Have you gone over budget?

I thought we could do it for 6k. Gone up to 9k. Forgot to budget for wedding rings and bridesmaids/mother of bride dresses.

Was going to do own flowers and cheap cake but then decided to get professional as too much to organise by myself. Wasn't sure about MUA and have now employed one to do the bridesmaids and myself.

Looks like people should budget and then add another 3K for incidentals! I think you think you can do things yourself but then realise that the professionals are pros for a reason. Practice!

We have gone over budget but looking back we were completely naive as to how much a wedding can cost. We originally budgeted £12,000 but we’re now at just over £16,000 with a few things left to finalise cost wise.

My mum ended up buying my dress which was a lovely surprise. It is included in the budget I’ve mentioned even though it’s not something we’ve paid for… I wanted to keep the total so we know exactly what it’s cost.

We were also really lucky to get money from both our parents (which we weren’t expecting). When my parents gave us money I asked my FH if he was happy for us to book a band (we hadn’t originally because of budget but we really wanted one) which was around £1,500. When his parents gave us money, we booked a videographer which is around £1,200. I hadn’t wanted one from the outset but my sister got married last year and when I saw her videos I changed my mind. It wasn’t something my FH necessarily wanted but he said he didn’t want us to have any regrets about the day so he was happy to do it.

We’ve both agreed on all expenditure and are happy with everything we have planned, despite it taking us well over budget.

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Hi Emma,

Yes, I thought we could do buy cheap cake and install ourselves and make our own bridal bouquets and then I thought it would be too stressful. For the cake it wasn't a matter of just buying a cake. You need to pick it up, deliver and install it on the day and I just don't have the time to be running around when I should be getting ready.

Our budget was £10k, with a 20% emergency cushion. We’ve totalled everything now and our final spend was just under £12k.

The extra came from things people had said they’d do for us, but then didn’t for various reasons, so we had to spend out at shorter notice. For example, a former colleague of mine was going to make our invitations, then completely dropped off the radar when I moved on to a new job.

Also there was an increase in prices from when we booked our venue to when we settled our invoice - we were aware of this from our contract but still made it harder to budget precisely as we weren’t sure exactly how much the increases would be.

We didnt really set a budget per se, I have a spreadsheet with everything on, its totalling just over 15k, over 9 of which is paid off already. Honeymoon not even added yet. Something we havent really planned as yet as I wasnt overly fussed as we 4 kids already which makes it tricky.

I was very naive when it came to how much a wedding cost. The wedding we want anyway. I said 10k my partner said 20k I said not a chance we are spending that. Now we’re spending around 22k 😂😂 and that’s cutting out all usual rubbish that no one cares about, Mum paying for my dress and car etc and my bridesmaids paying for their own hair and make up. And hopefully the best men their own suits. I do believe I can bring that price down but if we stick to that and it’s cheaper then it’s a win win!

Right at the beginning of the planning process I had a figure of £12k in mind but soon realised it wasn’t going to be possible (to have everything we wanted) so increased to £15k and still gone over with the final figure looking to hit just under £18k.


First shock was the cost of the venues, I naively thought it was only going to cost about £5k but in reality quotes were closer to double that! Then flowers and decor I had only £1k budgeted and was horrified when all 3 quotes (from different suppliers) came in nearer to £3k. Plus wasn’t expecting it to cost nearly £700 for the registrar to actually marry us so the expenses quickly added up. Basically everything cost more than I anticipated 😂

LOL. Yep!! Will write more tomorrow as heading to bed. When my parents told us what they were able to help us with which we are so so grateful for, we upped the ante on our band for the evening as we both LOVE music, we have an incredible band booked. And now want to invite lots more friends to the evening in order to hear them and for them to have the best crowd to play to!! and who knew wedding stationery had so many options - still exploring that!! Also prices for hair / make up, I don't own a hairdryer or any make up so defo want a pro to do that, not sure if they will have time to do all the bridesmaids even if I could afford it - need to work out timing first then budget. Most easily done! Want the day to be as perfect and special as possible so so long as you both are OK with things, I'd say its worth it. Sian that's a ton for flowers and decor!! I found a fantastic cheap materials wholesale shop the other day, hoping to do that myself the day before pending getting samples :-)