Destination Wedding in Portugal Cost: A Full Budget Breakdown!
Does it feel impossible to know what your destination wedding in Portugal will cost? Imagine knowing what the whole thing will cost, before you book anything. Today, I am going to take you through a full line by line budget breakdown, not of estimates or starting prices, but of actual costs, we have actually spent on destination weddings in Portugal and I'm not leaving anything out. So if you want a no BS budget breakdown, stick around.
Now we've planned events all over this beautiful country, from Porto to the Douro Valley, to Guimaraes and Amares in the north, to Sintra and Lisbon in the south. If you’ve read our blog on Cheapest Wedding Destinations in Europe - you know Portugal is on that list!
So we've got some pricing data to share with you. So let's jump right in.
We are going to cover everything vendor by vendor in this video, food and beverage, photo, video, entertainment, hair and makeup, floral, rentals, decor, lighting, stationery, transportation, excursions, venue, and little extras that people forget to budget for. All the prices today I'm going to be sharing are in US dollars. They were converted at the time that our previous clients paid for these expenses. Prices increase year over year. We see typically up to a 10% increase across the board and of course the exchange rate from the Euro to the US dollar changes daily.
One little fun note before we jump in: something we've learned from working in the Portuguese market over the last several years is that there is a division between northern Portugal and southern Portugal when it comes to wedding goods.
What we've gathered is that Northern Portugal tends to be a little bit more traditional with southern Portugal being a bit more trendy. Now, do I personally believe this? Not necessarily. You can get pretty much anything anywhere in the country because it's so small, but you might notice a trend in this video of which region is more expensive.
Food & Beverage
So let's jump right in with food and beverage prices. We do a lot of multi-day weddings here. As you know, that's our specialty. So for food and beverage, we actually have all the data for a two or three day long experience where there's a wedding dinner, a welcome dinner, and potentially a brunch the next day. In one circumstance with a wedding in the northern part of Portugal, our couple spent $225 USD per person on the wedding dinner, including an open barn and $65 USD per person on a very casual welcome buffet barbecue the night before with beer and wine only. The brunch was rolled into the venue cost, so that was $0, which we'll get to when we talk about venues. So if we were to add those together, they spent roughly $290 USD per person for the weekend. Another wedding in southern Portugal, we had a couple spend $307 USD per person that included a welcome dinner with an open bar, the wedding dinner with an open bar during dancing in a limited bar during cocktail hour and dinner and a brunch with beer, wine and mimosas. So a little bit more expensive, but they also got a little bit more so overall pretty comparable so far.
2. Photography
Let's move on to photography. Photography is one of those very subjective vendors where you can spend incredible amounts to get the photographer that you really want or you could go a more budget route. We're kind of in the middle of the road with the photographers that our previous couples have chosen. In one circumstance we had a couple spend $11,000 USD on their photographer. They were a local photographer and that price included two photographers for the entire wedding day and then three hours on the welcome day the night before for one photographer. So they were able to capture the whole weekend. In another circumstance, we had a couple spend $6,600 USD on a photographer. That was again, for two photographers on the wedding day all day and one photographer for a few hours the night before on the welcome dinner as well. So even just there you can see this big swing, those are largely the same inclusions across both of those packages and still there's about a $5,000 difference. Both of these photographers, I would say, are above average of the industry norm in skill and editing style, meaning you can absolutely book a cheaper photographer in Portugal, they might just have different editing styles. Maybe less years of experience and maybe they haven't been published in Vogue or other known publications that make them typically a little bit more expensive.
3. Videography
Let's jump to videography. We had one couple spend $6,900 USD on their videographer in Portugal that was for one videographer for 12 hours on the wedding day, four hours on the day before for the welcome day. Another couple spent $4,600 USD and that was for the wedding day only, but they had a drone… that was pretty cool. Same thing goes for videographers and photographers, you can always opt for a less expensive option. There are options in the market in Portugal that are less expensive. They're just different!
4. Entertainment
Let's jump now to entertainment. There's something about the weddings that we've done in Portugal and the couples we've worked with that have just been nuts for entertainment. So we've had the privilege of working with almost every kind of instrument you can imagine. We had one couple with everything for the weekend lumped into one sum spend $12,600 USD, which let me just say that is above average on entertainment, but this is what it included: we had a welcome day guitarist, a ceremony and cocktail hour string trio, an actual wedding band for dancing and then there was a DJ for the after party. In addition to that, on the third day that they had a pool party style day, there was another DJ and a saxophonist. So that's a lot, but that's honestly a pretty good value for dollar for all of those entertainers in one price. And that includes all of their equipment, all of their travel from where they were inside of Portugal! In a different circumstance, we had a couple spend $5,800 USD on their entertainment package that included a jazz trio for the welcome night before the wedding, a trio for ceremony and cocktail hour, and then a DJ for dancing.
Also categorized under entertainment. I would put a live painter. We've spent $1600 USD on a live painter in Portugal. We've also spent $1500 USD on a custom photo booth experience in Portugal as well.
5. Hair and Makeup
Let's move on to hair and makeup. So for one wedding, we spent just over $1,400 USD that included the bride's hair and makeup, a trial and five guests, hair and makeup that was in the north. And at another wedding we spent $1700 USD that was for the bride's hair and makeup, the trial, and four people for hair and makeup, and that was in the south. So it was just a little bit more expensive.
6. Floral
Let's move on to floral. For one circumstance, we spent $8,300 USD on flowers. That included flowers for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception space. That also included some custom day of stationery. So I kind of want to pull that out because we're going to talk about stationary in a minute. But if you were to take the custom stationery out of this total, their flowers were really closer to $7,500 USD. In another circumstance, we've had a couple spend $10,000 USD on their flowers, but that also included flowers for the welcome reception as well as ceremony flowers, cocktail flowers and reception flowers. And this couple's ceremony was a little bit more blown out with bigger, more lush and aisle pieces in addition to actual ceremony pieces than the first price I gave. So that makes sense why it's a little bit more expensive.
7. Rentals, Decor, Lighting
Let's talk about rentals, lighting, decor, and I want to break the lineup. So let's start with lighting specifically. We spent $2,400 USD for a really beautiful courtyard lighting installation. It was a very heavy curtain of twinkle lights. It was stunning, absolute show stopping and very high value for dollar! In my opinion, the impact that it gave for that low of a price compared to what you would've gotten for flowers for $2,400 USd was just above and beyond. We've also spent $800 USD for uplighting in Portugal. If you count fireworks as lighting, we spent $400 USD on a fire curtain…it shoots cold flame down. It's really cool.
Now for rentals, we had one couple spend around $4,300 USD to upgrade chairs, linens, and tabletop pieces. So charger, glassware, flatware napkins. In another circumstance, we spent $4,800 USD for similar types of upgrades including specialty bar upgrades and a specialty pool installation. We've had a couple spend $15,000 USD for just even more specialty upgrades, a couple different bars, the tabletops, the linens, nicer chairs, a lounge, a dance floor that also included dance floor lighting movers, specialty cocktail hour tables. So that one really went full throttle. But I do want to just put the caveat here that I'm throwing around these prices of $4,000 - $15,000, but truly if you're trying to do this on a budget, this cost could be zero. These couples were just opting to add in some extra fun touches to enhance the aesthetic of their wedding. If you want to lean into the beauty of your venue and the view and what's already there, because Portugal is a beautiful country, you can use the free stuff. So the caterer is going to bring basic plates that are china, basic flatware, glassware, white napkins and white linens plus the chairs that already exist at the venue are typically fine. So if you really don't care about this type of stuff, don't get scared of these numbers. It can be zero.
8. Stationery
So we run the gamut of templated stationery, semi custom stationery and fully custom stationery just depending on what our client's preferences are. So we've had a couple spend about $140 USD for their save the date on a templated website like minted. We've had another couple spend $558 USD on a templated website like minted just because they selected more premium options. We've had a couple spend just about $170 USD on an invitation from minted (with less people to send that to and less premium options selected). We've had a couple getting married in Portugal, spend $375 USD on a semi custom invitation from Etsy. And then as far as the day of pieces go, which include your menu, your table numbers, your place cards, your escort cards, etc. we had one couple spend $730 USD for fully custom day of pieces and signage. And then we had another couple spend $3,300 USD for just a bigger package of day of pieces and signage with more guests. That included ceremony programs, bar menu, custom napkins, two different kinds of guest books and signage, table numbers and place cards.
9. Transportation
Let's talk about transportation now. So we've spent $3,500USD for transportation that would take two groups of people from the city to the wedding venue and then also did a couple different buses from the wedding venue out to excursions the day of the wedding and back.
10. Excursions
Speaking of excursions, we've spent around $315 USD per person for a guided river cruise and lunch experience with a wine tasting in the Douro Valley. Douro Valley is one of those pockets of northern Portugal that's a little bit more expensive. So if you're doing something that's more like a day trip in Porto or Lisbon, you probably won't be spending that much, but just wanted to give the price for something a little bit more premium. It was so cool.
11. Venue
Let's talk about the venue. I always wait until the end to talk about the venue. I think it's so important when you're wedding budgeting to do all of the extras first and then put your venue on top of it because it really puts into context what you have to give up if your venue is making you go over budget before you book it.
So for venues, we have run the gamut on pricing. In Portugal, you really can go as low as you want to as high as you want. In one of our more premium cases, they spent $77,000 USD on their venue. They had it for three nights. It sleeps about 40 guests, and this is in high season, so the rates are a little bit more expensive. They would've saved around $7,000 USD if they had done something in the off season. You can also do a two night package instead of a three night package. They would've saved $10,000 USD in that case. I don't want you to get scared by that number because it is one of the most expensive wedding venues in the country. That's just because it's really beautiful, you get it for three nights, it sleeps 40 people and it's in a really good location. It’s just a luxury option!
However, on the complete opposite side of the spectrum and opposite side of the country going up north, we've had a couple spend $12,000 USD on their venue. That was for two nights and it could sleep 70 people, almost twice as much as the first venue! Those were also high season rates. And at that venue too, and a lot of other properties in Portugal, you don't have to pay that money to buy out the property if you're okay with it not being exclusive to your group. So if they had done that, it would've been $0. They would've just paid for food and beverage and the guests could pay for whatever hotel rooms they would want in that property. So again, don't be scared by the numbers. Of course, the more you pay, the more you're going to get in the sense of privacy and potentially luxury level and of course a better season. But you can absolutely find a venue that is way less.
Speaking of, here is a list of some of the best small wedding venues in Europe and costs, and they're also some of the cheapest, so be sure to check that out for some more down to earth pricing.
12. Contingency + Extras!
Now, let’s discuss the extras that come with having a destination wedding in Portugal and costs. We are really conservative when it comes to budgeting for weddings abroad because we want to make sure we put money aside for things that are out of our control. We have a general contingency line just for things that come up that we didn't expect, but also for changes in the exchange rate if the value of the USD drops against the Euro. Also bank fees for wire transfers. For all of this, we've had couples put aside between $3,000 and $5,000. Also, there are extras like your travel, your wedding rings, your wardrobe for the day and the weekend itself. These are incredibly subjective and vary person by person based on what your personal budget is. But we've seen couples spend between $3,000 and 7,000 on things like that, not including the honeymoon.
Now you know exactly what to expect and look for in the market when you're planning your destination wedding in Portugal and the cost. Your next steps now are to watch this video for my tips to plan a low budget destination wedding in Europe.
Or if you’re contemplating a wedding in Italy, you’re gonna wanna check out our blog: Destination Wedding in Italy Cost, Full Budget Breakdown next!
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