Is a wedding day worth it?

I felt this way too but in the end we have a massive family and lots of friends. DH wanted a proper celebration of the day with all his special people - it was important to him and I couldn't deny him that.

We had a village hall wedding. We splurged on the things that were important to us and saved on all the things we could do ourselves. As a result, our day was really personal and our personalities shone through. I don't regret a second of it, it was one of the best days of my life.

I have been married twice. The first one was all the bells and whistles and cost an absolute fortune. I hated it, there were too many people, my dress wasn't really me, was overruled on the food and other things I wanted.

Second time was 2k in total and we did almost everything ourselves. I had the best day. It was exactly what I imagined, laid back and with about 40 guests. I used foam flowers and did them all myself, wedding dress from ebay, no bridesmaids, no wedding cars, my husband took most of the photos and we had a professional just do family photos. Loved every second of it.

Have the day you want, but I advise spending on the things that will last, rings, photos etc. It is just one day, but an important one.

we spent around 5k on our wedding and it was quite small, even now i would love to have had a bigger budget and done things bit less shoe string, but it is what it is.

I married to be with my dh not for the day, so it was still special.

Our wedding cost about £2,000, very small (immediate family only)
My FiL still says it was the best wedding he has been to. Very relaxed and everyone able to choose their own food, so no stressing over who might like what, food allergies etc..

I'm getting married tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the party and I'm glad we spent most of our budget on things for guests to enjoy - food, booze and music.

We have spent very little on decorating, haven't put out favours, sent out email invitations instead of paper ones. I did splash out on the dress and make up artist because it's important to me to look nice.

I think it's worth it to spend the money on things that are important to you but not on things that are "expected."

I really think it isn't worth it.

That is so weird! I've just had an invoice emailed to me for the final bill of my venue hire and I've sat here in silence for the past 5 mins thinking wtf am I doing spending this amount of money on 24 hours!!! It's like I popped out of my body and looked at myself from above and just shook my head at myself.... and then I clicked on here to take my mind off it and see this post 🙈
It's society I think it's just what you do and I've gone along with it. I especially get carried away when I go on social media and see all on 'social media friends' my getting married and how wow and amazing their day looks, it's just like it's the norm. I'm 100% about getting married and who I am marrying just not about the amount I'm spending and it's all too late now!

Mine cost around 12k/13k and I do regret spending that. It was a very nice, traditional day but I think we felt that because so many of dh side were flying in to attend, we had to deliver this big event and actually it wasn’t very us. I would have done it super low key possibly even abroad somewhere if could go back. We were saving for a house deposit too.. it makes me cringe thinking we would have been about 6 months closer to our house (and for me wouldn’t have felt trapped in a high paying but miserable job) otherwise!!!
If it hurts, don’t do it as my granny used to say..

I’ve never dreamed of the big day and always thought it was a waste of money.

We had a small ish (50 guests) wedding in a brilliant location, plenty food and drink etc but no cars/videographer/expensive cake/ gimmicks. We spent about £15k in total and honestly I loved it, I’d love to do it again.

We spent a lot of money - we paid for it ourselves - and including honeymoon it came to about 15k.

But it was an amazing day and one that everyone smiles about still. We saved up for years and yes we probably could have spent the money on something else. But we didn’t - we had a beautiful venue, wonderful food and have stunning photos from it. I don’t regret a thing.

Of course we could have done it cheap - but we didn’t. Whatever suits you - we wanted this day and we got what we wanted.

I loved our wedding, we were skint so did it on a shoestring. It was such a happy day though. I do sometimes daydream about what it would have been like to have a big church wedding (not possible due to DH's divorce) but I don't regret our lovely day.

I spent more on his funeral than our wedding, and that saddens me.

Mine cost just over 20k but that was a holiday abroad in a fabulous hotel for two weeks.

It was AI and we paid for my parents and we have three kids. The bulk of that £20k was the holiday.

For me, it was absolutely worth it as it was two weeks of celebrations and spending time with my family and extended family.

It was stress free.

I had a big wedding back in 1993. We are still together now, 26 years later.

I certainly enjoyed our day, and our guests still remember it and discuss it now, so in that sense I am glad we did it and don't regret it.

However, would I spend as much again if I were doing it now? No. I would prefer to keep the money and either invest it or go on some fabulous holidays.

Ours was tiny, just close family, no stress, no fuss, didn’t cost a lot. Wouldn’t have changed a thing.

My sister’s was tens of thousands, mega fuss, considerable stress, breathtaking location, tons of guests, to die for dress, truly epic. She loved it and wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Both marriages happy and young strong.

We went to St Lucia to get married, just the two of us, it was wonderful. Some family were a bit upset that we did it like that but understood it was what we wanted. I did feel like we missed out on a big wedding though, so several years later we had a church blessing followed by a do at a country hotel for 100+ people. It was fab and was reasonably priced as did in winter so out of wedding season. We did it for around £3000 (10 yrs ago). We did the blessing at 3pm followed by a high tea at the hotel, had hotel dj and a hot buffet of chilli/curry at 9pm. Both amounted to total of £9000.

I'd do something much more chilled - get married at 4pm, hire a local function room and get pizzas, have speeches and a good evening of dancing and drinking!

It's such a personal thing. Loads of people will say it's not worth it but that's their experience which is so personal to them. DH and I had a biggish wedding with 150 guests. We loved it and don't regret it for a moment as we wanted a big celebration like that so to us, yes it's definitely worth it for the memories. You do you basically. Mumsnet tends to be quite cynical of big "proper" weddings so expect the replies to be biased.

I'll let you know in 6 months lol. We're spending a lot. But we both earn a lot and have no big expenses. We're late 20s so have plenty of time to earn money in the future. And obviously there will be better things to spend money on but we wanted to spend it on our wedding. We have a lot of people we want to be there. At the end of the day my friends said the things people remember is the food and the music so that's where the majority of our money went. Ours will be between 15-20k and my mum bought by dress and PIL gave a contribution.

If I could do it again id do it way cheaper. As in, id do it at a local church then maybe at a town hall. The people that are there are the ones that matter.

Going against the grain, my wedding cost about £12 grand and it was totally worth it. For us our wedding was also about our families coming together and we loved seeing them all together having a wonderful time. It was fantastic fun and wonderful to have all the people we loved together for the best party ever. If you’re not into your wider family then I can see why you might not want to celebrate with them but for us it was worth every penny

I would never have spent thousands. Registry office then a party in a pub. Much less stressful as well.

Oh and we are having separate smaller celebrations, such as meals or drinks out, with people who aren't coming but we are close to so we can spend quality time together. My issue with a bigger wedding is that I want to spend time with the guests, and it's impossible to do so when you have a lot of people. This way, we have a good excuse for a few evenings out with our friends to celebrate and actually spend time together

Close friend of mine got married, beautiful wedding, stunning pictures. 2 years after her husband discovered she'd taken out a load of loans to help pay for it, they nearly separated- they didnt but they have had to delay having children - was it worth it?!!....hmmm probably not

Ours was prob around £5-7k and it was worth it imo

It seems quite fashionable nowadays to bash large weddings.

The best wedding I went to was a large and expensive wedding with all the bride and grooms family and friends who have travelled from all corners of the world. Yes they spent a lot but it was worth it to them.