£13,000 Wedding Budget - is it possible?

Hi wedding princess...where are you based ? if you need a photographer and your not too far away give me a shout ?

if im free ?

kev x

Hi, another newbie here....be nice!

We have been looking at venus near us and we can't seem to find anything that is going to cost less than 10k for just our venue and food (we have between 100-150 guests) and it's quite depressing!

I'm just wondering how people manage to keep the venue/food costs so low.

Cheers x

Welcome ?

Where abouts are you?

I think you'll struggle to had the traditional sit down meal with all the usuals for that many people for much less than £10k, although I'd say £6-7,000 is probably doable. You also limit the venues who can cater for that many people too (less choice generally speaking = higher cost)

Have you considered not going for the traditional sit down and having a buffet/hog roast/bbq? That will make is less expensive

We're near London which partially explains the cost (I think!).

We were thinking about a hog roast but having it as a sit down meal.

We both have big families so is impossible to have less than 100 people....is driving me slightly insane!

We have 90 day and 90 evening, and mainly family in the day too, so I know where you are coming from. 150 is a lot! We couldn't do that at our venue for less than £10k, and most of the venues we looked at (Essex) wouldn't have been able to do 150 for less than £10k.

The thing with havng a larger number of guests is it's not just the food and drink that adds up, it's all the (optional) extras such as chair covers, favours, size of cake, invitations.. most costs are per person so it gets even more expensive. So long as they are all people you want to invite IMO the guests that make the day so I'd be more inclined to make it a hog roast and have more people, rather than a posh meal and have to cut back on numbers.

Sorry you took that angry face so badly. I can't help getting worked up about money in the present economical climate. Some people on the forum have been made redundant and are having to cancel major parts of their wedding. People homes are at risk and sometimes there is not enough money to go round.

Just do what you and your H2B are happy with.

Good night

Hi,

Ive just totalled our wedding up and we have spent £10,000 inc honeymoon. We havent had to cut back on many things, I enjoy doing some things myself which has saved a couple of hundred like invites and center peices etc , Were getting married in a ball room and having the receptions there too. As my partner didnot want a church wedding as he felt it would be hipocritical as he does not beleive in anything lol and everyone woudnt fit in the registry office so this way it suits us and will be more special. I thought it might help if I broke down what weve spent for you to see.

Theres 2 bridesmaids, best man & 1 usher. I have 100 people coming to the wedding & reception and £130 coming to the evening reception.

So here goes:

£300.00 registrar to marry us. £3400 for hire of venue, DJ & food for both receptions.( hot buffet in the afternoon & cold buffet at night) £400 photographer

£650 for my dress £300 for 2 bridesmaid dresses. £400 cake (4tier) £180 for car (beuford) £352 for 4 suits hire

£380 for flowers inc bridal shower, 2 posys, 2 corsages, 4 buttonholes 2 thankyou beuquets & flowers for table centerpeices.

Then £2171 honeymoon to palma 2 weeks in our favourite hotel half board £1500.00 spending money

£30 for inivtes £20 on vases for centre peices.

The best advice is shop around especially for flowers & cake etc & be cheeky try & get small things free like when you get your dress say ill have it if you throw in the hire of the hoop underskirt or tiara etc I got a good deal on my dress as it fit well she threw in the alterations free, which I took advantage of and am having a corset fitted to the back lol you dont get anywhere with out trying! good luck with it all and dont get stressed like we did its so not worth it. Im more relaxed now everything is booked and all the deposits are down 17 weeks to go......

best wishes

Sarah

Welcome all newbies ?

How on earth did this thread turn like this? Has the OP deleted a post or something as some of it doesn't make sense as to why people are getting mad at her,

And as far as throwing the economical climate and people losing their jobs in the OP's face as to why you got angry? These reasons are not the OP's problem. If i wanted to say so and so cost me this and then someone got mad with me because they had just lost their job and i didn't know, i would think they were a bit crazy ?

Hi Confuddled.

Have you considered a weekday or out of season? It could well make it half the price! Also negotiate with your venue by saying that they can secure your booking by being more flexible - I managed to get £2000.00 off plus extra wine thrown in this way.

Meg

XX

Hi loobyg,

How did you go about doing your own flowers? this is something I dont want to spend hundreds on, but i still want it to look nice.

Looking at pics from other's weddings it all looks quite intricate so not sure how i'd manage it myself!

I got my dress on eBay for £50.... Was planning to spend up to £500 but I saw this second hand dress and loved it! Solved the "something old" bit as well.

? Blimey, you actually are friends with a sum of money? And they are attending your wedding? Well, just your evening doo! ?

? Hi, by the way. xx

Hi ooh la la!

I wish I was lol Me n my typing need to have serious discussions! haha

hope alls well!

?

Hi

Some really inexpensive venues like community halls don't have/insist on you using their own caterers, and finding your own caterers can be cheaper as you can shop around and haggle. We are having a community centre for just £200 (in Richmond upon thames in case that is near where you are looking) and getting the food from waitrose entertaining, but some catering companies can do under £30 per head.

What an odd question to ask. Budget is personal to each and everybody and what works for one will not work for another. If that is your budget than you have to get it to work for you. If you are asking if I could have had my wedding on that then the answer is no not a chance! We spent that on the wedding breakfast alone let alone everything else. But that was my wedding, in my choice of venue with my caterer, my dress and so on. Yours is yours and only you can decided if its enough. If it isn't you have 2 choices. Spend more or scale it down. Simple.

Hiya

£13K is totally do-able and you'll have a lovely day with that budget.

As a 2nd time around b2b now I'm fortunate to have the benefit of hindsight and I know there are certain things I wouldn't spend loads of money on again.

One is the invites - got ours from Vistaprint for £60 for 100 and they look great

Second the dress. I wish that first time around I hadn't spent so much on a dress that I wore once for a few hours and haven't even so much as looked at since. This time around I've spent £150 on my dress and I swear you wouldn' t know the difference.

Thirdly stuff like favours etc - no-one notices stuff like that so save yourself the money and don't have them.

Cake - you can get beautiful wedding cakes from M&S for half the price of a cake designer.

Photos - a keen amateur friend of ours is doing the photos this time around. First time our photos cost a fortune - eyewatering!!

I could go on but will probably just bore you. But yes £13K is a very realistic budget but make sure you prioritise which things are the most important to you and your H2B and spend the money on them.

Good luck

x