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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how much your wedding cost??

287 replies

Anxiousanne01 · 04/08/2015 15:23

Was it a big or small affair and did you have any/much financial support from parents/ family?

OP posts:
BeautifulBatman · 04/08/2015 18:11

1st wedding - don't know. I know what a view individual things cost like invites (£300) and dress (£1300) but my mum paid for the catering and decorations so no idea in total. 35 to the ceremony, about another 120 for the evening.

2nd - maybe 3k? PILS gave us 2k which went on ceremony, dinner, fizzy for the table and taxI transport for 25 guests. DM paid for our hotel bill. DF paid the bar bill. My dress was £200 from ghost and our wedding rings were about £30 each made from titanium. Both days totally different but equally lovely. Apart from dh#1. I knew I shouldn't have married him.

zippyswife · 04/08/2015 18:11

8k 75 guests in a hotel. Designer Jenny Peckham wedding dress (eBay £600!) cut down cost by having it on dh county of Lincolnshire instead of Home Counties where we live. Didn't do favours bridesmaids no cats stc as a in hotel. We didn't want to get ourselves into massive debt before embarking on our life together so kept it all simple. Good luck!

FenellaFellorick · 04/08/2015 18:14

I can't even remember. A few hundred quid I think. 500 maybe. No financial help. But really didn't need any at that price Grin

We both bought outfits from the high street. Basic registry office ceremony, pub lunch, party in the local that evening (free room cos we were friends with the landlord. everyone bought their own drinks), buffet by college catering students (they were chuffed to have the practice!), back to our flat that evening (we had guests staying with us) and back to work on the monday. Job done. Grin it was great.

That was, what, 17 years ago now. I expect the same thing would cost closer to a thousand now. Still good value for money.

LemonySmithit · 04/08/2015 18:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WorldsBiggestGrotbag · 04/08/2015 18:17

Expensive wedding here and yes, still going strong. I'm sure the 50% divorce rate is spread equally amongst those with all kinds of budgets.

MrsBigginsPieShop · 04/08/2015 18:17

Oooh congrats Lemony. Am jealous! I want to do ours all over again!
Have a great day and enjoy every second. It really does fly past.

LadyLuck81 · 04/08/2015 18:19

16k in 2011 all in inc rings and honeymoon. We could have done the same thing for about £4k less but we consciously decided to upgrade our honeymoon and some of our food because we're only going to do it once!

passmethewineplease · 04/08/2015 18:23

Congratulations lemony!

We are in the middle of organising ours for next year!

I am not spending huge amounts I would rather spend the money on a honeymoon tbh. My invites cost £3.99 from CF and they don't look that bad tbh, I begrudge paying loads for fancy ones when they will probably get tossed away in the bin. I also won't be attaching any cheesy generic poems asking for money. Just a intimate ceremony and a good knees up will do me.

dietstartsmonday · 04/08/2015 18:26

mine was 6 weeks ago and cost 6.5k.
68 guests all day, very unique ceremony venue and then hotel for the rest.
my dress was,a 2k dress but I bought a sample for less than a 1/4 of the price.
we saved by getting married late, so only 1 meal. that was due to ceremony venue though, rather than money saving.
we managed to have a magician, photobooth, and put 1k behind the bar.
I think we did really well for the price. it was a bloody fab day Grin

Epilepsyhelp · 04/08/2015 18:31

40k including honeymoon. I've done my own favours, i'm arranging all the flowers myself except bouquets, it's in my friend's field and the village church, I do not know where we have gone wrong. I used to think people spending 10k were insane. Luckily no debt, about 10k in total from our parents the rest we are paying ourselves without credit. It bloody better not rain!!!!!!

raspberryriot · 04/08/2015 18:31

Wedding was in 2002:

Dress: £50
Registry Office: Can't remember cost of this
Meal for 12 in posh restaurant: £500
Party in pub with buffet for approx. 100 friends: £500
Rings: £120
Flowers: £50
One night in gorgeous hotel: £170
No honeymoon!

So less than £1500.

No financial contribution from anyone and we were skint (and I was 5 months pregnant) so it was a struggle for us. It was a brilliant day and we were surrounded by family and friends. Still happily married 13 years later!

coff33addict · 04/08/2015 18:35

about £200 (registration office and meal). no party, dress etc
would do the same again!

TremoloGreen · 04/08/2015 18:35

Weddings in the tens of thousands Shock

If you spent that kind of money, just curious - do you have your mortgage paid off? No judgement, I would just much, much rather make a dent in my mortgage, but I hate the idea of owing 200k in general.

We had a quickie wedding while we were on holiday then a party when we came back, but it was just a bit of a legal formality for us. We hadn't had a housewarming and were coming under a bit of pressure to 'do it properly' hence the party. Cost about £1000 total I think. I did buy a new dress but I've worn it to other weddings and events since.

My sister had a big white wedding, I think my/ex-BIL's parents must have paid for the majority of it, but I would estimate the cost at £5000 or so. It was in our local village church followed by a catered reception for about 200? people in a marquee in my parents' garden. Oop North prices 7 years ago though. If I had wanted a big wedding, I think that's the furthest I'd be able to go too.

Dowser · 04/08/2015 18:41

My first wedding was with 120 guests in 1975. Probably about a grand. Had my dress made and 4 bridesmaids and flower girl. Beautiful and really reasonable. Parents paid . Honeymoon was 3 nights in lakes but we bought our first house so money was tight. My parents carpeted Our house and his bought us an oven. That was £100.

My second wedding was £180. Registry office and lunch for 6 people.

My third is costing about £6-7000 all in . Flights, accommodation for ten family members. Ceremony £300. Dress and grooms outfit about £100. Reception for 24 people . Theres our flights but we were going anyway so haven't Included them. Not having wedding rings. We chose lovely engagement rings . Mine is very unusual and I had it specially made with a large diamond in the middle and further along the shank it has smaller black diamonds on either side. and I didn't want it usurped by a wedding ring.

We are going to a restaurant after the ceremony.

We priced a modest 50 person wedding and it was coming out horrendous and it could still rain on my wedding day. So we are going abroad. Hallelujah!

HolidayHeidi · 04/08/2015 18:50

To whoever asked I don't think we spent the amount we did made the marriage any more likely to work or not work. We did because we could and at the time we had paid off our mortgages and had reasonable investments and good salaries. You don't ever go into it thinking it won't work out. What we wanted to do (and did) was create a host of lovely memories of celebrating our marriage surrounded by family and friends who were there to support us as we started married life together.

HelpfulHettyHopper · 04/08/2015 19:25

fourtothedozen

I posted upthread about my ridiculously expensive wedding. And, to answer your question, yup we're still going strong 11yrs later (15yrs together in total). The wedding bill bears no relevance to the day-to-day minutiae of our life together - it was just a fab day.

Elliecakes · 04/08/2015 19:28

About £7k. Had 100 people at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond which is normally ridiculous so we had it on a Sunday in late October and had a fabulous afternoon tea. Everyone had kids so hired a few people to look after them in the side room (so worth it!) we had a 20 month old at the time too. All back at hotel by 9.30pm for a few drinks with friends and actually had the energy to enjoy our wedding night!! We hey!

lightgreenglass · 04/08/2015 19:36

I don't regret spending the money at all as I would have probably spent it on some other crap as it was pre children and me and DH are still going strong so the cost means eff all.

All my friends' weddings were approximately the same amount and no divorces so far.

fourtothedozen · 04/08/2015 19:39

So lightgreenglass do you think couples that spend more on their weddings are more likely to stay together?

ollieplimsoles · 04/08/2015 19:42

We got married July last year, small ceremony then party in a local venue afterwards, about 70 guests in total.

The whole thing including our week long dream honeymoon probably cost just under £3000 was a lovely day!

Starbrite00 · 04/08/2015 19:44

Mine cost 20k in 2004, that was done cheaply as possible.
Wedding and reception in a local castle.
I got outside catering for the meal.
I didn't have flowers except for my bouquet and 3 bridesmaids.
I had no cars as my FIL drove me there in the morning and my Husband was staying at castle.

BathshebaDarkstone · 04/08/2015 19:45

It was a handfasting, about £200 all in! It was outside and on Facebook so anybody could turn up, we had about 50 people. We didn't have or need any financial help from anyone.

DressingGownFrown · 04/08/2015 19:47

I'm getting married next summer so I'm not 100% sure yet...
But so far:
MIL is making mine and my one bridesmaids dress
And making my fiances suit (or buying him one if she doesn't make it)

My Mum is doing all the flowers, her brother is a wedding photographer so he is doing photography and any costs incurred are being paid by my mum.

My Dad is paying for the venue hire for the reception, £600, though we may be extending it so he will pay more for that.

So we have food, rings, the church and extra decorations. The church is £600, then the rest is basically how much we decide to spend. We are thinking that we will invest in nicer rings after the wedding, the church is £600, extra decs could be zero expense or huge depending on what we want to spend, and food again could be very little or a lot. The focus will be on lots of food and drink though. We are young and poor, so probably £1-2000 put in from us.

I'm not sure what we are doing about a honeymoon, probably won't have one, or do it for our first anniversary or something...

BarbarianMum · 04/08/2015 19:49

4k in 2004, half paid by my parents and half by my inlaws. That was for 100 guests plus an additional 30 joining us for the evening.

It seems an awful lot of money, looking back. Nothing was very lavish but the costs just mounted up.

mrsg1888 · 04/08/2015 19:51

£22500 in 2011 paid for by my lovely parents.
In laws didn't even buy us a card or a gift Confused
I was married in a castle followed by 4 courses for 125 during day and 200 at night.
I loved every minute as did dh and are so great full to my parents