How much of the budget goes on the venue. Please help

I think it depends on how much money you want to spend on the rest of the wedding,perhaps it would be good to do a full list of costings that way you can see how far your £15k will go. Venues vary in price so ours is just under a tenth of our budget because it's a hotel and the room charge is around £1000, the most expensive item is the catering/drinks which takes up about half our budget.

I agree you need to do a budget and look at everything like flowers cars dresses everything to see what it all comes to. Then you know what you can afford and what you would need to save or cut back on the a particular venue or particular dress etc. Everyone will have different priorities and earmark different percentages for items. Also depends on whether you can save money during your planning towards it if need be.

Have a look at your coatings then certainly people on here can give you advise.

I agree with the above. Working out a rough idea of costings for the rest of your wedding will help. I think it would be a good idea to do a bit more research on each venue if you haven't done so already. A lot of venues insist on you using their own suppliers which can work out expensive especially if they are not included in the hire charge. Catering seems to be one of the more costly expenses.I would check with each venue exactly what you will get for your money so there is no nasty hidden surprises after you have committed. Also check with them exactly what you can and can't do - one of my work colleagues wanted guests to have sparklers whilst they watched the fireworks display at her wedding (it was on bonfire night) only to find out too late that the venue wouldn't allow it (health and safety) and confiscated them!

Hi everyone

Thanks for the reply

I should of wrote it a bit better really

It's not just the venue cost but the cost for the wedding breakfast, canapés, drink package, evening buffet, room the nighyt before and on the night and disco altogether that im looking at. One of the venues for it all want £7300 the other for the same day is £10000 although there's includes 8 rooms on the night breakfast the next day and exclusive use.

I haven't gor a clue what everything else is going to cost so am struggling to say if that will be to much. It looks like the dress will be about £1000 and a photographer the same. The only way to get it cheaper is to move the day but I don't know if I want to do that.

I know realistically I need to go with the first one I just love the other one so much.

We have looked round loads of other venues in the area but none of them were right.

Thanks

If you take the more expensive venue are there areas you know you could cut down on if need be. Ie cars, bridesmaids. Or are you able to keep saving during the planning or does your budget take into account everything you will already be saving during the planning.

if you don't care what cars you have and the wedding is at the venue. Or you can save a bit or you either don't want many bridesmaids or they will pay for their own dresses etc then I think it should be doable.

the problem will be if you consider every other item in your wedding equally as important as the venue and start going over budget on photographer, flowers, cars etc.

also is the room dressed in that price or will you need to spend more money on decorations, flowers, chair covers if you want them.

if it's what I wanted I would go for it but only if I was prepared to cut costs elsewhere or if I knew I could save extra money towards it to increase my budget by the 2k difference if need be.

Good luck. Look forward to hearing about it.

Its not easy this wedding planning business is it?!?

It is of course entirely up to you and please don’t feel like I’m forcing my opinion on you...but if it were me I would go with my heart and not my head. If you really love the 2nd venue then the extra cost will probably be worth it, plus you do get the extra rooms, breakfast and exclusive use so you are still getting your monies worth, and to be honest it seems like pretty much all the big stuff is covered in the price. You just have to think about what else you will need and if you can do it with the remaining budget. Perhaps there might even be time to save a little extra (just in case) before the wedding?

Either way take your time thiniking it over-what does your H2B think?

I reckon it depends on the venue.

We aren't having the biggest wedding (about 50 guests) and have managed to strike up a deal with a hotel so that we only have to pay for our two course meals - for a minimum of 45 guests. This means we don't have a cost for renting out the room and things like tablecloths are also included.

Some places will offer strict packages, whereas others will let you tailor the package to your requirements.

Have a look at what is offered - or what you can arrange - then take a look at your budget and see if you are willing to spend that portion of it.

If it's any help, our venue is 25% of our total cost but that's not including food.. With food and drinks it takes it up to pretty much half.

Shottle hall is beautiful! I wanted to get married there but it was out of our budget unfortunately. We are now getting married at Ringwood Hall in Chesterfield.

The venue is costing us £7,000, but that includes the ceremony room, catering, hotel rooms etc. I would reckon its 60% of our budget.

That's an amazing deal! You get so much more for your money in the north. Just our food and drink and venue cost is £11,000!

Our venue, food and drinks is eating up nearly 70% of our budget. This includes the ceremony area, the reception area, exclusive use, welcome drinks, canapés, four course meal with half a bottle of wine per person and a toasting drink. It also includes the evening food. We managed to get the DJ, bridal suite and chair pads included in the price as well as an extra welcome drink. We also get a red carpet for the aisle, the dance floor and starlit canopy in the marquee during the evening.

I am hoping we can get by on the other 30% of our budget for everything else! We're not having any cars and I am not fussed about invitations or favours. The OH's aunt and uncle are making our cake and post box, his brother's GF is doing the make up and my mum and aunt will contribute to my dress. We are doing our own sweetie buffet and popcorn bar. We are going to hire the suits for the groom and ushers etc.

Our priorities are food and drink, the photographer and accommodation for everyone to stay the night and have breakfast together the morning after.

We saw another lovely venue that was 2.5K cheaper and had accommodation included but I didn't like the ceremony room inside if it rained and we couldn't get married outside. I went with my heart and chose our venue even though it was a bit over budget. I am so glad I did as every time I see it, I love it more and more! X

I got married at Shottle Hall 3 years ago. It is expensive but we had a Friday wedding (which I swore I would never do) and everyone commented on how nice it was to have a weekend in the peaks. I also wanted a spring wedding so we had the last Friday of march. Back then the prices went up on 1st April, not sure if they still do that but would changing the time of year be an option if you don't want a weekday? We also got asked by some of the people who stayed there with us if we wanted a contribution to the room cost as they would have had had to pay for a hotel. We didn't accept anything but that may be an option.

Our budget was £15k and we were under so it is doable, you just need to work out what is most important.

If you go for the venue you love then you need to work out if you can get everything else you want for £5000. Some people do a whole wedding for this and some just spend that on a dress so it totally depends what you want. If the TOG and dress are coming in at £2000 then that leaves you with £3000 for everything else. If you want cars, have lots of bridesmaids/ groomsmen to pay for, want lots of flowers, want a band and entertainment and an expensive cake then you will stuggle. If you're willing to cut back or cut out some of that then it's certainly doable.

It's a tough one as others have said, but I would honestly go with your heart and the second venue! We went for the most expensive venue we looked at because we just fell in love, we may have to beg, borrow and steal to get everything we want within budget because of it but I wouldn't change it. Having said that our budget is running away with us a little bit, but I'm not worried we will sort it! No Christmas in our house!

We went to visit our venue again yesterday and I would still say it's the best decision as I just love it so much, and it will be a fabulous place to revisit for our anniversary! (It's a hotel!)

Hope it helps xxxx

Ours is probably around 75% of our overall spend but that includes all the room hire, ceremony, drinks, meal and reception - food & drinks, 13 bedrooms for our guests amongst other little things, like a private room for breakfast the next day xxx

Thanks for all your responses. Sorry I wasn't on yesterday it was a bit of a manic day.

I'm now a little undecided I did love the more expensive venue the most but we went to revisit them both yesterday to try and make up our mind and I found myself more attracted to the other one. I'm not to sure why as I did originally love the other one more. I think it was the wedding Co ordinator herself as the one at the cheaper venue was so friendly chatty and happy to help where as at the other venue she really didn't have much to say.

£15000 is the budget if we save from now till the wedding so there won't be any extra. There is £2000 difference in the venues and the more expensive one isn't on a Saturday. The cheaper venue also has chair covers and sashes and the DJ included. Still at nearly £7000 it's not far of 50% but I'm hoping that by spending a little less we will have more left for other nice bits that we wouldn't be able to afford with the other venue.

Daily moo I really do love shottle it's beautiful but the grounds are better at makeney and you get more for your money at makeney. I fell in love with ringwood from just the brochure but when I showed it my parents they said it was to far from where we live (35/40 mile) and that people wouldn't want to travel that far, so I didn't go to see it as I knew I'd love it more.

Peach blossom we are looking out of summer anyway were looking at October. We can just afford shottle if we do the hall on a Friday or the estate package on a Sunday. I was adamant the other day it was shottle over makeney but now I feel really confused as I'm no longer sure.

We won't be having cars as I'll get ready at the venue and my mum is doing the cake, I only have 2 bridesmaids but 4 flower girls.

It is so hard, and such a big decision, one other thing I would say it's important to get on with the wedding coordinator and for you to feel at ease with them. I love our wedding coordinator she is so helpful, and goes above and beyond I feel. This is a massive plus for the other venue. I had many a sleepless night over my decision but felt the one we went for offered us so much more, the most expensive one we looke at sadly.

If you can try and envisage the day and if the cheaper venue still offers everything you want, and you feel you can make it eveything you want it to be, go for it! You don't want to be missing out on things because you spent so much just on the venue xxx

I wouldn't base your decision on a wedding coordinator as they're often not in their job long (we went through 5 in 18 months). Personally I wanted the whole wedding planning process to be as stress free as possible and part of that was not booking anything that we couldn't afford. If you have a strick budget do you want the stress and worry of having to go over it or not being able to get the things that are important to you because there is no budget left?

My fiancé and I had this problem. We went to see all different venues some cheaper and some way over our budget! We originally set a budget of 15,000 and I was completely unsure how much to spend on the venue. We originally wanted something close by but nothing gave me the butterflies in the stomach wow factor. So we spread our search a little further and our venue is a 45 minute drive from where we live. We know that the important people would travel the world to be with us on our special day so location was not an issue. The issue was the venue fee taking up most of our budget so we had to have a real sit down and sort through the numbers. Luckily we can afford it but our budget has nearly doubled with the venue taking 50%. I would always say go with your heart but be realistic as you don't want money worries along with everything else. Good luck, the exciting planning is just beginning ?

Our budget is £15,000 and the venue (including catering) is about £5,500.

Prioritise the rest of your wedding costs and then decide if you can afford it. We've kept the number of guests down so that we can have our venue without compromising on other areas which are important to us.