Who Pays for the Wedding: The 2025 Complete Guide

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Who pays for what in a wedding in 2025? This is one of the biggest and often most awkward questions couples have when planning their wedding. Some traditions about who pays for what exists, but these conventions are more relaxed today.

Who Pays for the Wedding in Different Cultures?

Wedding payment traditions vary significantly across different cultures. In Indian weddings, for instance, both families typically share the expenses, with specific ceremonies being the bride’s or groom’s responsibility. Chinese weddings often see the groom’s family covering the most significant costs, including the bride price and wedding ceremony, while the bride’s family provides the dowry.

Middle Eastern weddings frequently have the groom’s family taking on the majority of wedding expenses, including the ceremony and celebration costs. In Japanese traditions, families split costs more evenly, with both sides contributing to different aspects of the ceremony and reception.

In traditional Western weddings, the bride’s family pays for most expenses. But with wedding costs in the U.S. averaging $28,000 — a figure that could take you close to nine years to save for — things are becoming more flexible. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect:

What the Bride and Bride’s Family Usually Pay For

The bride’s family pays for most wedding expenses, particularly day-of items. This includes the venue, the bride’s gown, the decor, the reception, the DJ and other musicians, catering and the wedding cake, the photographer or videographer, gifts or favors for guests and any cards and invitations.

Additionally, the bride or her family usually pays for the wedding planner if the couple decides to hire one. The bride should also budget for wedding day gifts for her parents, the bridesmaids and the groom. It’s a nice gesture for the bride to cater for hair and makeup for herself and the bridesmaids.

What the Groom and Groom’s Family Usually Pays For

The groom and his family often pay for the rehearsal dinner as well as the alcohol at the reception. The groom is also expected to pay for the rings, the wedding license, the officiant’s services, some of the flowers (like the bride’s bouquet), the wedding night hotel room and his suit and attire.

The groom’s family sometimes pays for the honeymoon, but it is also perfectly normal for the couple to pay for this themselves. The groom should also set aside some money for gifts for his parents and the groomsmen, as well as a special wedding day gift for the bride.

Expenses for Other People in the Wedding

In all kinds of weddings – traditional, modern, heterosexual, same-sex – there are usually some expenses that the couple and their families do not cover.

For example, the bridesmaids usually pay for their dresses. It is up to the bride to be considerate. She should roughly know how much her bridesmaids can afford to spend on their dresses. It can be a really fun wedding activity for the bride and her bridesmaids to get together and pick out dresses that have the right look and the right price.

The same goes for the groomsmen. Renting a tux and purchasing any other clothing for the wedding, like dress shoes, is usually the responsibility of each groomsman.

As a general rule, any parties thrown for the wedding or couple are the responsibility of whoever is hosting the party. So, if the maid of honor throws the bride her bachelorette party, it is her job to pay for it, although it is a nice gesture for the other bridesmaids to help out. The same goes for bachelor parties and the bridal shower.

Hotels are always the responsibility of all the individual guests, including the bridesmaids and groomsmen. If one couple’s family does offer to generously pay for hotel rooms, such as for the bride and groom or the bridesmaids and groomsmen, that’s fine but not expected. The couple can usually have a block of rooms reserved for their guests in the hotel, but the guests are all expected to pay for their own accommodation.

Paying for the Wedding Together

The traditional breakdown for who pays for the wedding is really more of an outline. According to Dominic Fournier, Co-Founder of The Wedding Duo, the landscape of wedding finances continues to evolve. Recent trends show couples taking more financial responsibility for their celebrations, with many implementing creative financing solutions.

“It is true that traditionally, the bride’s family was expected to pay for the wedding. However, the times are changing and so many more couples are financing their own weddings,” notes Fournier.

In reality, many weddings today have the cost divided much more evenly. Surveys have found that parents pay for about 52% of wedding costs while couples cover about 47%, which is almost a 50/50 split. 

Similarly, costs can be split evenly between the two families rather than putting most of the financial pressure on the bride’s family. Couples who are fairly well off can even pay for the wedding themselves. Weddings are a big investment, so it’s best to consider each family’s financial situation. A good method for many couples may be the group contribution strategy.

The Group Contribution Method

One of the most awkward parts of wedding planning is working out who should pay for what. This is especially true when one family is significantly wealthier than the other. The couple can make things more comfortable for family and friends by using a group contribution method. 

In the group contribution method, the couple asks their families what they would be comfortable contributing to the wedding expenses. Everyone can offer whatever amount of money they can give and the couple keeps this private. This way, no one has to be embarrassed about giving the couple less financial support than other family members.

Everyone’s financial contributions to the wedding go into a common fund that the couple can use as needed. After family members have offered their contributions, the couple covers whatever costs remain.

“One trend we have seen is the use of cash registries, like Honeyfund, where family and guests can contribute to parts of the event, like the honeymoon,” Fournier explains.

This approach allows everyone to contribute meaningfully to specific aspects of the celebration rather than giving traditional gifts.

What About Same-Sex Weddings?

So, who pays for the wedding for same-sex couples? Well, it is usually up to whatever works best for the couple.

Wedding planning can be a bit confusing at first for same-sex couples — and their families. What you may not realize is that there’s much more flexibility in deciding who should pay for what in LGBTQ+ nuptials. It typically comes down to a specific couple’s situation, their cultural backgrounds and family dynamics.

If the family is helping out, expenses can be divided up however everyone’s loved ones feel comfortable. Maybe one family is a bit wealthier than the other and offers to cover more wedding costs. Certain family members may also be excited about contributing to certain parts of the wedding, such as helping to pay for the venue or attire.

The Budget-Conscious Celebration

Fournier notes, “Smaller, more intimate weddings are also becoming more popular because the biggest factor to your budget will always be the guest count.” This trend toward micro-weddings — of 50 guests or less — and intimate celebrations is gaining momentum, allowing couples to create meaningful experiences while managing costs effectively.

The wedding planner has also noticed an increase in budget-savvy couples finding ways to save by DIYing many aspects of their big day, highlighting how modern couples are taking creative approaches to wedding planning and financing.

Here’s Who Pays for the Wedding

There are traditions regarding who pays for the wedding, but today, it really comes down to what works best for the couple. Not all families have the same financial circumstances, and couples may have different reasons for wanting to cover the costs themselves. At the end of the day, while it’s a good idea to know what everyone traditionally pays for at a wedding, couples can feel free to be flexible.

Originally published on December 14, 2022. Updated on February 07, 2025.