Top Wedding Budget Questions from Couples (and our Expert Answers)

Do you have any wedding budget questions? In this post, I have answers to the 11 top questions couples frequently ask about wedding budget in Nigeria. The subject of wedding budget is top on the questions I regularly receive from our readers. I’m sure you will find the answers to your own wedding budget questions here. Read on for the questions and answers…

answers to wedding budget faq

Just in case your only question is “how do I make a wedding budget myself”, then click here to follow the quick and easy steps.

#1. How Much Does a Nigerian Wedding Really Cost?

Someone asked me this “about how much does a Nigerian wedding cost, on average?” – because they want to use that ‘average’ to plan their own wedding. My answer is: No, your own priorities, style and tastes are distinctly not the same as the “average”. You are “you”, so make your own budget, but know that the bigger your guest list, the bigger your wedding cost will be.

I received a couple of questions from some brides asking to know how much they could spend on a small wedding, and the answer is that only you can say how much your wedding will cost. And you cannot use another bride’s wedding as a yardstick to measure your upcoming wedding, because you do not have the same budget.

Instead of telling you an exact Naira amount of how much to spend on every wedding stuff, what any professional wedding planner who knows his/ her onions will do is to ask you how much you want to spend overall, and then guide you on how to allocate the wedding budget you have to elements of your wedding.

#2. Why Should I Budget for My Wedding?

The reason why you should make a wedding budget is to have a guide when you start shopping and paying vendors, or even bargaining – so that you will not overspend beyond your pocket.

#3. Does Low Budget Mean My Wedding will be Low Quality?

No. There can be elegance in small (budget), when it comes to weddings. And careful planning and budgeting is what achieves it.

FACT: Big wedding budget is not a guarantee for a wow wedding. In fact, it can even be a galore for wedding vendors to rip off the couples, if they are not budget and planning savvy. We have seen big budget weddings that are a flop, and small intimate weddings that are elegant and totally unforgettable.

Just so you know, a small wedding does not mean that it was planned on low budget, and there are some things you can do to use a small budget to achieve a big-looking wedding (that only you know you spent small busget putting together). We even wrote a series of articles to help you understand what it means ‘to have a small or low-key wedding’ and also clarify the two types of small weddings that couples everywhere (including Nigerians) choose to have:

#4. How to start budgeting for a wedding?

The very first step is to set an amount you can afford to spend on the entire wedding, and then break that down into the several other wedding expenses.

I have written an in-depth, step by step post on this and you can read it here – how to start making a wedding budget, from scratch.

#5. Is it Okay to Plan Your Wedding With the Amount Your Friend Spent on their Own Wedding?

No, you should spend how much you already have, or feel comfortable spending for your wedding. You’ll never know how much your own wedding will cost until after you make a wedding budget. No two weddings are the same – the ways they differ makes their budgets differ. For example: you could differ in number of guests, taste of the couples for their wedding everything- your friend may have used a designer wedding dress and you like a want a cute China one; maybe your friend used a DJ and you want P-Square to sing live at your wedding etc.

#6. Someone Has Promised Us Plenty Money. Can I Start Wedding Planning Based on that?

No, that is uncertainty and very risky. Humans can fail. Besides, you can’t take a verbal promise to the bank. Don’t plan your wedding on promised money or pledges from some rich man you want to make your wedding day chairman. Plan on what people have already given you PLUS your own money.

#7. Should you Ask Friends and Family to Contribute Money to Wedding, and When is the Best time to ask?

Yes, you can. But start early and never plan with promises or borrowed money.

Early on, months before your wedding, speak to your parents, friends and relatives to find out how much they are willing to support you for the wedding. Set a timeframe for when you want to start using the money, and be sure it’s up to 6 months from when you are asking for financial help. Ensure to tell your prospective supporters when (the latest month) you want to use the money. Know that there’s really no free money – when someone else pays all or a big part of your wedding, they expect to ‘ be in control’. For ideas on how to have ‘the wedding you want’ with your parents’ money, check out the video below from top Nigerian wedding planner, Funke Bucknor Obruthe.

One good alternative to asking for cash is to first prepare your wedding budget, then take it to your parents or other prospective funders to ask where they feel most comfortable contributing. Then note that down in your wedding planning notebook, so you can follow up. Be sure to send them a nice reminder before the latest date when you’ll want to start shopping for your wedding.

When it’s six months to your wedding, forget whatever funding that has not come in and go ahead with the amount that is already in your hand. If any extra money later comes in, it would be a plus – may be you can use that to splurge on your honeymoon or to fit your new house together. If not, your wedding would still be fab on low budget.

#8. Can You Show Me a List of What Goes into a Nigerian Wedding Budget?

Yes. First, to make a wedding budget, you should make a list of everything you want to spend on – your wedding attire (bride and groom), your wedding rings, your wedding venue and other rentals, the vendors you would pay for wedding day services (cake baker, caterer, decorator , DJ/ music band etc).

So, budgeting for a wedding is like what women do before they go food shopping at the market – make a shopping list. So, with weddings, you will need to make a wedding budget list, after which you specify prices (Naira amounts) to each item on that list. You can see the Nigerian wedding budget expense list on this page.

#9. Can You show me examples of Nigerian wedding budgets from other people’s weddings?

Yes. To show you what a wedding budget looks like, we made you 5 examples of small, low budget Nigerian weddings.

You can see examples of wedding budgets from this page – there are five samples from other people’s weddings for total guests below four hundred.

#10. Give Me an Idea of “the Traditional Engagement List” for Nigerian Marriage Introduction?

#11. I Have Set a Figure as My Wedding Budget, How Should I Spend It?

Okay, if you already know how much you want to spend on your wedding, read this guide on how much to spend on what?

#12. I Have a Very Small Budget and Need Ideas to Make it Work

We’ve got your back, check out our tips and advice for how to use small money to plan a wow Nigerian wedding:

So, Did I Answer Your Wedding Budget Question?

That’s it for our answers to all the wedding budget questions we received. Did I answer your own question about budgeting for a Nigerian wedding? If not, ask me in the comment area (below).

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