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Wedding Budget Etiquette: Who Pays For What?

According to tradition, the bride and her family should cover the majority of expenses including the bride’s dress, venue hire, cake, decorations and other services, while the groom’s main responsibilities are to pay for the engagement ring, honeymoon and the flowers for the bride.

While traditional couples stick to etiquette, some modern brides and groom prefer to share all costs.

Engagement Party

Traditionally, the groom pays for the engagement ring while the bride and her parents host the engagement party and pay for it. The mother and father of the bride have the duty to welcome the groom and his family, and by organising a formal event of this kind, everyone gets a chance to be officially introduced before the wedding day. There is also a charming custom of announcing the engagement in the local paper, and this formality is also the responsibility of the bride’s parents. However, many couples prefer to organise an engagement party themselves and cover all the expenses. One of the best wedding budget tips is to include only the closest of friends to your engagement party guest list.

Organising The Wedding

In the wedding planning process, the bride’s family is responsible for all the major expenses of the wedding ceremony and reception including the venue fees, flower arrangements and decorations, wedding stationery, transport, photography and videography, wedding cake and the bride’s attire. The groom’s family is responsible for the corsages and boutonnieres for members of both families and they usually organise and pay for the rehearsal dinner for the members of the bridal party. The groom’s parents should also purchase a present for the newlyweds.

The bride herself is responsible for flowers and gifts for the bridal party, but she should also purchase the wedding ring and a present for the groom. The groom should pay for the marriage licence as well as the celebrant’s fees, buy a bouquet and present for the bride, and provide gifts and boutonniere for the best man and his groomsmen.

A modern approach to wedding budget is to divide costs in a more equal and reasonable way. There are many great wedding budget tips that will help you divide the costs, and the best options are allocating expenses and splitting the total bill down the middle.

Your Honeymoon

Tradition says that the groom and his family are responsible for the couple’s honeymoon journey and that they should pay for the travel fees and accommodation. However, modern day couples who prefer to share their wedding expenses often decide to split the honeymoon bill as well. It is still very common that the groom himself picks a destination and pays for the travel arrangements to surprise the bride, but in most cases couples decide together.

Click here to read the groom's responsibilities