Wedding costs

We have done everything rather cheaply ? our wedding has come in at just under £4k. We are booking a honeymoon for next year so we can book a good holiday and spend more ? We have gone for a disc only package with our photographer and will be going back to him after the wedding to arrange albums etc. That took us from just over £1k to £550. Depends on exactly what you want and where you are prepared to pull back. I hated budget planning, but we had to pull it in when h2b's job didnt work out.

Good luck xxx

I have to say i was shocked when we got engaged and really started looking at budgeting and planning for our wedding. I never thought we would spend asmuch as we now plan on doing, I though the average cost of a wedding was far to high, but like you say once you factor in a good photographer, a honeymoon etc it soon spirals! we (well I) am lucky that my partner has been able to save for the majoirty of it in a few months. I find you mention the word wedding and the price suddenly jumps!

x

We have been perhaps been a little naughty and a little naive... we haven't set a formal budget. My parents we're paying for the reception so that's come in at just under £6k. His parents have given us some money too but a 3rd of that has already been gobbled by the TOG who we've just had disc only for the time being because we can't afford more - so we have been sensible in a fashion too. We now have 2k for flowers, table decorations, a car, grooms & ushers, bridesmaids, cake... We'll put some money towards it too, we just haven't decided how much yet. Suppose we have been very fortunate to have the help of family. My issue with budgeting was that I just did not know where to start because I had no idea how much things cost and quotes varied so much, I just gave up!

We are on a really tight budget of 3k but so far everything has come in on plan. Also my grandparents are paying for the photographer and some of the catering and my parents are paying for the DJ and the cake so I'm really lucky. We got engaged in 2010 and had planned for a 2013 wedding however within a week of booking our wedding we got the opportunity to buy a house therefore we've spent the last 8 months saving our deposit leaving nothing else for the wedding fund.

Me too! My budget scares me a little and it's not even that over the top (well perhaps the honeymoon!) it just seems everything is more expensive than I expected! I am trying to cut costs where I can and have set up a plan so we can sort things like the rings in a quiet spell of other payments. I do really want a nice wedding but I can't help thinking that the money could buy a new car or even finish off our house decorating or do something useful instead! Romantic huh! I am very excited about getting married mind u and I like the idea of hosting a nice event for my family after all the lovely gifts they've given and events they hosted as I was growing up

Our budget is 6k, we're currently on 7!!

We're not having a photographer, a friend with a cute little camera will snap guests as they arrive. We are going to ask everyone to take lots of photos on their cameras and smartphones and ask them to send to a personalised email address ('****************@*******.***' type of thing) and then I'll happily spend some evenings trawling through and trying some in B&W etc. We aren't the sort to sit and look at photos and most photos will only be seen on our digital photo frames so the quality is not a huge issue to us.

Bottom! Haven't budgeted for honeymoon!!!

We were talking about this in work a few weeks back- my wedding all in came in at 8k, my friends wedding came in at 17.5k ? and a colleugues son's wedding all in came in at 7k.. one thing i do regret about is not paying for the original tog i wanted.. i just didnt have the funds

When we started planning we were thinking a budget of £5k would be sufficient but we have doubled that excluding honeymoon....our TOG is our second biggest expense after the venue but we wanted a decent Tog as didn't see the point in spending lots of money on everything else but have no decent photos to remember it.

I'm suprised at how cheaply some of you have been able to do it! We didn't want to spend too much and I thought ideally we'd spend around £8k, but no more than £10k at the very maximum... ours cost £11k! And I tried to keep things as cheap as possible, but not in every aspect, ie I was happy to pay for a good photographer and the perfect venue etc xx

We budgeted for 10k, not including my wedding dress. However, we are having Caribbean food for the evening reception which bumped the price up. Also, I'm doing my own bouquets and baking my own cakes. Plus, I won a competition for the button holes!!!

The venue is a big chunk and I really want a really good photographer which I think I have found but might not be able to have the albums straight away may have to order those after the wedding. We do get all the photos on a disc though.

Natalieexx I see its your wedding this weekend...exciting!!! . How you feeling? What you been doing?

It's a point of principle for us to do it as cheaply as possible. We agreed if it got near to 10k we'd go to Gretna as it's the ceremony we want. But IF we could do a lovely day for our most loved friends and family for the 7k mark (including ring and honeymoon and an extra ceremony for the legalities), so be it.

If it creeps up too much I would consider scrapping it. If we knew where we would be living we could have it in the new house.

We didnt want to go over 5k but when weve been realistic and added it all up its more like 7k!

The price of wedding cakes annoys me because i go onto websites and see there brilliant castle cakes with turrets etc for about £200 then the same place is charging £300 for a very plain wedding cake so i agree the word wedding adds money on!

Weve managed to get out venue,food,dj and evening buffet for just over 2k which i think is brill! My dress is the 2nd biggest thing were paying for and ive halved my flower budget by going for fake ones

Tog came in over budget though and we arent using cars or providing transport

Very exciting!! I'm a bit of a mad one cos not only am I getting married Sunday, but next week me and OH are moving into our first house, and he's leaving the army! All happens at once so although I'm excited I'm also MAJORLY stressed!!

Last day at work today, tomorrow I've got to iron the rest of my chair sashes (25 took me well over an hour - 60 to go!) put our post box together and arrange all the stuff to be taken to the venue, Friday is nails done and waxing, and Saturday is pick up mum's bouquets, pick up suits and take everything over the the venue ready for Sunday!

The weather report says 'heavy rain and strong winds' so I'm not filled with hope at the minute! xx

The weather report says 'heavy rain and strong winds' so I'm not filled with hope at the minute! xx

No matter the weather you will have a fantastic day xx

We had Caribbean food but hired outside caterers which saves us a lot of money. We wanted it cooked by people that are used to cooking it and not the caterers there that said "we can give it a go". Would that be possible for you?

We saved quite a bit as I made our cake & 150 cupcakes for evening (paid someone to make bacon butties & wedges for evening buffet as I knew I couldn't poss get married in the morning & sort out whole buffet), friends did my bouquets & Mum & I arranged flowers for the tables, my brother is a graphic designer & OH works for a printer so all stationary was free (we were very lucky) & my MIL made beautiful ring cushions for us. Parents gave us a bit of money but we paid for most. No honeymoon at all. Still came in over-budget but cheap compared to lots of weddings! Some of the areas we made savings on added more of a personal touch. We also had lots of vintage / retro touches which were purchased form car boot sales, charity shops & e-bay. Venue was biggest cost.

I wanted to spend as little as possible and then thought maybe £10k would be reasonable. Ummm now I actually know how much things cost the revised budget is more like £20k!This does include honeymoon though which has doubled in price. However we assumed our parents wouldn't contribute and we had the lovely surprise that they are going to (and the offer was before we had even really started looking) so that is helpful.

I am trying to do what I can myself but there is a limit to the extra stress I want to be honest and some things I'd be rubbish at!

I so didn't include honeymoon in the wedding budget! I told hubby that it doens't count as part of the wedding budget!

Our venue was the biggest cost and that was £1900 but we had the use of four floors with a wedding planner doing the decorations in our colour scheme and setting out tables etc. Chair covers were included and the venue staff were fantastic - these chairs started off on the top floor for our wedding ceremony, were moved down for our wedding breakfast and then moved again for our evening do!! The meal was simple, soup or pate for starters, pie and peas/lasagne for main course with cup cakes (provided by us) for dessert. Glass of Prosecco for after the ceremony and glass or two of wine with the meal. People were happy to buy their own drinks at the bar which were reasonably priced and the venue even specially bought in Guinness for the wedding!! We had the use of the roof top for photos but it threw it down with rain all day so we had our photos taken in a roof top glassed room which despite the weather was light, bright and airy. The DJ included for the evening and went on till 1am and buffet too.

The whole day flowed from room to room without any obvious agenda - which was just what we wanted and we had the venue for virtually the whole day. Later on the venue reverted back to its usual business but due to the staff and doormen we never saw Joe Public - they did a fantastic job of making sure guests were in the right place at the right time etc etc

I reckon we probably spent £3500 which included outfits for the wedding party 9 kids and adults in all. Flowers were a gift as was the Wedding cake, photos were a freebie taken by two keen amateurs with degrees and a real love of their hobby. Invites, table plans/themes thank you gifts too, pretty much everything covered in the grand total.

The price of some things shocked us like the extra charges for the registrars to come to the venue which was two minutes walk from the venue!! We had researched loads of things and could not justify the exhorbitant costs of some things but fair kudos to those that do. It's their day!

The most important thing to us was to get married and have our family and immediate friends around us without spending ridiculous amounts of money.

Swampy

Very exciting!! I'm a bit of a mad one cos not only am I getting married Sunday, but next week me and OH are moving into our first house, and he's leaving the army! All happens at once so although I'm excited I'm also MAJORLY stressed!!

Last day at work today, tomorrow I've got to iron the rest of my chair sashes (25 took me well over an hour - 60 to go!) put our post box together and arrange all the stuff to be taken to the venue, Friday is nails done and waxing, and Saturday is pick up mum's bouquets, pick up suits and take everything over the the venue ready for Sunday!

The weather report says 'heavy rain and strong winds' so I'm not filled with hope at the minute! xx

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Have a wonderful wedding!!! I will pray the weather holds out for you

The repetitive strain from ironing wil be a distant memory by Monday ;-)

I was given a peace of advice by someone - at the wedding reception, search out your husband *squeal* and take time out to stand and observe everyone in the room, their laughter and happiness - they are all there for the two of you, to celebrate your big day

Have a magical day (and night teehee) xxx

I had that trouble too, our wedding budget didn't include our honeymoon or wedidng bands, and we've increased the budget twice already!

One we started booking things, everything seemed to cost £1,000. Our photographer was ok, not too cheap or expensive, one I looked at was £3,000 was which just mad!

We budgetted £5000. So far we're looking at staying on target..

My dress was massively under budget and bought from a fellow hitcher

The cake is being made my FMIL who used to make celebration cakes as her job

I've made a lot of decorations, bunting, pinwheels etc and have found a lot of bargains from ebay and The Range

Our photographer is a family friend and therefore were getting mates rates at a seriously discounted price

My bridesmaid dress was a vivien of holloway ebay gem of a find

Shoes were bought in the shuch sale

Venue is giving us a great package to include wedding breakfast, evening buffet and drinks at the bar

We've been incredibly lucky with our wedding so far and I am incredibly thankful of all the generous things people are doing for us including the TOG and cake etc. We wouldnt have been able to do it so cheaply without them!

We haven't budgeted for our honeymoon though. Were getting married July 13' and hoping to move into a new house Aug/Sep 13' so honeymoon will have to wait until wedding and house is sorted! But...at least we will have a lovely honeymoon to look forward to!!

We've budgeted 13k not including honeymoon or hen. This is with a top end catering budget (we've got five caterers to chose from so might save money there), £1000 for the dress (really hope I won't go over... or even be under.... hmmm) our venue hire is 3k. using artificial flowers and homemade statiomary to save a bit. hoping it might be less than 13k but then i look at people's posts about nails, waxing, eyebrows, eyelashes and think i want all that done too!! With 19 months to go I will let you know how the budget turns out!!

The only saving grace is amazingly won a work incentive and won £5,000 holiday vouchers for our honeymoon... insane! We have been saving like nutters (and with some generous engagement handouts) our savings account is just shy of 11k... have never been sat on so much money and rather depressing that I drive a Y reg ka and live in a rented flat still... who knew we could save this much when we really wanted to!!!! Once we've reached our budget gonna keep saving for that new car haha! x

Good for you on saving that amount! Roll on the BMW ?

We didn't have a budget, but then we weren't planning a big wedding. Our wedding cost less than £500, £100 of that was on a cake topper I HAD to have, despite only having a small cake, and 2 guests ?

We don't really have a budget. Basically, everything we look at we go, "That sounds bloody expensive!" or "Hmm, good value for money!"

I do find myself asking whether a lot of things are really necessary, too.. cake toppers, chair covers, canapes, full evening buffet, videographer, wedding cars, band, magician, singers, harpist, information pages with invites, paper save the dates (we did online), designer dress/shoes, and so much more.

I think we're ending up spending a TON of money, though. I try not to think of the total.

When we started out we thought around £5k, but didn't set a budget as such. We had spoken to family/friends who had recently married and that seemed about right. Then when we actually looked into it they hadn't included loads of stuff under that budget!

It seems they were pretty much talking about the ceremony,reception food etc but not BM's dresses, suit hire, favours and all the other 'little' extras. We are now looking at £10k. We have saved money where we can- having a sunday wedding, and all at the one place. We know it could be done cheaper,but there are some things that we don't want to compromise on (dress, venue, food, band....)

Also in reply to celebration cakes being more expensive as they are for a wedding there is very good reason. For instance, this will need to include cake stand hire, delivery and set-up (which takes them out of their shop/business too- on a Saturday in most cases) and most of all the finish. For a birthday cake they will not go for as perfect a finish as for a wedding cake. They will need to put a marzipan layer in, or a double layer of fondant. They will use higher quality icing. They will also normally have an hour-long consultation with the B&G to plan what they want, again more time out of their business.

I'm now feeling quite depressed! We've gone from 6k to 8.5k in under 2 weeks and that's all money we want to hold back for the new house.

I had missed off honeymoon, and we are struggling to find someone who even wants to do the simple food we're after in the evening. This is supposed to be fun, no?!

We orignally said 16k, decided this was an crazy amount of money for us to spend on one day when we have 2 kids so changed the date from May to November (this also meant a venue change) and took it down to 10k (have just had r invoice come in for the venue and we seem to actually be in budget), it still seems alot, but we have everything we want and my parents have helped with some, so the amount we are actually spending is closer to 8k.

Oooh i must of missed this thread earlier! our max is 9k, we've tried to be smart. so our venue HAD to do civil ceremonies, no extra room/church hire, no cars. the ones we shortlist had everything from civil ceremony, 3 course meal, evening buffet, DJ, bridal suite, drinks packages for little over 5k. Flowers are free and gift from my aunties florist, cd only photographer, stationary is handmade and printed by us (were graphic designers/illustrators) cake is coming from M&S and i'll hand decorate it with handmade cake toppers. We're crafty ... literally