Type of Wedding and Budgets

We're having a civil ceremony followed by champagne reception and then five course meal for 50 guests. We will then be inviting another 80 or so to the evening, but anticipate that only 50 of them will attend. We have dry hire of a big old biulding for the day, so everything is in one place, and we have had to source all suppliers. I'm only having one Maid of Honour and a Flower Girl, H2B is only having a Best Man - we are paying for everything for them including outfits, hair, make up, jewellery, etc. We chose areas where we were content to budget: stationery, favours, cake, my tiara...and areas where we were not: my dress, TOG & VOG, venue, catering.

We anticipated spending £10,000 not including the Honeymoon, and currently we are looking at coming in £27.33 over budget. To be honest we plucked the £10,000 figure out of thin air at the start so I am very happy with how well we have planned. I anticipate that we may save further on other items still to be purchased, such as the order of service, flower girl dress, etc. so we may well come in under £10k. This includes everything, even stamps for invites, £6 for social stirrers on the table, any card fees which we have incurred while making payment, etc. It also includes £350 which we have set aside for a professional story book album, so really we will only need to have paid out £9,650 by the wedding day...which takes a tiny bit of pressure off ?

We just booked our honeymoon a few days ago. We have known for a year or so where we are going but have been watching the trends to get a good price. When prices were released for the first time back in June it was £2200pp, we booked a few days ago for £1816pp including transfers, select your seat, meals, extra baggage, etc. so I am please with the deal we got...just hope it doesn't go any lower as I love to know I got the best price ?

I think at the end of the day your wedding is what you make it. We could have done it for half the price and still had a lovely wedding, judging by some of the special packages we see locally - but we were unwilling to change the venue so we are where we are. On the other hand, I could easily double the budget with a free bar, horse and carriage, live band, etc. etc.

Hey Mellow,

Sounds like you're having a very similar wedding to ourselves in many respects then and a similar budget too!

When I started I had no clue whatsoever (if only I had discovered here sooner!) I know some people spend hundreds and others spend a hundred thousand lol I just knew what type of wedding I wanted and eventually managed to find the 'average' cost of what I wanted!

Where are you honeymooning then? We didn't know what we'd be doing for ours...at first thought we'd only be able to afford a local weekend break, I'd always wanted to go to the Maldives but no chance as 1) too much money and 2) weather's not good for time of year we want to go! My OH has now surprised me with 11 nights in Sharm el Sheikh, gone for a more 'low key' place and have an AMAZING hotel/room instead...can't wait!

I definitely agree, weddings are not about the amount of money spent but about having the type of day you want with everyone you want to share it with! I'm pleased with the amount we're spending and the wedding we will have but like you could have so easily spent more but just not necessary for us!

Have a lovely day and all the best x

We had a civil ceremony, with my 2 sons and 2 witnesses, we then went for a meal. We had no "reception". I made my own cake, our cars were free, as was our photographer.

Everything came in at under £500.

The main thing for us was actually getting married, and that's where the majority of the expense was, everything else was an "extra", hence the cheapness.

The Excellence Playa Mujeres in Mexico. As soon as we seen it we knew it was the one. We are thinking of emigrating to New Zealand a year after the wedding and settling down to start a family, so we wanted a wow factor for our last luxury adults only holiday. Again, some people on here have spent £10,000 on the Honeymoon, so ours probably doesn't seem that luxurious in comparison - but it certainly is to us. The hotel is adults only, and is fully all inclusive which includes champagne, room service, etc. as well as the standard meals and drinks. They also have activities like bike tours, kayak tours, spannish lessons, cooking lessons, etc. and I like doing those sorts of things when we go away. It's in the opposite direction of the hotel zone so it's very secluded and quiet, but still only a half hour drive to the airport. It has 11 bars, 7 swimming pools, and 9 a la carte restaurants - and you don't make any reservations so you just turn up wherever you want to eat on the night...we are big foodies so it's perfect for us. God - I'm rambling so much, can you tell I'm excited? ?

H2B went to Sharm before we met and he absolutely loved it. We keep meaning to go there together but we always seem to be saving for something.

For us we agreed that we would not get in to debt for the wedding. We calculated that we could save £10k between the engagement and the wedding, so that's the budget we decided to work to. As it happens we will only have about £9k by the wedding due to unexpected car and roof repairs, and also converting the loft so the carpet was £900 for up there - really if we hadn't done that we would probably have more that £10k in savings come May. H2B has £4k savings of his own that his mum left him when she passed away, so we will borrow that to pay the Honeymoon and then will repay H2B with our savings throughout 2012...it means that we don't incur any interest, as we both HATE interest.

As ER said in her post, you can get married for the cost of two outfits and your legal fees. My mum done this a couple of years back and it was still a lovely ceremony. She had been married before so wasn't interested in the fuss of a big wedding, it was a beautiful ceremony and they are husband and wife now, so at tthe end of the day it all equates to the same thing. For me, I want the whole big day, and so does H2B. It's our first (and hopefully only ?) wedding so we wanted a huge celebration with all our friends and family. If we weren't in a position to do so though then I would have happily married him quietly...but I would still have insisted on the dress! ?

For our Wedding, we got a good saving through picking a venue with a Winter Discount.

The main room looked good and the staff were fantastic, so whilst some areas were a bit tired looking, on the whole it was very good value.

The TOG was important to Carmen, and lots of time was spent looking around to find the one with the style she wanted.

For me, the DJ was also important, and a good friend was called in to provide a retro look.

Chatting to Carmen, we think we spent about £7000 on the Wedding. The Honeymoon was fairly cheap - an all-inclusive 4* Hotel in Morocco for 4 nights (I had to get back for gig the following Saturday)

For us, we focused on what was important to us;

• Venue and good Staff.
• TOG, having a style we (ok Carmen) liked
• DJ/Entertainment

Other things crept out, with table decorations, and a few other things we didn't really think would cost much (but did).

We did the table plan ourselves, and as we're both into our music, the table names were iconic album covers (which I printed and laminated), so no major cost.

We had candle holders, purchased from another Hitcher - and I think we'll also sell these on again.

Our Cake was made by Carmens uni friend and so saved us quite a bit.

We also didn't have any car hire - the venue is licensed for ceremonies, and Carmen stayed there the night before with her family, so no need to a big traditional arrival/exit.

Suits were hired from suitsdirect, with most of us getting measured in local outlets. The service was very good, and the price was competitive.

Going for a full Church Wedding will increase the cost, but its a personal choice.

The £10,000 budget is a good one, and we could have quite easily met that with a few extras and not being so thrifty on some things.

However, looking back, it was a perfect day, and spending more would not have made much difference.

We are having a church wedding in May, followed by a reception for just over 80 guests with welcome drinks and a 3 course meal. There'll probably be max 150 people for the evening.

I'm doing a lot of DIY things, but I've found that I've spent just over £400 on decorations (centrepieces, table place holders, wicker hearts, crafty bits, etc) and about £300 on gifts so far (and that's just for 3 BMs, 3 FGs and both Mums). I think I'll have spent my £10,000 budget by the end, but that includes things like photo albums.

One thing I've learnt from both my time on here and from watching 4 weddings is that it isn't how much you spend, it's how you spend it. For example, my friend spent £3k on his flowers, another spent 1K, whereas mine will come to less than £500, but I doubt our guests will notice any difference

Hi ya, we're having a civil ceremony at a hotel that is doing what I think is a good package and we are having the ceremony there as well we are having 60 to the day and an extra 40 to the evening. We were paying for this ourselves and were looking at 2013 but my mum have offered to pay for the reception pack so we have bought forward to September 2012. I had already bought my dress off an action site, it is a Trudy Lee and has only ever been tried on and I saved myself £780 off the original price.

We've been togther for 8 years so the main thing for us are getting married and having the day of our lives, we are not currently having a honeymoon but hope to get away for a couple of days last minute. I wanted a dress that I love and I have, I did look at other dresses as I bought this a couple of months ago and although I found one I liked it was not as nice as the one I had already fell in love with at home. I am splashing out on the adult bridesmaids x3 as they are all having dresses from a bridal shop but this purely due to the size variations and I now have the extra budget. Making invites, table plan myself, and my mum is also a retired florist so she is doing all my flowers. We are having 3 adult bridesmaids and 3 little ones, Bestman, PageBoy and my brother who is giving me away. Total budget is £7.5k including the reception.

Our budget is about 5k. We are having a church wedding with afternoon tea for about 40 people and a hog roast for an additional 40 in the evening. We rented a huge country house and most guests including me and H2B will stay there for 4 days (90% of our day guests coming from abroad) paying for their rooms. We will hold the reception in the garden under gazebos. Music and food are most important to us; I will ebay my dress and H2B will buy a dress he can wear again. He only has one best man and my bridesmaids will wear their own summer dresses. I will DIY most of the decorations and we have sourced local small suppliers.

I would like a very relaxed feel for the day; just having a good time with family and friends. Vintage cars or designer shoes are not for me (just my personal opinion).

Just need to get organised now ?

I love how everybody's wedding is individual and budgets can vary so much but how every wedding sounds perfect and sure it will be!

I was keen to see if anyone out there is having a similar wedding to myself but had a smaller budget than myself and where they had managed to save the pennies because if I can get my budget down I'd love to...not about the amount of money spent but not compromising on what makes our perfect wedding for us!

ESW sounds like your wedding is similar to ours i.e. hotel wedding for 50/50 guests roughly. Does your 7.5k include the money paid by your mum for the reception pack? Sounds like you've been very lucky with your dress!

Your honeymoon sounds fab Mellow, we're the same not having an as luxurious honeymoon as others but it's luxurious to us and that's all that matters isn't it?! I'm sure you'll have a fab time!

I definitely agree with you NurseBride2B, it's where you choose to spend the money that makes the difference, I 4 weddings and DTTB! 3k on flowers is loads!! I looking at £500!

Hope you all have the best of days

I THINK OUR BUDGET IS ABOUR £7K. Im hoping to have a venue booked for Sept/Oct this year. I want a small and intimate wedding but it was gone from going away with immediate family totally 14 to do it, to staying in uk and having upto 50, packages Ive seen are about £3.5k for wedding breakfast upto 50 people.

Im having 1 adult BM, 1 small BM, 2 FG and 1 PB - they are the only children in the family so I wanted them to be involved.

Mil is doing invites - We are going to have a civil ceremony at the venue so no added expense for cars etc. Hope im being realistic!

x

We have a 25k budget and we are just under, approx 14k has gone on food & venue rental, £4k on honeymoon, 3k on all outfits for wedding party, 4k on everything else ie rings, decorations, music, hotel rooms etc

We have 80 day guests 120 evening guests. Civil Ceremony in a Georgian Manor House and complete hire of the house for the day.

Hello

well we are having a civil ceremony at a hotel so all at the same place only one BM & BM so no need for transport i am also doing my own hair and makeup and we are spending approx 6k, but we dont want a sit down meal..... so thats made it slightly cheaper

we are spending most on the venue itself as it is lovely and has great views our numbers are 50 day time and approx 100 eve time. we are having a casino hire for 2.5 hours early eve and then dj in eve time. we were having a marquee but they no longer do marquees so having it in there extended conservatory

Exclusive use of country house for 66 people, welcome drinks, bottles of wine, toast champagne, reception for 200 with disco. My splurge was my photographer. Our initial budget was £10k we ended up spending £16.5k. All paid by the two of us.

We are having it all at our venue, a hotel. We will have the civil ceremony followed by the 'arrival' bucks fizz, then 3 course sit down meal, (then coffee & mints) for 50 adults, 18 children. then an extra 60ish at night for reception, dj & buffet (which we have now changed to bacon/sausage buttys etc as makes a lot cheaper) Im only have 2 BM's. Not sure about ushers yet, upto oh. we were saying aorund £10k excluding hen/stag parties & honeymoon. We have spent quite a lot of that on venue, and next i want to sort photographer & dress and dont want to go cheap on these. xx

We are also having it all at our venue in a hotel. We have the cicil ceremony, then arrival drinks of Bucks Fizz or Pimms and lemonade, then a 3 course sit down meal then coffee and mints for 65 guests. Then 120 guests for reception with a dj, photobooth and buffet. Im having 4 bridesmaids and 5 ushers. Our wedding budget is 7k excluding stag and hen. We are not going to have a honeymoon. Our main splurge is the venue and we still need to book photographer but I have already got my dress which was a bargain. x

Good to know I'm on the right track and in-line with everyone else!

My wedding is the same as yours mummymrs2b, although only 55 day guests and an extra 45 evening guests (at the moment). We too changed from buffet to bacon rolls & chips, cheaper and better value for money! Our venue, ceremony room hire, wedding breakfast, drinks package and evening food came in at £3.3K

That's good value mrsObrien2b, is there anywhere in particular you saved money? You're having the same type of wedding as us and for more guests with some extras we're not having like photobooth and more BMs & Ushers but 2.5K cheaper

Ours is £6300! But that includes the drink package, wedding breakfast, buffet, room hire, civil service charge. they said it was free room for us, and both sets of parents and free use of the swimming pool and trimnasium, but tbh im sure they just add it onto something! :o did think about trying to find own dj to make it slightly cheaper but not sure it would and plus if something happens with the resident dj they provide, then they have to sort somebody else not me. Seems quite dear after seeing a few other peoples venue costs, just wish id tried to barter before agreeing! x

XMissyLoux my budget includes the money from my mum for the reception. Manage to get a few bargins on little BM dresses and obviously mine. Not having to pay for a florist helps as I only have to buy the flowers and I am going for artificial as I can buy them as I go along. The pack we have was great 4k for the lot!

Well Im sure that I will be shot down in flames here, and everyone has an opinion, but to spend ridiculous amounts on a day that is about getting married, and saying those vows is beyond me! Ebony Rose had the right idea...its about committing to each other, not putting on a show for everyone else!

Well Jules, you only do it once so why not have a big party to celebrate such a momentous occasion? I understand some people want to go and do it quietly, but for me I want to share it with people and celebrate.

And your entitled to your opinion Jules.

Wow mummymrs2b! You've got a few other things included there though, our DJ is paid for separately and our parents' rooms, our honeymoon suite is included though as well as use of facilities like you! Not sure what you mean by civil service charge...is that something your venue charge or do you mean the registrar's fee? I didn't include the 'cost of the marriage' the registrar and NoM is extra again!

I think the beauty of weddings and the reason I created this post, is that everyone does it differently and I was interested in the different types of weddings everyone was having and how much they cost! I don't think it's wrong to spend £100 on a wedding or £100, 000 it doesn't make the getting married part and saying the vows any less special or meaningful. At the end of the day it's a special (hopefully once in a lifetime) experience and I believe people can choose to celebrate that in whatever way they want! Just because we're spending thousands on our wedding day doesn't mean that the most important part of the day for me isn't saying my vows and making my OH my husband! The type of wedding we are having is what we wanted and not for anyone else!

We're having a Church wedding and the full sit down meal for 80 then about 150 to the night, our total budget so far is about 6K.

We have been lucky my mum is making my cake and decorating it, its her hobby so it will be fab and my nan is paying for the ingredients etc. My mum is paying for my dress, the BMs dresses my shoes. My tiara is from a friend. my other Nan is doing the flowers we are having silk so i can keep them as a momento!

so really we managed to cut allot of costs there our big expense really is the TOG its £1300, the reception is only costing £2600. so its not been to bad to be honest!!

Absolutely love this dress!!! I ordered this dress last minute for our vow renewal and I still got it in time. I live in Hawaii and it took about three and a half weeks. I ordered custom sizing and needed to take in the shoulders which made the length perfect. Otherwise, the width was perfect. I had lots of praise and wonderful comments about the dress. Excellent material and well made. Wish I had access to this site 15 years ago. I would've ordered my dress from our website back then too. You can't go wrong with the price. I spread the word to my friends about our website (one who's getting married next year). I will definitely order from them again!!! Thanks for everything eastbridal.com!!!

Ours is a civil wedding with everything held at a local hotel. We opted for one of their packages which is £1350. This includes champagne reception prior to the 3 course wedding breakfast. 3 course wedding breakfast for 50 people, evening buffet reception for 90 people, 3 overnight rooms (lodge room for hubby and I) and of course room hire.

Our overall budget is 5k, however, will probably not spend anywhere near that..... my dress is Essence of Australia and was a total bargain..... just over £400 bnwt never worn..... rrp £1295....

My invitations are being made by a freelance friend at a fraction of what they should cost, and am not having cars, as due to having wee man etc, am staying at the hotel the night before the wedding....

Most things are pretty much booked.... its all getting extremely close....

We had a big church wedding followed by a 3 course dinner for 65 adults, followed by an evening reception with an additional 30 adults.

We spent about £10k excluding honeymoon.

Priorities were Church, Venue and Photographer.

We saved money on my dress, stationery and decor (DIY) and by buying the suits rather than hiring. Best Man and Chief BM only plus one flowergirl.

No missy Lou, that's something the hotel added to the bill, we still have extra for the registrar etc x

We're having our minister come to our venue and ceremony and reception will be all in one place. We have budgeted for 80-85 all day (although the guest list is 94...oops) and 120 at night (and the list is 140! Not very good at brutality, lol). Three course sit down meal with 2 drinks, bacon rolls and sweet buffet in the evening. Live band entertainment, no cars, three bridesmaids and a flower girl, three groomsmen and an page boy. Our budget is £8500 with a £1000 contingency fund just in case. So far everything (bearing in mind we haven't actually booked the venue yet!!) has come in under budget except going £11 over our rings budget and £12 over hair and make-up. I think we've saved something like £230 so far on the stuff that's completely organised and paid for.

The big spends for us will be the venue and all the associated costs with that (meal etc), then tog and band (which was also discounted so we're saving £200 there). The rest I am happy to budget on. My dress had £300 off in the sale and my alterations will be less than half price. FG dress and my shoes, veil and accessories have all been from ebay and bridesmaids accessories and gifts have been bought in the January sales! Our vog was a groupon, our rings were less than half price and we're making the stationery ourselves.

I totally agree it doesn't matter what you spend, but how you spend it!

Wow what a bargain venue Mrs Howard to Be!

Loving it ladies, all sounds amazing!

Hiya,

Our budget is £7000 and we're getting married in December. We have managed to save a lot of money by really shopping around. Our venue (ceremony and reception) is in an old village hall in the grounds of a castle (nice old building with lots of beams not the normal 70's style village halls). It has a main hall and ceremony room. This meant that it was a complete blank canvas so could get in whichever caterers we wanted, DJ, bar etc. I'm having 2 bridesmaids and my OH has a bestman and 3 ushers. We are paying for everything for them. Also due to it being a winter wedding we got a good deal on TOG.

Rach xx

We are getting married in a hotel with 32 guests for ceremony & breakfast and a total of 115 people for the evening reception.

Our wedding budget is £4,500 - it was £4k but I ended up buying a new wedding dress instead of 2nd hand as i'd originally planned.

Wow everyone seems to be getting a lot for their dosh!! We're having a church wedding then a small hotel reception with a Marquee which will be ours ex. 100 day guess and another 50 at night total est cost is 14k however that doesn't include my dress, veil etc or HM!

We're having arrival drink, 3 course meal with wine and toast drink then pork batches at night.. We have 10 ushers, 3PB, BM and dads suits which will be a huge cost also 5BM's and 1FG!

Hope we can start to bring costs in under the 14k once i start to do a bit more!

Important bit for us is the church.. as it where it all happens ? also the cars so i knew i wanted a soft top beetle.