£13,000 Wedding Budget - is it possible?

It all depends on how fancy your wedding is going to be and how many bridesmaids your having etc etc. My total budget is half the size of yours but Im only having 60 guests so my recepetion is costing less than yours.

Totally do able. We spent about £16k but could have easily spent much less if we had compromised on certain things (we saw an amazing venue that we couldnt really afford but couldnt make ourselves not have it)

Our reception is 5,500 with food day and night and civil service and we think we'll end up spending 9,000 tops in total without the honeymoon so yes.... I think so. I've worked out numbers to be 8,250 but keeping hold of the extra just in case

My dress was just short of 1,000 and i'm having a bridesmaid and 2 flower girls and we have 4 grooms men to get suited and booted. We're being careful and not going daft but if theres something we want we are finding budget for it.

tell him not to worry.... you'll be fine

Firstly please do not panic. I think that £13,000 is a workable budget and you can have a lovely day for far less than that. We are having 85 people to the day and another 35 in the evening and our wedding is costing about £10,000.

A freind is doing the catering, my Aunt is doing the flowers and anoter friend is making the cake. By getting them all to help out really has made a difference.

I would set out your budget and then realistically you can add up everything with a maximum budget for each item ie iff you budget £1000 for the dress and pay £800 you have an extra 200 to spend on the flowers for example.

Good luck

£13k is a well do-able budget - use the planner on this site to help you. use your money where your priorities are, and cut back on things you feel aren't as important or are superfluous. the general rule is spend the money on the things that last or mean most to you (e.g. photos or rings)

and i guess it depends on whereabouts in the country you are - £13k is a great budget, but still might not go as far as you want somewhere like central london....

welcome to hitched btw ?

I would say totally do-able! Like others have said you just need to work out what your priorities are & agree what areas you can economise on or go with it. A friend of mine did it on a £6K budget (not incl. honeymoon) so it can be done!

I would say that £13,000 is plenty for a good wedding and reception.

My wedding cost around £8000 with the honeymoon around £1500. We had 80 guests for the ceremony and (sit down) meal, and a further 50 in the evening (with evening buffet), we had all wine and beer free for the whole day. Canapes, champagne and pimms for immediately after the ceremony with a pianist for the drinks and for the entire meal. Photographer for about 5 hours, including album, and DJ in the evening.

My dress was £600, we hired 6 mens suits. The ceremony was held at the same venue as the reception, so we didn't need a car. We saved a lot of money as our venue was licenced but didn't have their own caterers or bar, so we hired our own caterers and had a friend of a friend manage the bar for us - we bought all the alcohol wholesale (the beer/larger/water) or special offer (M&S for the wine). We had the (chocolate) wedding cake with strawberries and ice-cream for dessert. I did the invitations & order of services myself, and all the table decorations (I bought vases from Wilkinsons, filled with white sand then candles and rose petals)

We had exactly the day we wanted. I think there's only a few things I'd change - I'd have the photographer for longer (knowing now what I didn't know 4 years ago!) and I'd invite different friends.

Of course it's possible!!!

I have four grand to spend on mine. Maximum £400 on my dress, shoes etc. Three bridesmaids, one of them (my sister) is buying her own dress. The hotel is 1700 for 100 guests sit down meal and function rooms and drinks package.

I would love to have some of these extra touches like a fabulous venue. However I'm marrying the man I love in front of all my family and close friends. That is important. I couldn't justify spending £10,000 on a wedding when that could pay off a chunk of my mortgage or buy me a new car.

If your H2B is worried then listen to his concerns. It is his wedding too and if he's concerned about the money then you should be too?

I agree with DianeB - if he's concerned you should sit down and talk about it. It would be awful for you both if he spends the runup to the wedding worrying about money and then not being able to enjoy the day fully if he thinks too much money has been spent. Maybe you should set aside some time to talk about it in detail - get a spreadsheet going to see the breakdown of your costs. This might put his mind to rest but if not it will help you both see what you really want to have and what's not quite so important to you, and you can adjust your budget accordingly.

I really think your budget is more than ample though so if you do decide to go with £13k then it should be fine. It is very tempting to get carried away with it all but the main point of the day is that you are standing up in front of your family and friends and making an incredibly important commitment to each other. Don't be fooled into believing that you "really should have" this that and the other - none of it matters as much as the fact that you're getting married.

Yes it is entirely possible!! We wish we'd had your budget...

For £6.5K we did the whole wedding, from the favours to the church, the flowers, to feeding 100 people a four course dinner. We did things on a budget but nobody knew. A friend took the photos, did the video, drove us in their fancy BMW... there's loads of ways you can save money.

Ebay and ikea were a godsend!

My advice if you need to cut budget is to shop around and do not be afraid to inform your favourite supplier you have found it cheaper elsewhere... it's all part of the fun! If you take the first one you find you'll have nothing to do in the last couple of months.

Happy Planning!!

Claire x

Its quite possible.

We're having a church wedding followed by a wedding reception meal for 40 and an evening for 100-110.

We have 1 Bm and 1 Usher - although may possibly have no BM's as they are too stressful lol!

OOur budget excluding the HM is £6250 inclkuding cars, photgraphers you name it! but I am getting my boquet and BM if I have one as a present.

Our wedding is costing us about £6500 which now a days is really cheap, I done everything on budget, gone to the sales, called on favours and just looked around for the best deals. We arent having a honeymoon this year as we cant afford it, so will be saving for that after the wedding and will be doing it on our first or second anniversary. I am having the wedding of my dreams and havent spent over mjy budget.

£13000 should be enough but it does depend on how much certain things cost like venue, your dress etc

Good luck and enjoy preparing, im loving every minute, lol

Zoe

Whats with the angry face? I appreciate what your saying but i dont think there is any need for the attitude. You dont know me and you have no idea how important my wedding or my fiance for that matter, are to me! I was just asking for a little reassurance from people who were going through the same thing and dont appreciate being told to 'sit down and discuss things'. Thanks for the input but maybe keep it to yourself next time.

That last message was for Diane B

Hi there

Check out 'cheap wedding success' website for hints and tips. The site owner did her whole wedding including engagement ring and honeymoon for under £5k. If you ahven't already set a date choose off season, It's perfectly do-able ?

happy planning!

Thanks for all your help and advice girlies! MrsMcB2B we have already set a date but thanks anyway and i will definitely check that website out. Like so many of you have said there definitely are things that are more importnat to us than others and having used the budget planner on here we have set realistic limits for everything and come in under budget anyway! I think it all just gets a bit overwhelming when you first start planning and it's nice to share tips and experiences with other brides to be. I am loving planning things already and will be sure to kee you all updated!

Thanks again

xx

Whats the problem?!

You asked for opinions, saying your H2B was worried about the budget......the general opinion was you can do it, but Is it worth it if your Other Half is going to be worrying about how much its all costing! You would be better off discussing the budget before you start planning...

On hitched, we tend to give honest answers, instead of just agreeing with everything you post. So if you're wanting us all to agree and not post if we have an opinion different to yours, you're in the wrong place.

Sorry if that comes across as Harsh, but there was no need for that post!

I agree. You asked for opinions and advice and people gave them including that you should sit down with your h2b and discuss it. If you don't like honest opinions don't come onto Hitched.

For what is it worth having £13k to spend is more than doable and I'm doing it on less and still having the wedding of my dreams so it all depends on what you want your day to be like.

WSS!

Weddingprincess, budgets are very personal things. you have been given practical tips and honest opinions here, some more vocal than others, but hitched forum members pride themselves on not just being yes-people. so if you ask a question you'll get an honest answer - its not personal.

and this isn't directed at you, but equally i think it's rude to comment negatively on people's budgets for their weddings - both if they are spending lots or spending little. its no-ones business but their own (hence the reason why so many people on here are reluctant to share their own budget information)

I agree Blue, People dont tend to go into a lot of detail about budgets on here and personally I dont get what the hubbub is about really, You decide what you are spending and stick to it. £13.000 on a wedding is a hell of a lot to me but then I did our wedding on a lot less and had the perfect day.

Just sit and go through what it is you simply cannot do without, total up that cost then see what you have left for the other frills

HTH

Our budget was originally £16k. We spent about £13k.

We had a very traditional white wedding: church followed by reception (coach for guests and posh car for us), with drinks and canapes, then 3 course meal, for 70 people, the big cake, the white (well, ivory) dress, suit hire for H, 2 ushers, BM and 2 dads, favours, dresses and shoes for BMs, all the usual stationery, an evening disco and food, first night hotel, gifts for mothers, BMs, GM, flowers ... followed by a £2k HM. Oh, and photographer and videographer as well.

We saved on certain things, ie made our own stationery, and spent more on others (upped no of BMs from 2 to 3 and spent more than planned on dresses for them) but we could have easily cut even more costs.

However there are so many people on here who have much, much lower budgets and have all the same stuff that I did - and there are people with much higher budgets.

Hi Wedding Princess

13k is absolutely fine and you may even come well under for that. DOn't spend it unless you have to!

Our wedding came to £50 short of our budget of £10k, and honeymoon was £2k (paid for by our wonderful in laws)

A little breakdown for you:

Reception for 90: included 2 welcome drinks, 3 course sit down meal, half bottle wine each, sparkling wine for toast, and evening buffet for 100 (had an extra 100 people in eve and it was more than enough food!) the hire was free as it was a golf club and they only charged us to become a social member which was £100 +vat, but had a 10% service charges. so totalled £5500 which was excellent.

Church: £300

Flowers: 1 brides handtied, 4 bm bouquets, and 1 slightly smaller junior bm bouquet, 1 pedestal, 13 button holes, and 8 corsarges. £400

Dress & 5 bm dresses (special occasions essex): £1140

Photographer: £650

Videographer: free-brothers camcorder + ushers =free video!

Cake: my mum and hubbys nanna made

car, band and string quartet: £1700

invites and all stationery: under £200 (made them)

Incidentals (wedding insurance, favours, decorations, rings etc): £650

Hope that gives you some ideas. I had my biggest savings with venue hire, flowers (as i was strict with florist and went to about 10 to get the best quote and with someone i felt i could trust), and stationery/cake by making them.

hth

Shahlaa xx

p.s. don't sweat the small things, you wont notice them on the day!!

Totally do-able, our budget is 17k inc the honeymoon of 3k. Lots of my costs went on things I had no idea would cost so much like flowers and favours, if you can cut back there or get friends to contribute to making things etc. My friend cooked up all her own food for the wedding and saved a fortune ..

The key is DIY!!

We spent £4.5k total (not including HM - going on that next month for about £500)

We saved lots of mney by doing things ourselves. I made our invites, table decs, did my own flowers, made family gifts myself, friends did hair and makeup... Not sure exactly how much we saved but it was a lot! Basically anything I could, I made!

my dress was a significant saving too - it was £140 in BHS. M and S wedding cake which we used as our dessert saved money too. Biggest expense except the food (which was half our budget) was H's kilt!

I saved loads of money by taking advice of my fellow Hitchers...I found my florist, cake lady and photographer on Hitched and it's been brilliant. So I would say to help save money...do your research and don't settle for the first quote from suppliers...look around and be brave enough to ask suppliers for their opinion on reducing the budget (e.g. workiing with your florist to choose cheaper flowers). You just need to spend time on here asking as many questions as possible and benefitting from some of the HIB advice too!!

Hi,

I think it's a totally realistic budget! In fact it's about £3000.00 more than my budget and by the sounds of it we are spending the same on the venue side of it! I also plan weddings for a living, so I immediately decided that one way to save a lot of money was to do our own stationary. We are going to design our invitations, placecards, table plan, thank you notes etc and have already done our save the date cards. I'm really pleased with them and they were only done on Word, so nothing that fancy! You could potentially save a lot of money this way as lots of professional companies charge some thing like a pound per item per person.

I'm also calling in lots of favours, so I have a cheap photographer and florist even though they both know what they are doing! Do you have any friends or family who could help?

Also, don't be afraid to negotiate prices with your venue - lots of places are having to be more flexible because of the credit crunch.

Hope this helps.

Meg

XX

I do too think that the angry face was totally uneccessary agression BUT DianeB does have a point - find out why H2B is so worried!

Mine is always worried - as I am a shopaholic!

Perhaps your H2B is just worried that you might have forgotten to budget for something somewhere. My advice is to keep back £500 from your budget for contingency as you will need it at some point, also call on friends to help where you can - my uncle (chocolatier) is making our cake and I am borrowing my veil from a friends, my dress is second hand ( but you wouldnt know even if you looked closely)

Your budget is huuuuggeeeee x x

I have just read this whole thread back and I am so p*ssed off!

The OP is a newbie for goodness sakes!

How is she supposed to know that on hitched we are all very honest and sometimes we can be a bit blunt? How is she supposed to know that we are all lovely really - she is a NEWBIE! Anyone who thinks I am being a cow can read my other post above, I agree with what Diane B said - just think that the angry face is totally and untterly uncalled for and frankly reeks of passive agression - why oh why do we wonder why people dont disclose thier budgets when a simple newbie gets a response like that over a £13k budget

Hitchers wonder why new posters never come back - it is cos they get responses like this on their OP

I love the way this thread was mentioned in the hitched mailout, and is now bringing loads of newbies here, to find out we are all meanies! ?

(just kidding, we're not ALL mean, i'm quite nice actually!)

We are all lovely here really - there is nothing like a bit of controversy - right?

(tumble weed icon)

I agaree with Saracroft - no need for an angry face, but do agree that 13k is a monster budget. I'm an older (and second time around) b2b and I love reading the posts on Hitched. My budget is about 6k without the honeymoon (5 bm's - I can't avoid the h2b's daughters + my neices), but I'm finding lots of ways of keeping the budget down. Granted I've been VERY lucky - a friend is making the cake, my brother-in-law is doing the photos (award-winning amateur!), we are having a civil ceremony and the venue is my h2b's golf club (and as he's club captain, its just a little cheaper). I'm using some people from the golf club to do the catering and flowers and I've used hitched to find lots of bargains, plus spent a lot of time looking in s/h shops etc. I've found a fantastic dress-maker who is making my dress and lots of other help just by asking! I'm also a newbie and its 8 months til the big day. Just cos I'm older doesn't mean I'm not as nervous!!!!