££ - are you happy...

I wish ours was a little more so I could give the OH some of the things she really wanted without feeling guilty about it. As it stands we're on quite a small budget and I'm calling in a lot of favours but I think it's going to be great.

I photographed over 25 weddings this year and my two favorites and two happiest were in different universes price wise (one was over 30K one under 5 - they blew the entire budget on me and a 16 piece swing band...). Just goes to show money isn't everything, the thing they had in common was that the couple was happy with what they had, had all the friends they wanted and didn't feel in competition with anybody else.

Back to the photography for me - must pay for wedding!

Alex ?

I actually really struggled with this as when I've thought about it I really didn't know how much we were spending. Money wise OH and I have about £14500-£15k to play with however we are recieving a number of things as gifts from family members: Tog, Honeymoon, cars, all the people flowers (I'm only paying for the table centrepieces) so when I add it all up our wedding is somewhere in the region of £18-20K, which to be honest scared me a little bit!

I've had a good old think and the bottom line is I'm a lazy bride to a certain extent and have not one creative bone in my body so the DIY aspect is very much lacking in my wedding, which means we're paying for it. In that respect yes I'm happy with our budget and how we're spending it but a little part of me wonders just how creative and personal I could have made the wedding if the budget was smaller- think I may need to look into DIY things as I'm starting to think maybe I do want the wedding to be more personal hmm......

In an ideal world we would have loved to have paid for all our guests accomodation, drink etc but that wasn't possible- If it had been that would have been the only change I would have made and maybe getting married sooner!!

I am happy. Obviously if I had more money to spend I would but we are happy with how everything is turning out

I'm happy with the budget we have available to spend, as it allows us to have most things that we want. What I'm unhappy about is how much it all costs in general. I wouldn't say we are going overboard on anything, and yet we are still going to be spending what is for us a hefty amount of money. If we had more money to spend, we would definitely put that towards a better honeymoon, as at the moment our dream destinations are out. Having said that, we should still have enough money for a very nice honeymoon, if we don't go away this year.

I'm happy with our budget and how it's being spent. I was adamant that I didn't want us to scrimp on anything that was important to us but I am happy to hunt for a bargain and get the best price.

We might be in a position soon where we have a bit more spare cash and we've discussed if we'd change anything about the wedding and decided that we wouldn't, we love our venue, I've got a fab dress... Though it will mean we can be a bit more generous with drinks

We originally said we didn't want to spend more than £10k but it's crept up now and including the honeymoon, it's totalling around £16.5k. I am not unhappy with that though, we have saved up so as long as we can afford it and we are not living beyond our means for the sake of showboating, I am happy. We will need to save for maternity leave after the wedding as I can't wait to start a baby factory, so I'm happy we are not getting into any debt for the wedding. As mentioned previously though, I think as long as you have the right groom, that's the main thing!

I couldnt tell you at the end what we spent on our wedding as I didnt keep track. It was between 10-12k really.

I am not unhappy in that we worked very hard, didnt get into debt etc for it and I will admit one tiny part of me, now its over, does think all that for one quick day. The best day of your life admitedly but still one day...

I am happy with the budget we set and the amount we are spending.

Now this is a good question,

As an old married lady I can look back at my wedding and say I am very happy with what we spent.

Overall we had a generous budget and we didn't hit the top end of it. We did draw up a priority list of where we would and wouldn't spend money though and so planned our budget around this. For example we paid a fair amount for our TOG but think the price was fair, we couldn't think of any favours that were special for us so we upped the spend on the drinks budget.

If money were no object then we would have paid for a hotel for all our guests and provided transport on the day as well as extending the day invite. But this wouldn't have changed anything about our day in terms of enjoyment it just means we could have spoilt our guests.

I second what many others have said, it isn't what you do and don't spend that makes your day, it's about marrying the right person and sharing that day with people you love. If your Happy on the day then that is all that matters.

Im happy with our budget (mainly because my parents are being very good to me and helping out a huge amount) as i was only recently a student im extremely lucky!

In saying that I wish we didnt have to spend so much on the venue/caterers, but the venue is so close to my heart (grew up in the next village etc) i think its worth the extra cost.

hopefully savings will be made elsewhere, but if not its going to be 15k max. and the venues/catering is 2/3rds of that!!

That's what I keep telling my OH ? our day will be ideal for us and no amount of money could make it better really. We haven't made a lot of our choices because of our budget, I'm naturally tight I think lol and I'm trying hard to remember that it's only one day and I'd rather not start off married life in a shed load of debt or ever feel like part of my wedding was a big waste of money. Combine that with the fact that I actually enjoy sticking crystals on my shoes, and making my own flowers and invites etc and our small budget isn't actually a problem at all ? Most of the time I'm the one reigning in his spending, he's from a more affluent family than me and used to being able to have more expensive things. I'm cheap and cheerful all the way!!

I'm happy with what we're paying. Our original budget was £12000 but as we started booking things up I kept finding ways to cut costs and now its down to £6000 inc honeymoon! I am making a lot of stuff and I'm pleased I had the chance to do this because I'm really proud of how great everything looks

We are getting help from family to pay some of it so we will probably end up paying only £3500. I think we are really lucky.

To be honest we don't really have a budget, not that we've got a bottomless pit of money or anything. We've just decided that it will cost what it will cost. We're not being extravagent or anything just having what we want without going overboard. My parents are giving us 5k and they have made all the invitations, place cards and menus plus their having to fork out a lot on flights to get over so I'm very grateful for what they've done and OH's parents are paying for the band and for OH, his father and brother to buy their own kilts.

I've tried to source the things that I want from the cheapest places and have managed to cut corners on certain things and use people we know, e.g. our photographer is the sister of OH friend so got a good deal plus she is trusting one of OH's friends to use one of her cameras that shoots video.

If I had more money I don't think I would do things differently cause I'm getting all the things I want anyway.x

I wish we could be spending less on our day which now appears to becoming in at about £11k not including honeymoon. I thought originally that we could do everything for much less but i'm starting to realise that to get what we want is coming in way above budget.

I too go through stages where one day I think OMG this is just one day, why spend so much to days where I think that I'm only going to do this once so why not make it perfect and exactly how we want it.