Overall Budget

Mine is costing far more than i'd like... Excluding honeymoon - ours is coming in around £11,000. Though i'm forever trying to get it down ? It does include a £1000 contingency which I'm hoping we won't need and so far, everything i've booked is under budget so the figure should be under that (fingers crossed!)

£20,000 (despite what you may read in magazines) is a MASSIVE amount of money and the more wedding websites with real brides you read, the more youll see this is absolutely at the top end of what most people spend. Many, many people spend under 5k including honeymoon and the pictures from those weddings Ive seen look absolutely amazing - absolutely fairytale stuff.

We didnt really have a budget as such, although we knew what we could afford and wanted to spend a lot on the honeymoon rather than blowing it all on one big day. Ours for 120 people came in at about 12.5k for everything on the day and then our honeymoon was about 4.5k. But we did really go a bit over the top with lots of extras we didnt need by any means (saying that, we did also make a lot of things like favours, decorations, etc).

It does kind of depend on the number of guests youre having as to how much you need to budget, but I dont think 20k will any issue (especially excluding the things youve mentioned). Make sure you haggle suppliers down on their prices!

I know it's a big amount but that costing is mainly down too the venue price, here's a breakdown of the costs so far!

Venue Hire £4,125.00/ Catering inlcluding 3 course meal, bbq for the evening and bacon sandwiched at midnight £8,000.00/ Photographer £1,600.00 and flowers £1,100.00, I just can't see how you can haggle with these people?? I may be able to get my flowers down but can you really haggle with your venue?? x

My budget is £15,000. We are very lucky as we are going thirds with in laws and my parents!

I am struggling to keep to this budget tho as im sure everyone does with any budget. We are having about 75 people for sit down and 120 people for evening. I would really like to think that we could whittle it down to more like £13,000 tho but thats seems like mission impossible at mo!

The above amount includes everything. Our (2) best men are paying for their own suit hire and bridesmaids for their own hair and shoes.

Rough breakdown is

£5,600 food/drink/reception/hire

£1000 photographer

£3,500 honeymoon

£800 dress

£300 suit hire

£350 florist ( i have seriously under budgeted hire see my florist post)

£300 bridesmaid dresses (only having 2 adults)

£80 favours

and more

WGWVs. It does all depend on the numbers on the day, we decided to have fewer guests so that we could have the day that we wanted (plus we couldn't fathom the reason to invite great uncles and random cousins that I've never even met!), we had a great day, it cost a lot comparitively on a cost per head basis but that's how we wanted it. I would urge you to have a contingency as per GB says, we did and it all got ate up - last minute urgent ipod buying and the like!! We just worked out how much we thought things would cost, how much we could feasibly save each month and then worked out what our potential wedding date was...worked out perfectly in the end!

As an aside, we haven't included our honeymoon in our overall budget ... we went on our minimoon straight away and have delayed the honeymoon as we need to seriously save for it!

I think you also need to work out what's important to you. To me, your flower costs are extrememly high - mine are £170. I would also say that you seem to be providing a lot of food - would you need bacon sandwiches at midnight after you've provided a buffet? But again, that's just my view.

Other than the venue costs (hire charges plus 4 course meal & wines and reception drinks = ~£6000), our biggest expenditure is the grooms clothes at £720!

We are pretty much paying for the wedding ourselves so for us every penny counts (i.e. so far we've received a donation for £700). And no matter how much or how little you spend, you'll still have an amazing day and you won't be any more or any less married! ?

Thanks Girls!! right no Bacon sanwiches which takes about £1,000 off though my flowers can't change but might get another quote!! ?? right more strict..

Ooo how much is the chair covers costing everyone!! I haggled mine down with bows to £2.90ea?? is that good? x

Our wedding is costing £16,000 excluding honeymoon.

I think if you want to spent £20,000 and can afford it- go for it! You only get married once! I find it quite rude that people are saying 'that's too expensive, try to cut it down'. Like I said, if you can afford it, have it! It is really no-one else's business how much you spend.

Yes, you can have a gorgeous wedding at £5,000 but if you've got the money, why not spend it?

After reading all of your posts I think we take the award for cheap skate wedding lol

Our reception/wedding breakfast/eve buffet £1000

DJ - £200

Tog - £380

Dress - £395 (should have been £900 but was put into the sale by mistake!)

Cake/ table swagging/table runners/ balloons/ tall vase/flower centrepieces - £300

Overall our budget is £3000 (so far fingers crossed were in budget!)

Jen52637 - Thank you so much for that, I didn;t want to upset people by saying I thought they'd been a little rude! as you say it's down to the couple what they spend and if you can afford it so be it!!

LizzyLeek- If you can have your perfect day for that amount then well done to you!! x x

Budgets are such a personal thing so each to their own. I won't share what my wedding cost but I can say it didn't cost anywhere near £20k and I had the perfect day and even if we had a spare £20k we still wouldn't have spent it on a wedding as there are other things we would rather spend it on. Yes it is a once in a lifetime thing but it still didn't justify spending over a certain amount for us.

If you have the money and wish to spend that amount on your day then go for it and enjoy.

I guess we were lucky with a lot of things which saved money like the cake we loved happened to be the cheapest one in the shop, we haggled with the venue and got a much better deal (I'd always say to question the venue prices because if you don't ask you don't get) and I only had one bridesmaid which saved a lot.

Lx

I had to read it all back but I'm not sure anyone was rude? Opinions were asked and opinions expressed. Like I said, my comments were made on my personal view - doesn't mean it's right or wrong.

LizzyLeek - it's really strange but all the costs you've mentioned are more than i'm paying for each of those things! ?

Everyone should have the day they want. Hopefully for me, mine will come down and be well under budget (fingers crossed!)

I didn't mean rude in the sense of nasty just why do people feel the need to tell me to cut down my budget?? Yes I asked for what other people were paying as I'm interested at how people manage to do it for such a good price, I just couldn't imagine ever being able to get a whole wedding for 5k but if you do then that's wonderful!

Laura I think the majority of people on here probably don't want to spend £20k so when you post saying you are worried you are going over the top you'll get more responses offering suggestions on how to cut down but people weren't being rude in my opinion.

Lx

Thanks just maybe needed more support I do understand it's a big amount but at the same time that what we can afford I'm more worried about coming over that amount!! we'll see x

For the record, I wasn't meaning that anyone in this thread had necessarily been rude. I just know how threads like this go on here usually. No-one is ever asked to justify having a low budget but those who spend a lot are.

Like I said, if you have the money and want to spend it, spend it! You don't have to but if you want to, go for it! ?

You shouldn't feel bad for having your perfect day. At the end of the day (arrgh, hate that saying) weddings cost what you want them to cost. There is no right or wrong answer, we're all different and have different outlooks on things.

We too have zero debt and will be paying cash for our wedding however I personally can't justify spending £20,000 on a wedding (holiday maybe, but not a weddin ?). My best mates got married last year and spent over £25,000 on their wedding. I decided then that although they had the most lovely day, I just can't do it - bit that's me (her flower budget was the same as yours too!).

As PerfectGems said, it sounded like you were worried you were paying too much so people (myself included) natually tried to offer help as to where cuts could be made.

We're not all bad on here so don't take too much offence! ?

I think budgets depend on alot of things, obviously how much ur yearly income is, what kind of wedding you want, age of couple, whether you already live together or saving for house and if you already have children. The value of money is different to different people depending on their circumstances.

We have been together 4years, but very fortunate to have good stable jobs and decided to do all things such as nice house, car etc before getting married ( and we consider ourseleves lucky altho we do work all hours god sends and have to suffer the fact that we go whole weeks without seeing each other). We are both very careful and organised about decisions in life and fortunatly for us we can afford £15,000 on a wedding.

Other people on here are saving for houses/have or having children or students at uni etc. Most sigificantly in this economic climate many people have or are being made redundant which very quickly puts money into perspective. So i personally think that all money is reletive to lifestyle, life choices (some maybe forced choices) and sometimes personality ( I have to haggle and shop around for everything to satisfy my mind its right decision lol).

I would love to spend £20,000 or more on my wedding if i could without getting into debt and have everything i'd ever dreamed of and more. Lauraks if thats ur budget then go for it girl!!!!!!!! Just dont let yourself get totally and utterly ripped off by any rogue companies. Get what your paying for!

Rant over! :-)

You posted saying you were worried you were going over the top and you got some replies as to how to cut down a bit. What did you expect..everyone to say £20k isn't a lot and that you weren't going ott?

Hitched is an honest place when opinions are asked for and no one was saying you should feel bad.

Whether you both work, have nice cars isn't anything to do with what you want to spend so you don't need to justify your budget. We have a 3 bed house, 2 new cars and still don't want to spend £20k so like I said before each to their own and I wouldn't judge someone on whether they want to spend £100 or £100k on a wedding.

Lauraks - it's the ssme for me, I just wouldn't be able to find a way to get my whole weddng to 5k (including honeymoon!) I think it has a lot to do with other factors. We're having 200 guests to the meal, and the wedding is in London, on a Saturday in July!! Every venue I looked at was ridiculously expensive, and i feel terrible for spending so much on one day but then i realised it was what i had to do in order to get the day i wanted. and since it is a once in a lifetime thing, i decided to 'Just Do It'!

You can haggle with suppliers - venue included! I didn't with mine because I was kinda scared haha but I have with everyone else - caterer (got him to go down by 1200 pounds!) florist, cake-maker... so yea even if you have a high budget, you can deinitely make savings to make sure you keep it within 20k. I always shop around and get at least 3 quotes for everything, I'm spending a lot but making sure I am getting good deals along the way!

Good luck, i find that keeping within ANY budget is always hard (as someone else said on here)

Aliasap I totally agree with u! I'm spending more than wanted to but i to have taken 'just do it' approach (mostly with reception venue) trying not to get ripped off along way.I too have been getting between 3-5 quotes and picking best value for money (not highest and occassionally not picking lowest).

In all my research so far i have found photogrpahers to be biggest variation in price and some the biggest rip offs ever (my finance is into phtography and cannot believe the quality of some vv expensive ones).

I know for a fact that we are having a big wedding... and the budget reflects that.

But that's how OH and I want it and I think thats the bottom line.... do what you want. If you want to spend thousands on a sparkly dance floor then do, if you want to save thousands by making most of your decorations then do. It's so personal to everyones needs and wants for the day its impossible to say whats right or wrong.

We happen to think that the biggest price bumper uppers for us are the amount of guests... 140...and there is not one person out of that we wouldn't have there.
Also I think where you live makes a massive difference. Our venues are in Edinburgh which is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the UK. This has a huge effect on what people can charge for venues/food/entertainment etc.

We are also being very ambitious with our honeymoon, but it's what we both want.

In total our wedding = £16,000 our honeymoon = £14,000

we are skinning ourselves saving and are by no means flush with cash.... but there is not one bit of it we want to do without so we're happy.

I think that as long as your spending within your means and your happy with each penny you part with... your on the right track be that £1,000 or £50,000

I don't think anyone told you that you need to cut down your budget. That's a budget that you and your OH feel comfortable with, so no-one else has any right (apart from maybe your bank manager ? !) to tell you otherwise! You obviously already have the funds, have generous relatives, or know that you can get hold of them with very little detriment to your future finances.

For me, budgeting is all about how much running around you're up for doing and how many compromises you're willing to make. As soon as you mention the word "wedding", I'm sure many suppliers wack the prices up. But, if you'd like to cut costs, then you need to be confident to haggle and barter....look what Hugo Brambles managed to get when she was told she was only allowed one bacon-butty per guest!

No one was being rude, but budget is a very personal thing, as PG said - so many just don't want to discuss it, or feel that others will look down their nose at them for not paying enough, or paying too much. It's almost like asking, "How much was your engagement ring?"......for me, mine is priceless. A really expensive ring doesn't prove how much you're loved, neither does a cheaper one.....I wouldn't sell my ring for all my money in the world (plus, I'm not that shallow! lol)

Some may sneer and turn their noses up at someone who pays £2,500 for a church hall wedding, with a family cooked buffet, hand-made dress and garden picked flowers...but for some, this is their ideal wedding. Equally, some may turn their noses up at a £25,000 wedding, in an exclusive hotel, with a five course meal, designer dress and table flower decorations as high as the ceilings....but, like I said, this may be some people's dream wedding. It's all about what you're happy with and what you can afford.

I, for one, will be savvy; shop around and make whatever I can myself. We don't particularly want to compromise too much on what we want, as it is, like you say, a once in a life-time thing. Having said that, we have a very modest idea (and budget!) of what we want our wedding to be like.

We would never be able to afford to spend £20,000 on a wedding...and personally, in our situation (we're students), wouldn't want to. We're paying every penny ourselves which we will save ourselves. We don't want to put anything on credit, or pay for anything on finance (which is a very risky thing, unless you know you're going to have the finances to pay it off).

So, in short, you're obviously comfortable with your budget, else you and your OH wouldn't have decided on that figure. So what does it matter how much others are spending? It's about what you can afford and what you feel happy with.......does all that make sense? ?

wNaysoS.... on everything even to the budget... that's the reason we're not going on our honeymoon straight away as we don't want to get into debt for anything wedding related so we're saving for that now the wedding has finished and going in 147 days ? ?

It's your budget, your day and if you can afford it and are happy then fab, if you can make savings and haggle then go for it, it makese sense to try , even if that means you save elsewhere or put that money towards something else- as OLL points out, just putting the W word in front of everything significantly bumps up the price!

Got my chair covers for £2.50 each.

I couldn't find any cheaper than that & if we'd have got them form the venue they would have been £7.00 each.

Our budget is £13000. up to now we've only booked the venue and i managed to get almost £1000 off and an extra night so very happy at the moment!!!

In my opinion, it doesn't matter what your budget is as long as YOU have the day that YOU want.

Hi all im hoping to get my wedding in total for £3500

thats to include -

to get married, buffet for 80 ppl, welcome drinks, dj, cake,rings,2flower girls, 4 page boys, dress ect, suit hire, flowers, chocolate foutain and chair covers, favors, table pieces,

so far so good im on budget. getting married in a nice little cottage.

chair covers £2 from venue.

xxx

Well... Lol! We started with a budget of £2,000 but its leaning more towards about £4,000... i couldn't justify paying more then that mainly for the reason im a stay at home Mummy for my 15 mth year old, and prefer to spend my money on him H2B earns very good money but still.

I don't have loads and loads of family and friends so our guestlist is 20-30 for sit down and 60-70 altogether for reception so thats where the cost is quite low.

Sometimes busget can be hard because say if you budget £1200 for instance on a dress and find the most amazing dream dress for £2000 that you can afford then try not to worry...

What I would say to anyone is just don;t spend money you don't/won;t have or will leave you with a broken neck by the end of the wedding...

I think whats important to remember is when you have a lower budget you do tighten the strings but don;t compromise on what you want iykwim...

What someone spends is up to them and we cannot judge...

xx

We are planning on our budget being about £2k and a lot of it we are going to pay for as we go along..

im getting married for the 2nd time and we dont want the big affair this time...