How much did you budget for your wedding?

[Keurig]

I’m getting married shortly, really low key affair. 3 star hotel, no bridesmaids/groomsmen, no cars, no white dress. Was assured I could do it for about £10K, but final costs will actually be about £25 - 30K. Is it usually a ‘take the first number you thought of and double it’ scenario? This is not a question of affordability, more expectation!

@Maireas good question. I believe there are 2 room rates -one for a view and one without. So let’s say the average is 100 per room. I think we have 24 rooms. Brunch will be charged at how many people turn up and I can’t remember the price off the top of my head. But, as most people are staying in the hotel, I expect most will have the brunch!

@Tarkan now I want a caricaturist…

I see, @Keurig - that's going to bump it up. Did you say it was £75 per head for the meal?

Married in September 2022.
Dress £100 Asos
Maid of honour dress £85 Takmaxx but was an Adriana Pappel
Bridesmaids dresses £40 amazon
Bridesmaids shoes £40 Next
Flowers just bouquets and button holes £500
Lillies for the tables from Aldi £50
Vases and stands from home bargains £120
Grooms and groomsman wear £500
Page boys outfits £120
Rings £500
Venue with canapés and evening buffet plus DJ £4000 including bridal suite
Money behind the bar for guests £500
Cars and party bus £1100
Actual registry office ceremony £300
Balloons bought from amazon and helium.added by me £200
Guest book, top table decor, welcome sign £150
Rooms for our mums and maid of honour at the hotel £400
Hair garlands, jewellery etc £50
Photographer £500

I did my own hair and make up and my bridesmaid's make up.

We had 50 daytime guests, got married at 3pm and then had another 50 arrive for the evening reception.

All in all cost just under 10k and thought we had a relatively shoestring budget but still had a lovely wedding without feeling that anything was missing from the day.

Can the guests who stay in the rooms give you the cost if them?

@NotCute sounds lovely

@Gcsunnyside23 people are coming a long way anyway, so I wouldn’t ask

@Maireas yes to the cost of the meal, plus canapés with champagne after the ceremony.

as I said, perhaps I need to reframe the low key thing

Pretty sure my wedding was around that and we had 100 people, pianist, free bar, 4 course meal, luxury venue. Your numbers really don't sound right x

Sorry for helping you spend more money 🤣 but honestly I'm so glad we had him. He was actually one of the creators of Bananaman too which I thought was really cool.

This is the guy we had but there are loads of amazing caricature artists around the country. 😁

www.brighty-art.co.uk/index-2.html

@Tarkan I'm going to start looking!

@pambeesleyhalpert when did you get married?

I think you're being generous paying for hotel rooms, but if you can afford it, that's nice. Yes, it's not a low key wedding!

2017

We had over 100 people and it cost around £15k. That was for a big white wedding, all the trimmings. Well most. I had no bridesmaids, only a flowergirl.

@pambeesleyhalpert i guess prices have gone up a lot

You need to stop thinking of it as 25-30k on the wedding and more £x on wedding and x on guest's accommodation and meals.

Either that or a wedding where you book so many rooms for guests is definitely not low key.

We had a low key wedding - no guess, just us and our children, in a hotel in the lakes - the ceremony, afternoon tea and an evening meal and the bridal suite for 2 nights.

We’re not getting married or planning to (but might in future for passport reasons as one of us has an EU passport, so we have looked into costs). We don’t want a wedding at all so our idea of low key is the local register office and a couple of mates as witnesses. Budget is £350. We’d wear clothes we already owned and maybe go to the pub afterwards. How on earth was your low key wedding even costing 10k let alone 25-30k?!

A wedding with 65 guests, a musician and brunch the next day is not remotely low key 😂

If you can afford it your wedding sounds lovely.

I think ours was around 10k. Lots of food and drink (free bar) - but we rented the church for the reception.
Had balloon modelling and a pianist. Didn't have cars or flowers. We did pay for some accommodation for some guests.

Ours was very us. I didn't have a big dress.

Thinking about it now....not sure where it all went but it did. (Things like chair covers and table cloths add up....)

I got married on NYE 2022. I had to pay extra for some services due to the time of year.

We had a registry office ceremony and restaurant meal for 13, and then an evening reception for 100. Spent less than £5k in total.

@TedMullins obviously ‘on earth’ it does 🙄

Was assured I could do it for about £10K

You probably could if you weren’t paying for 25 rooms in a hotel.

Ours cost around 6k including the, food, free bar and the honeymoon. But, we didn’t need cars or a venue. I did my own hair and makeup. The format was a relaxed garden party so no need for chair covers or other traditional cost magnifying wedding reception trappings. It would have been low-key if we hadn’t had 150+ guests all day.

I'd call that an average wedding not a low key wedding