Wedding Guest Spending - Daily Fail!

Load of rubbish. Last wedding I attended (and it was a bit of a ropey one) I spent about £150/£200 I reckon. New dress and accesories, small gift and drinks in the evening (there were none in the day)

Im must be tight.

£440- is this gross or net? Whats the national average wage?

They only way I'd spend that much personal was if it was for myself and OH, we had to have overnight accommodation, we were there all day. I had a new outfit, he had new shoes. I it was like 200miles away and that bar wasn't free. Personally it's OTT for me. Last wedding we went to, it was just a night do, we drove the 50miles and didn't stay overnight, small wedding gift, just a suit dry cleaned. Total spent for both of us - £70? As a day guest, again based on the both of us, it was probably more like £150 recycling clothes a little and thankfully it was just up the road.

I've only been to 1 actual wedding (my sister) and 2 receptions in my whole life (not including photographing them cos that's different) I will be going to a friends later this year as a guest and will be taking the photos for too. I think my Mum got mea dress from New Look for my sisters and I've bought a dress off eBay for our friends that was £40 with under skirt netting. Normally I wear something I already have. I reckon that's rubbish.

At my age weddings have dried out a bit, but during my prime (and my friends' prime!) I probably did go to 3 or 4 a year. So I think the total of over £2K per year is a little excessive, but I have to say that attending a wedding (all day) is pretty costly in my opinion. I'd probably spend over £100 on an outfit for me, shirt/tie for OH, wedding gift (minimum £50), transport to/from wedding, possibly overnight accommodation, drinks (if they aren't provided in the evening), card, confetti etc. It all adds up! I went to a wedding in Italy once, that did cost me a fortune (but it was amazing!).

I'm trying to think about it now.

Last wedding I went to was my friends.

Approx costs:

£100 present

£100 on hotel room

£50-100 (or so) on booze.... there were a lot of tequilla shots bought that night!

So forgetting my need to buy every1 at the bar a tequila, it wouldn't cost as much as that article has said.

I have to say that it looks like the Daily Mail received a press release from Kaleidoscope, added a couple of stock photos, and called it a news story.

More to the point.... I wish I earned £440 a week!!!!

The average Brit goes to 5 weddings a year? Who did they survey? I can imagine it got close to that in the 25-35 age bracket, but either side of that I highly doubt it - my parents hadn't been to a wedding in ~24 years before my cousin's, which was just before mine.

Last year I went to 4. I only bought a new dress for one of those; for the others I recycled dresses I already had, though I did buy a couple of new accessories. H used suits he already owned, except when he was best man for his brother so had a hired suit. We spent £120 on 2 nights' accommodation for the one which was furthest away, plus probably £80 on petrol there and back, but at the others accommodation was either free or unnecessary and transport costs were much lower.

I would love to know where they got those numbers from. Probably the same place lots of their other "stats" appear from - thin air!

Apparently the "average" UK salary for a man is £30,936 (for a woman its £24,337!)

So a weeks take home is £458.

Are we to presume the men are paying for all of this then?!

I wish my bloke had.

He went to bed early with a headache....lightweight.

fun that statement!!

But yeah, load of tosh! Last wedding i went to (last month) I spend £5 in petrol, partner got the drinks and my the outfit was a oldie from the wardrobe and spend £1 on hair pins.

Got another in May, spend £15 on a dress and another £2 on hair clips and i'll get away with not paying for drinks again!

5 a year!? Last wedding I went to was my mum and dads. I was 1 and a bridesmaid! I am pretty sure I wouldn't spend anywhere near that much though.

I think I've only been to one wedding in the past 5 years, not 5 every year! Mind you, the last one was 300 miles away and so we needed 2 nights accommodation. I spent ages looking for a dress (there was a colour dress code) and then found the perfect dress in my sisters wardrobe so that cost me nothing. Bought a cardi for about £15, and gave about £100 cash for a present. Luckily for us, as it was family and my OH was asked to drive his parents kindly paid for the petrol and our hotel, but if they hadn't it probably would have cost us over £400. If it had been local then it would have cost us nothing like that price!

Hmmm, wedding coming up in June. £300 dress, still to buy shoes. £150 on hotel (but staying two nights instead of the required one). Still to buy new shirt/tie for Boy. Oh, and a gift, I suppose Plus, we will easily spend £50 on car petrol and £100 on people petrol.

But that's one wedding. Were we attending a second or more, our outfits would be worn again (provided it's a different group of friends, of course).

So, ask any guest at any wedding to add you the cost of their outfits/travel/gift/etc and multiply that by five, you'll get a falsely inflated figure.

Having said that, I have always maintained that guests (usually) pay more to attend a wedding than the happy couple spend on them (usually). It really winds me up whe I see brides say 'We're paying for their dinner, so...'.

Sounds there or thereabouts to me, possibly a little light! I have been to about 5 or 6 in the last 4 years but have 7 this year!

120 - 180 new dress (Usually Ted Baker or Reiss)

20 - 80 - jacket or pashmina

70 - shoes from Office

30 - Jewellery

40 - 50 wedding gift (me and OH usually put in 40-50 each to make it an 80-100 gift)

100 - 150 hotel room

130 - flights - most of the weddings have been in Scotland/Ireland!

As with all things money related, it just depends on what you can afford and what you want to spend your money on.

Guy - possibly some geographical bias here - sounds very 'inside the M25' to me?

xxx

Last year I only attended 1 evening reception, plus my own wedding. That just cost about £50 as it was local, plus a gift. This year we will have 1 to attend at Shrigley Hall. Hotel room will cost £150 if we decide to stay over, plus petrol. I will use a dress that I will wear either for my friend's party or work's prom, plus gift. £300 spend max as neither OH or I will probably drink in excess. Next year there will be just 1 to attend which again will be local so won't have the fork out for accommodation. I would class my friends as prime wedding-age but very few of them are actually getting spliced. I can see how you would easily spend a week's wage if you drank more or were at a venue with dearer drinks, bought a more lavish gift or outfit and so on. I'm glad I don't need to attend 4-5 a year!

My last wedding

£55 for first outfit, £35 for second outfit. Ended up wearing first dress after all that. New shoes to go. Total £125.

£160 2 nights accommodation - too far for one night and started to early to go down morning.

£120 travel down there.

£75 gift.

£5 token for money dance.

obvs accommodation made it expensive, but totally worth it.

I think the figures are very off. They state £440 as the average weekly wage which equates to £30k a year or thereabouts. However if you earn £30k I don't believe you would have the disposable income to spend that much iykwim? Not with paying other outgoings.

The last wedding I went too my dress was from primark- very outside of m25!

Do people seriously buy a new dress / shoes each time they go to a wedding? I've been proudly rocking the same ensemble for the past 5 years!

But maybe that's because I'd rather drink a pint of cold sick than go clothes or shoe shopping. *shudder*

I know I'm going to spend more than this on H's best friend's wedding in June because it's in Hereford, it's a whole weekend thing, and we're hiring a car as well as paying for accomodation. However, H is best man, so it's a bit more than being 'a guest'.

I went to 3 weddings last year as a guest and we never spent more than £150-200. Generally I got a dress in the sale/wore one I already had, H got a new shirt and tie and we'd give around 50quid as a pressie. Then £100 on drinks/cabs, or I drive.

how!?

I've had to ditch most of my old dresses they're too small! whats your secret?

It's probably me pushing up the averages. At 27 I'm bang smack in wedding season for all my friends. I've been to 6 in the last two years but one was in Ireland, one in Spain, one in India, one in Somerset, one in London and one in Suffolk. As I live in Suffolk I had pretty high travelling costs. We have one wedding this year but thats in Seattle. Although I have worn the same dress to three of them to reduce costs. It's the flights which have really added up. Although I didn't have to go to all these weddings I'm very glad I did. Plus we made it into a holiday. We try and save to go away each year but for the last couple of years our destinations have been picked for us.

For a UK wedding I don't think I'd be spending a weeks wages. Luckily we have several groups of friends so outfits can be recycled without anyone noticing.

Last wedding:

25 – my dress, in the sale. Didn’t need new shoes or bag.

82 – suit hire for OH as he was asked to match the groom

55 – OH shoes

50 – present

65 – Hotel for 1 night

We normally only have 1 wedding a year so it’s not too bad really.

Just be fat. All the time.

In fact, I now have the opposite problem, having dropped 2 dress sizes for my wedding...now I will have to buy a new frock if I get invited to any others. Or just wear my wedding dress everywhere, even to other people's weddings. Yay!

Friend's wedding....work...down the local...walking the dog...