How much did did your wedding cost? (i need a rough guide please)

Ours has come in at 16k, 8.5k of that is venue and catering. We are not doing cars or flowers other than bridal bouquet and bridsmaids bouquets, and my SIL is making them for us. You can do lots yourself but be prepared to put the time in.


Invites we did on Canva for free and send email invites as more sustainable and is so much easier for guests nowadays than having all the paper, we used hitched website for our RSVP and have an info page

We have spent 100 on each adult brideamaid dress and they are wearing their own shoes. For flower girls dress, shoes and a cardigan was 100 each
My dress was 600 with the shoes, veil and belt. I went to a little bridal shop locally and found it much cheaper than the boutiques
Our photographer is 1250, that is a full day coverage and 100 page album. We felt it is worth spending a bit more on photography as it is the lasting memory of the day
Hair and make up for me with trial is 250 and then a further 100 for each adult BM with no trial as not needed, often MUA and hair artist will want minimum spend as they can only so one wedding a day, also try and get one supplier for both as makes it easier
Our DJ is 500 for 7pm.to 1am and photoboth is 500 for 6 hours with unlimited prints
Cake can be anything from 250 plus. We are doing cupcake tower with small round cake on top and is 300 with the stand and delivery and set up
I would research your area and make shortlists with pricing. Then work out what elements are essential to you and create your budget from there and then add 15% to whatever the total is plus 500 for bits and bobs like table plans, favours, bridal party gifts etc. Before you book the venue I strongly advise you to do this so you can see the total and be sure you can afford it or save enough by 2months before your wedding as you need to pay final balances at this point.
You will need some money to start with as you will need to pay deposts now. Also, book the registrar before you sign the venue contract in case they are not available on your date and time.
It may seem an overwhelmig task but it is really worth doing as helps you keep control. I have several spreadsheets where I track the spend and money in the saving account to keep me in track.
Hope that helps, good luck and enjoy your planning xx

I can give you my costs but I’m down in Surrey so will be more expensive than Midlands. I would say the venue costs will be about £8000 all in. That includes all the hire costs for ceremony and
reception including the three course dinner and drinks but not an evening bar- they will have to pay for their drinks!
On top of that we have 1200 for photographer, 900 for flowers, 800 for DJ and photo booth. We are also having cars which is about 600. We have spent about 200 on stationary I would say. No idea re suits as he hasn’t organised that! BM dresses (x 5) are about 350 so far. I guess it can all add up and I’m very lucky that my parents are giving me £10,000 and paying for my dress. If we had to find the money ourselves it would be a different wedding! Im northern though so I have been quite strict on how much things cost as it can easily get totally ridiculous. As you’ve said it is a very personal thing and what someone will think is acceptable then others will consider totally over the top! You need to make a list or the stuff you defo can’t get married without then cost it out from there. It can be done much cheaper than I’ve mentioned but that would involve a lot of DIY. Good luck

Thank you so much for the replies! I’m just trying to get a rough price on things before we commit to the venue. I’ve stated writing down quotes I’ve got & they seem similar to what you’ve both got.


We’ve got the deposit & could pay for the whole wedding now with our savings, but we are also due to start an extension so I’m very conscious of money & I don’t want to be spending loads on one day. My partner loves the place & he would book it now but I’m far too sensible to just book it without thinking of a budget.
But now I’m adding stuff up it’s already at nearly 9k. That’s without suits, invites and all the little extras like thank you gifts.
Here’s me thinking we could do it all for 6k🤣🤣🙈
Thanks again xx

Dress £170 (mail order), invites & orders of service were from Hitched when they had their discount, groom's kilt hire was about £80, photographer (half day because we had a midweek wedding) was £450, flowers (bouquet for me and buttonhole for him) £57. We used our own car, didn't have any bridesmaids and best man wore his best suit. We got our rings buy one get one half price in a sale - worth keeping an eye open as they happen a couple of times a year. My usual hairdresser did my hair for £10 and I didn't use makeup.

You don't need favours or a photobooth (or flowers, or bridesmaids or...) unless you want them, so don't be afraid to cut out stuff that isn't meaningful for you.

Hey Laura,

Thanks for your question! I'm a Community Manager here on Hitched so always happy to help any queries you may have!

We just released our stats for the average wedding cost in this article here so please feel free to take a look! It includes the breakdown of costs for weddings in the UK on average in 2021

Please reach out on this thread or drop me a message if you have any questions!

Hannah x

This is our list of everything


Suits - £800Ties - £100 Men & boy shoes - £205 Make Up - £150 Photographer - £1795 Hair - £515 - Hair Florist - £2000 Caterers - £5729 Registrar - £667 Venue - £5552 DJ - £500Singer - £545 Photo booth - £645 Wedding rings - £800 Cake - £400 Wedding dress - £1645Veil, Shoes & accessories & alteration - £820 Invitations - £160 Sign & seating plan - £250 Bridesmaid dresses - £195 Flower Girl Outfits - £300 Flower girl baskets - £60 Name cards - £100

Ours is looking like it's going to come out at just over £20,000

We've been incredibly fortunate that my parents are paying £15,000 for our wedding venue with a package deal that includes - 50 guests on a Saturday (prices go up on Saturdays FYI), drinks and canapes, wedding breakfast three courses including wine, toasting champagne, tea and coffee, late night snacks, DJ and room for us night of the wedding.

A few of things that snuck up on us when we were budgeting:

Don't forget to book a room the night before the wedding (if it's not local) as you'll need somewhere to be "bride central" the morning off - these typically aren't included in packages.

Flowers are reeedonkulously expensive. We wound up going artificial (£500 vs the £2200 we were quoted for real).

The dress: I spent £2000 on my dress. I'd budgeted £1500, but it was the dream, I couldn't say no. I'm glad I've spent the money on it as the dress was really important to me but it was a bit of an eek moment!

Don't forget about the cost of actually getting married, there are legal paperwork costs and you may have to pay for a celebrant to perform the ceremony. And the cost of your wedding rings!

My best piece of advice is to think about what's really important to you and prioritise a few things that will make your day really special, and cut back on the rest - don't let Pinterest tempt you otherwise!! For us, the venue was so important (we're getting married on the beach in Cornwall which is a really special place to us) and we decided we'd rather have that venue with 50 guests over than a less special venue with 100 guests. Our venue is also beautiful as is, and really doesn't need much decoration as a result, whereas I know people who thought they saved loads on a cheaper venue but wound up spending just as much because it needed so much decoration. The dress and the photographer were the next big things for us. As a result, we went cheap on the flowers and are DIYing the stationary/signage. We're not having fancy cars, and we're going for the DJ included in the package rather than shelling out extra on hiring a band. My mum's also making us a brownie tower instead of us having a traditional wedding cake. Your priorities may be completely different, and that's totally valid, just sharing so you can see how we approached it.

Related to the above advice, I'd say sit down just with your future spouse (NO ONE ELSE) and decide what your priorities are and who your A list guests are. Wedding planning can bring out an ugly and entitled side of friends and family, and it's so easy to get tempted into agreeing to something you don't want out of obligation, so keep reminding yourself what you as a couple initially wanted before anyone else got involved to avoid the day warping into a crazy expensive thing you don't even like. Although if you then change your mind because you genuinely think someone had a great idea, then that's great!

You may decide a big group is the way to go for your own reasons, but a small guest list and a small wedding party saves you a lot more than the per person meal cost FYI. It affects everything - e.g. how many tables you need and therefore how much decoration, number of invites (and all other stationary), favours or any extras like sparklers (the little things do really add up), and with the wedding party how many dresses/suits/bouquets/buttonholes you need to buy.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the replies, deffo some food for thought. I think I’m going to suggest this weekend we sit down & think what we want. I’ve gone from wanting our local registry place (it’s a lovely house within a park) and reception at the local pub to a county club which is going to cost a lot!! Although I think H2B will say he what’s the county club & money isn’t an issue. I’ve got a quote from our local pub, they have a lovely function room upstairs. Which is 2.5k for the hire & food. Then £300 for registry office. I also think I liked the idea of all in one as when I first started planning I didn’t know where to start & it’s the easy option to let the venue do it. But now I’ve been on here & look round a few wedding fairs I’ve got an idea of suppliers ect. And I’m thinking of my guests if it’s all in one, no travelling & a hotel on the grounds, where the registry office & pub will be two deprecate places although same town.


We are going to do our guest list & see who we really want there. Another option is go for later wedding & skip the wedding breakfast but I do like the idea of a wedding breakfast now, I didn’t at the start 🙈

Ours was about £13k in total for everything, venue included catering and we added a free bar on too. This covered everything from venue, catering, flowers, drinks, entertainment, photographer, make-up artist for 3 of us, bridesmaid dresses for 7 bridesmaid, my dress (wed2be) my husbands suit and groomsmen. We didn't have a cake, bit outdated now if you ask me and we also didn't do favours as they are a waste of money, no-one ever uses them and often they get left on tables. Made my own table decs too.

I’m also in the midlands for venue and food I’m at c13k but it is a Saturday for about 90, so it really adds up. Final cost is probably going to be around 25k but we are very fortunate that we have both got high salaries so are probably a bit more gung-ho about the spend than others.


You can definitely do things a lot cheaper if you wanted to. We have some pricier items like live band, large flower budget, more expensive photographer which could easily be scaled back.

We are also midlands based! Ours is next yet so not got everything sorted yet but in response to some of the things you mentioned: Band with an interim DJ £1,300. Photography full day £1,700. Photo booth £645 (unlimited prints). Hair for me and four bridesmaids £400. Venue styling approx £500 (try and go with someone who offers individual renting rather than packages, most places have minimum spend - ours is £500 but one company came out at £1,500). Flowers aren’t properly sorted yet but I was quoted at £1,800 and didn’t think I had gone ‘mad’ with what I wanted so was quite shocked!! Our save the dates £48 from Etsy and will get our invites from there as well as I’m not creative enough to do my own but I think they’re still reasonably priced!


Then like Charlotte my adult bridesmaids will have a budget of around £100 per dress and wear their own shoes. Good idea to do your own sweet cart as will save you lots of money - my friend did her own for approx £30 so a massive saving!

Our wedding cost about $8000, even though we cut the budget as much as we could, I still was carried away by the planning of the wedding and the pleasure of arranging the decorations. I enjoyed the planning, and our wedding was successfully held with perfect decor. We decored my antie's house, a cottage with 4-floors, and there's a big front garden for the reception. We also arranged a place specifically for dessert and wine. We cut the cake inside, and the door led to our beautiful white tent, where we had wedding dinner there. All the places were decorated with lights and Ivys. We finished our ceremony at dawn, we exchanged rings and took vows. That was a fantastic night. I will never forget that night.

Our wedding only cost $300. My mom n dad asked their friends to play instruments. We bought champagne and held the ceremony in the backyard of my grandma's house. And my grandma prepared a lot of food for us, and it was perfect! We prepared cold dishes, sliced cheese, and we bought pumpkin bread and rye bread from a bakery, which is amazing! And I cooked potatoes, pasta and salad. Oh, and our diamond ring is the only high expense for a wedding, costing $1500. It is from a brand DR which you can customize a ring for your only love. I think it can represent our new life of marriage, and it is a witness of our love, I like it very much! At the ceremony, my husband put it on my finger, the music was playing, and the atmosphere, all things, we cried together. It was a perfect wedding...

Hi,
This thread has been useful for me to justify our coatings to my partner, so first of all thank you 🤣.

Ours is : (Derbyshire)Venue incl Dj, fairy lights, chiavari chairs, linen/crockery Friday - Sunday whole venue hire £5735 | Catering - £4800 (for 60) | Makeup £170 bride + 2 BM | Church service + bells £870 | Harpist £200 | 2 cars for 1hr £180 | Venue decor £600 | Magic mirror photo booth £370 3hrs | Photographer £899 all day and evening | Honeymoon £2000
Yet to buy my dress hopefully no more than £2000BM allocated £100 each dress Yet to book floristYet to book hair Yet to buy suits(Probably forgot more stuff)
X

Sorry for the late reply, but thank you everyone for giving me a rough price, it’s helped me plan a budget for ours!