As soon as you get engaged you’ll want to announce it to the world. While you’re still on the engagement high, you’ll be quick to ask family and/or friends to stand up for you on your big day. Although you may have a ton of friends that you’ve known for what seems like forever or large family (lots of sisters, brothers, cousins, etc) keep in mind that having a large wedding party comes at a price. I’ve done weddings with bridal parties of 20+ people. I remember watching an episode of “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?” where a planner coordinated a wedding with 52 people in the wedding party. Most wedding planners would say that 5-6 on each side is about average whereas 10 or more on each side is considered large.
Couples usually don’t think the costs associated with asking someone to be in their wedding. Of course there is a cost to them (bridesmaid dress, tuxedo, contributing to bridal showers and bachelor/bachelorette parties, etc.) but there is also a cost for you. Here are a few things to keep in mind before deciding on a large wedding party.
The larger your wedding party the higher the costs for:
- Florals – will need more bouquets and boutonnières at around $75 and $15 each (depending flower choice)
- Transportation – will need larger than a standard limo to accommodate everyone
- Rehearsal Dinner – will need to pay for additional people (especially if you include their spouses)
- Wedding Party Gifts – will need to purchase more gifts
- Hotel – may need a hotel suite for you and your attendants to get dressed instead of a hotel room or your home
How will these higher costs affect your budget?
Stay tuned…later this week we will re-run two previous posts that will also help with choosing your wedding party.
Great blog. Cannot wait to see the next two post. Your right most couples don’t know how expensive a large wedding party can be until they really get into the planning stages and by then it could be to late to pair down your wedding party and well then there are those hurt feelings you have to worry about.