Wedding cost breakdown

This is the main cost of things I’ve booked/looking to book so far:

*Venue (including catering has cost £3569 (It will increase to around £4000 after menu upgrade and alcohol costs). This includes:

-Exclusive use of the venue from the ceremony until after breakfast the next morning

-Hire room for the ceremony and reception

-Master of ceremonies

-Dressing facilities for bride and groom

-Wedding planner

-Guest book

-Red carpet

-Wedding post box hire

-Cake knife and stand hire

-Pimm’s and canapé reception (champagne for the bride and groom)

-Three-course wedding breakfast for our 50 guests (menu upgrade to give guests an option of 3 choices for starter, main and dessert is an additional £250)

-Paid corkage for 15 bottles of wine for wedding breakfast (3 bottles per table)

-Peti fours and tea/coffee following the wedding breakfast

-Table linen, napkins, crockery, cutlery and glassware (chair covers and sashes not included)

-Evening buffet (limited to six options)

-Evening sweets station

-All of the 5 bedrooms in the hall booked for the night of the wedding with cooked breakfast the following morning (for bride and groom and 4 additional guests).

-Dj (we could have got this MUCH cheaper had we not booked through the venue, but at the time we didn't really think)

We also need to buy the following:

-3 bottles of champage for toasts and corkage for this (corkage is £30 for 3 bottles plus the cost of champagne at around £10 per bottle)

-15 bottles of wine (hoping to get these on offer at 3 for £10 so would cost £50)

- chair covers £60 for 50 including sashes

* Wedding dress £510 (in the sample sale with discount) - its original price was £1700. Alterations will be around £200

* wedding fireworks £1100 (we are having to pay a premium for this as we are getting married on bonfire night weekend - it would be cheaper at any other time of the year!)

*Wedding stationary £100 including:

- 30 day invites (with matching envelopes)

- 30 reception invites (with matching envelopes)

- 40 smaller cards, which match the invitations (these were originally RSVP cards but I’ve redesigned them to act as mini information cards)

- 50 matching placecards

I won’t be having RSVP cards and will give out my number instead!

I have got quotes from suppliers for flowers, cake etc. but haven’t committed as I’m still looking to see if I can beat my quotes.

Incase it matters, I’m in Nottinghamshire so depending where you live you might find things cheaper/more expensive.

We have a package with a venue costing £3696 and that's for 40 people during the day 80 on the night, 3 course meal during the day, hot buffet on the night, DJ included, centre pieces, chair covers, top table flowers, room for the bride and groom on the night, welcome drinks, a drink with the meal and fizz for the toast. (We get a couple of extras like 3 months leisure membership and anniversary meal included too)

It has cost £483 for the registrar to come, plus the £70 notice fee that you need to pay.

Flowers are going to be from M&S they do a package for £150 that suit my colour scheme and what I actually need

My dress was £499 (just so happened to fall in love with the bargain)

Suit hire (groom + 4 groomsmen)

Wedding rings £1100

Bridesmaid dresses £150 for 2

Invitations £44 (Vistaprint 50% off woo)

Ordered place settings from amazon for like £5.

Favours will be around £70

Hairdresser will be about £300 I think.

And that's everything that's come to me off the top of my head. It's expensive haha.

We have a package with a venue costing £3696 and that's for 40 people during the day 80 on the night, 3 course meal during the day, hot buffet on the night, DJ included, centre pieces, chair covers, top table flowers, room for the bride and groom on the night, welcome drinks, a drink with the meal and fizz for the toast. (We get a couple of extras like 3 months leisure membership and anniversary meal included too)

It has cost £483 for the registrar to come, plus the £70 notice fee that you need to pay.

Flowers are going to be from M&S they do a package for £150 that suit my colour scheme and what I actually need

My dress was £499 (just so happened to fall in love with the bargain)

Suit hire (groom + 4 groomsmen) £360

Wedding rings £1100

Bridesmaid dresses £150 for 2

Invitations £44 (Vistaprint 50% off woo)

Ordered place settings from amazon for like £5.

Favours will be around £70

Hairdresser will be about £300 I think.

And that's everything that's come to me off the top of my head. It's expensive haha.

Sounds amazing! We're in Yorkshire so not too far off! That's been really helpful actually to see where it all goes. Is there anything you thought you really wanted but decided not to go with? Or something you didn't want but are now thinking about? One of our friends got a videographer which I thought was ridiculous but the video is amazing and makes me cry every time I watch it, but they're ridiculously expensive!

X

Didn't even think about registra!

Where are you thinking of getting your grooms outfit from for hire?

X

My fiancé couldn’t believe the quotes for invites, so you’re not alone in needing to show “realistic” costs!

Were paying £7100 for the venue for 120 day guests and an additional 80 evening guests. That includes: canapés, prosecco or beer for drinks reception, 3 course meal, coffee, champagne for toasts, 12 item hot and cold evening buffet (for 150 - not catering for 100% in the evening). That price also includes table centres, linen, runners, chair ties, top table decoration, cake table decoration, cake stand and knife, DJ, red carpet, bridal suite for the night and 12 discounted guest bedrooms.

£500 church - this includes organ, heating etc

£180 room lighting

£1300 for 2 photographers for 10 hours

£720 hair and make up for 7, including hair and make up trial for the bride

£500 for save the dates, invites, order of service etc including stamps

£1600 for dress and veil, alterations free

£320 for 6 bridesmaid dresses (Dorothy Perkins flash sale)

£350 cake

£250 flowers, I’m getting my bouquet made but we’re making button holes and bridesmaid bouquets ourselves

£100 church flowers

£450 bridal cars - 1 vintage for bride and groom and 1 Mercedes for bridesmaids. This is for as long as we need them and as many trips as we need and includes champagne.

£300 rings. Mine will be about £100 because I’m using my own gold (grandparents rings).

I’m putting aside about £200 for extra decorations and things like a card box/basket.

In terms of things I thought I wanted but have changed my mind, there’s loads! Live bands were quoting £1500+ for a couple of hours. Light up LOVE letters etc just seem like an unnecessary expense now. When I go to weddings really I just want nice food, somewhere to sit, somewhere to dance - so that’s what I’m focusing on! We’re going to hire the suits for the men.

My advice would be shop around, wait for offers because it seems like lots of companies have flash sales, follow companies on Facebook because they advertise latest offers on there and have a think for a couple of days before booking anything. I’ve changed my mind on a lot of things after sleeping on it.

Good luck!

Wedding fireworks weren’t in the original plan, but we’ve decided to splash out since we’re getting married so close to bonfire night. These are ridiculously expensive (because of the time of year), but I think it will be magical to end the night with them!

My H2B doesn’t want a videographer and I’ve always said I wouldn’t be bothered about this, but recently I’ve started to think that I might regret not having one (alothough my fiancé is still dead set against the idea). I think we might have to compromise and try filming bits ourselves ?

Wow you seem to all have really good deals there! If you don't mind me asking, where are you getting married? We're thinking about putting down a deposit on a venue but it's over 7000 for venue and catering alone (no entertainment, accommodation). Starting to think I've been looking in the wrong places!

I'm in Sunderland, the North East does tend to be pretty reasonable, obviously depending on what you want!

Woodborough Hall in Nottingham for me.

I’m in Essex & I think you got a good deal. We did our best to be cheap as possible but some things we wanted to spend money on.

Our Venue cost is £6000 approximately, and includes entire venue for the day, dressing room for bride and groom, 60 day time guests for ceremony, 3 course meal (including wine for toasts and with meal), coffee course, all table linen, chair covers, cake stand and knife etc reception drinks, evening buffet and 30 evening guests, decorative love lights, sweet cart, honeymoon cottage for the night & breakfast the next day.

Wedding dress, plus belt, underskirt and veil - £850, alterations £75

Invites including printing, design and stamps £150

Placecards- less than £10

Registrar was £575, plus notice was £70

Bridesmaid dresses x 3 from M& S at £207, flower girl dress at £45

Flowers (including gifts for mums) £350

Hair (bride, 3 bridesmaids, mob) £200

Make up (bride, 3 bridesmaids, mob) £330

Wedding rings £600

DJ and Photobooth £600

Cake £150

Suits tailor made by Moss.bros £500

Favours my mum & dad bought so unsure of price.

Centerpieces - fish bowls (£20, mirror plates £20, candles £10, flowers from florist) tea light holders £8,

Table plan - i bought a can of spray paint, a huge mirror off ebay for £4 and a chalk pen.

I’ve also made giftbags for my bridesmaids and spent quite a bit on that too.

You really can save money by DIY'ing a lot yourself, and making sensible choices. My other half and I had certain things we did want to splash out on (the lights at the venue for example) but other things we weren't. E.g we picked an award winning venue, but a weekday in Feb (5 weeks to go!) which cut the price substantially. So i would say its important to pick what is most important to you, and then work around being flexible about other things, if you want to stick to a strict budget. Plus bear in mind little things that you forget.