Planning any celebration requires time, effort, and investment, and weddings today come with a vast range of costs—consider the spectrum of intimate courthouse “I do’s” to extravagant affairs. For a 100-person ceremony and evening reception in the South in 2025, including a seated dinner, dessert, bar service, and dancing, you can expect to budget approximately $500 to $1,200 per guest, depending on your desired level of decor and entertainment.
A full service wedding planner like LIghthouse Events is like an architect, contractor and interior designer is to a new home build. Understanding the scope of what planners do helps to concept costs. We suggest anticipating between 5-15 percent of your overall event budget.
We recommend that booking a wedding planner be your first priority, or at the very least, done as soon as possible! The sooner we begin working together, the better we can assist you in researching and securing the vendors—and venues—that will best suit your special day. To ensure we provide the highest level of service to our full-service planning clients, we accept bookings a maximum of 15 months in advance and no less than 4 months before the event.
While offering an excellent service experience, Lighthouse distinguishes itself in one major way: our deep-rooted expertise and industry connections, fostered by our luxury parent company, Beckon Events. With over 15 years of experience and a comprehensive understanding of wedding planning intricacies across the South and beyond, the Lighthouse team benefits from cross-training and ongoing education with the Beckon team. This makes Lighthouse Events the most powerful tool in your wedding vendor toolkit.
Our team takes on no more than 10 events annually. While we have the capacity to take on more with our exceptional team of assistants, we are passionate about delivering high-quality experiences for our clients. To maintain this standard, we take on only one couple’s event(s) per weekend, ensuring that your primary in-office planner—with whom you work closely throughout the planning process—is also the one onsite to serve you on your special day.
For 2025 and 2026, we are focusing on Upstate South Carolina, Northern Georgia, and Central and Western North Carolina.
