How Much Did Holly And Jimmy’s Bachelor Wedding Actually Cost?
I have a party trick that I’ve recently had to retire. Not because I’ve gotten less good at it, but because the stage of life I’m now in makes it incredibly awkward.
So what is this magical power? Well. It’s that I can really accurately predict the price of weddings.
Like, down to the dollar.
I know it’s not a skill that is going to save any lives or make the world a better place, but it is one that comes in handy when a celebrity wedding crops up in our feeds. Because I can write articles like this, boldly predicting how much cash their nuptials set them back.
My skills are rooted in *some* relevant experience because I used to work in the world of weddings – specifically, wedding fairs. This meant I got to meet a bunch of vendors, designers, planners, celebrants, etc. and that built a matrix within my mind of the real costs of most wedding-ish things.
Now I can see a bouquet of flowers and tell you how much it costs in June vs. in December. IT’S WEIRD, I KNOW.
But I’m going to flex my wedding-prediction-muscles today for you in a big way. Because Jimmy Nicholson and his Bachelor winner, Holly Kingston, got married this weekend and the photos are everywhere and I need to decode them before I explode.
So here they are – my predictions for the real cost of Holly and Jimmy’s wedding.
Holly and Jimmy’s wedding venue.
This is usually the most hefty section of the wedding budget. In fact, most people spend around 50% of their total wedding budget on the venue alone – so get mentally ready for a big number.
Holly and Jimmy got married in Palm Beach, Sydney, a very popular wedding spot thanks to its stunning beaches and not-to-far proximity to the city. It’s kinda like a destination wedding without the faff.
While the couple didn’t tag the venue in any of their Instagram posts, sources report that they had their wedding ceremony at Jimmy’s parent’s house in Palm Beach – which I’m going to assume came free of charge.
They kicked the party on to Pasadena, Church Point – a very nice restaurant and hotel in the area. While their prices aren’t publicly listed, a room for the night will set you back $269, so that gives you an indication of the boujiness.
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My prediction for the cost here would be a minimal spend of $20,000 – working at around $200 per head for a 100-person guest list to cover food. And that’s just for the wedding. So you’re adding accommodation you’re chipping in for on top of that.
So let’s round it up to $30,000 for wedding reception, rooms for a few family and friends, booze to go behind the bar and the recovery breakfast the next morning.
Total predicted wedding venue cost: $30,000
Holly Kingston’s wedding dress.
Now this is my favourite part of investigating, because who doesn’t love snooping at fancy dresses within work hours?
I didn’t even need the social tag to know Holly was wearing an Anna Campbell gown. The dress features their signature straight neckline and low back (a dead giveaway), and she wore a custom Anna Campbell gown for her hen’s party, meaning she was working with the designer then (a dead-er giveaway).
While I am certain that Holly’s wedding dress was a custom gown, it’s a fusion of these two Anna Campbell dresses – one being $5,599 and the other being $7,499.
Image Source: Anna Campbell Bridal (River Fitted dress and Milano dress).
So averaging those costs and adding the ‘custom’ tax on top, my prediction for Holly’s dress is $8,000.
Oh, and cathedral-length veils are usually about $800 a pop. So let’s add that on top.
Total predicted wedding dress and veil cost: $8,800.
Holly Kingston’s wedding accessories cost.
Don’t be daft in thinking that the costs stop at the dress… oh this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Extra bridal look costs include this massive list:
- Wedding shoes
- Wedding earrings
- Wedding jewellery
- Wedding ring
- Wedding hair and makeup
- Wedding hair and makeup trial (sneaky)
- Fake tan
- Manicure and pedicure
- Second wedding look outfit (short dress and comfier shoes)
We don’t have insights into all of these details from Holly yet, so I’m going to use the rule of averages here and skew them slightly up because she’s famous, so I’m assuming she’s not going to the local high street for a bargain mani-pedi.
Here are my price predictions:
- Wedding shoes = $3,000
- Wedding earrings = $500
- Wedding jewellery = $300
- Wedding ring = $2,000
- Wedding hair and makeup = $2,000
- Wedding hair and makeup trial (sneaky) = $200
- Fake tan = $200
- Manicure and pedicure = $200
- Second wedding look outfit (short dress and comfier shoes) = $400
Total predicted wedding accessories cost: $6,100.
And remember, this is just for the bride. No bridesmaids are included in this bill.
Holly and Jimmy’s wedding planning cost.
The Bachelor couple opted for Honey Lane as their wedding stylist (an excellent choice, if I do say so myself). For those new to the wedding lingo, the role of a ‘wedding stylist’ can be quite varied, but it often includes all floral arrangements, furniture sourcing, signage, dinner crockery and decorating. Essentially they’re responsible for the look and feel of the whole thing – no pressure!
It looks like they had around 100-150 guests at their wedding and as Holly and Jimmy documented meetings with their wedding planner throughout their engagement, so my prediction is they opted for a full wedding planning and wedding styling package.
I contacted Honey Lane for their pricing guide to have a snoop, and this kind of scale and style wedding is looking at around $14,500 for the whole shebang. I can’t wait for more photos of what they did to come out, because they are wedding magicians.
Total predicted wedding planning and styling cost: $14,500.
Holly and Jimmy’s wedding flower cost.
Interestingly, Honey Lane don’t actually do floral design in-house, but they work with florists, so that may be an extra few $$ on the bill. I’m predicting another couple of grand on top of this styling budget – likely around $10,000.
The couple actually spoke on their flower budget earlier in the year, saying this:
“When it came to flowers, we were like, ‘We don’t care’… we just don’t like the idea of spending all this money on flowers and they get thrown out the next day,” Jimmy told the Daily Mail.
So the couple said they planned to take all the leftover flowers from their wedding to a nursing home the next day. “It’s repurposing something. Because I would just hate to spend money on something that just gets thrown out.”
Total predicted wedding flower cost: $10,000
Holly and Jimmy’s wedding photographer cost.
The couple hired Julian Rinaldi as their wedding photographer – a pretty well-known snapper amongst Aussie celebs. Now, Julian doesn’t list his prices anywhere, which is usually an indication that he’s really expensive… so I’m going to guess that he would have charged around $10,000 for his services (as the average mid-range photographer would be around the $6 to $7k pricepoint).
I’m unsure at this point if they hired a videographer, but based on their line of work I’m going to assume video footage was a priority and so I’m whacking at least another $7,000 on for a videographer to capture the day.
I know that’s a lot of money, but this is one of the only parts of a wedding day that you get to keep forever, so $17,000 spent amidst a chonky wedding budget doesn’t feel too excessive. And look at the photos man…
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Total predicted wedding photographer cost: $17,000
All the other wedding costs.
There are still a bazillion costs to tick through, but I’m honestly getting stressed about the prices of everything, so I’m going to wrap up the extra costs in a shorter, less-terrifying way.
Transport: $2,000
They would have needed to get from the ceremony to the reception venue, and likely up to Palm Beach in general somehow. They also took a lil boat trip during the day, and boats are famously not cheap, so I’m predicting about $2,000 on transport costs for the celebrations.
Jimmy’s suit: $1,500
Jimbo loves a nicely tailored suit, so I’m going slightly above average cost for his tuxedo.
Bridesmaids: $2,400
If Holly and Jimmy chipped in for the bridal party, then I reckon it would have been at least $300 per dress and $1,500 for hair and makeup on the day. I believe that from memory, Holly ‘bridesmaid proposed’ to three of her friends – so I’m calculating $2,400 all up.
Groomsmen: $1,800
Again this is based on Holly and Jimmy coughing up for the groomsmen’s suits – which are, on average, around $600 per person. Multiplying that by three to match the bridesmaid, bringing it to $1,800.
Invites: $800
Printed invitations can be super spenny – especially if you’re doing ‘Save The Dates’ and ‘RSVP’ snail mail – so I think it would be normal to chuck $800 towards invites.
Live Band / DJ: $2,000
DJs are obviously a smidge cheaper than a live band, so if they just got someone on the decks I think it would have been about $900 and if they opted for a band then that’s more like $2,000. I feel like they would be band people, right?!
Wedding Celebrant: $950
Wedding celebrants are usually priced between $400 ad $1500 in Sydney, so I’m going to predict they went smack bang in the middle and paid $950.
Something we can never be sure about until the brand tagging takes place is just how much of this wedding is sponsored. They could have had thousands sliced and diced off their budget because of #sponcon so potentially their final figure is a lot smaller.
We know this is definitely the strat they went for with their honeymoon as the two have been gallivanting around the globe for their ‘100 honeymoon’ campaign. Yes, where they go on 100 free honeymoons together. It’s impossible to not feel jealous when you read that, so just turn green and breathe deeply.
So, how much did Holly Kingston and Jimmy Nicholson’s wedding cost?
If we’re adding up all the prickly little prices, then the grand total comes to…
Drum roll please…
$97,850
If you take into account that the average wedding in Australia costs $34,715, Holly and Jimmy have definitely upped the ante from that price point.
But it looked like they had a bloody good time! Can’t wait for more pics to be released so I can be certain of my wedding cost predictions. Until then, I’m gonna take a nap because this was way too much math for a Monday morning.
Image Credit: Julian Rinaldi Instagram.