How much?

Ours was 15k in total. 10k was venue and catering, reception drink, table wine for 50 day guests and 120 eve guests. We had a photo booth and sweet cart as an extra, the rest was clothing, 1.5k for my dress, 2 adult BM,4 child bms, page boy and 3 adult mens suits. The rest was all the fees, favours, gifts and odd bits you forget that add up! We did have a cake but no cars and flowers were done by my sister.

View quoted message Thank you,


I’ve known people to spend 30k but known others to be more around your price or less. It’s so variable! Sometimes it’s hard to gauge what’s considered top end and what’s bottom end. I guess it also depends on what you want, if your going to do it you have to be able to enjoy it. So far I’ve only secure the venue at around £7k for 60 day guests plus another 30-50 in the evening

View quoted message Osninsame what some people spend! We wanted to have a great day but not spend silly money on things that don't matter. We didn't have flowers at the venue or any decor as that adds up, luckily our venue, an 18th century castle, was so stunning on its own so didn't need it. We did have a pro photographer as for us that is the best memory of the day, but we cut back on so much that just wasn't justified. Best think is to write out all the things you should have them go through one by one and decide if you really need it. No one notices decor and we also did our table plan and names through Etsy as way cheaper. W did Evite's and designed on canva rather than paying to print them and waste paper. You can have a magical day cheaply, just be savvy ok what you spend on each element

Ours was about £17k not including my dress but that was only (!) £895 actually. Most of that cost was the venue, we had a ceremony, drinks reception with 3 choice of drinks and canapés and a 3 course meal with wine and champagne for the toast plus evening food. We had 70 people in the day and had an additional 20 for the evening. Our photographer was £1200 for whole day and there was 2 of them which was fab. Dj was £900 for disco plus DJ show plus the giant light up letters and photo booth with unlimited prints. Hair and make up was £250 for me and approx £100 in total for the others. Florist was £900 but she gave me a discount as she’s a friend and neighbour. I don’t feel ripped off by any of it as we had a fabulous day and I was lucky my parents gave us £10k towards it. They are amazing LOL.
But you can save lots by doing bits yourself, we got stationary from Etsy and made our own table plan with an old pallet. There are loads of ideas on Pinterest..

We are only spending £4k for 26 guests, so the size makes a big difference to the price. We chose to cut out the things that don't matter to us and anything we thought we should have rather than wanted to have.

Whenever I see articles about the average price of a wedding being £20k I am shocked. It means for every wedding like ours, there must be a wedding at £40k and that seems ridiculous to me.

As Charlotte says, there are a lot of odd bits that add up so it's important to keep track of it all so you stay within your budget.

Agree that guest numbers make the biggest difference. We're spending about 23K but 11K is just for food and venue for 80 day, 110 evening. We're not allowed to sell alcohol at the venue, so buying all the alcohol is another ~2K. It all adds up

It's worth getting a free excel spreadsheet budget tracker - you can find good examples online, and they can come with all the normal items pre-listed to give you some guidance. It can help you list all the items you might need, and then you can work out some rough pricings to help you thing about what is realistic and also help you work out what items are essential. The costs vary hugely depending on number of guests, your location etc. It's worth building in buffer for last minute changes and costs.

Ours is about 17k at the moment, I try not to think about it because it makes me feel sick 🤣

20k was the original budget but it's looking more like 25k now. Spent about 5k on deposits for our venue and catering plus the registrar and wedding insurance. Just about to put down a deposit for the photographer.

Our original budget was 16k. Looks like it will be closer to 17k.


Majority is on venue/food/drinks/dress
100 day guests and 150 evening

We have £25k roughly, but have 120 day guests and a total of 200 guests for the evening broken down as follows-


£16,800 venue, includes food, wine and DJ£2,000 decorations for venue, including photo booth £800 flowers £400 guests (name cards, invites) £1,300 photographer £1,700 bridesmaids outfits (7) in total and hair and make up £1,600 groomsman (12 suits in total) £700 license fee
My mum is buying my dress with his mum and dad buying the cake.

Thanks ladies, I think it’s good to keep a tab so we don’t get carried away! I have set up a spreadsheet too. Our venue is around 7k for ceremony and evening room hire, 3 course meal with canapés and drinks plus evening buffet. That’s for 60 day guests plus additionally 30-40 in evening.

Ours is looking at around 11k at the minute, thats for 110 guests (we aren't separating our day and night guests) but a lot of that is a guestimate because i've not got my dress yet. I have tried to overestimate on the price of things though and a lot of what we have booked has come underbudget. We aren't getting any financial help from our families etc and we are in the process of buying our first home so that's making it easier for us to decide on what is a necessity and not a want!

I got married on Friday and my final spend was approx £25k for 113 guests.
£15k for the venue, £2.5k for photography but well worth it, the remainder was my dress, husbands suit, flowers, bridal party attire, hair & makeup, room stylist, cars, cake, church and then all the other little things you have to buy.
Thought we could do it for for about £15k all in but I suppose we were being unrealistic lol

Ours was under £3,000 for 30 guests.

Budgets can be as big or as small as you want them to be. The only expenses you HAVE to have are for the legal side of things - giving notice, registrar/officiant payments etc. Literally everything else is optional. So work out how much you are comfortable spending and go from there.

About £7k for 50 guests. Breakdown as follows - £1k for venue hire. £2k for catering. Between £700 and £1k for drinks. Lots of heavy drinkers at our wedding. About £900 for hire of registrar and formalities. £800 for photographer. Does not include dress and suits. We'll be decorating venue ourselves and I'm going to be making own bridal bouquet etc.

Our budget is 15k and we’ve paid all of our deposits for suppliers etc. We’re due to pay 50% of our venue costs this month also. We were very lucky to be gifted some money by both mine and his families ❤️

We are looking at under 15k for 60-90 guests. I aimed for 10k initially because I figured it would get me closer to my real budget. I'm lucky in that we have savings so we CAN ho over if needed but I love a good deal and hate the idea of going over. We are considering going child free (STDs not yet sent) and I have quite a few people that would likely not attend so we may even come in significantly under budget.


We are prioritizing venue and catering/drinks, and I'm keen to ensure we have decent photo/videographers. So this will be the majority of our budget. My wedding dress was discounted, which was amazing.
We're happy to do a certain amount of DIY or cost cutting in terms of things like flowers and decor (false flowers and Ebay and thrifting for decor helps). I highly recommend looking for second hand stuff - so many woollen have unused items or things in excellent condition.
Small wedding party should also help, and we will likely ask them to wear clothes they already own, perhaps with a new tie to match.
We're still deciding if we want a DJ or band but can happily skip it if money us tight because we're not massive on dancing. We will likely get multiple smaller cakes in different flavours to meet dietary requirements but that will likely save us hundreds of pounds. Our favors will be a sweet bar, which doubles as an evening snack.
I would say look at the going rate for each thing quite early on to get an idea if you can afford a mainstream vendor or need to find an alternative. There are solutions at multiple price points but you may have to br flexible.

We have spent just under £2,500 for a very small wedding. We haven't bothered with a photographer or a big venue. Just registry office and then the pub next door for a drink! Only have 20 guests as well.

View quoted message Good for you! That’s initially what we was going to do, but decided to get a venue/food/ceremony that’s not too expensive. I think it’s also good to know when to haggle the price and know what and when to cut back xx

View quoted message As long as you have the day that you want then that's whats most important! Hope you have a lovely day

We are hoping ours will be around £8000 in total

Our budget is around 11-12k
Our venue is £6k for 40 guests all eating and drinking with full access to an estate with 9 cottages for 3 days so that part isn’t bad.. it’s my taste in decor that is gonna run me dry 🤣

We get married July 2023 with a budget of £8000, making most of the things myself.

120 guests-buffet style food because it was cheaper. Bridal party buying their own dresses because some invited themselves to be bridesmaids.

Ours was 15k for 60 guests. I used the hitched budget planner to log every expense. We had a marquee in my mums garden. 3.5k for marquee and equipment hire, 5.5k for catering, £1k on booze, £600 DJ, £800 photography, 1k for clothing (bride, bridesmaid, groom, best man, ties/pocket squares for wedding party) £350 for florist and about the same again growing my own flowers, £300 lights, £300 hotel & transport, £200 invitations order of ceremony & menus, £350 decorations (chair sashes, napkins, table decorations signs, etc) £70 favours. We can sell on some of the lights, plant pots, table decorations if we get round to it! Cake was made by my sister in law

25k for 60-70 guests. And we will probably excewd that.


One of our biggest expense is the venue because we were looking for something that offered accomodation for at least 50 out of 60 guests. In fact most of our friends and family will be already paying a lot of money in flights, since both my partner and I are not originally from the UK. So we really wanted to include at least one night with breakfast for them.
I recon that added about 7k to what it would have been a fairer price without the overnight stay.
Venue (including accomodation and catering): 15kEntertainment: 1.5kPhoto/Video: 3kCake: 450Car: 250Stationery: 50Favours: 150Rings: 700Hair and make up: 1kInsurance: 200Admin: 600Outfits beide and groom: 3k

That's awful you don't deserve to be treated like that especially by your own dad! The comment on going on holiday sounds like jealousy to me. Your step dad sounds great though.

Our initial budget was 15k but we're more at the 18k scale now. Not including my dress, as a family member is kindly covering that cost for me, when the time comes. But everything else is all funded by me and my HTB.

All of our deposits are down though, so final figures are fixed!

A wedding budget is whatever you want it to be! People get married for a lot less and also a lot more. I'm sure come the end of it, everyone no matter the spend, enjoyed their day just as much as the next person.

I have a spreadsheet which really helps me keeps tabs on what ££ has been paid and what's still outstanding. Really helps put it all into perspective xx