What does a wedding cost?

What is the average cost of a wedding in the Chattanooga area?

We get this question frequently. The average couple in the Chattanooga area spends around $30,000 on their wedding. Most newly engaged couples get stickered shock when seeing what a wedding costs!

We’ll break down what a wedding costs and what you can expect to spend on a wedding at Covey Creek.

How much should I expect to spend on my wedding at Covey Creek?

Couples at Covey Creek typically spend between $15,000 – $30,000 for a full day wedding, with our average staying below the $30,000 average in Chattanooga. Occasionally couples spend more (higher end catering, lots of decor rentals, etc) or less (more DIY, family connections to vendors, etc).

If you’re looking to save money and willing to keep your guest count lower, our partial day intimate wedding packages are a great fit to save money and potentially stay under $10,000.

Where does the money go?

Here’s a breakdown of how couples typically spend their money. Note that ranges are average, and some couples spend more less in each area depending on what is important to them.

Venue: $3,000 – $20,000 [Covey Creek ranges between $3,000 – $6,500 for our Venue Plus package]

Table Linens: $300-$1,000 [Covey Creek offers linens for $300!]

Decor and other rentals: $500 – $3,000+ [Every wedding rental at Covey Creek includes access to our decor collection!]

Month of Coordinator: $1,000 – $2,000 [Covey Creek offers coordination for $1,000!]

Catering: $30 – $50 per person

Wedding Cake: $5 – $10 per person

Bartending Services: $500 – $1,000

Alcohol: $5 – $10 per person

DJ: $1,000 – $3,000

Florals: $2,000 – $10,000+

Photographer: $2,000 – $5,000

Videographer: $2,000 – $5,000

Officient: $100 – $500

Hair and Makeup: $100-200 per person

Any tips to save money?

Absolutely! Here are some common areas we see couples save money.

Utilize the Venue’s Decor – Decor is included with your rental, so why not use it? We have a great selection of trendy decor items that fit the venue. Using our decor will save you a lot of time, hassle, and expense. You can still augment our decor with your own personal creations to get a more custom feel.

DIY Your Decor – Decor is a great place to save money by DIY-ing. If you’re looking for cool, custom centerpieces or other decor items, it’s a great opportunity to flex your creative muscle and create something unique for your wedding. This is one of the easier things to DIY because all of this can be created and planned in advance without creating much additional work or stress on wedding day.

DIY Your Florals – Florals are a little more difficult than decor as real florals will need to arranged within a day or two of the wedding to avoid loss. That being said, you can save a LOT of money by purchasing your florals through a discount club such as Costco or Sam’s Club or a Trader Joes. You can also purchase silk florals and arrange them far in advance.

Skip Videography – Having a video of your wedding and reception is amazing, but sometimes it’s just not in the budget. Only about 10% of our couples hire a videographer and some photographers will even record short clips for you.

Skip the Alcohol – While alcohol can be a lot of fun, it’s also expensive and can lead to drama on your wedding day. If you’re on the fence about alcohol, it may make sense to just skip it.

HIre Drop Off Catering (and our staff) – Though full-service catering is always preferred, having a restaurant drop off food can save you money. You’ll still need to hire staff to ensure the buffet stays stocked and everything is cleaned up afterwards, but even with this expense, this can save you money.

Find a Friend to Officiate – You may have a friend or family member that would love the opportunity to officiate your wedding. It’s not hard to get ordained online to be able to legally perform a ceremony and sign a certificate, so this is a great place to save a few bucks.

DIY Hair and Makeup – While it’s amazing to have professional hair and makeup done for wedding day, it’s not a must. Some brides choose to do their own. And if you do choose to hire a professional, it is traditional for bridesmaids, moms, etc to pay for their own hair and makeup services so the cost isn’t all on you!

What should I not DIY?

DIY-ing parts of your wedding can be fun and save you money, but there are some things you should just leave to the professionals.

Catering – The number one thing to NOT DIY at your wedding is catering. Most couples and their families have little to no experience feeding large numbers of people in a time-sensitive setting. It requires a lot of coordination to not only cook the food at the right time, but also get it to the venue, set up, and served in a timely and safe manner. Most venues, including Covey Creek, do not allow DIY catering.

Table Linens – Table linens are a nightmare to deal with. They come tightly packaged and heavily wrinkled. They require hours of washing and ironing to get the factory wrinkles out and get them prepped for wedding day. Then you have to transport them to the venue without adding back wrinkles and take them home a the end of the night covered in stains and start the process all over again to get them ready to store or re-sell. And, if you didn’t order the right size or enough, you’re left in a pickle on wedding day. We offer our in-house linens at a very reasonable price to help you avoid this hassle.

Venue – As a venue, we may be biased, but we will say backyard weddings can be great! Especially if you have a small guest list (25 or less). But for higher guest counts, by the time you add up the costs to spruce up the yard/house, rent restrooms, tents, tables, chairs, decor, and everything else you need, you probably could have spent the same money (or less!) by just renting a venue.

What's the easiest + most cost effective way to get married at Covey Creek?

Our all-inclusive packages are by far the easiest way to get married at Covey Creek. We’re going to handle almost everything for you so you can sit back, relax, and focus on the personal details and custom touches. When you take your time into account, it’s also far and away the most cost-effective way as we save you the time and frustration of shopping around for your own vendors.

Pricing ranges from $14,000 to $17,500 and include most everything needed for a wedding including the venue, catering, cake, coordination, decor, silk florals, real florals, DJ, and a photographer.