How to work out your budget?

I was in the same boat with really not having much idea where to start (also a Feb 2015 bride!) so ended up making a list of everything I could think of that I would need/want at my wedding then went around the internet finding how much I could buy them for. It gave me a rough idea for those little things then.

Obviously things like photographer I couldn't do that with, for this I mostly went with friends recommendations as a few in our friend group are already married.

Hi

I'm going through the same process as well as the moment. Just got engaged and so the planning has commenced!

Ive made a list of everthing we would need/want for our day and used the internet or friends advice to put a figure next to it. Both a cheap option and a more expensive option. By finding both the cheap and the expensive prices it has given me an average to work towards.

Ive also approached several venues, informed them of my numbers and asked for a ball park figure. So again i've got the cheap through to the expensive for this too.

Wedding fayres have been handy too, speaking directly to suppliers about their costs.

Hope this is of some assistance!!

Oo another Feb 2014 bride here too, we only recently started planning, and we are probably having one of the smallest weddings ever so i probably cant help with invites and bits, but we are paying for the wedding party to travel with us and accommodation plus food for a weekend - we are not having a weekend wedding - more a mini break for them as its Valentines day our wedding is on, and then our wedding will be their focus for one whole day.

I just decided on how much i was happy to spend, in our case £3000 all in, plus a contingency fund, and ive just shopped around for a few deals and ideas, i would say research is the key, if you know what you would like then make sure you look into prices as everything varies so much

Good luck with all the planning though, ive loved every second of it so far! X

Hi,

Think we all start at that point in the wedding planning and it can be very confusing! We started with lists of guests to see numbers.
Knew what venue we wanted so went to price that, started asking around photographers, florists etc and getting an idea of how much they all cost, or make lists of what you're willing to pay for each. Invitations and favours etc can all be bought off ebay and places like that, look around sales for centrepieces and i'm sure your florist will help with them if you're having flowers on the tables. You'll soon get an idea of the normal costs of things and whats too cheap and whats taking the biscuit! Hitched have a good budget planner which I use as well and it's been quite helpful, I have a notebook though with pages of all different lists haha. And always leave some room to go over budget, not sure about everyone else but theres some things I had a lower price and went a bit over so be prepared to spend a bit more

I do think it definatley helps to have a budget in mind when planning/researching. Otherwise you can go a bit OTT with things and the money runs away with you.

Research is definatley the key to successful budget managing.

Hello!

There is a budget planner on here, if you click members and then budget planner. Is good as a starting point and lists everything!

You can get married for anywhere between £1000 and £100,000!! Work out with your HTB what is most important for you and what you don't want to scrimp on, the cost should also reflect how important the individual item is to you, for example, some brides go all out on dress, others music, others photography etc.

The biggest cost by far will be your venue hire / food & drink so I think this is a good place to start.

A very rough guide;

Favours - 50p pp - £5pp

Invitations you can order online and are anywhere between 50p - £3.00 per invite

Photographer - £500-£2000

Centrepieces - sometimes provided by venue but depends what you are after. Est of £10-£80 per table depending what you want

Flowers: Brides bouquet £50-£150, BM flowers £25-£75, buttonholes £5-£15

Other costs: rings, giving notice of marriage, registrar fees, your dress, DJ/music, makeup and hair, BM dresses!

Have you been on pinterest? That is a great source of inspiration

Good luck x

Also, something else that helped me was speaking to friends and family whose weddings I've been to, you have seen what their weddings were like and what they involved. Ask them what their day cost them, and what they wish they had spent less/more on.

For example, my Brother and SIL had personalised perfume and whiskey bottles as the favours. Cost a bomb. However, half of them got left on the tables at the end of the night.

I've copied this from a previous post of mine but it should give you an idea of what you need to think of...

Ceremony fees - if you're having a civil ceremony then costs on top of the venue will probably come to about £400 (these vary by county)

Dress - if you're not on a very tight budget you'll probably be spending between £1000 and £3000 on this. How much depends on what you're comfortable spending and the dress you fall in love with.

Photographer - Again, this will probably range from £1200 to £2500

Flowers - I reckon you should budget around £600 if you want flowers for your centrepieces

Cars - Do you need these? If so, about £600

Cake - anything from £400 to £800 if you don't have ridiculously extravagant taste

Suits - normally about £100 or less to hire per suit

Bridesmaids - how many are you having? Bridal shop bridesmaid dresses are normally about £200 each but you can get them cheaper than this from the high street or by getting a seamstress to make them

Stationery - If you want to buy your stationery rather than make it yourself I would budget about £300

Veil - You can get these made for you online for about £30 or you can spend about £150 from a bridal shop

Shoes - how long is a piece of string? What ever you'd like to spend!

Band or DJ - between £300 and £1000 depending on what you're after

Hair and makeup - about £200 for you plus extra for bridesmaids if you're paying for them (maybe budget about £50 per bm?)

Wedding rings - This really could be anything. We spent £500 on two palladium bands.

Favours - maybe budget £1-£2 per person

Wedding insurance - about £60-£100

Please note - you can spend much more or much less - these are based on average prices that you see across the board.

It will always be different, I heard of 60 guests for £1500 and 60 guests for £15000 (although ive never seen the latter in real life)

dont worry about what you 'want' yet... figure out realistically what you can afford to save each week/month and then how long you want to be engaged - thats your budget

I would find out how much your 'big' costs will be (i.e. venue, catering, registrar), then itemise everything you'd like to have with an estimated cost. My rough costs for the items you've mentioned are:

wedding invitations £170 (we had them designed, these can definitely be done cheaper)

wedding favours £10 max, making heart shaped biscuits

photographer £600 (this is a very good price though, we budgeted about £800-1000)

table centrepieces - making these so £10 max

venue styling - not having anything other than centrepieces / other decs that are homemade

bouquet bridesmaid flowers, flowers for venue/church, buttonholes - overall cost was £250 ish I think, I had gypsophila which is a very cheap flower.

Hello, I don't know if this helps but ours for 60 people during the day and another 30/40 for evening and it is looking something like this so far:

Venue / catering - £3,000

Registrar Fees - £450

Giving 'notice' - £75

Drinks post ceremony / reception - £500

Wedding night accommodation - £150

TOG - £760

DJ - £275

Flowers - £280 (incl. bridal bouquet, 1 BM bouquet, top table arrangement, 5 buttonholes & 4 corsages

Cake - £300

Rings - £500

Cars - N/A a friend is sorting out her grandads car as a wedding present

STD's & Invites - £30 for DIY kit, ribbon, ink cartridges

Dress and accessories incl. shoes, hairpiece, belt - £250

BM Dress (just 1) £25

BM Accessories / shoes - £75

Suits, ties & shirts (suits for 3 men, ties and shirts for 5) - £350

Photobooth - £350

Guest book - £20

Post box - £20

Favours - £30

Hair - £70

Centrepieces - £70 (DIY)

Wedding insurance - £25

Honeymoon hotels & flights - £2,500

Spending Money - £1,000

Travel Insurance £35

Gifts - £75

There's probably something glaringly obvious that I've missed!!

It's really hard to set a budget without knowing the costs of everything. We had a relatively small wedding:

Venue - £750 initial rental and we had to meet a £7k minimum spend (we ended up going over this), exclusive hire of the place. this minimum spend was what we used for all the food, drinks etc for the whole day, accomodation in the 6 bedrooms and some champers for evening guests.

Band: £1300

String Trio - i think about £400

Flowers - £355 (inc flowers for mothers, we used the venues centre pieces as well)

Stationary inc invites and candles etc on the day all from the same lady inc set up around £1000

My dress: £1800

Bridesmaids dresses, shoes etc (2 of them): £800

Registrar: £640

Cake: £260

Honeymoon £6000

Groom and groomsmen :£1450

Photographer: £1700

Rings: £890

Cars: £110

Hair: £390

Make up: £251 (4 of us)

There are other things you need to think of as well if you are sticking to a tight budget, things like thank you gifts, thank you cards, pre night accomodation if needed, guest book/ signing frame etc, alterations on dresses/ suits etc

Hope that helps x