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Recently engaged and in the process of planning your big day? Do you know where to start the planning process? While there may be a few different potential answers to this question, first things first, you’re going to want to celebrate this exciting engagement news with your loved ones! This is such a special moment and unless you’re planning on having the wedding right away, you still have a little bit of time before getting into all of the fun planning activities. Shortly after that though, we always encourage couples to prioritize one particular topic and that happens to be establishing a budget for your big day.

The reason why a budget is so important can be summed up with two separate points. First off, this allows you to figure out who is paying for what. Particularly if your parents or anyone else is contributing financially to the wedding, getting this out in the open early on is a definite plus! Secondly, even though the number doesn’t have to be a strict figure, a budget will give you a ballpark range on the total cost of a wedding and in turn, you and your partner can start to break down how much you can spend on the various wedding components. Another major advantage!

So…unless you have experience working in the wedding industry, you may be unsure of how much everything costs, right? After all, just think about the different vendors that will be involved in a wedding celebration. Venue, photographer, florist, DJ, caterer and so on! Not to mention, there are also various added optional features that will undoubtedly serve an important role in the wedding day festivities. Think of things like having a photo booth at the reception, fireworks display at some point in the evening and even having a late night snack for all of your guests.

With that being said, in this week’s blog post, we’ll be answering an important question for anyone tying the knot in Houston. What is the average cost of a wedding in Houston?

What is the Average Cost of a Wedding in Houston?

Unsurprisingly, there are several variables that will impact just how much a wedding costs. From specific vendor selections and number of guests to the actual wedding day and more, you can confidently say that every single wedding is unique! In order to best answer the question at hand in this week’s blog post, it definitely makes sense to hear what the experts say. And when it comes to experts in the wedding industry, The Knot is definitely a name to keep in mind! With their annual “Real Weddings Study,” they’ve reached out to close to 10,000 couples in the US that tied the knot in 2023 to compile some helpful information about today’s wedding world!

Now that they’ve done the research, it’s time to look at the statistics that could help engaged couples currently planning their big day. With that being said, the average cost of a wedding in Houston (in 2023) was $37,000.

As mentioned in the opening paragraphs, there are certainly several vendors that you’ll be meeting with and booking in the months prior to your wedding day. While these can definitely add up, one idea that couples may want to take into account is the idea of booking a venue with all-inclusive services. This can certainly help save some money and will almost definitely alleviate a little stress too!

Here at Madera Estates, we offer customizable, all-inclusive wedding packages. In addition to the reasons mentioned above, our couples also love these as a way to ensure every single aspect of their wedding day is handled by a true professional in each particular vendor category. With this in mind, while prices are impacted by date, guest count and services selected, most couples that opt to book these customizable, all-inclusive packages will spend between $18,000 to $38,000.

Breaking Down Your Budget By Vendor

Speaking of ways in which you can limit any stress during the wedding planning process, we just mentioned how all-inclusive packages can help do just that! After all, it will save you from having to evaluate and browse through dozens of potential vendor options. Nonetheless, another part of The Knot’s Real Weddings Study that can be very helpful is going to involve breaking down your budget by vendor. We discussed above why it’s so important to establish a budget early on in the planning process, but would you agree that it would be tough in those early stages to allocate that budget by vendor? The Knot has a section which breaks down the top vendors hired by recently-married couples, as well as the average amount of money spent on each of the vendors.

Depending on where you’ll be tying the knot, the average cost per vendor will likely vary, but a good starting point would be to list out all of the vendors that you envision being on-hand for your wedding celebration and then go from there!

Other Interesting Takeaways

All in all, The Knot’s Real Weddings Study is filled with interesting information that can definitely be of use to engaged couples. Being in the wedding industry ourselves, we’re always interested in learning more about trends in the wedding world and how we can improve our services for future weddings. The main purpose of this blog post was to highlight the average cost of a wedding in Houston, but the complete report is packed with various other statistics. Here are a few that stood out to us:

Expected Top Dates for 2024 – Considering wedding planning starts many months in-advance, it’s also interesting to see which dates are most popular. Couples married in 2023 expected these dates to be most popular for 2024: September 21 and 14, June 22, May 18, and October 12.

Top Color of Last Year – Green! Color palettes are obviously a major factor in various components of a wedding, such as the floral arrangements and dress attire!

Ceremony Location – Another big choice you’ll have to make is deciding between an indoor or outdoor wedding ceremony. This is obviously going to be dependent on the time of the year and geographic location. In The Knot’s study, 62% of couples had an outdoor ceremony in 2023. As a pro tip, something to keep in mind is to confirm that your venue has a back-up plan available in the event that there is a weather issue on your big day (if you’re planning on an outdoor ceremony).

To sum it up, the wedding industry is one that’s constantly evolving with new trends rising in popularity. By reaching out to nearly 10,000 recently-married couples, there’s no denying that The Knot’s Real Weddings Study is an excellent resource and it provides a terrific overview of the wedding world. Interested in checking out the complete report? Click the link HERE to do just that!

Ready to Book Your Wedding Venue?

As you can likely expect, when breaking down the average cost of a wedding in Houston, a major component in that total is the wedding venue. It will serve as the backdrop for your big day and as such, you’ll want to take your time evaluating potential venues! Over the years, our team at Madera Estates has had the opportunity to work with hundreds of engaged couples and it truly has been amazing to witness their dream weddings come to life.

If you’re engaged and in the early stages of wedding planning, thus probably touring various venues, we would love to show you around our wedding venue. To learn more, we encourage you to take a look at our Investment Guide, which is filled with information all about hosting a wedding at Madera Estates. To request your copy of the guide, feel free to click HERE.