How much money did I spend on my wedding in South Korea?

Preparing for a wedding in South Korea and wondering how much money you might have to spend? The price is not the same for everyone and it depends on the general location, number of guests, and your budget. But here is an example of how much you could spend on a wedding in Gangnam, Seoul, for around 100-150 guests.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not a Korean wedding expert. This is based on personal experience. 

---

Wedding Venue (TOTAL: 8.45 million won = approximately 7,500 USD)

• Down Payment: 1 million won
• Remaining Balance: 2.6 million won
• 150 invitation cards and meal tickets: 100,000 won
• Day-of (Staff, flower shower, fireworks): 200,000 won
• Food: 35,000 won x No. of guests (130): 4.55 million won

Studio-Dress-Make-up (TOTAL: 3.4 million won = approximately 3,000 USD)

• Down Payment: 226,000 won
• Remaining Balance: 2 million won
• Trying on dresses: 30,000 won
• Extra fee for more pages for the wedding album: 750,000 won
• Extra fee for choosing which photos to put in the album: 100,000 won
• Dress helper (cash): 150,000 won + 150,000 won

Outfits/Accessories (TOTAL: 2.6 million won = approximately 2,300 USD)

• Two wedding rings: 800,000 won
• Hanbok rental: 400,000 won
• Suit (purchased): 1 million won
• Kimono rental: 400,000 won

Miscellaneous (TOTAL: 3 million won = approximately 2,700 USD)

• After-party for my relatives: 200,000 won (cafe space rental and drinks)
• Gifts for my relatives (Korean spoon and chopsticks): 300,000 won
• Buying meals for friends when you hand the wedding invitations: 500,000 won
• Hotel and some airplane tickets for relatives who come from abroad: 2 million won

---

TOTAL AMOUNT SPENT FOR MY WEDDING:

17.45 million KRW

= approximately 15,600 USD

And on top of that we also paid for our honeymoon trip. But we were also able to pay for this with some help of our parents, and in the end we got some money back from the guests’ wedding money.

I feel like I paid more for my wedding because I trusted the wedding planner’s decision too much. If I did more research on Korean weddings, then I definitely could have cut down this cost by a few million won. For example, instead of making a huge and heavy wedding album, I could’ve simply edited my own album online on a cheaper website. I could have also had a shorter wedding photo shoot with less dresses (mine was five hours).

---

How much did your wedding cost?