In the past, the bride's family paid for the majority of the wedding expenses and the groom's family paid for lead up events, such as the rehearsal dinner. However nowadays the cost of a wedding is much more, and many couples are marrying later in life when they are more likely to have incomes of their own, perhaps far greater than their parents’.
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It makes sense then, that more brides and grooms are contributing to, or even paying for the entire cost of their wedding. And the parents of many grooms are also contributing more than in the past. A popular option is to have the bride's family, groom's family, and the couple each contribute one-third of the costs.
If you’d like to acknowledge your parents at the wedding, consider using their wedding song for your first dance (if you haven't got a special song yourselves), or playing theirs later in the evening, recreating or reusing the cake topper from their wedding, or artfully displaying photos from their wedding at the reception.
Traditionally, the bride’s family pays for organist fees, church decorations, the bride’s wedding dress, veil and accessories, newspaper announcements, engagement, wedding and reception photographs, transport for the bridal party to the church and reception, and the cost of the reception.
Traditionally, the groom’s parents reach out to meet the bride’s parents (if they haven’t already), the groom’s father contributes to the organisation of the buck’s night and organise and pay for the rehearsal dinner.
