Budapest wedding cost: how much does a wedding in Hungary cost?
After finding the dream wedding destination and collecting inspirational photos about the details, the question used to come very soon: how much will all these cost? It's especially the case, when you don't live in the country you plan your wedding in. In general - even for experts - it is hard to answer this question. A wedding budget consists of several items (20-30 different vendors) and depending on your needs and ideas the prices might go in a wide range. But still, I understand that you want to have an idea about the costs when thinking about to plan your wedding in Hungary. In this blogpost I try to give a general guideline about an average Budapest wedding cost plan.
There are some key points determining the size of the wedding budget seriously. One is the guest number, of course. In this writing I supposed having 100 guests, however it will affect only the decoration, since for other items I applied unit prices (per person) or they are independent from the guest number (e.g. photographer).
Another key point affecting the overall wedding budget is the location and the style of the venue. As you can imagine there is a wide range of pricing between the simple traditional countryside restaurants and the 5-star hotels or castle rentals or tent weddings - with a lot of medium-price options in the middle. In my calculation I considered a high-quality Budapest downtown restaurant being the most popular choice among our clientele.
At the majority of these restaurants and wedding venues in Budapest you get an "all-inclusive" price meaning they offer per person prices for the optional food and drinks items, which cover the costs of the function room rental till a certain time (in most if the cases), their default banquet furniture (tables, chairs, high tables, buffet tables), table clothes, napkins, glasses, cutlery and tableware. Of course, some venues might have a different price policy having a rental fee for the function room and giving lower menu prices. At some places a minimum spend is also determined. The final catering budget also depends on the content of the food and drink package. You can choose from 3-4-5-6-course menus, served, buffet and mixed service and from different open bar packages with different quality of wine, beer and spirits.
Supposing a nice 4-course buffet menu in the middle price range, welcome bites and drinks and an unlimited open bar package for 8 hours excluding spirits the per person prices starts from HUF60k. The policy on spirits is not the same at the different venues. Somewhere you can bring them in after paying a per person corkage fee, somewhere you can order an unlimited open bar package for spirits too, at other places you can buy them per bottle and some venues charge them per consumption per shot.
Wedding cakes are coming from a cake-shop, not from the restaurant in most of the cases. Size-wize we used to count with 1 slice/guest, but is the guest number increases, the number slices can be decreased. E.g. for a 100-guest wedding I would calculate with a 80-slice wedding cake. 1 slice of wedding cake is around HUF2-3k supposing a nice, but not too difficult decoration.
Wedding decoration is a quite difficult item to calculate without discussing all the details you have in your mind. As you can imagine the amount and type of flowers affect the budget very much. Supposing a simple but nice wedding decoration with the most popular items (bouquets, boutonnieres, arch, ceremony table centrepiece, aisle decoration, guest table centrepieces, top table centrepiece and backdrop) made of seasonal flowers mostly sourced within Hungary made by the best price-value ratio, small but god quality vendors, the wedding decoration starts from HUF1,5 million for 100 guest. Stationary, textiles and furniture (if you don't want to go with the default ones provided by the venue) are an extra.
On the field of the most typical wedding vendors (photographer, film studio, DJ, light technique, wedding mc, etc.) you also can find a wide price range. Coverage (number of hours on site included) also affects the price. As an average, I would say they are around HUF4-500k each supposing a typical wedding day scenario.
Bridal hair and make-up including trial and on-site service is around HUF60-70k each. Most of the beauty vendors undertake to go to your hotel on the wedding day and you also can order hair and make-up for your guests you are getting ready together (mom, sister(s), bridesmaids, etc.).
Rings and wedding dresses used to be ordered in the home country of our clients in most of the cases because of practical reasons, so I did not deal with these items.
Wedding planning is also priced within a wide range in Hungary depending on the experience and target clientele of the planner. Our prices are in the middle range and we offer different packages based on the size of the wedding and the number of locations on the wedding day (see the PACKAGES menu). Please note that it's not obligatory to choose from these packages. After discussing your ideas online or in person we are happy to give you a tailor-made offer, if none of the standard packages suit your needs.
I hope this writing helps you a bit to have an idea about the wedding prices in Hungary. Please note that we are happy to provide a wedding budget estimation for you after an online consultation. During this online meeting you can tell us your preferences and the parameters of your wedding, based on which we can calculate a tailor-made estimation.