more than 43 thousand rubles. Of course, there are regions where prices and wages are significantly higher, and there are others where they are lower. But we can talk about a general trend. If you want the holiday to be no worse than your friends’, tighten your belts and save up.

Such statistics, as a rule, do not include exceptional celebrations that could greatly raise the “average temperature in the hospital.” We are talking about parties that end up on the pages of glossy magazines, and which are talked about with poorly concealed irritation and envy.

Last year, such a wedding was, for example, the marriage of the niece of businessman Umar Dzhabrailov (he sat on the Federation Council from Chechnya for five years, and in August 2021 he got into a scandal when he fired a pistol in a Moscow hotel).

22-year-old Aina and 26-year-old oil business heir Khaidar Sheripov walked in a luxurious banquet hall for 600 people at the Moscow restaurant Safisa. According to rumors and estimates from outside experts, almost eight million rubles were paid for the rental of premises and the banquet. And this is without alcohol: the rules of Islam are strict and do not make concessions for holidays.

Another million - and this is the minimum - cost the services of the florists who decorated the hall. But the biggest expense item is said to be the bride's dresses. For several outfits that Aina changed during the evening, the groom's parents (according to Chechen traditions, they paid for the entire celebration) paid about 30 million rubles.

Against this background, 600 thousand, which, according to experts, were spent on the musical accompaniment of the evening - the Chechen ensemble Ansar and the Georgian singer Dato - seem like mere pennies.

Total - about 40 million rubles. The price of several decent apartments in Moscow.

There is another side to the issue. Experts say that a wedding loan is one of the most popular consumer loans. True, such loans do not have separate accounting, like for mortgages, so it is impossible to calculate how many Russians arranged a holiday in debt. Moreover, it is not clear how much they borrow from friends and parents.

Only some banks offer loans for weddings as a separate service. As a rule, you have to borrow at 12-25 percent per annum. That is, at a rate of 20 percent, for a 250 thousand loan you will have to overpay 85 in three years. The newlyweds can only hope that most of the loan will be covered by money from gift envelopes.

Russians are not used to skimping on celebrations

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Did you spend a lot?

Alexey KORTNEV, leader of the group “Accident”:

— I had two weddings. We celebrated with Irina Bogushevskaya in the fashionable restaurant “Budapest”. It was '88. We were young. Our parents paid for us. I don't even know the amount. But they invited 60 people. And already with Amina Zaripova they paid themselves. But we are wealthy people - she is in gymnastics, I am in music and cinema. Don't hesitate to spend. The main feature of the wedding was that there was no toastmaster. There were 6-7 professional presenters at the wedding. The competitions would just make everyone sick.

Ilya BARSOV, businessman:

— Almost four million rubles. The wife took care of the expenses. It was her holiday. We rented Soviet cars from the 80s. We arrived at the restaurant with them. I remember the huge cake. When I saw the price tag, I was a little stunned. The number of zeros was surprising.

Vladimir VINOKUR, artist:

— Well, the car cost 5 thousand rubles then. The wedding cost 2.5 thousand. It was '74. Parents helped. I bought the suit myself. The wife took her wedding dress from the theater. From my performance. All the artists came. They gave us what we needed—money.

Did you spend a lot?

Photo: Ekaterina MARTINOVICH

Iosif PRIGOGIN, producer:

— At the wedding with Valeria, money was not counted. Partially I paid, partially my friends. Many agencies themselves offered their services to advertise themselves. We had an amazing presenter - Garik Martirosyan. All the stars came: Gazmanov, Mityaev, Malikov and others. It was forbidden to shout “Bitter!”

Igor, reader of the KP.RU website:

- With today's money, 20 - 25 thousand rubles. We got married in 1991. We walked at our parents' house. There was no money for restaurants and cafes. They called all the relatives and set up benches. We celebrated for two days. Best memories.

Olga, listener of Radio “Komsomolskaya Pravda” (97.2 FM):

— About a million rubles. I called all my friends. I ordered a beautiful dress. And during the day I was bitten on the lip by a bee. What happened! Nothing can be moved, nothing can be cancelled. I had to hide behind a veil.

Helpers for calculating a wedding budget

Manually calculating how much and what to spend on when organizing a wedding is not only inconvenient, it takes a lot of time. To facilitate this task, many special services, sites and applications have already been invented. For convenience, the latter can even be installed on phones and you can coordinate the estimate with your loved one right on the go.

List of the best wedding calculators:

1. www.svadba-online.ru;
2. www.weddings.in.ua;
3. www.kamsvadba.ru;
4. www.svadba-inform.ru;
5. www.wedhub.ru.

Wedding calculators already include all existing services for the bride and groom; you just need to choose the appropriate options and an acceptable price from them. As a result, the service will calculate the final cost and display it on the screen below. To help future newlyweds, there are also special applications through which you can not only plan a budget, but also strictly control all expenses.

Among the applications for smartphones, Mr & Mrs, developed specifically for the iPhone, is relevant, which can be downloaded here: www.mr-and-mrs.ru.

The “Our Wedding” application, created by the owners of the Art Gloria photo workshop, will be no less useful. You can view it here: www.itunes.apple.com. A great alternative to this option is Wedding Expert, which you can download by following this link.

The thematic service www.unassvadba.ru, as well as several non-thematic ones: www.zenmoney.ru, www.easyfinance.ru and www.drebedengi.ru will also be irreplaceable. They are suitable for both smartphones and computers, so you can manage your wedding budget on the go.

How to distribute money correctly

As a percentage, the distribution of the average wedding budget looks like this:

• banquet - feast and hall rental (41%);
• motorcade – 7%;
• wedding ceremony – 3%;
• video and photography – 11%;
• decoration – 9%;
• show program - 12%;
• technical support – 5%;
• clothing and accessories (candlesticks, cushions for rings, icons, towels, etc.) – 12%.

The indicated percentages do not include additional, unforeseen expenses, which may account for up to 10–20% of the total budget.

List of unforeseen expenses and the amount required for them (in rubles):

• ironing a wedding dress (500);
• cleaning the area after a banquet when it is held outdoors (600);
• delivery of a wedding bouquet and cake to the venue (200–300);
• evasion of the motorcade from a pre-agreed route with the company that owns the transport (from 300 to 1000);
• delay of musicians - at the end of the evening, not all guests may be ready to go home immediately (from 600);
• buying alcohol and snacks while walking (approximately 1000);
• if the banquet is planned to be held outside, then the whole celebration can be ruined by the weather. To prevent this, you should think about
• so that there is some money left to buy awnings, blankets, umbrellas and raincoats (2000);
• tips for waiters who will serve the banquet (1000-1800).

How to cut down on wedding expenses

If your financial situation does not allow you to take into account all the items of wedding expenses, then first of all you should abandon the idea of ​​renting an expensive car . After all, in a few years, neither you nor your guests will remember what exactly the cortege was.

Instead of an elite limousine or hummer, you can choose quite decent car models - Nissan Murano, Lexus ES 350 or Toyota Corolla, beautifully decorating them with balloons, flowers and other decorative elements.

In order not to spend money on a motorcade at all, the bride and groom should think about turning to familiar motorists for help.

You can cut down on restaurant expenses. To do this, it is better to rent it not in the center, but on the outskirts of the city. It is important to pay attention to how many people the banquet hall is designed for. For a small company, it is beneficial to choose only a small one so as not to overpay.

In the absence of rent, the issue of room decoration remains relevant, which is often included in the cost of the wedding menu. This can save you at least 1000 rubles. If it is paid, then it is quite possible to involve your friends and relatives in the process of decorating the hall.

You can also win money if you choose a non-wedding season for your wedding. This is considered to be the period from late May to mid-October. In April, the weather is usually sunny and pleasant, ideal for holding a wedding ceremony and outdoor banquet.

The day on which the painting is planned will also play a role. It is more profitable to schedule it on weekdays, which will allow you to get a good discount. On Saturday and Sunday, most restaurants have significantly higher rates, and many contractors are already busy with other projects.

It is worth thinking about giving up the toastmaster if there are few guests at the wedding, that is, no more than 20 people.

You will learn how else you can save on a wedding without compromising the holiday in our article.

In order not to forget anything in a hurry, you need to make a detailed list in advance of everything you need for the wedding.

When to start preparing for a wedding, and what to do first, read here.

The state fee for registering a marriage is another cost item. How much money is needed for this and how to pay for it you will learn from our article.

You may find it useful: what documents are needed to register a marriage in the Russian Federation.

In our calculations, we took into account only what directly concerns the wedding celebration. But the costs don't stop there. A separate budget should be allocated for organizing a bachelorette party.

Newlyweds' outfit

Most of the expenses are spent on creating images of the main heroes of the occasion.

Expense item for the bride:

1. Dress. The most important attribute of a wedding, on which you cannot save much. First, you need to decide: the dress will be new, purchased on the secondary market, or rented. The price will depend on this. If the choice fell on a new dress, then you can buy an inexpensive one, the cost of which will be 8-20 thousand rubles, the average one will cost 20-70 thousand rubles, the luxury category will cost from 70 thousand rubles and above. The cost of renting a dress is approximately 30-50% of its price. You can buy a dress secondhand at half the market price. 2. Veil – from 1000 rubles. 3. Shoes - from 1000 rubles. 4. Makeup – from 1000 rubles. 5. Hairstyle – from 3000 rubles. 6. Manicure – from 900 rubles, simple (French or lunar), from 2000 rubles – with a design. 7. Bouquet - minimum price - 1000 rubles, average - 3000-5000 rubles; 8. Wedding ring - made of gold - from 7,000 rubles, from silver - from 3,000 rubles. 9. Accessories (gloves, small handbag, garter, jewelry) – from 5,000 rubles.

Groom's expenses:

1. Suit - average price 10,000 rubles (a budget outfit without a jacket). 2. Shirt – from 1000 rubles. 3. Separately, trousers (without jacket) – from 2500 rubles. 4. Shoes - from 2500 rubles. 5. Tie or bow tie – 500-1200 rubles. 6. Wedding ring - made of gold - from 7,000 rubles, from silver - from 3,000 rubles. 7. Boutonniere – from 350 rubles.

What not to save on when calculating your wedding budget

No matter how much the bride and groom would like to rent wedding dresses, ask their sister to do their makeup and a friend to do their hair, it is simply unacceptable to skimp on such things! The newlyweds will be in public all evening, they will be captured on video and photos, which will then be shown to their children and grandchildren. Therefore, in the images of the heroes of the occasion, everything must be impeccable!

And there is especially no need to skimp on the shoes of the bride and groom, because how they will feel throughout the evening depends on their comfort.

Refusal from a professional videographer and photographer will also be a dubious saving. You shouldn’t entrust their responsibilities to relatives and friends, even if they have good equipment. After all, guests are invited to relax and not work, and they won’t be able to take beautiful pictures in between dances, feasts and intimate conversations with other invitees.

The same applies to video shooting, which, if carried out in a hurry, risks resulting in a set of blurry, absolutely stupid shots.

If there are more than 20–25 guests at the wedding, then it is irrational to save on the host and competitions. The wedding banquet, cortege, gifts and outfits will be forgotten very quickly, but the wonderful memories presented by the host and the bright show program will remain forever.

Fireworks, artists, competitions, music - it’s better to spend money on all this.

Organizing a wedding is a very responsible and exciting task.

If you are on a budget

it is necessary to determine how many guests will be invited to celebrate the event.
After this, you need to choose the location of the ceremony; it must be said that the price of the banquet depends on which establishment you choose (restaurant or cafe). For example, in a restaurant it will be significantly (maybe several times) higher than in a cafe. When choosing a place, focus on where it is located, what the room looks like, and the possibility of providing the event with your own alcohol and some of the food. As a rule, in establishments the price of alcoholic drinks is twice as high, so you should choose an establishment where you can find a compromise solution to this issue with the administrator. This will significantly reduce costs. When the venue has been chosen, the number of guests, and the wedding menu has been drawn up, then you can more accurately determine the required amount to celebrate the wedding event. On average, for a small wedding (about 30-40 people) you will need up to 5 thousand dollars. Another wedding option for newlyweds who do not want to infringe on themselves in any way by carefully calculating the money needed for the wedding. After calculating your wedding budget, you can take out a loan from a bank or borrow money from relatives.

However, this option is more acceptable for those who are confidently “standing on their feet” and know that they can quickly pay off the loan. Otherwise, you should consider whether you need to start your married life with debts. In this case, a small table in a cozy cafe is better than a large-scale event for 200 people. It is important to understand that the main thing is that the newlyweds are happy. Therefore, low-cost events are quite appropriate.

Many young couples believe that it is not necessary to organize grandiose weddings with a large number of guests (50, or even 100 guests), but should limit themselves to inviting their closest relatives and friends to the celebration. Such an event can be organized for 200-250 thousand rubles.

An example of calculating cost estimates for a wedding for 20 people

Let's calculate the budget for a small wedding for 20 people as an example. We have summarized all the main expense items in one table:

Wedding expenses depend on the time of year and day of the week.

Expert opinion

Natalia Batsun

manager of the wedding agency "Saint-Tropez"

— The cost of a wedding is formed from several expense items. The first is the expenses that affect the bride and groom. Although they seem basic, some of them can be avoided. For example, do your wedding makeup and hair yourself, choose an inexpensive wedding dress, or even rent one and choose cheap wedding rings.

• Wedding rings - 20,000 rubles;
• Wedding dress - on average 30,000 rubles;
• Groom's suit - 20,000 rubles;
• Bride's stylist (hair and makeup) - 5,000 rubles;
• Bride's bouquet - 3,000 rubles.

More on the topic

What happens if you say “no” at the registry office when registering a marriage?

The next expense item relates directly to the holiday: banquet hall, entertainment, decoration, and so on. Everything here is mostly optional. You can, for example, order a wedding cake, or you can limit yourself to a modest buffet.

• Tent for 50 people - from 200,000 rubles per menu, plus about 100 thousand for renting a tent;
• Wedding cake for 50 people - 15,000 rubles;
• Hall decoration - 50,000 rubles;
• Wedding host - 30,000 rubles (DJ - 15,000 rubles, music band - from 50,000 rubles);
• Photographer for 10 hours of work - 30,000 rubles (videographer - another 10,000 on top).

Additional expenses:

• Bridesmaids' dresses - from 5,000 rubles per dress;
• On-site registration - about 40,000 rubles;
• Festive fireworks - 40,000 rubles.

In total, with a minimum of expenses, a wedding for 50 people will cost you 600-700,000 rubles.

Costs also depend on the time of year and day of the week. For example, renting a tent on a weekday can be 30-40% cheaper than renting on a weekend.