What is your Budget ??

Its irrelevant what others are spending, it what you can afford thats important. how many months do you have to save up and how much can you put away in that time? Have you got anything saved already? i am not asking you to tell me but it what you need to be thing of

Im trying to priortise what is really important to me as we havent got an actual budget as i know id never stick to it.Not having a PRO photographer as that not so important to me and i have a mate who has a hobby as photography,obviously all our wear like dress and suit and all that will cost what it costs.Not going to scrimp there

Dont like flowers much so again not a lot on them.For me its more the experience everyone has so wel be throwing the money more at the reception and the wedding cars than anything else.Oh and the honeymoon Has to be a great honeymoon.

I guess what im trying to say is you need to think about what matters the most to you personally to make your day special

WSS.

I think they say the average wedding is something silly like £17K! Our's will be costing a helluva lot less than this but will be exactly what we want. Thankfully had a bit saved up and have been saving extra each month too. HTH

As Claire says, what others are spending is irrelevant.

In the time I've been here I've seen people spend as little as £1K and as much as nearly £100K on their weddings. It all depends on:

a) how much you can afford

b) how much you want to afford

We decided when we got wed that we weren't prepared to spend more than £10K. We then set the date based on how long it would take us to save up the cash.

Ours is working out at about £12K at the moment!

£5000 all in excepting honeymoon which we are going on 4 months after wedding so can save seperately for

Ours was £10k from my Mum and we budgeted carefully to stay within it as even that was a lot of money to spend on one day! We prioritised our venue (£3k exclusive use hire charge) and food (£2k 3 course for 50 & £1k buffet for 100) and other main costs were drink £800, photography £650, dress £595, suit hire £300, flowers £300, suit hire £300, dj £300.

We saved with free cars borrowed from friends, M&S cake and made our own table centrepieces and all stationery.

Ok, as i keep saying in many of my posts, our budget is tiny. My dad is paying for the meal, my inlaws are paying for the evening, and my mum is paying for my dress. My aunt is making and paying for table decs as a wedding pressie for us, my cousin is doing my hair. i will be buying a supermarket cake. then, i have £1000 to spend. this has to cover everything, flowers, mens hire, cars, etc etc etc. my inlaws keep offering to pay for more, but i will feel bad if i say yes. My only issue at the moment is having to pay for the drinks at the reception. i have no idea how to pay for it yet. i wont be taking one of the packages the hotel offers as its too much money, and they dont offer corkage. think i will be just getting an arrival drink and a drink for the toast per person.

oh and a friend is making the rings.

That's what we thought and I bitterly regret it now. I thought I wasn't that bothered about the photos and we had a relative be the official photographer. She is a professional photographer but not a wedding photographer. Anyway, we're not very happy with how the photos came out and don't feel we can really say anything as she is a relative. I realise now that the photographs are a very important part of remembering the day in years to come/showing to your children and grandchildren, etc. and it feels awful to know that they are not as good as they could have been. I wish we hadn't skimped on the photography.

£5000 including honeymoon which we are going on 4 months after we get married so we can save some extra money for it. We are doing it on a budget but it doesnt mean it will look cheap, if you shop around you can get some real bargains out there.

good luck

zoe

Hi guys,

it's great to see I'm not the only one worrying about money.

My fiance and I are planning to marry in October 2009 and I reckon I squirrel away £6,000 but looking at the cost of everything venue, food, drinks, cake etc etc it doesn't seem this is going to go very far. We have two friends who have both offered to do our wedding photos as a gift to us and of course we'll be taking them up on the offer, but that's about it as far as getting friends/family involved goes.

I think I'm going to get my dress off ebay, I know I'm a snob but I don't really fancy wearing someone else's dress (unless I know they've had a very long and happy marriage up to that point), but aside from that I don't really know where to start.

Has anyone got any good money saving tips they can offer? Also we're going to look at our preferred venue on Saturday and I wondered if anyone knew any great ways to get the venue to give us a discount/drop their prices?

If I'm honest I'm finding the whole thing very stressful and that's before I go into family politics - please help (: x

Ebay was my best friend when i was planning. I got all my balloons from there also favor boxes , bits for centre pieces. Hibs on hitched i got flowers from , cake topper , bows for decorating the venue , guest book , all were reasonably priced.

I didn't pay a lot -imo- for anything , it still looked just how i wanted it to.

The cake , a friend made three sponge cakes & we then decorated it cost £55.00.

We had a running hot buffet instead of a sit down meal so instead of costing £16 per head it was £8.95 per head.

Hitched is a good place to pick up lots of tips.

We're looking at about £4k - lots of friends helping out doing things like hair and makeup, a friend is doing photography at a reduced rate to his normal wedding rates, cake from M and S, I made invites, not bothering with favours. flowers are potted plants from the local garden centre which will double up as thank you gifts, my dress is a bridesmaid dress from BHS, hot buffet instead of big meal, getting married at 4 so we're only feeding people once... work out how much money you have and what your priorities are and go from there.

Ok - first of all there is stuff that just isn't necessary to have:

favours

save the date magnets/cards etc

fancy invitations

cake toppers

• You can get a cake from the supermarket - loads of people have M&S or Tesco cakes. That saves a few hundred quid.
• Get your dress from BHS or Debenhams, or there are makes such as Alfred Angelo and Romantica of Devon which are very reasonable (a few hundred).
• You could try saying to your venue it's a family party - mentioning the W word always adds on more cash.
• I put a slip of paper in people's Xmas cards printed on our home computer, as a save the date for our wedding in the following august.
• You can send postcard style invitations that don't cost the earth - the reality is that your invitation will go in the bin as soon as the wedding is over so why spend a fortune on them?
• Money saving tips - set up a standing order in to a savings account/ISA every month - that way the money is tucked away and you don't have to worry about it.

Hope those ideas help.

Hi jen,

i am really lucky, my parents are paying for most of my wedding, £11000 to be exact, my venue comes to £8000 and the only other thing i have booked at the moment is the church which is £400, all in all the whole day is goi ng to cost us arround 20k

Actually come to think about it will be around 10k for venue hire, Food & Drink so I think we will be paying around 20k too

Jen

I agree with what people have said it is what you want from the day and what you can afford.

I am a bargin hunter when I set my mind to it, I am fussy still and have managed to make good savings. I have set up a spreadsheet for what we have paid/booked and it is just under £1,900. We have paid £500 deposit for venue, £190 to registar inc marriage licence, car for £400. Family friend is doing photographs at £200, we will print and get albums after the wedding when we have the money. But I have seen some nice ones on ebay for a good price. My shoes where from ebay for £15, my dress I got last weekend for £300 need to lose some weight to get into it but I have 12 months. All bridesmaids are paying for their own dresses and so our the grooms men and fathers. My friend is borrowing me her veil which is saving me money and it is also something borrowed. Thankfully she has been married 10 years so good omen, just need tiera and garta and I am done. Trying to decide between silk and fresh flowers at the moment to save money but not sure of the effect. Friend of a friend is making the cake for us £180 all fruit with cut up sponge for the kitchen. I just got my ring cushion from ebay for £10 which is beautiful. Just working out favours now and invites am going to try and make them myself with the help of ebay!

Just talk to people who have been married in friends, or let them know what you are missing they always willing to help or know some one who can. We are now saving about £350 a month by suspending our pensions for a year this is towards the wedding breakfast and evening. But we having a cavery and hot buffet at night which reduces the cost. All parents have offered to help so hopefully with what they give us we are looking at round 8K cross fingers

Good Luck

x

Ours is gonna be about £4k.

I was hoping it would be about £3k but I have a feeling it will go over seeings as the wedding breakfast and reception is looking at costing over £3k alone ☹️.

Paid £500 deposit on the venue so far, £220 for my dress and the flower girls (2 of them) entire outfits, £20 for invites and order of service blanks and that's about it so far.

Got family and friends doing the car, flowers, photos, cake and hair ?

Having read what people have said about photos I'm a little worried, although my friend is gonna bring his portfolio of photos over for us to look at first and doesn't mind if we prefer a professional.

Ours with honeymoon is around 12 thousand. My dad Is giving us 5 and we are paying for the rest. I am saving around £400 a month and so is kev so we should have £ £8000 enough for some spending money for the honeymoon as well.

I have tried to be carefull where possible, I find it good not to impulse buy when you see something you like/want instead go away and think about it. If you really can justify spending money on it after a couple of days then go back. I know if I got myself in debt or spent a stupid amount of money on something I would not be able to sleep at night and I want planning my wedding to be enjoyable not stressfull.

Therefore like the others have said its all about whats right for you. Personally I am stuggling justifying spending thousands on a dress I will only use once. With this in mind I am only looking at dresses around £500 ish. Where as when I first got engaged I thought I would not be bothered about photos or my wedding ring, my opinion on this has now changed as these are the things that I will still have after the day is over. Everyone will have diffent priorites. Once you know what your and of course your future husbands are you will be half way there.

Good look with the planning

Sharon x

We're spending about 15k and that's not including the honeymoon (which will happen about 4 months afterwards so we can save some more!).

We're doing this on our own as that means no one else has a say! We're quite lucky though as I live in London and used to rent a flat, having now moved in with H2b all previous rent and bill money is going straight to the wedding fund so we get to save a fair bit a month.

Like everyone has said you can do a wedding as cheaply or as expensive as possible, but I did find it helpful when I started having a few rough costs so I had a bit of a guide.

Venue : Just under 4k, for 43 day guests, 130 night guests includes room for ceremony and dj for evening do as well as honeymoon suite. This is based on the venues mid range menu and drinks package, and cheapest evening buffet. So you could have gone cheaper or more expensive. Also includes flowers for reception.

Hair: For me £75 including trial, Bridesmaids £25 each, flower girl £15.

Makeup : Mine £35 including trail, BM's £15 including trail, flowergirl free,

My dress:£250 in sale, BM'S dresses including alterations £150 each, Flowergirl -£15 from e bay

Suit hire £101 per suit (this is quite expensive I think, but husband chose expensive waistcoat etc which put price up can be done much cheaper.

Photographer £900, Videographer £795 - covers upto 11pm

Flowers : £345 for mine, 2 bridesmaid, flowergirl bouquets, 10 button holes, 2 corsages

Regstrar: £273.50 (plus £60 to give notice)

Harpist for ceremony: £127

Dance lessons:£20 per hour.

Wedding Rings £very expensive but I had to have made as my engagement ring was unique, also H2b was specially made - but rings can vary massively depending on what you want - but we justified amount spent to ourselves because we will have forever.

Honeymoon - we spent just under £3k, but again can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it.

I think thats it - probally forgot something, this is just a guide to what we spent we could have done it loads cheaper of spent loads more money, all depends on what you want and what you want to save on and what you want to go mad on.

We are having the cermony and the party, with canapes and predrinks between (about £10 a head) for 50 people

No sit down meal, so just the buffet which is £10 a head. For 120 people

We did not scrimp on the dj, and though it pained me to commit to spending £425 when I could have got a guy for £150 I am hoping it was the right choice as the party is really important to me, all celebrating and having a good time. The DJ I have picked is highly recommended with over 15 years experience at local hotels, and has a really good website with lots of information and really keen to involve us in playlists etc.

Photo's we are hoping to get a cd package only, meeting with 3 all ranging from about £600-£1000. We can get the cd then print out our own pics and design our album which I will like doing. Depending on who we choose we may get some minimum prints from them which would be nice but not essential

Cake - a friend is doing, so hopefully will cost around £60

Invitations my sister in law is making and she is giving them to us as a present, she used my ideas and came up with something fantastic

Hair - only having mine done by my normal hairdresser, flowergirls and bridesmaids can wear theirs how they normally do and feel comfortable

Dresses (mine and flower girls) came from Monsoon sale, my dress was £60 and the girls with cardigans were £40 each

Not doing cars as we will all be at the hotel all the time, this is really un-necessary and we live really close to hotel anyway.

Clare xx

We didn't have a set budget as such, we just knew that we wanted to spend as little as possible but to still have the nice things that we wanted.

My dad had offered to pay for most of the wedding and so we just concerntrated on outfits for the bridesmaids, stationary, costs of making myself and the bridesmaid look good, favours, and thank you gifts

My dad paid for the whole reception including 5 course meal for 75 people, a buffet for 100 people, welcome drinks, car, room decoration and suit hire

My nana paid for my dress

H's nana made the cake

My other nana paid for the flowers

H's parents paid for the church.

I would say that all in all we perhaps spent about £6k in total. We had everything we wanted including the wedding singer to entertain us in the evening, good food and plenty of alcohol as we provided drinks with the meal and as there was loads left we spread it out so that evening guests could have some too.

The way that we kept costs down was by not having a fancy venue. There's lots of lovely country houses or hotels near where we live where we could have had our wedding but it would have meant paying perhaps between £4k and £6k just for the posh venue and the food without even considering anything else. In the end we had our reception in a village hall, and although i hated it when i went a couple of weeks before the wedding for a trial run of how i wanted the tables and things, on the actual day with a bit of hard work the room looked fantastic.

I have to say, this was the one thing I have decided not to scrimp on...Everything else will be for one day only, including the dress, yes I want to look good but I dont think that needs to cost the earth. The photos are the one thing you will have for the rest of your lives.

My sister didn't have a professional photograher and it is the one thing she says she regrets!!

As others have said, it depends on what kind of day you want and what you can afford. We ended up getting married in Greece (not because of money but because it was a place we loved) and ended up saving at least £10K on the original UK plans we had started.

We got all this for under £5K

2 week holiday, wedding planner in Greece, wedding ceremony and registrar fees, flowers (my peony bouquet, and orchid wrist corsages x 3 and groom buttonhole, hairdresser, bridesmaid dress, groom's outfit, rings, photographer and videographer all day and at the reception, violinst at ceremony, hour boat cruise for 35 people and champagne, greek musicians to walk us to reception venue, favours for 40 people, 2 tier wedding cake, decoration of both venues, 3 course meal and wine for 40 people, greek band to play til midnight, translation of documents.

The only thing we didnt pay for was my wedding dress, which my dad wanted to pay for as a wedding gift. I got this during a promotion week and saved 20% on the price, so it cost £600.

I made the invitations by printing out tiny photos of the chapel where we married and using some nice mulberry paper from Hobbycraft. I pinned the photos on with split pins to look like they had been posted on a noticeboard. Really easy to make and everyone loved them.

There are so many ways of keeping things in check with a budget. I will, however, heavily recommend getting married abroad. We felt like we had never been to a wedding like it - and so many of our guests said the same thing. And we got to have our honeymoon at the same time!