How much did your wedding really cost?

[Blondbombsite]

I’m curious because on here it often seems that if you spent more than £500, you’re looked down on for being stupid and vain but simultaneously your guests are all there under duress so can’t have any inconvenience or expense to attend. Obviously these two things are at odds, so I wondered what the true experience was for most people.

We’re getting married soon and although I don’t know the final costs yet I estimate it will be around 12k in total. That’s for 30 guests, a sit down meal (including canapés first, beef dinner, desert table and cheese table), welcome drinks/ wine with meal and an open bar all night. The biggest expense is food and drink apart and accommodation as we’re paying for all of the bridal party to stay at the venue the night of the wedding and breakfast together the day after.

Ours is next year. Will be about 17k.
100 day guests, 150 evening

Having seen too many hanger ones when there's a chance of a free dinner then I'm glad we did.
Cheers for your comment though - all the best!

15 years ago. £3k.

Not to be mercenary but nobody here mentioning the wedding gifts of cash which, especially here in lreland, would alleviate the costs!!!

@junebirthdaygirl True, I can't remember exactly but we got in the region of 15k back in gifts which was just over half the cost of the wedding.

About 15k , 14 years ago. This didn't include honeymoon.

Around £600 including my dress, shoes etc. Registry office wedding, reception in pub, buffet that we provided, cake made by sister, champagne for at least one glass each gifted by a family member, singer did a set as a wedding gift to us. Marvellous do.

$55
We were on holiday in New York and decided to get married while there and that was the cost of the licence and the ceremony. Just wore normal clothes.

About £500 - including my dress shoes and flowers.

DH had a new suit which he wore to work afterwards.

We spent this on dress, flowers, meal for the two of us, the vicar and room hire.

We both have large families and we already had children so a huge so would’ve been pointless with little kids and a large mortgage.

I certainly didn’t want my guests to have to fork out for clothes shoes presents and drinks etc when most were struggling themselves.

I’m loving your style!
😂

Very little because we had a small, register office do with only around 15 watching the ceremony and 40 or so people in the pub. We paid £105 for the R.O. and then for the function room, which iirc included the DJ and the buffet, cost around £400. The cake was £200, as were both the photographer and the car. Our clothes and our rings were another £6-700 altogether I think. We did it as cheaply as we could and with as little planning and fuss as possible. We had a lovely day, our guests all got suitably drunk without getting to the point where they started fighting. The weather was glorious and most of us spent a lot of the day out in the beer garden, which had a big play area for the kids to climb on.

We were given a free week in a friend's caravan in Brid and that was our honeymoon (2-3 months after the wedding).

20k 🙈🙈🙈

About 3k, five years ago.

@bloodywitchescat im so sorry 💐💐

Nothing, married in France where it’s free and did nothing afterwards. Obviously not everyone’s choice but had no money then and my parents disproved of the relationship. I hate being the centre of attention though so I’m ok with this.

£10k 10 years ago but we had 130 guests for the whole day so didn't think that was as much as it could have been.

11k, 10 years ago for 100 people. I loved it, and we had everything we needed. The venue (large old house), was distantly in the family so that was free to rent and a huge saving! We also did a free bar for everyone all night.

£70k.
Indian Wedding.
YES I know.

Well after reading your op I'm a bit scared to say 🤣 but it actually was about 500!

Nearly 25 years ago.
Registry office.
Pub lunch. Not booked. We just walked in after the registry office. There were probably about 20 of us.

Party in the evening at our local with buffet done for 70 quid ( I think. It was a long time ago, so... ish) by the local catering students who got to put it on their portfolios.

My outfit from Evans. My husband's suit from local menswear shop. Everyone paid for their own lunch at the pub and drinks in the evening. I think. We may have put a hundred behind the bar. I can't remember.

We had friends sleep over the night before the wedding and a different friend crash at ours the night of the wedding.

Good times were had by all. We still haven't got round to the honeymoon though.

25-30k, 8 years ago, in the UK. Guests were invited for the whole weekend so five meals and accommodation made up the bulk of the total cost.

I’m surprised we haven’t had any or many properly big numbers yet. I thought the average was supposed to be over 20k? So for all the cheap weddings you should have just as many 40k+ …

About £800. We are not 'big wedding' people though!

God! I feel sorry for anyone invited to your wedding! What an awful way to treat the people close to you.

13 years ago. £5k. We had the big white church wedding, 70 guests in the day for a 3 course meal, and a few more in the evening for the buffet. I made all of the invites, order of services, bouquets, buttonholes, table decs, flowers wands for my little bridesmaids. My 3 tier cake was a wedding gift from my cake making friend. My maid of honour wore the dress I wore when I was bridesmaid to my other friend. We had a vintage car which came at a huge discount if we used the guy that owned it as our Photographer (he was actually a wedding photographer)
I bought loads of things from eBay, and even found the dress I wanted £100 cheaper with a free Swarovski tiara thrown in! It is possible to do but takes time and effort. I'd do it all again as the day was wonderful. That said, I'd do it again with just my hubby and our kids if we didn't have the money.

It will be about £25k all in: we’re paying for accommodation of 38 guests - basically the most important people in our lives - for three nights in a private island as well as providing all food and drink whilst they’re there. We knew that was important to us and are happy to spend the money having those we love the most celebrate with us at a destination which means a lot to us.

Probably £15K coming up to 7 years ago.
Reception for 60 people and 120 evening guests - £2,500-3,000
Church - £700
Dress - £700
Bridesmaid dresses - £500
Suits - £600
Rings - £1,500
Honeymoon - £4,500
Car - £700
Photographer - £1,500
Flowers - £300
Incidentals - £1,000

The biggest waste for us was the rings as neither of us have work them for about 4 years. Other than that, I don’t regret what we spent. Sometimes I look at my house and think £15k could go a long way but this house is a money pit, we’ve probably spent that on the house and have nothing to show for it. At least with the wedding we have memories. I should add though that I lost my aunt shortly after our wedding and it was a real shock so I basically view our wedding as an amount I was willing to pay to have all our favourite people in one spot at the same time.