Budget - what is yours?

£10,000 with no honeymoon plans at present, with the option of around £2,000 extra if our current 'savings plan' carries on through the year up to the big date.

Still to sort dresses, hair, makeup and flowers.

We're saving a bit of money by having the whole event in the hotel - partly offset by over £400 for the registrars.

Interesting thread - I wonder if the "average £25,000 cost" comes from celebrities, celebrity imitations and "little princesses" where daddy pays for everything majorly increasing things against the true cost of 'normal people' weddings?

Ours is around £10,000, but I am trying my best to make it come under that! I am doing some bits by myself so that we have more money for other things like a videographer

Thats my thought process too...a friend of mine got married this year, church wedding with golf club reception and it cost over £14k! I dont know how..must have been the food.

We're saving money buy not having a wedding breakfast, having a late ceremony and a party with a buffet....

Our budget is £6000 not including honeymoon but we are saving up monthly for that too. That probably explains why we are broke! Most expensive thing we have bought is my dress so far.

We're also paying ours ourselves, no borrowing. We're saving money month by month and paying bits off when we can. our families have offered to pay for certain things - cake, cars, suit hire which is lovely and greatly appreciated.

So far, ours is coming in at around £14,000 but we have allowed £15,000 as I get carried away with spending. ? This doesn't include our honeymoon.

Interesting thread.

I started with a budget of 10K but that was blown out of the water really quickly. We ended up spending over 20K (including honeymoon) and NO AJ it wasn't all paid for by my mam and dad. It was down to sheer hard work and determination and some savy saving! No loans, credit cards or anything!

Ours was not extravagent at all. But we had what we wanted with 70 - 80 guests.

Nat

£14500, and thats without a honeymoon, the venue has cost the most at a whopping £7000, I dont feel like I've gone crazy with anything and I did a lot of research before I booked all the other stuff, a wedding these days isnt cheap. We are greatful for both sets of parents for helping us out massivly.

Ours is nearing 18 with everything included. We have saved it all ourselves, No loans etc and No little princess here!!!

We are hoping to spend under £5k but £6k is the absolute tops!!! I don't work due to ill health so only have one earner - that is not including honeymoon which we plan to book after the wedding

Well im a little princess with daddy paying for it and i dont have a budget but i wouldnt take the mick, there are certain things ive gone well over with and others where i dont see the point! At the moment im looking at spending about £35000!

No little princess here either! We're paying for everything ourselves and have funded it by saving and having a realistic time scale.

Our budget is around £7000 not including honeymoon. No idea if we are on target as we haven't looked at the budget in ages but we are paying for it ourselves and can afford to go over if necessary, we'd just rather not!

Erm, I am not really sure. The venue, food and the bar for the day as well as accommodation is circa£20k. Add in another £2500-3k for photography, £3k for my dress and 'bits', £1500 for my bridesmaids and their stuff, £1k for boy outfits (unless he has something made), entertainment, flowers etc so quite a bit.

Our HM is going to be somewhere between £10-12k before spends but that's not until later on in the year.

One of my favourite things about this site is watching weddings come together on a variety of budgets. I don't think that the more you spend, the better your wedding, simply that it often gives you more choice. Same with life, really.

I am pleased, and fortunate, to be able to use our own hard earned dosh for it. No Bank of M&D for us. We felt we'd rather spend our money than theirs - we expect to see them having fun with their money in their retirement!

We haven't got a total figure yet. We're sort of making it up as we go along. We started off with £6000 and the rest is just being funded as and when. My mum bought my dress, my dad has give us another £500, we're DIYing our flowers and decorations, and a friend is making our wedding cupcakes, so all we really have to cover is the venue, registrar's fees and entertainment. As long as we keep it under £10,000 total, I'm happy.

Wow!

mine is £5000 grand- and everything is booked and nearly paid for. and that includes honeymoon

Sorry if that upsets anyone but it's clear you can do a wedding with a lot less than £25,000 so I do wonder how some people do manage to spend so much.

Perhaps some people are just better paid than we are, or do have parents helping out massively (which we don't) but that's just the position we're in and we have to make the most of what we can with what we have.

Even if we had £30,000 to spend, I don't think I could actually spend all that money on one day when there are so many other things we could do with it.

We have a £10k budget but it's proving rather tricky staying within it. I am trying to save where I can, going to try and make the invites myself and not having a big expensive cake. Hoping to have a pavlova instead. No credit or loans though, it's scrimping and saving all the way.

I can see what you're saying and I think it's all down to personal finances and the situation your find yourself in. We want our day to be as cheap for people to attend as possible and so part of our budget is taken up by travel and accommodation that we need not spend but wanted to - one example of how the costs are greater for us. I know it's not necessary in the slightest, but we can afford to do it so want to.

Our parents had offered to help but we tactfully turned down any financial offers. Instead we want them to help us organise certain things and that will enable us to spend more time with them. Much more important to us.

Just because you can do a wedding for a lot less than £25,000 doesnt mean everyone has to. In reality all a wedding has to cost is your registrar fees and marriage licence, you dont have to have the big dress and party etc.

Im very fortunate in the fact that my parents can pay for it and still have money to enjoy their lifes, that doesnt make me a princess or bank rolling off mum and dad, thats just the way Ive been brought up, we are all different, doesnt mean i wont appreciate it as much as people who have saved their own money to fund their weddings.

I could EASILY spend £30,000 if I had it - to me a wedding isn't just one day, it's the lead up to it and the rest of our lives after that one day.

Mine is coming in at 3K so I am a bargain basement bride compared to all of you!

Even if i had £20grand plus i literately dont know what i would spend that money on. i have got everything in my wedding and cant see how ppl spend thousands on them

Our budget is £20k and we are on track for that at the moment. That is not including the honeymoon which will be around £8k.

I am not a princess we are paying for this ourselves. We originally said we didnt want to spend a small fortune on just one day. But as we started looking we came to the decision that we are only going to do this once so going to do it how we want to and not having to watch every penny. although if i could do it cheaper i would. But the venue is half the budget!!

We are not having anything elaborate either but it doesnt take much to spend the 20k!!

H x

Mine will be around 6000 my mum is putting some towards but this doesnt include homeymoon. strangly at our venue it was cheaper to have a sit down meal which at first i didnt want! if i had a massive budget i would put the rest behind the bar free drinks for everyone!!!a photographer all day and hire some one to video it also transport costs for guests ooo i could easily spend it all!!!

Sammy, your comment really surprised me. Not being able to justify spending more is one thing but surely you can see how it can escalate? Even simple things like number of guests, season of wedding, sit down meal v buffet can alter a budget tremendously.

Ok i accept the part of the country means the price can vary a lot

I agree with Cricket Bride - i don't understand how ppl can say they dont see how!!

There are literally hundreds of things! Cost of dress, shoes, jewellery, whether buy BM dresses, jewellery etc. As well as what CB said about the size of weddings, venue etc.

I could seriously spend a lot more. But i have spent minimal on the must haves! I am not even joking i literally have the venue, food, dresses, suits, photog, cake, band, rings etc. No flame breathing entertainers or anything lavish! x

Ours is £10,000 and I plan to spend at least 1 1/2 to 2 1/2k of that on the photographer. MAD I hear some of you say, but aside from having the guests we want, the venue and of course all of my wonderful diy bits, the photography is one of the most important bits to me (being a photographer myself!)

Ours is around the 10k mark too, Rich is working all hours, I have taken a 2nd job too. We do have 21 months left still but a budget of 10k is saving over £300.00 per month, its do-able but its going to be tight but well worth it!

But that doesnt mean i get it!

my wedding is going to be under 5grand and i believe that i will have everything that a £20grand wedding will have-

i have a dress, venue, photographer, decorations, bridesmaid dresses, videographer, dj, casino games, honeymoon, suits, transport, invites, so what does the extra £15grand get me- surely that cant be the postcode/place in the country costs?

i hope i am not offending anyone, i just dont get it!

What?! No wedding is complete without them!*

joking - none of those at ours! Besides, knowing my luck, it'd rain so hard their flames would be put out the moment they opened their mouths!