Weddings have only gotten more expensive, with the average being well over $30,000. This will only rise, which means that brides and grooms will have less to spend on their honeymoons. Three wedding experts who spoke to Business Insider weigh in on how much you should put aside.
Jeffra Trumpower, the creative director of a wedding marketplace connecting wedding professionals with couples called WeddingWire, cited an average of $34,000 for a wedding. She says that couples on average spend $4,500 on their honeymoon. By extension, she recommends spending 11.6% of the total wedding budget on your post-nuptial vacation.
However, this isn’t set in stone. Trumpower noted that “each couple has different priorities and visions of their wedding celebrations. For couples who love to travel, spending almost half of their overall wedding budget on their honeymoon may be a no-brainer.”
Similarly, Tyler Speier, a wedding planner, puts this figure between 10% and 15%, depending on the couple. Another expert, Jennifer Spector, says that the average cost of a honeymoon for American couples is $5,000, around 15% of the wedding budget. Spector is the brand marketing director for Zola, a wedding planning and registry website.
It’s important to keep the honeymoon in mind, the experts say. “It’s so easy to get caught up in all the details and logistics of planning your wedding that honeymoon plans and expenses fall by the wayside,” Speier notes.
“When planning for your wedding, it’s really important to budget for all of the costs associated with the big day so nothing takes you by surprise,” Speier adds, commenting on caveats for couples planning their big day. “After all, it’s likely their first time planning an event, let alone a wedding. On top of that, a wedding is often one of the biggest expenses they’ve ever encountered. Plus, 33% of couples report spending more than what they initially set for their wedding budget.”