What did this summer actually cost your wedding business?
What did this summer actually cost your wedding business?
You had a good summer. The diary was full, the money was coming in and you barely had a weekend off since May.
But somewhere between the quote you sent and the wedding you delivered, money leaked out.
Sally O'Gara is a financial coach for wedding businesses and is going to talk about why this happened and what to do about it for future quotes to ensure your bank balance doesn't supper.
I asked Sally to write this because pricing is the conversation nobody in the wedding world wants to have... and everybody needs to.
The gap between the quote and the reality
You quoted 8 hours for a wedding and spent 11. The extra three hours were never included in the price. The couple paid the same and you took home less.
The quote and the delivery didn't match, and the difference came out of your pocket.
During a heatwave summer, that gap widens and it looks different depending on what you do.
A florist's gap is in replacement stems and rush deliveries when flowers wilt before the ceremony. A photographer's gap is in the extra hours when you can't shoot in midday heat and the day stretches into the evening. A venue's gap is in emergency air con hire at peak prices because every other venue wanted it the same week. A planner's gap is in the last-minute marquee for shade, booked the Friday before at whatever was available.
The costs are different depending on what you do, but the pattern is the same. None of it appears on an invoice to the client. It just reduces what you take home.
Why you don't notice during the season
When you're delivering back-to-back weddings from May to September, there's no moment to sit down and compare what you quoted against what you spent.
You finish one weekend and start prepping for the next. If a wedding costs you an extra £200 in time and materials, you don't write it down, you move on to the next.
That's how it works all summer. You absorb a cost on a Saturday, forget about it by Monday, and by the following weekend there's a new wedding with its own set of problems. Each one feels manageable on its own.
By September, you've absorbed dozens of small overruns across the whole summer. Added together, they can run into thousands.
Why busy doesn't mean profitable
The summer felt busy and profitable, so there's no alarm bell.
But busy and profitable are different things, and peak season is when the gap between them is hardest to see. You were working constantly and receiving money every week, so everything felt like it was going well. That can be true and you can still have leaked thousands in untracked costs across the summer.
It compounds if you don't catch it
Most wedding pros set next year's prices by looking at what they charged this year and adding a bit on. If this year's prices didn't account for what the summer actually cost you, next year's won't either.
Summers are getting hotter. The Met Office recorded 5 heatwaves this year. If your prices were set before that happened, they were set for a version of summer that might not exist anymore.
Each year you carry the same prices forward, the gap gets a little bigger. Your costs keep rising and your quotes don't reflect it. After two or three years, you're doing the same number of weddings and taking home less each year.
The cash flow side
If your summer profit was smaller than you thought, the money sitting in your bank account right now might not stretch as far as you're expecting.
Most wedding businesses have a quieter patch between October and the new year. If the summer didn't leave you with enough to cover that gap, January is going to be tight.
Why October is when to do this
The weddings have slowed down and you've got a bit of breathing room for the first time in months.
The summer is still fresh enough to remember what happened at each wedding. Your suppliers' invoices are still recent enough to check. If you leave it until January, you'll have forgotten the details and you'll set your 2027 prices the same way you set this year's.
How to work out your number
Pick a wedding the heat affected.
Write down every extra cost (replacement materials, rush deliveries, hire fees).
Add the extra hours you worked, at whatever your hourly rate is.
Do that for every wedding the heat hit.
Add it all up, then divide by all the weddings you'll do next year.
Add that number to every 2027 quote.
For example, a florist who spent £345 in extras on 10 heat-affected weddings has £3,450 to spread across 30 weddings. That's £115 on each quote, about 3% on a £3,500 package.
In summary
Every wedding business owner has a version of this summer they've been telling themselves. The version where it went well because the diary was full. That version might be right. But if you haven't checked, your 2027 prices are based on a feeling rather than a number. That's worth 10 minutes of your time this month.
