Wedding Expense Etiquette — Who Traditionally Pays For What?

If you have wondered about Wedding Expense Etiquette and are not sure who traditionally pays for everything that goes into making a wedding a day that no one will ever forget.

Wed­dings are glo­ri­ous occa­sions and I for one love it when I get an invite. If it’s a close friend get­ting mar­ried or an acquain­tance, it really doesn’t mat­ter because I know I can get dressed up to ‘the nines,’ which is some­thing every girl loves to do. I always look for­ward to see­ing what the bride is wear­ing because it brings back mem­o­ries of my own wed­ding and how won­der­ful I felt on the day. But who pays for what, and what is wed­ding expense etiquette?

(Related: Are You Financially Ready To Say “I Do”).

Wed­ding Expense Etiquette

Tra­di­tion­ally the bride’s fam­ily pays for the cer­e­mony, whether it’s a church wed­ding or a reg­istry and it is nor­mally their duty to pay for the wed­ding recep­tion too. This includes all the flow­ers at both venues. The bride’s fam­ily also foots the bill for her beau­ti­ful wed­ding gown. This includes all the acces­sories she needs to look gor­geous on the day. The bride’s par­ents also pay for the brides­maids’ bou­quets and the cor­sages for grand­moth­ers.

How­ever, it is the groom’s job to pay for the bride’s wed­ding bou­quet as well as the mother’s cor­sages. He also gets to pay for his best man’s ‘Bou­ton­nières,’ not for­get­ting the ush­ers, of course.

Prepar­ing For the Big Day – Who pays for the Invites?

One of the things I enjoyed most when I was get­ting ready for my wed­ding was choos­ing the invi­ta­tions and wed­ding pro­grams. This lovely task falls to the bride and is paid for by her fam­ily. I got to choose some gor­geous nap­kins and table cloths for the recep­tion as well, and my par­ents were very good about the whole thing. They gave me free rein to choose exactly what I liked. But then this is all part of the joy of get­ting mar­ried, you get very spoilt for a few months, and I loved it but then who wouldn’t?

The wed­ding cake and the pho­tog­ra­pher are also tra­di­tion­ally paid for by the bride’s fam­ily. The really per­sonal things and the two most impor­tant ones are paid for by the bride and groom them­selves, and these are the wed­ding rings. Other gifts for the brides­maids and the best man, as well as ush­ers, are paid for by the bride and groom respec­tively. The wed­ding car is organ­ised and paid for by the groom who also pays for the mar­riage license, and I might add the won­der­ful roman­tic hon­ey­moon.

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