Wedding expenses can soar as high as 100% more of the budget that couples would initially prepare. Most likely this is from a lot of miscellaneous expenses that couples would sometimes forget to include in the initial stages of wedding budget costing probably because of too much excitement and confidence in themselves thinking that they won’t go overboard. But, realistically speaking, it’s rare for couples to go less than their intended budget after paying all the wedding expenses.

In a separate post HERE we listed the usual things that needs to be highly considered when doing your own Wedding Budget Costing. Below is a list of the most usual miscellaneous expenses that couples would tend to overlook or some won’t even want to include in their total wedding budget expenses. Because of this attitude, some couples would be shocked to know that their wedding expenses excel sheet would go overboard way beyond their own financial capabilities. Again, we strongly recommend to have your own separate wedding budget buffer/wedding emergency fund of at least 30% in cash/or in the bank that would only be touched in case you really need it on-the-day of your wedding.

1. Pre-Wedding Transportation or Gas Allowance. This will vary depending on the number of times you need to do these things. This is usually for —

• supplier canvassing like bridal fairs, initial food tasting etc
• marriage document processing
• supplier meetings
• caterer final food tasting
• supplier detailing

2. Pre-Wedding Food Allowance. Used while you are doing your supplier canvassing, during your document processing, supplier meetings etc. This will vary again depending on the number of times you need to do these things.

3. Marriage Document Fees. This includes for application, acquiring, processing and shipping (if applicable) of both civil and church documents like —

• NSO Birth certificates
• NSO CENOMAR
• Cedula
• Marriage License
• Baptismal certificates
• Confirmation certificates
• Certificate of Freedom to Marry (for overseas based)
• Marriage banns fees
• any other documents related to the above

4. Seminar Expenses. This is for both civil and church requirements such as —

• Family Planning Seminar from the City Health Department
• Pre-Cana or Marriage Preparation Course
• Canonical Interview

5. Wedding Stationery Shipping Fees. This is applicable for those who like to do save the date cards, will you be cards, for some formal invitations that needs to be delivered overseas etc. Indicate whether it’s for local based shipping and/or International based. When we had ours, LBC shipping costs for Manila to Manila only is around Php 100 for a 6×9 inches (largest) wedding invitation. The smaller one costs around Php 60-80 each. If Manila to other domestic areas, it’s around Php 120

6. Prenup Transportation or Gas Allowance. You have probably paid your supplier’s OOT fee or even their transportation allowance especially if your shoot is located outside Manila and it’s not part of their package, but then whether your prenup shoot is done within or outside Manila, you also need to consider your budget for your own car/van like gas, driver fees (if you need to hire one) and toll fees (if applicable) or if you don’t have one, the expenses that will incur for your commute, Taxi/Uber/Grab or car/van rental.

7. Prenup Food Allowance. This is connected with #4 since you also need to consider that you need to feed your whole team as courtesy for their hard work, including yourselves of course and this will depend on the duration of your prenup shoot. If you have a whole day shoot, expect to buy everyone’s breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between. Don’t forget lots of bread, coffee, juice and/or bottled water.

8. Prenup Miscellaneous Fees. This includes fees for the extra hours for the use for your prenup venue as well as budget in case you need to buy a new hard drive (and the necessary applicable shipping fees) when you need to get the full copies of your Photographer and/or Videographer’s raw files during your prenup. This happened to us with our Photographer which was unexpected since when our USB was delivered to us we thought that all the image files were of high quality (HQ) but upon checking, the raw images were all pixelated that ranges from 300-450MB only. Because we wanted to have all the HQ images, we didn’t have any other choice but to buy a new hard drive (we asked them to do it for us) around Php 3,000++ and send it back to us.

9. Other Wedding Accessories. This is necessary in case you would forget the small details when you’re only left with less than a month or a few weeks to prepare with your wedding which normally includes —

• bridal accessories (if not included in your bridal package)
• undergarments for the bride (lingerie, bra, shapewear, nipple cover, camisole, stockings, handkerchief, etc)
• undergarments for the groom (briefs, sando, socks, handkerchief etc)

10. On-the-Day (OTD) Wedding Transportation or Gas Allowance. This is similar to your expenses during your Prenup whether you have your own car/van, you will just commute or you will rent one. This is also called Mobilization fee if not already included in the Out of Town (OOT) Fee. But then, you also need to be ready as well in case —

• you need to shoulder your family’s (and some VIP guests) additional transportation expenses especially if your wedding will be out-of-town or even if it’s within Manila but you are residing from another city, town or province.

11. On-the-Day (OTD) Wedding Food Allowance. You may have a separate budget for your supplier/crew meals depending on the duration of your wedding wherein you either have a crew meals supplier to provide these needs, have given meal allowance as cash instead, you get it from your caterer or hire someone to cook it for you but then you also need to consider that on-the-day of your wedding, you also need to —

• provide snacks (from bread, biscuit, coffee, juice, candies etc) that should be within reach
• most likely you also need to feed your family and guests who would be staying on the same hotel/accommodation or who would be there during the bridal preps with you on your wedding day.

Being mindful of these beforehand will allow you to think about the team who will work on your wedding and the people (family, guests etc) who will be with you during your preps.

12. OTD Wedding Miscellaneous Fees. This includes the following —

• supplier tips (cash/kind) especially for the waiters/food servers (suggested is cash)
• supplier deposits (usually for the venue, and if you borrowed your mannequin from your designer and it doesn’t come as a freebie)
• fees for the extra hours for the use of your venue, mobile bar, L&S, hotel room for preps, bridal car (usually 1 hour extension is needed), band, etc.
• unnecessary damages that your suppliers might incur by accident that of course will be shouldered by the couple
• coordinator’s allowance in case you need them to do something for you
• extra head for hair and makeup that is not on the list especially for female family members, ninangs, etc.
• extra hotel room for preps in case the room you book is not sufficient to fit everyone who’ll be needing it
• other fees for the use of the hotel facilities not inclusive of your reserved package
• extension fee for the use of the hotel’s room
• parking fees for families and suppliers (if not included in the package)
• officiating priest stipend (if this is not included in the package)
• Lector and Commentator’s fee (if applicable)
• if you don’t have any extra hard drive (around 1TB in size) to store all your raw video files that you can get from your Videographer immediately on the day of the wedding, having a separate budget for this is recommended.

13. Post-Wedding Miscellaneous Fees. When you thought everything is over, you will then be faced with unforeseen expenses such as —

• Transportation/gas allowance when you need to return your borrowed items
• delivery of cake back to the supplier (if you want it to be exhibited)
• dry cleaning of your gown and suits
• repair of your gown (ask your designer if this is for free)
• vacuum pack or preserving your gown
• Damage fees incurred during the wedding

For example in our case, we paid the “paint damage” that our event stylist “did” on our venue’s walls and we have no idea if it was true since allegations have been denied by our event stylist. So to make the long story short we have no choice but to pay our venue this so called Damage fee.

14. Non-refundable Deposits. This is only applicable if within the span of your wedding planning you happen to change your mind and change your suppliers. This happened to us once and because of this we said bye-bye with our deposit! As a standard rule, once deposits/down payments are made when reserving for suppliers and then because of some personal reasons you have a change of heart, expect that this won’t be refunded in cash or even exchanged for the other service, only unless your supplier would state otherwise.

With all of these, it is always better to be ready than to be stressed about your finances later on. Mahirap magkagulatan kung bakit bigla na lang lumolobo yung wedding expenses niyo and worse hindi niyo alam kung saan kayo kukuha ng pera dahil akala niyo covered na ang lahat.