When you plan your wedding you are faced with so many decisions. Spending endless hours on this perfect event you’ve been waiting for has finally come, but what some may not tell you is the unexpected wedding costs that might pop up along the way. Please note these wedding costs below depend on the scope of your wedding. For some weddings, these costs might not factor and for others, maybe all might. In this blog, I am going to layout the top 10 wedding costs you might have not seen coming your way. 

Over Time Fees

It is so important to create a timeline and this all varies per vendor on what’s contracted. Make sure that the hours you are paying for each vendor match the arrival, setup, and breakdown times. During your wedding, things do not always go as planned and you are running behind. Pushing back times enhances the time for vendors. This is where you might have to pay overtime fees.

For instance, let’s say you set your dinner (hot meal) to be served at 6 pm. For some catering staff, if you and your guests are not ready by that time to eat, you might be charged a fee due to the meal not being served on time. The reason why you’ll have to pay an extra fee is that the staff now has to make sure that when you are ready they will serve hot meals to your guests and try to get out the food in a timely manner. After cleaning and making up for that time that could have pushed back their own timeline for things and causing them to stay later. This could also be a great example of asking DJs to play a “few” more songs.

Postage

A lot of couples do not account for this but aside from what you pay for your invitations, you should also consider the cost of postage. As self-explanatory as this may seem I would take a sample invite to the post office and ask for it to be weighted. That way you know how much each invite will cost to send to domestically or internationally.

Additional Power

Yes! This is a thing! If you require lighting at any part of your wedding, the vendors need to know where they can plug in their equipment. Depending on your venue, you can get charged per outlet or might be required to rent out a generator. Again, not all weddings are the same. This unexpected cost might not be applicable, but good to know in case. 

Gratuities

This is most likely not required by the majority of your vendors but is very much appreciated. I highly recommend that if you do plan on giving gratuities you hand the cash with an envelope to your planner. Then have him/her kindly hand them out to each vendor. This will save you the worry of doing it and can have it handled on the day of. 

Liability Insurance

Normally whenever you rent a venue, they will require you to have liability insurance or it will come with your venue rate. Make sure to ask your venue manager about this!

Alterations

In most cases, every bride or groom has to get their dresser tux altered to size. This happens whenever things don’t fit quite right and have to get them done prior to the wedding. 

Additional Staff

Likely if you decide to increase the guest count, more staff will be needed to help your wedding run smoothly. So before you say yes to inviting your parent’s friends or a friend’s mom to come, know there might be unexpected wedding costs due to the increased guest count.

Hair & Make-Up

Besides the actual hair and make-up service during your wedding day, you might want to pay for a trial session. If make-up and hair are a priority for you on your wedding day, I highly encourage you to pay for a trial session. If it is not included in your MUAH’s service already, this will help give you an idea of what you could look like on the day of your wedding. As well as, alter things that you like or do not like. 

Vendor Meals

Whether couples realize this or not, your vendors are working all day to set up and create the wedding you envisioned. After all those hours spent, vendors will need a break too. The best thing you can do is to provide a hot vendor meal. It isn’t always required, but some vendors that are staying during your reception will need to eat at some point. By providing them a vendor meal, it will also save so much time to eat and get back to work. Without a vendor meal, they would have to leave the property and get food (unless they brought their own food). Or wait until after the whole wedding is over to eat. In most cases, the best decision is to provide vendor meals to the ones who stay during dinner time. 

Cake Cutting

As simple as cake cutting seems, there are certain ways wedding cakes (especially tier cakes) should be cut. Depending on your contract you may or may not have cake cutting included in their service. Please make sure to ask the catering manager about this. Otherwise, it might be an unexpected wedding cost that you never expected. 

And there you have it, my top tips on unexpected costs that you might encounter as you plan your wedding. If any of these apply to you I would ask additional questions to your vendors. Or start setting money aside for these costs as an emergency wedding fund. This way you’ll be planning out these unexpected wedding costs in advance and save you the headache later. If you need a wedding planner that will make sure you don’t have unexpected wedding costs, feel free to contact me. I hope you found this blog very helpful and you did please share it with a friend.