Wedding Vendor Packages Explained: What You're Really Paying For

TL;DR

A typical wedding in the UK or Ireland pulls in around 8 main vendor categories, covering venue and catering, photography, videography, florals, music, cake and hair and makeup, and each of them prices its work in a different way. The venue and catering is by far the largest single cost, usually running £6,000 to £20,000 or more in the UK and €10,000 to €25,000 or more in Ireland, typically charged per head with an 18% to 25% service charge on top. Photography and videography tend to sit around £1,500 to £4,500 or €2,000 to €4,000 each for a full day, while the smaller categories such as florals, music, cake and hair and makeup each usually land somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand. Most of the confusion comes from a handful of recurring terms like minimum spend, per head, service charge, corkage, second shooter and travel fee, and the most useful habit you can build is to ask every vendor the same three things: what is in the package, what counts as an add-on, and what the total comes to once you include everything you actually want.

You ask three wedding venues for their packages and get back three completely different price sheets. One quotes "£112 per head, Saturday peak, 100 minimum." Another says "dry hire £6,500 plus your own caterers plus £500 corkage." The third sends a brochure with five tiers, a glossary you have never seen before, and an asterisk on every line. Then you ask three florists, three photographers, a DJ and a band, and every quote looks different again, so you sit there staring at all of them trying to work out whether you are even comparing the same thing, which you almost certainly are not.

This guide breaks down what is actually inside a wedding vendor package across the eight main categories most couples book in the UK and Ireland, explaining what each line item means, what is standard, what is optional, and what tends to appear only after the deposit, so that by the end you can compare quotes in minutes rather than weeks.

Why are wedding vendor packages so hard to compare?

The main reason is that no two vendors structure a package the same way. One venue includes drinks and another does not, one photographer's full day is 10 hours while another's is 12, and one florist quotes per piece where the next quotes a flat day rate. The vocabulary shifts as well, both across categories and within them, so minimum spend and package price get used loosely, highlight reel and highlight film mean the same thing, and service charge and gratuity blur together. Pricing is often gated behind a "request a quote" form rather than published, and the deposit tends to hide the extras, because travel, overtime, prints, additional hours and drinks packages are usually quoted only once you have committed. The reassuring part is that once you know the vocabulary and the standard inclusions, the comparison becomes quick.

What is actually in a wedding vendor package

Most weddings in the UK and Ireland involve the same eight main categories, and each one has its own pricing logic, its own jargon and its own extras that never make it into the headline number. Here is the plain-English version of each, with the typical 2026 ranges for both markets.

Venue and catering, your biggest line item

This is where most of your budget goes, typically 40% to 50% of the total spend, and it usually comes in one of two shapes. The first is a per-head package, which is most common in Ireland and at UK hotels and country houses, where a single number per guest covers the room, the meal and usually a drinks reception, wine and a toast, so your rough total is simply your head count multiplied by the per-head rate plus any minimum guarantees. The second is dry hire plus catering, which is more common at UK warehouse, marquee and country-house venues, where you pay a flat fee for the space and then bring in your own caterers, who charge separately per head.

Typical 2026 prices break down by market.

1. In Ireland, hotel packages run €105 to €145 per head for welcome drinks, a 4 or 5 course meal, a half-bottle of wine and a toast, while premium or exclusive-use venues reach €120 to €250 or more per head. The average total venue spend works out around €15,087 across roughly 141 guests.
2. In the UK, a dry-hire venue on its own averages about £6,040, rising to around £8,167 for a peak-season Saturday and falling to about £4,203 mid-week off-peak. Per-head packages average £85 to £138 with a median near £112, or £65 to £110 per head once you strip it back to a welcome drink, a half-bottle of wine and a toast. All in, venue and catering usually lands between £6,000 and £20,000 or more.

A few figures are worth keeping an eye on here.

1. The minimum spend is the smallest amount the venue will accept, often quoted as a minimum guest count for a peak Saturday.
2. The 18% to 25% service charge added to the food and drink bill is a fee rather than a tip.
3. Corkage is what you pay per bottle if you bring your own wine.
4. VAT is often quoted on top by UK luxury venues at 20%, against 13.5% on Irish hospitality.
5. An outside-vendor fee may apply when you bring in a supplier who is not on the venue's preferred list.

Photography

The average Irish wedding photographer costs €2,000 to €4,000 for a full-day package, and in the UK Bridebook puts the 2026 average at £1,484, with typical full-day spend of £1,500 to £4,500 and a mid-market norm around £2,200 to £2,800, while London and the South East run roughly £200 to £500 higher than the rest of the UK. A standard package generally covers 8 to 10 hours on the day, an edited online gallery of 400 to 800 photos, digital print rights and a pre-wedding consultation.

The add-ons are usually quoted separately.

1. A second shooter who covers angles the lead photographer cannot runs €300 to €750 or £400 to £900.
2. An engagement shoot is sometimes included and sometimes €250 to €500 or £200 to £400 extra.
3. A printed album of 30 to 80 pages costs €500 to €1,200 or £400 to £1,000.
4. Extended coverage is charged at €150 to €300 or £120 to £250 per additional hour.
5. Drone photography, where it is legally permitted, runs €200 to €500 or £150 to £400.

Videography

UK average wedding videography spend is around £1,514 according to Bridebook for 2026, with most packages between £500 and £2,500 and the premium end rising past £7,000, while London adds a 20% to 40% premium and Irish videography tracks the UK closely. A standard package covers 8 to 10 hours on the day, a 5 to 10 minute highlight film, which is the deliverable couples actually share, full ceremony and reception recordings, and professional audio. Common upgrades sit on top of that.

1. A 30 to 60 second vertical social-media teaser at €150 to €350 or £120 to £300, which is increasingly a default.
2. Drone footage at €200 to €500 or £150 to £400.
3. A love-story or sit-down interview at a similar price.
4. A longer feature film of 10 to 15 minutes, sometimes a standard premium-tier inclusion.

The detail to pin down in the contract is the turnaround, because it can range anywhere from 2 weeks to 12 months.

Florals and styling

Florals are priced per piece rather than as one flat package, which is exactly why florist quotes look so different from one another. As a rough 2026 guide:

1. A bridal bouquet runs €120 to €300 or £80 to £150.
2. Bridesmaid bouquets are €50 to €100 each or £45 to £75 each.
3. Buttonholes and corsages are €10 to €20 each or £8 to £15 each.
4. Ceremony arrangements for the aisle and altar come to €200 to €500 or £200 to £400.
5. Reception centrepieces run €30 to €150 per table or £40 to £80 per table.

Total floral spend tends to be €800 to €2,000 or £1,000 to £2,000 for a wedding of 80 to 100 guests, climbing to €3,000 to €6,000 or more, or £3,000 and up, for larger weddings with installations such as flower walls, ceremony arches and hanging displays. Delivery, setup and removal fees are often quoted separately, and statement installations move the budget noticeably.

Music, from DJ to live band

The main decision is between a DJ, a live band, or a band and DJ combo for full-evening coverage, with ceremony musicians such as a string quartet, harpist or soloist being a smaller, separate hire. The 2026 going rates work out roughly like this.

1. In Ireland a wedding DJ runs €600 to €2,500, with an after-band 2-hour set around €450 to €750, a full 4-hour night €750 to €1,500 and a full 7-hour day €1,500 to €2,000.
2. In the UK a wedding DJ averages about £1,100, with most couples paying £850 to £1,250.
3. A 4 or 5 piece live band runs €2,400 to €3,200 in Ireland and averages around £1,193 in the UK, with experienced bands £1,400 to £2,000.
4. A band and DJ combo, the most popular all-evening option, runs €2,600 to €3,500 in Ireland.
5. Ceremony musicians sit at €400 to €1,200 or £350 to £1,000.

A few things are worth checking before you book.

1. Bands frequently charge for travel and accommodation, particularly for late-finish weddings.
2. Equipment such as lighting, extra speakers or a fog machine can appear as separate line items.
3. The set length and break structure matters, since two 45-minute sets makes for a very different evening from four 30-minute ones.

Cake

This is the simplest pricing model on the list, though it still has a few traps. As a 2026 guide:

1. A 3-tier wedding cake typically costs €300 to €800 or £250 to £700.
2. Larger or more elaborate cakes, with 5 or more tiers, sugar flowers or hand-painting, reach €800 to €2,000 or more, or £700 to £1,800 and up.
3. The per-serving cost works out around €5 to €10 or £4 to £8.

A few extra charges tend to show up on top of that.

1. Delivery fees, especially for tiered cakes that must be assembled on site.
2. A cake-cutting fee from your venue of €2 to €5 or £1.50 to £4 per guest, which some venues genuinely charge.
3. A tasting fee, sometimes included and sometimes €30 to €80 or £25 to £70.

Hair and makeup

This is priced per person, with separate fees for the bride, the bridesmaids and usually a pre-wedding trial. As a 2026 guide:

1. Bridal hair runs €120 to €300 or £100 to £250, often with a €100 to €180 or £80 to £150 trial on top.
2. Bridal makeup is similar, with a comparable trial.
3. Hair or makeup for bridesmaids and mothers is €60 to €120 each or £50 to £100 each.
4. The bridal party as a whole usually comes to €500 to €1,500 or £400 to £1,300 for a group of 4 to 6.

A few things are worth watching here too.

1. Trial fees are almost always non-refundable against the wedding-day booking.
2. Most artists charge travel if your venue is over 30 miles or 50 km from their base.
3. An early start, say being on site at 6 a.m., normally carries a surcharge.

The other vendors you may still book

Beyond the eight, you will probably also book some combination of a wedding car or transport at €350 to €800 or £300 to £700, an officiant or celebrant at €350 to €700 or £300 to £600 for a humanist celebrant, and extras such as a photo booth at €500 to €800 or £400 to £700 or a magician at €500 to €1,200 or £400 to £1,000. These follow the same logic as everything above, charged per hour or at a flat rate, with travel and extras quoted separately.

A quick glossary of the line items couples find most confusing

Hidden costs that are not in the package price

Most couples are not caught out by the package itself but by what sits outside it, and these are the surprises that come up most often.

1. Travel fees, common once you are more than 50 to 80 km or 30 to 50 miles from the vendor's base and often €100 to €400 or £80 to £350.
2. Overtime, since receptions tend to overrun and vendors charge per hour past the contracted time, usually at a premium rate.
3. Service charges and gratuities of 18% to 25% on catering in both markets.
4. Outside-vendor fees, charged by some venues when you bring in a supplier who is not on their preferred list.
5. Album, print and reprint upsells, where the €500 or £400 album in the brochure becomes €900 or £750 once you upgrade the size, cover and page count.
6. Cake-cutting and corkage charges from the venue.
7. Insurance and permits, with some venues requiring event insurance at €125 to €550 or £100 to £450, or permits for drone use under CAA rules in the UK.
8. Cancellation and rebooking fees, standard in most contracts but rarely flagged on the package sheet.
9. VAT, at 20% on UK venues that quote "plus VAT" against 13.5% on Irish hospitality.

The pattern across all of these is the same, so the single most useful question to ask before you sign is simply, in plain words, whether there is anything you could be charged for on top of this package.

What to ask before booking any vendor package

It is worth sending the same short set of questions to every vendor on your shortlist before you commit, because it takes them about 10 minutes to answer and saves you weeks.

1. What is included in this package, line by line?
2. What does each common add-on for your category cost, whether that is a drinks package, a second shooter, a drone, an extra hour or an extra centrepiece?
3. How does your travel fee work, is it flat, per kilometre or mile, or included up to a radius?
4. What is your overtime rate?
5. What is the deposit and the full payment schedule?
6. What is the cancellation and reschedule policy?
7. What is the delivery timeline for photos, video or the final invoice?
8. What happens if you or a band member falls ill on the day, and do you have a backup?
9. Do you carry liability insurance?
10. Can I see a contract template before I commit?

If a vendor refuses that last question or charges to send a contract, treat it as a signal and walk away.

How to compare three vendor packages in five minutes

The quickest method is a simple spreadsheet with one column per vendor and a row for each thing that actually moves the price.

1. What is included, line by line
2. Base price
3. Cost of the common add-ons relevant to that category
4. Travel fee
5. Overtime or late-finish rate
6. Service charge or VAT where it applies
7. Delivery or handover timeline
8. Deposit percentage
9. Total at the configuration you actually want

The row that really matters is the last one, because two vendors can look €1,000 or £900 apart on the base price and end up identical once you add the album, the second shooter, travel, the service charge and corkage, and just as often it works the other way round.

A simpler, more transparent way to compare packages

The reason this article needs to exist at all is that the current model is broken, because no couple should need a spreadsheet, a glossary and a 30-minute phone call per vendor, across 8 different categories, just to find out what something costs. At Wendor we are building a different version of vendor booking for couples in the UK and Ireland, where packages are listed by line item across every category rather than hidden behind "ask for a quote," add-ons and their prices are shown up front rather than after the deposit, vendors are pre-vetted so the portfolio matches the work you will actually get, and booking, contracts and payments all happen in one place rather than scattered across Instagram, email and PDF brochures.

If you are at the stage where every vendor, across every category, is sending you a different-looking PDF and none of them line up, you can see how it works and join the couples waitlist. It is the version of vendor shopping that finally lets you compare like with like, in minutes.

FAQ

How much does a wedding cost in the UK and Ireland? The average UK wedding in 2026 comes in around £20,600 according to Bridebook, while the average Irish wedding runs roughly €30,000 to €35,000 across multiple Irish industry sources, with the venue alone averaging about €15,087. In both markets venue and catering is the single biggest line item, usually 40% to 50% of the total.

How much does a wedding venue cost in the UK? Dry hire averages about £6,040, rising to roughly £8,167 for a peak Saturday and falling to around £4,203 mid-week off-peak, while per-head packages average £85 to £138 with a median near £112. All in, venue and catering usually runs £6,000 to £20,000 or more.

How much does a wedding venue cost in Ireland? Hotel packages typically run €105 to €145 per head, with premium and exclusive-use venues reaching €120 to €250 or more per head, and the average total venue spend works out around €15,087.

What's the average cost of a wedding photographer in the UK and Ireland? In Ireland it is roughly €2,000 to €4,000 for a full-day package, and in the UK the Bridebook average is about £1,484, with most full-day work between £1,500 and £4,500 and a mid-market norm of £2,200 to £2,800. London and the South East run £200 to £500 higher.

What's included in a wedding videography package? A standard package covers 8 to 10 hours on the day, a 5 to 10 minute highlight film, full ceremony and reception recordings, professional audio and a digital download, with drone footage, social-media teasers and love-story interviews as common upgrades. The UK average is about £1,514, with London running 20% to 40% higher.

How much do wedding flowers cost? Typical floral spend is €800 to €2,000 or £1,000 to £2,000 for a wedding of 80 to 100 guests, rising to €3,000 to €6,000 or more, or £3,000 and up, for larger weddings with installations such as flower walls and ceremony arches. A bridal bouquet runs €120 to €300 or £80 to £150.

How much does a wedding DJ or band cost? A DJ averages about £1,100 in the UK and €600 to €2,500 in Ireland, a four-piece live band averages around £1,193 in the UK with experienced bands £1,400 to £2,000 and €2,400 to €3,200 in Ireland, and a band and DJ combo, the most popular full-evening option, runs €2,700 to €3,500 or roughly £2,000 to £3,000.

How much does a wedding cake cost? A 3-tier cake typically costs €300 to €800 or £250 to £700, while larger or more elaborate cakes can reach €2,000 or £1,800 and up, with a per-serving cost of €5 to €10 or £4 to £8. Watch for cake-cutting fees from your venue of €2 to €5 or £1.50 to £4 per guest.

What hidden costs should I budget for? The usual ones are travel fees, particularly over 30 to 50 miles or 50 to 80 km, overtime, service charges on catering of 18% to 25% in both markets, outside-vendor fees, album upsells, insurance and permits, corkage, cake-cutting and VAT at 20% in the UK or 13.5% on Irish hospitality. Asking whether there is anything you could be charged for on top of the package, in plain words, before signing usually surfaces them.

How do I compare two vendor packages that look completely different? Build a side-by-side spreadsheet covering what is included, the base price, add-on costs, travel, overtime and the delivery timeline. The number that matters is the total at the configuration you actually want, not the headline price.

Tired of comparing PDFs across eight vendor categories just to work out what each one actually charges? Join the Wendor couples waitlist and see transparent packages from pre-vetted UK and Irish wedding vendors, all in one place.