You budget for the obvious things. Venue. Food. Dress. Photographer. Flowers. Those are the big numbers, so naturally they get most of the attention. The trouble is, weddings are very good at producing smaller costs that don't feel especially dramatic on their own. £60 here. £120 there. Another little upgrade somewhere else. And before you know it, the final total has wandered a long way from the one you started with.

Here are some of the wedding costs that are easy to miss — and a few ways to stop them catching you out.

Alterations and Finishing Touches

Buying the outfit is not always the end of the spend. Wedding dresses may need hemming, taking in, straps adjusting or more significant alterations. Suits can need tailoring too, especially if they've been bought well in advance. Then there are the extras around them: shoes, underwear, jewellery, hair accessories, steaming, pressing and sometimes dry cleaning afterwards.

If you're buying from a boutique or tailor, ask for a realistic idea of alteration costs before you commit. A dress that looks like the cheaper option can become quite a bit less cheap once several rounds of alterations are added. And if you know the outfit needs major changes, build that into the budget from the start rather than hoping it will be “just a little tweak”.

Delivery, Setup and Collection Fees

Hire prices can look very reasonable until everything else is added. Flowers may have a delivery fee. Cakes may cost extra to transport. Furniture and décor hire can include separate setup and collection charges. There may also be an extra fee for collecting items the following morning rather than the same night.

When comparing suppliers, ask for the all-in price for getting the item to the venue, setting it up if needed, and collecting it afterwards. That makes it much easier to compare two quotes properly. A £200 hire price is not necessarily cheaper than a £260 one if another £100 appears further down the invoice.

Venue Extras That Are Not Always in the Package

Venue packages vary hugely, which makes this one particularly easy to miss. Depending on the venue, you may need to pay extra for things such as corkage, cake cutting, extra staffing, security, additional hours, linen, furniture, ceremony room hire or cleaning. None of those charges are unusual. The problem is simply not realising they are separate until much later. The devil really is in the detail with this one!

Before booking, ask what's included in the package and what could result in an additional charge. It can also be useful to ask for a list of optional extras and their prices. You may not want any of them now, but at least you'll know what an upgrade actually costs before deciding that another hour at the bar sounds like a brilliant idea.

Feeding People You Did Not Count as Guests

Your guest number is not always the same as your catering number. Depending on how long they are working, photographers, videographers, planners, bands, DJs and other suppliers may need a meal. Some suppliers include this requirement in their contract. Others may simply need something basic rather than the full wedding breakfast.

Check what each supplier requires and ask the venue what it charges for supplier meals. It's much easier to budget for six extra meals in advance than discover them when you submit the final catering numbers. Children’s meals are worth checking too. They may be cheaper than adult meals, but they still need to be included.

Printing, Postage and the 'One More Thing' Stationery Problem

Invitations are often the first stationery cost bu tthey’re rarely the last. There may also be save-the-dates, menus, place cards, table names, a seating plan, order-of-service booklets, welcome signs and thank-you cards. Then there's postage. And reprinting something because three guests changed their plans after you pressed order. Decide early which items genuinely need to be printed.

A wedding website can handle practical information such as directions, accommodation, timings and FAQs without another round of cards going into envelopes. For anything dependent on the final guest list, leave printing as late as possible. Just not so late that you're cutting out table names at midnight two days before the wedding.

Transport Can Grow Beyond the Wedding Car

It's easy to budget for the couple’s transport and forget about everybody else. If the ceremony and reception are in different places, guests may need moving between them. You might decide to put on a coach from a hotel, arrange late-night transport, pay parking charges or organise taxis for immediate family. Transport costs can grow quickly when you start trying to solve the journey for every guest.

Before booking anything, work out who genuinely needs transport provided and who can make their own arrangements. If you're putting on a coach, ask guests to confirm whether they actually plan to use it. Paying for 50 seats because 50 people might need them can get expensive very quickly.

Overtime

This is one worth checking before the wedding rather than during it. Venues, photographers, bands, DJs, bar staff and transport providers may all charge extra if they work beyond the agreed finish time. Sometimes that extra hour is absolutely worth it. You just want to know what it costs before somebody decides at 11.55pm that the party definitely needs another 60 minutes.

Check overtime rates in advance and decide who's allowed to agree extra time on the day. That way the decision can be made deliberately rather than because an enthusiastic guest has started negotiating with the DJ.

Accommodation

Accommodation can spread beyond the room you have booked for yourselves. There may be rooms for the wedding party, parents, children or suppliers who are travelling a long way. You might also end up paying for the night before, late checkout or breakfast the following morning.

Be clear early on about what you are covering and what guests are expected to book themselves. If a venue offers a room allocation, also check whether you become responsible for any rooms that are not taken. A discounted room rate sounds lovely until you discover you have accidentally guaranteed twelve of them.

The Day-After Spend

Wedding budgets have a habit of ending at the last dance but spending, not so much. The following morning might involve breakfast or brunch, taxis, collecting decorations, returning hired items, storing flowers, cleaning something or feeding a collection of tired people who have suddenly developed very specific opinions about bacon sandwiches.

You don't need a huge separate budget for the next day, but it's worth thinking through what's happening once the wedding itself finishes. Particularly if you're responsible for returning hired items by a certain time. Late fees are a fairly irritating souvenir.

Give Yourself a Proper Buffer

Even a very detailed wedding budget will probably miss something. That’s more than normal. Rather than pretending you can predict every cost perfectly, leave a small part of the budget unallocated for the extras that appear later.

The important bit is keeping that buffer as a buffer. If you spend it immediately on an upgrade, it's simply become part of the main budget. The expensive surprises are rarely one huge bill you forgot about. More often, it's twenty smaller ones that all add up!