If you’re planning a Nigerian wedding, have set a budget and asking ‘what does a two million Naira (N2m) wedding budget look like?’, you’re in luck because I’ll show you two examples in this post. So, stick around and scroll down to get the juice.
One of our readers asked ‘I am having a hard time planning my wedding, I am stuck on spreading out the budget – how do I plan a N2 million wedding without overspending. Show me examples of how other couples spent N2 million on a Nigerian wedding. What did they spend on and how?’
In several other posts, we had featured sample Nigerian wedding budgets of various amounts, but nothing on N2m, which we have since been getting requests to do a post on. I began to wonder whether two million Naira is the new average cost of Nigerian wedding?
Well, I’m going to show you examples of how two different couples planned their own weddings with N2,000,000. In one of the sample weddings, the couple had 300 guests; the other couple invited 500 guests.
- SEE ALSO: Wedding Reception Coordination Planning Checklist
- Nigerian Traditional Wedding Planning Checklist
- Nigerian White Wedding Checklist
- How to Plan a Nigerian Wedding in 3 Months or Less (Checklist)
How to Plan Your Nigerian Wedding with N2,000,000
If you’re planning your own wedding and have already settled on spending Two Million Naira (N2m) overall, it can be helpful to have an idea of how others with a similar budget had spent their money. You’ll want to know how much they broke down the entire budget, how much they spent on each different wedding thing, where they cut back to save coins.
Now, let’s take a peep into the expenses made by two different couples at their weddings. Let’s find out how they had their beautiful Nigerian wedding ceremonies and receptions with N2 million Naira – how much was spent on the venue, the wedding gown and groom’s suit, venue decoration, vendors’ services and more.
TWO MILLION NAIRA (N2m) WEDDING EXAMPLE #1
Number of Guests: 300
Cost per Person/ Guest: N6,657 <=That is how much the N2 million Naira wedding cost that couple for each guest.
The N2m Budget Breakdown
- 760,000 – Catering (wedding cake; food & drinks; small chops/ finger foods). | N760k food & drinks Budget comes to N2,533 per guest. They hired a caterer that fit into that cost per guest.
- 400,000 – Venue hire; Venue decoration; Rentals of Canopy Tents, chair n table rentals; Fee for Ushers; Fees for bouncers (security)
- 240,000 – couple’s outfits/ beauty/ fashion, Wedding rings
- 100,000 – invitation cards, reception program, souvenirs
- 400,000 – Photography, Video Coverage; DJ & Live Band; MC
- 100,000 – (Miscellaneous) To take care of any forgotten cost that comes up later.
TOTAL SPEND: N2m wedding price for 300 guests implies the wedding COSTS N6,667 per guest overall].
TWO MILLION NAIRA (N2m) WEDDING EXAMPLE #2
Number of Guests: 200 ==> Cost per Person/ Guest: N10,000
The N2m Budget Breakdown
- 760,000 – Catering (wedding cake; food & drinks; small chops/ finger foods). | N760k food & drinks Budget comes to N3,800 per guest. That’s how much they negotiated with their caterer for food and drinks per guest.
- 400,000 – Venue hire; Venue decoration; Rentals of Canopy Tents, chair n table rentals; Fee for Ushers; Fees for bouncers / security
- 240,000 – couple’s outfits/ beauty/ fashion, Wedding rings
- 100,000 – invitation cards, reception program, souvenirs
- 400,000 – Photography, Video Coverage; DJ & Live Band; MC
- 100,000 – (Miscellaneous) To take care of any forgotten cost that comes up later.
TOTAL SPEND: N2m wedding price for 200 guests implies the wedding COSTS N10k per guest overall.
TWO MILLION NAIRA (N2m) WEDDING EXAMPLE #3
Number of Guests: 150 ==> Cost per Person/ Guest: N13,333
The N2m Budget Breakdown
- 760,000 – Catering (wedding cake; food & drinks; small chops/ finger foods). | N760k food & drinks Budget comes to N5,067 per guest. That’s how much they negotiated with their caterer for food and drinks per guest.
- 400,000 – Venue hire; Venue decoration; Rentals of Canopy Tents, chair n table rentals; Fee for Ushers; Fees for bouncers / security
- 240,000 – couple’s outfits/ beauty/ fashion, Wedding rings
- 100,000 – invitation cards, reception program, souvenirs
- 400,000 – Photography, Video Coverage; DJ & Live Band; MC
- 100,000 – (Miscellaneous) To take care of any forgotten cost that comes up later.
TOTAL SPEND: N2m wedding price for 200 guests implies the wedding COSTS N10k per guest overall.
What Are the Differences Between those 3 Different Weddings Planned With N2 Million Each?
Let’s have a reap:
Wedding A: 300 guests, N2 Million Budget. N760k food & drinks Budget comes to N2,533 per guest. They hired a caterer that fit into that cost per guest.
Wedding B: 200 guests, N2 Million Budget. N760k food & drinks Budget comes to N3,800 per guest. That’s how much they negotiated with their caterer for food and drinks per guest.
Wedding C: 150 guests, N2 Million Budget. N760k food & drinks Budget comes to N5,067 per guest. That’s how much they negotiated with their caterer for food and drinks per guest.
Now, let’s look at how those two weddings were different, even though they had the same budget:
- The 150-guest N2 million wedding had more money to spend per guest on food and drinks, and that made them provide more food types/ assorted options than the other couples that had 300 and 200 guests at their N2 million wedding.
- Also, the 150-guest wedding also could provide a better caterer that cost more than the other 2 weddings in the above example.
HELPFUL HINTS & IDEAS FOR YOU
I know of two different couples that also had a 300-guest N2 million wedding, but spent the same per-person amount on guests’ food/ drinks as the 500-guests N2 million wedding. Instead, they channelled the extra savings to a wedding area that is of high importance to them.
One couple used the extra savings to have their honeymoon in a nice Lagos, resort hotel. The other couple said that high-quality photography and video were a priority to them, and so they added the extra savings to their photography budget. That was how they were able to hire a better photographer that had better equipment and the type of results they always dreamed of with wedding photography.
Imagine if you’d have to cut back in one area to save cost, where are you likely to channel those new savings? Here’s what we recommend couples to do – think, what are the top 3 most important things you want to have the best of, at your wedding? That’s where to channel any extra savings.
UPDATE: The initial sample budget on this page was a Two Million Naira (N2m) wedding that had 500 guests and another that had 300 guests on the same N2m budget. Today, it is no longer feasible to host that amount of guests at that cost, given the high increase in cost of everything, and so the sample wedding budget above has been updated to reflect the current reality.
OTHER WEDDING BUDGETING ARTICLES:
- How to Refine Your Guest Count to Fit Your Wedding Budget
- See Over 5 Other Wedding Budget Examples for Different Amounts
- Wedding Reception Budgeting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- Costly Wedding Cake Budgeting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
NAIJAGLAMWEDDING’S NIGERIAN WEDDING BUDGET CALCULATOR: By the way, we created a Nigerian wedding budget calculator and spreadsheet (excel sheet) template that auto-magically splits out a wedding breakdown for any wedding budget amount in specified percentages. You don’t have to do any math, because we already did it for you. That’s the tool we used to give couples advice on wedding budget breakdown. That’s the tool we used to break down the N2m wedding budget for the couples whose weddings we’re looking at.
Final Thoughts on The N2 Million Wedding Budget Examples
Many of our readers, especially the men (surprisingly), have given us feedback on how they got their confidence to go ahead with their wedding plans after seeing sample Nigerian wedding budgets. Just knowing that we helped someone make their wedding dreams come true means a lot to us.
There are many benefits to seeing how other couples worked with the same N2 million (Two Million Naira) wedding budget that you’re planning with. You want a sneak peek into the budget breakdown; you’ll want to see what’s possible and then take it from there. Sometimes, you may have had doubts like “will this amount really be enough?”, and seeing that other couples made it work will bring you some relief.
Peeping into how other people do things we are about undertaking does not mean we want to do our own things exactly their way, but there’s a certain sense of confidence and peace of mind that we derive. In addition, looking at wedding budget examples (before starting to spend) will inspire you and fire you up.
Finally, feel free to use and refine the above sample wedding budget to fit your wedding priorities: I hope that seeing an example of what a N2m (2,000,000 Naira) wedding budget looks like will inspire you. However, know that you don’t have to spend your N2 million Naira wedding budget in the same, exact way. Feel free to switch up things where you desire to make your own wedding unique to your personality.
Furthermore, depending on the part of Nigeria where your wedding is going to hold, you may find some wedding things and vendor services cheaper or more expensive. In such cases, use your judgement (sense) to cut money from one area to add to another area, so that in the end, you would not have spent more than you budgeted for.
That’s all we have on what a Two Million Naira (N2m) Nigerian wedding looks like from two different real-life couples. If you’re planning a N2m wedding or have previously seen other people’s budgets, I’d like to know what it looked like, in terms of the breakdown of the expenses. Comment below to tell me, or just to add your voice to this topic.
Thanks for reading. If you like this post, please consider showing your ‘like’ by sharing it with others on social media. And, do follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe by email to be the first to be notified every time we have a new post. I’ll be waiting to respond to your comment.
Any advice on wedding souvenirs? what to buy and how to stick to a 200,000 naira budget for souvenirs for a 250 guest list
With N200k budget, if you look for something that costs N800, every single guest will get one. Here are some ideas for N800-per-item souvenirs that guests will actually use (and not throw away):
-Fancy Plastic Colanders/ Strainers (in bright colours)
-Medium Plastic Bowls in bright colours
-Small umbrellas
-Towels
-Trays
-Mugs
-Medium Size Wall Clocks
-Fancy Water Bottle
-Fancy Tote Bags/ Carrier Bags (for Shopping)
-Cute Ceramic Plates (set of 2 or more) per guest
-Back-scratchers
-Cotton (Fabric) Kitchen Hand Towels
-Plastic Plate Rack/ Drainers (plastic) – for the kitchen
-Cutlery/ Spoon Drainers/ Organizers (plastic) – for use in the kitchen
-Plastic Chopping Boards
-Hand Fans
-Box-type Graters (for use in the kitchen)
-Key Holders
That’s all I can think of. Feel free to pick what you like and mix things up. Some may cost less and some may cost slightly more, but you’ll be able to stay within your budget.
Let me know how it goes.
Does 2m still work in 2021?
My bride says 3m is too small
Hello Mark, that’s a good question. The answer is yes, but for fewer guest number than the previous year (because of the increased cost of food, drinks, everything).
If you already made a budget last year and also set a number of guests planned, if you still want that many guests, then you’ll have to up your budget. If you still want to spend the N2m, then consider trimming down your guest count to fit your food and drinks budget.
Hope that helps.
This really boosted my confidence. Will check out other articles, especially the one on number of wedding guests
Hello Chi. Thanks for your feedback – it boosted our morale to write some more helpful wedding planning tips for brides.
That’s exactly the reason we are doing these types of posts – to let couples know that it is possible to have a memorable wedding with the budget they have. Men, especially, often message us to say how they had been stuck and delaying their weddings for fear that they cannot do it until they have much more money.
I’m happy to know that you got your confidence to move on. Happy reading and planning! The post on the number of guest list will help you fix the right number of guests instead of guessing and risking over-inviting (which normally happens).
All the best, dear.
Thank you for all your advice Stella. Even for me as a planner. I have benefited alot
Keep up the great work🙌
Aww!! Thank you so much for the feedback, Eky. It means a lot to us.
Where are you based, by the way?