The Real Cost Of Our Wedding: Breaking Down The Numbers

A lot has been asking how much we’ve spent for our wedding in Baguio City. Some have asked because they planned to have their weddings in Baguio as well, while some were just merely curious. Indicated below is the breakdown of the cost of our wedding. The info below may be used as reference and I advise not to use it as-is. The reasons are as follows:

Some of our expenses followed 2023 pricing because that’s when we signed the contracts. Meanwhile, some products and services were booked during bridal fairs where we scored discounts.
Our wedding was done during March which was an off-peak season. Also, it was on a Monday. Some wedding products and services vary depending on the season and day of the week.
We scored additional perks as well through our same-day coordinator which resulted in tweaks in contracts, further affecting the final cost of our wedding.
Since our ceremony venue is one of our non-negotiables, we utilized their recommended list of suppliers. Hence, the specific costs below are neither representations nor the average cost of its respective category.

I’m not comfortable to straight out share how much we spent. However, you’ll see below approximate costs to give you an idea.

Food (18%)

Bulk of the cost of our wedding went to food. This involves our payment for our reception’s coffee bar and grazing table, and our dinner’s catering, lechon and carving fee. We’re glad that most of our money went to food because this is one of our non-negotiables! To give you an idea, a plate per head from our caterer alone costs nearly P1,800.

couple kissing in dancefloor during sunset

Flowers & Decor (15%)

This on the second spot got me off balanced! To share, we under-budgeted for this. We didn’t research much and we actually doubled our budget to meet our preferences. Well, who would have thought flowers would be expensive, plus table and chairs are separate payments, too. Here’s a hint: my bouquet costs P20,000! (P.S. don’t lecture me on this lol! The flowers are ranunculus, peonies and Ecuadorian roses and they were all sourced overseas.)

Misc (13%)

At third place are all of the little things that added up. I’m referring to our proposal boxes, DIY items, van transfer rentals, hard drive, karaoke rental, ceremony needs, our lawn games, and so on. Bulk of this was for the crew meals which, again, was a spending we didn’t see coming and anticipate to reach at nearly P30,000. I hope at this point you get an idea of the costs. Save as early as you can, and plan well.

Reception (9%)

My favorite supplier, Frangeli House, follows after! This mainly covers the venue rental covering the front and back garden, as well as the house. In particular, it’s 6 hours for the event, 3 hours for ingress and another 3 hours for egress. Extensions beyond 12 hours have additional payments. We had additional payments because some of our suppliers arrived and started setting up by 6AM and we had an afterparty as well. I think we rented the house for 17 hours. The accommodation isn’t counted here still.

Bridal Attire (8%)

Maybe you’re going to scroll down and see how much percent’s for the groom’s attire. Haha! Reality and our expense tracker have spoken, it’s me at 8%. This covers my gown rentals, jewelries, wedding shoes and gown. Though I saved on jewelries because I didn’t splurge and borrowed my mom’s, I spent highly on my gown because it was shipped from London. Tax alone reached nearly P17,000! Don’t get me wrong; I have no regrets! I love love love love my wedding dress!

Photo & Video (8%)

Equally at the same spot as my bridal attire is another non-negotiable of my husband – photos and videos. This category covers both our photographer and videographer, and our photobooth. We saved a bit because we booked our photographer and videographer during a wedding fair in Baguio City, and we didn’t avail an SDE.

Ring (5%)

My husband has this category in his non-negotiables as well. I think our ring was relatively expensive, but it’s worth it. We paid for our ring during a wedding fair hence, we scored a discount. It was eventually offset because my husband wanted a thicker band.

Hair & Makeup (5%)

At another 5% is our payment to our groomer and hair and makeup artist. Our packages covered some of our family members – my mom for me, while my tito and our best man for my husband. We spent almost P50,000 for this.

Same Day Coordinator (4%)

Following by a strand from our ring and hair and makeup expense is our same day coordinator. Our payment covers basically the execution of what we planned for our wedding. This is one of our best decisions ever. They went above and beyond our expectations. I’ll share further when we go to our individual reviews!

Entertainment (3%)

At 3% of the total cost of our wedding is our payment for our band composed of 2 vocalists (1 male and 1 female), 1 saxophonist, 1 guitarist, 1 bassist and 1 cajonista/drummer. They played for 2 sets, wherein a set lasts around 45 minutes. If my memory serves me right, a band member per set costs P2,500.

Ceremony, Favors, Groom Attire, Lights & Sound System, Mobile Bar, (2% each)

This pertains to our wedding ceremony church, guests’ favors, my husband’s attire, lights and sound system, and our mobile bars. Our mobile bars are the ring for wine during reception, and cocktail and shooter bars during dinner. If added up together, all of these costs nearly P105,000.

We gave cupcakes to all our guests and they were crowd faves. We also gave special gifts to our ninongs and ninangs which we handpicked ourselves. There’s coffee from Nueva Vizcaya, abel towel from La Union, and honey from Benguet which we packed in a locally-made bag. These are us and our places.

Cake (1%)

At 1% is our oh-so beautiful wedding cake! It’s a white two-tier fondant ruffled cake straight out of pinterest. The cake is vanilla pound. Meanwhile, the filling’s creamy milky custard with sliced toasted almonds. It can serve up to 65 people.

Stationary & Wedding Papers (~0%)

We spent a total of almost P9,000 for our stationaries like printing fees for invitation and save the date tags, and paper wedding paper requirements such as CENOMAR, marriage license. We did a lot of DIYs in our prints and decors hence this spending is considered unplanned. Nonetheless, we saved a lot compared to having our invitations done by a supplier.

Thank you so much for reading the cost of our wedding! Here are other wedding blog posts you might like.

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