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The wedding costs nobody budgets for

Wedding budgets rarely fail because the venue was more expensive than expected. They fail because of a short list of items that were never in the budget at all, and that all arrive in the last two months.

None of these are hidden in a dishonest sense. They are in the contract. They are simply not in the number the venue quoted you first.

Updated 5 min readStellanza wedding planning team

In this guide
  1. The contract clauses
  2. The line items that appear late
  3. How to stop it happening

The contract clauses

Three clauses cause most overruns, and all three are negotiable before you sign and immovable afterwards.

The guaranteed minimum is the biggest. If you guarantee 120 guests and 95 come, you pay for 120. Ask what the minimum is, when it locks, and whether it can be reduced once RSVPs are in.

  • Guaranteed minimum headcount β€” you pay for it whether they come or not.
  • Corkage, if you bring your own drink. Charged per bottle, and it can erase the whole saving.
  • Overtime past a cut-off hour, billed separately by the venue and by the band. That is two charges for the same extra hour.
  • Service charge and tax, sometimes quoted separately from the per-head price and adding 10–20%.

The line items that appear late

These are not clauses, just things nobody thinks of until a supplier mentions them. They are individually small and collectively substantial.

  • Meal upgrades: vegetarian, gluten-free and children's menus, each often priced differently.
  • Supplier meals β€” photographers, band members and planners eat too, usually at a reduced rate you still pay.
  • Delivery, setup and collection fees for flowers, furniture and decor.
  • Cake cutting fees, where the venue charges to serve a cake it did not make.
  • Alterations to the dress or suit, which are almost never in the purchase price.
  • Transport for guests, which stops being optional the moment your venue is out of town.

How to stop it happening

Put a real contingency line in the budget at 5–10% of the total, and treat it as spent from the beginning. A budget with no buffer is not a budget, it is a hope.

Then, when comparing two quotes, compare what is included before comparing the price. A €160 per-head quote without drinks is more expensive than a €200 quote with them, and that comparison is the single most valuable half-hour of the whole process.

Add 5–10% as a contingency line before you compare a single quote, and ask every venue the same three questions: what is the guaranteed minimum, what triggers overtime, and what is not included in this number?

Frequently asked questions

How much contingency should a wedding budget have?
Five to ten per cent of the total. Planners treat that as a standard line rather than as padding, because the overruns it covers are predictable in kind even when they are not predictable in detail.
What is a guaranteed minimum?
The number of guests you commit to paying for regardless of how many attend. Guarantee 120 and have 95 turn up, and you still pay for 120. Ask when it locks and whether it can be revised after RSVPs.
Is corkage worth it?
Sometimes, but do the arithmetic. Corkage is charged per bottle, and at a high enough rate it cancels the saving from buying your own drink entirely.

Free tools for this

Wedding budget template
A contingency line, per-category totals and what planners typically allocate.
Open tool
Wedding vendor checklist
Quotes, deposits, balance due dates and what each supplier actually includes.
Open tool

Sources

Every figure above comes from one of these. Wedding prices move quickly β€” check the date beside a source before you rely on it.

  1. 1.Wedding budget breakdown by percentageJoy

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