What a Melbourne wedding really costs, line by line

Averages are useless, because they blend a sixty-person backyard lunch with a two hundred person city ballroom. What helps is the list of lines, honest ranges, and the items that arrive after the budget is set.

These are Melbourne figures for a wedding of roughly 100 to 130 guests.

The large lines

• Venue and catering — usually 45 to 60 per cent of the total. Commonly $150–$260 a head with food, often plus beverage.
• Beverage — $55–$95 a head for a package, or on consumption, which is cheaper with a light-drinking crowd and considerably more expensive without one.
• Photography — $3,500–$8,000. Video adds $3,000–$7,000.
• Florals and styling — $4,000–$20,000, the widest range on the list and the one most driven by installation labour.
• Entertainment — DJ $1,200–$2,500; band $4,000–$12,000 depending on size and set length.

The middle lines

• Celebrant $600–$1,200
• Attire, both parties, $3,000–$12,000 including alterations
• Hair and makeup $800–$2,500 with a trial and a bridal party
• Stationery $600–$2,500
• Cake $500–$1,500
• Transport $500–$2,000
• Lighting and AV $1,500–$6,000

The six that arrive late

These are the ones that break budgets, because they are not on anybody's first list.

• Supplier meals — 12 to 18 people at catering rates.
• Overtime — per hour, per supplier, decided at 11pm.
• Bump-in and bump-out labour — delivery is not carrying, and carrying is charged.
• Power and generators — if the venue's circuits do not cover the rig.
• Cakeage, corkage and cleaning bonds — small individually, not collectively.
• Alterations and trials — routinely a third of the attire budget and rarely quoted up front.

Where to spend and where not to

Spend on what every guest experiences for the whole night: food, drink, sound, lighting, and how the room feels. Spend less on what is seen once or photographed and discarded — elaborate stationery, favours, ceremony pieces that serve twenty minutes.

Stuey has both planned events and been a guest at hundreds of them, which is the actual source of that judgement. The things guests remember are consistent, and they are cheaper than the things they do not.

Hold ten per cent back

Not for emergencies. For the six lines above, which are not emergencies at all — they are simply the costs nobody quoted for.