Small, unexpected vendor costs from the cake-cutting fee to extra edits can add up quickly and set you over your budget. At our North Georgia vintage venue, we love when our brides get creative with our industrial space. Each vendor helps bring your wedding vision to life so it’s so important to make sure you get the details from them so you can stay within your budget. You can learn some more about the entire vendor onboarding process by having a look at a page such as https://www.aravo.com/capabilities/vendor-onboarding/, although you’ll want to be sure to always keep your vendor costs to a minimum in order to not spend unnecessary money. We’re sharing 4 unexpected vendor costs below!

Photo Credit: Kelly Anne Photography

Unexpected Vendor Costs + How To Avoid Them

The caterer. As an incentive for brides to order their cake in-house, some venues will charge unexpected vendor costs, such as a cake cutting fee. These charges can range anywhere from $1.25 to $1.75 per slice. This fee essentially covers the cost for the venue to cut and serve your guests. Check to see if the venue has a preferred vendor list to help reduce this cost. Brides can also get creative with their dessert choices, such as pie bars + cupcakes, to avoid the cake cutting fee. At our blank canvas venue, we include the cake in the package– that way our couples get special pricing right off the bat! You could even ask for a desserts catering menu and decide for yourself from the sweet treats galore.

Often, venues will require a minimum of foods + beverages to host your event in their space. If these costs are not accounted for, you won’t be able to accurately create a budget and it could set you over your catering budget. To avoid this, make sure you talk with your venue to see if there is any food + beverage minimums or any other catering fees they might charge.

The bridal store. After falling in love with the dress of your dreams that falls right in your budget, you may be surprised when you end up spending more than the price tag lists. Often times, with the dress price comes alteration fees + the cost of undergarments. These fees can add up and put you over your budget if you don’t account for them when making your budget. You can avoid these fees by buying a dress with built-in garments or off-the-rack.

The photographer. Another place couples can find unexpected wedding costs are from their photographer. Make sure to ask those you’re considering as photographer if they charge any extra fees for editing additional images, receiving all photos, or getting them in multiple formats. It’s important to account for these costs when looking at your budget for photography.

Don’t forget about the venue!

The venue. Always ask to see the venue’s preferred vendor list, even if you already have an idea of which vendors you would like to use. Not only is it great to consider preferred vendors because they already have relationships with the venue, but unexpected cost can arise if the venue charges a fee for not using a preferred vendor from their list. At The Corner District, we love to help the budget-savvy bride, that’s why we don’t have any fees for not using our preferred vendors.

At The Corner District, one of our favorite parts of the wedding planning process at our North Georgia wedding venue is getting to help our couples pick the perfect vendors to bring their vision to life! Because of the relationship with our preferred vendors, we have negotiated lower costs for some packages. We have negotiated packages with vendors including DJ, some florals, and catering.

Brides, did you face any other unexpected costs, and how did you avoid or deal with them? We’d love to hear from you!