For fun - most overpriced part of a wedding??

Everything! ? Add the word wedding and it at least triples in price. Clothes (anyone who remembers my thread about the lace jacket that goes with my dress will no doubt join me in the horror at the cost of that!), flowers, car hire... I could go on all night!

The big one for me, though, is favours. I'd never heard of a favour until I joined Hitched when I got engaged first time round. I didn't recall getting favours at any wedding I'd been to. I mentioned this to Mum and she reeled off the favours my siblings had bought. I then remembered them being there but they didn't have any effect on my enjoyment of the day and them not being there wouldn't have mattered to me. So I didn't bother with favours first time and I'm not bothering this time, either. I'm spending over £4k on food and entertainment for everyone. I don't need to spend another few hundred (that I don't even have) to give them all a gift as well!

I'm also with you on chair covers. Not hiring those either. I hate them when I'm a guest at a wedding (I like to tuck my feet under my chair) and, to be honest, if the chairs at a venue were so grotty I wanted to cover them up, I wouldn't be considering that venue.

Photography...?

Totally agree that favours are a weird new tradition that involves spending loads of money for no reason! The price of a photographer was what made me fall over, not that it's necessarily overpriced, just so expensive!

The dress. I love my dress but a moment of madness....but I'm worth it lol xx

Of course, the dress!! Especially given that, in most cases, it will never be worn again. Madness!!!

Quite rightly so too!!!!!?

?

Peter

As a bloke I have to say the dress. It's a dress.....you wear it once! At least with photography you can enjoy the photos forever and it will stand the test of time.

Oh and favours! I remember thinking HOW MUCH!?!?! ha ha. I've photographed loads but never took the time to mentally work out how much the overall cost was until I did so for our own wedding!

As a bloke I have to say the dress. It's a dress.....you wear it once! At least with photography you can enjoy the photos forever and it will stand the test of time.

Oh and favours! I remember thinking HOW MUCH!?!?! ha ha. I've photographed loads but never took the time to mentally work out how much the overall cost was until I did so for our own wedding!

I'll be wearing my wedding dress more than once. My niece is having a NYE party with a white theme, so I shall don my dress again for that! As it's tea length, I reckon I can even get away with wearing it to the year 11 prom next July as well.

Not that wearing it more than once makes it any less expensive, but price per wear is important on more expensive items! ?

Definitely chair covers! all that money to 'borrow' some cheap lycra for a few hours?! and some companies even want more money if there is 'damage'. lol, dont get me started on chair covers! it really is an extortionate amount of money. we are planning to buy them over the year from different resellers through gumtree/ ebay. then we will just sell them back on (and not at a profit) so another couple can use them.

For me, I would say the dress as well. I usually don't spend that much money on clothes, so the amount we spend on clothing so far is crazy. I justify it with that everything we bought with exception of the wedding dress can be worn again.

OH wanted a sweets station for the evening. We left it for later as I cannot justify spending that much money on a few glass jars and sweets that might not even get eaten. If we have some money left closer to the date, we might add it.

I've been quite shocked at how expensive some of the smaller things are like invitations. I also thought bunting would be a cheap way to decorate the venue but it's going to cost over £100!

The most expensive thing for us by miles is food... there is not other day when we would feed 60 to 80 people lol

Im getting buried in my dress when I die so will wear it everyday for eternity so a bargain really considering we only budgeted £300

I hate chair covers and dont want them but tablecloths took me as surprisingly expensive for a white (or coloured) bit of fabric

bands/photography/videography - all expensive but not 'overpriced' really

I dont think favors are expensive at all, not if you know what your doing... outs are costing a grand total of £17 for 100 personalized pieces (which we know most of our friends and family will use) and id rather have that the some of the other random overpriced stuff people buy like card boxes, pillows for rings, custom dolls and aisle/seating signs

oh, Ive got it... Cake, when the hell else will you ever pay that much for a cake again?

I have been shocked by how much all a wedding costs. But some of the catering quotes I have had is ridiculous. I expected photographer venue dress and catering etc to be costly. but seriously quotes I got for catering were £4000+ I just had to laugh at that and the fact that it didn't even include drinks hadn't even payed for venue or anything else was a joke.

Luckily we found a great caterer who's food is fab for a quarter of the price!

i promised my h2b that we could get married for £5000 for what we wanted this was never going to happen. I'm sure this is the only reason he said we could bring the date forward, now £12000 later..... Woops :-) lol

i don't know if it just me but when we set our budget I thought that yeah we can do it. But as the planning progresses you forgot "table cloths" "chair hire" all the easily missed things That you didn't realise not all venues provide etc.

oh another thing that's expensive table cloths! I got a quote for sequin table cloth hire and it wAs £40 for one table cloth!! Now there is a business to get into!

Cake.... its just cake!!

Someone I know spent £900 on a cake - WTF!

We are going for a much cheaper and more original alternative (thanks Alexandra) for £100!

x

Deffo the band - £1300 !! They are fantastic and really get the crowd going but really who are they-Oasis? good grief!!

I've also found £450 for car hire that is literally making a 7 minute drive to be crazy money - i think i'll be getting on the bus at this rate!

Wedding are just that, expensive!. There are so many options available now to make your day as reasonable or as expensive as you like. We do packages for all budgets. Sometimes you just have to think a bit laterally to find the solution to what you want.

Good luck, hopefully you only do it once so it is worth every penny!!. I have been married 15 years now and definitely feel it was worth it : )

I cant believe how expensive some of the venues are especially how I am only having a small intimate wedding.. and you are all right favours are expensive but think I am going to create my own some how - my budget seems to be expanding every day whoops!

The registrars. £478 for two of them to do a half hour ceremony. That's crazy money! Wish I could get work at such a good hourly rate Plus another £70 just to give notice. We have to pay that so its not like we can make it budget somehow.

I expect to pay loads for venue, food, dress but registrars was a shock to me!

Of the things we're shelling out for, car is the most expensive because of price per mile, although we've got a "deal" at under £400. But it's a necessary evil as Mum can't walk to the church, even that short distance, and will at least keep my dress clean and dry in the likely December rain.

Cake is also pricey, but again we've been lucky in finding a cake we like at a reasonable price.

We vetoed chair covers on the basis of price (£4 a chair PLUS 50p extra if you wanted a ribbon round them, even for a small wedding of 45 people was extortion, pure and simple), but also because I just don't like them. Ummed and ahhed about covering chairs with something DIY instead, as they're more breakfast than "wedding breakfast" but decided that guests aren't likely to pay more than a second's attention to them and gave the idea up totally - they're just for sitting on while we stuff our faces, after all!

I agree about registrars, 100 yard walk from registry office added on £400.

i don't mind paying for chair covers funnily enough-under £2 each and will sell on again after use. The chairs at our venue are not the nicest but the venue fits our budget. I was not prepared to spend 6k on a venue when we could use the one we've booked for £1200 including food and DJ. Another £100 or so for chair covers etc is a small price to pay!

I think it's easy to spend an awful lot of money on things people take little notice of-favours,invites, decor etc -I can barely remember most of these touches from weddings I've been to.

I don't know how we've managed to spend so much to be honest. We're not having cars, the cakes being made by my cousin, my dress was a lot cheaper than I budgeted, my ring is costing nothing, I've DIY'd invites and centerpieces, we're not having any extra's like a photo booth, dj's included in the venue price, I'm only having one bridesmaid who's costing me £60 and the flowers are only costing us £90.

So how have we still spent 8 grand? ?

The invitations were a lot more expensive than I expected. We skipped chair covers because i thought the cost was ridiculous and refused to have them on that basis.

Our church charged us for heating which is funny in hindsight but really wound me up at the time.

Heh, yes well I on the other hand am rather glad that the church is charging for heating, as even in full summer with no heating on it's a cool box!

We've made a rod for our own back by bringing in our own organist - we still have to pay the church resident organist anyway, as that's a perk of his job - but we knew that before we went into it.

Orders of service are the other thing - our invitation maker wanted nearly £200 for something I could knock up at home with a printer and a ream of A4 paper - ludicrous.

We're spending over £7000 on food and drink for the day (having 100-110 for the day and another 40 or so on the evening), every time I think about it I feel like an utter mug. So then I stop thinking about it, problem solved!

I'll also echo others on the dress thing. I was ecstatic to get my dress for £600, when else would it be acceptable to spend that much on a dress you wear once and think that's a bargain? Mental!

I think everything has been overpriced! When we got engaged, I dont think I had unrealistic expectations of what things cost - but I was shocked when we started looking! The main things I would say are:

The Cake - all we want is a three tier, covering in white fondant with some edidble starfish on - the quotes are coming in at circa £350! We only had them quote on a vanilla cake as well!! Imagine if we can actually asked for Chocolate, or something more adventurous like Red Velvet!!!

Bridesmaid Dress - the ones from proper bridal shops - seriously they expect you to pay £300+ for a bridesmaid dress? I love my bridesmaids very dearly, but cannot and will not justify spending that much on a dress for them! I have since looked elsewhere for dresses and various High Street shops have some very gorgeous dresses that will be perfect for bridesmaids at a fraction of the cost!

The Veil - its a net curtain with bling!!! Albelit a glamours net curtain but some of the prices from the Bridal shops are ridiculous - Mine cost £150, and is only a two tier shoulder length - my mum insisted on buying it for me, and I am ever so grateful, but its such a lot of money for a bit of net!

Chaircovers and sashes - I really really wanted these, but upon hearing the prices, I decided to look for a venue with nice chairs so that I didnt have to cover them!

Men's Suits - I understand that when there are hired people need to take care of them for the duration of the time they are aware from the shop as to limit damage, but at £120 per suit - I think its ridiculous! You can get a decent full suit from m&s for that price, and you'd get to keep it afterwards!

The Church - One of the things I couldnt compromise on, was getting married in a Church. Ours is costing around £800 and on top of that, they ask you to make a donatation towards the upkeep of the church!!! I'm already paying £800 for 45 minutes surely thats enough money!!!

Apart from the above, I think everything was roughly as expected. Although there could be something I have forgotten!

x

The thing that surprised me the most was the cost of the church, £950 for 30 minutes (daughters wedding) and we were asked to give a donation as well.

Make hiring a photographer a bargain.?

This too! Can't believe how much they cost. I've fallen in love with one at £150 but no way can I justify that for what it is.

and I thought I was being robbed! Which county was this in Bruce? It must vary county to county I'm not sure why it isnt the same across the board though!!!

There's not much about our wedding that I can hand on heart say is good value for money- dress i'll wear once, flowers that'll be dead by the next day (etc!)but something we could never justify spending money on is fancy cars.

I'm not saying they are overpriced, but for us personally there is no way I'd ever be paying more than about £20 to get to my venue. As long as we get there I honestly couldn't care less. I'd drive myself if needs be :p

I dont understand how they cost so much! I appreciate the intricate detailing in them, and them bling that gets sewn on must take a good while - but in comparision to a net curtain - i just can't understand it. My grandma had some gorgeous net curtains, with fabulous detailing on, and they cost a quarter of the price of my veil - and there was more material to them as they were for her bay window and its huge!!!

Oh I remember getting a quote for a slowmo booth as well. £900 for 3 hours. No extras or thrills, just the booth. That's one thing i'm happy to say is overpriced ?