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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:
GuybrushThreepwoodMP · 04/08/2015 19:55

Small ceremony- 8 guests in a library. Then big party in a pub with lovely buffet, some bits homemade by family members. We provided lots of champagne and wine, people bought their own drinks on to of that. Didn't bother with sit down meals, top tackles, flowers etc. £2.5k all in, mostly booze. It was lovely.

Runningupthathill82 · 04/08/2015 19:56

£7k, three years ago.

£6k of that was venue and food, the rest was everything else - ie outfits, rings, fees, hotel for the wedding night etc.
Was a fairly big do, 80 guests for all day and 40 more in evening.

Bakeoffcake · 04/08/2015 19:57

2K in 1988 for 30 people in a registry office then informal sit down meal in a local hotel. It was a fantastic day, lots of dancing, music from friends and of course alcohol.

My parents actually gave us 5K and said we could spend it how we liked. So we bought out first house with the rest of it- well the deposit and costs. Couldn't do that nowadays!

GuybrushThreepwoodMP · 04/08/2015 19:57

About 100 people at the party

noeffingidea · 04/08/2015 19:58

Got married in 1987.
Registry office with 35 guests , followed by a buffet in our flat. Evening reception in a social club with about 50 more guests We paid for everything apart from my dress which was £150. It cost us about £1000, most of that was the bar bill (we paid for all the drinks).
If I was getting married today (extremely unlikely)it would just be in a registry office with only immediate family and a meal in the pub or harvesters afterwards, no flowers or wedding dress or anything like that.

HappyIdiot · 04/08/2015 19:59

About 20k in 2013. We paid half and my mum paid the other half, we weren't expecting her to contribute but she had already put the money aside and insisted. Main expenses were food and drink (we wanted to push the boat out with this) and my dress. Didn't spend so much on photographer (good but cheap), cars (my cousin drove me) and cake (made by mil).

Loved every single second, wouldn't change a thing. If people want to frown upon others spending lots of money on a wedding, that's up to them. We had the money, didn't incur any debt, didn't have anything else that we needed to spend the money on, so why not?

HappyIdiot · 04/08/2015 20:01

Should have said:- church wedding, reception in a stately home, 90 something guests.

frumpet · 04/08/2015 20:01

Mine cost about £1200 all in ( 2001) , hated it with a passion Sad

Still married though !

PipAndPosey · 04/08/2015 20:04

About £40k in 2011. Big London wedding in Southwark Cathedral (complete with Saturday market crowds cheering us in!) and then reception in a lovely old club. We hired a boat to take everyone down the Thames to the venue. We laid on a three course meal, with canapés and Pimms on the riverside terrace. DH loves wine, so we had good stuff including champagne for the toasts. We also splashed out on a great live band, and a lovely photographer. We saved a little by serving a croque em bouche as our cake and dessert. Other costs were the honeymoon (two weeks in California and Alaska) and my dress was about £1500. It was a lot of money but DH has good job and our parents certainly all contributed a little. It was a truly unforgettable day and I don't regret a penny!

Runningupthathill82 · 04/08/2015 20:04

I can't speak for others, Happy, but when people spend so much on a wedding I do wonder why they haven't put it towards their mortgage instead.

If they're minted and don't have a mortgage or any debt then that's a different story - but it's none of my business anyway!

I do wonder though, about the sense in people such as my Dsis, who spent 20k on her wedding and 3k on the honeymoon, yet has a huge mortgage and a car that's falling to pieces. Horses for courses eh. Her wedding was fab, like.

Basketofchocolate · 04/08/2015 20:09

£500 all in. Didn't invite anyone though :) Posh frock, new tie and cufflinks, professional photos, licence and two nts in a tres swanky hotel. Job done.

kansasmum · 04/08/2015 20:10

Got married 24 years ago and my parents paid for everything except the honeymoon and the video. Think it cost around £3-4K.

My Dd got married just before Christmas and we paid for most of it except honeymoon and bridesmaids dresses. The total cost was around £7K - church wedding with bagpipes, followed by reception at my family home, catering done by my friend who is professional chef, wine bought at cost through friend who works for wine company, flowers done by a friend of mine for free( just paid for flowers!), but we gave in to my Dd's dream dress which was the biggest expense at £1500- I saw a dream dress but couldn't afford it when I got married so I lived vicariously through Dd getting her dream dress!
She didn't want flash cars so we just used ours and a friend transported the bridesmaids in their people carrier!
I made the wedding cake.

It was a brilliant day with great food, great company and Dd and her Dh said they had an absolutely brilliant day!

AngieBolen · 04/08/2015 20:11

PipAndPosey Your wedding sounds fab! I wish I'd been invited! Grin

PoundingTheStreets · 04/08/2015 20:14

£100 in 1998. Registry office job with plain white shift dress from sale. Had a buffet provided by myself back at my house, and went down the pub for a lock-in after that. Although the low cost was forced out of necessity (both just graduated and had no money, only debts), it was no less wonderful a day for it and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

chippednailvarnish · 04/08/2015 20:14

Dress £100
Dh's suit £700
Rings £1,000
Photographer £1,000
Venue and meal £4,000
No honeymoon
Four guests
Had a tiny wedding a treated everyone to very best we could afford.

nokidshere · 04/08/2015 20:14

Ours was £550 29 years ago. And that included 2weeks in Portugal Grin

AndThisIsTrue · 04/08/2015 20:15

£4500. £800 of that was my dress which my Mum paid for. £2500 was from DHs parents. Didn't have a honeymoon as couldn't afford it. 40 day guests 80 in the evening. Was a brilliant day but I'm glad we didn't spend more money on it. I can't get my head around spending £10000+ on one day!

minipie · 04/08/2015 20:18

About £24k, in 2009. My parents (to my surprise) paid most, ILs paid a bit. Would have spent the same if we'd been paying though.

BeaufortBelle · 04/08/2015 20:18

Yes. We moved house recently and I came across the "wedmin" file. It cost £7,000 nearly 25 years ago.

110 guests. Sit down meal with outside caterers. Very high quality fizzy wine, pimms and beer. There was lashings of booze. Nice dress, veil and bits but not over the top, bridesmaid's dress, going away outfit, hiring for ushers, flowers, cake, marquee, string quartet, used family cars, orders of service, invitations, paying the choir, donation to church and the church fees.

I could never have remembered all that if I hadn't found the file.

It was the most brilliant day of my whole life and I still remember the thrill of it so many years afterwards. It was a traditional country wedding with some smart London guests (our friends Grin).

We saved a lot of money because we had a family garden for the marquee, used family cars, used a friend of my mother's for the flowers and cake, etc. My cake was £110 and delicious. I am awed at the beautiful cakes available from M&S nowadays - far nicer than mine was.

StarsInTheNightSky · 04/08/2015 20:29

An eye watering amount, and that didn't include the eye watering honeymoon. We paid for it all ourselves from savings and I hated most of it. I abhor being the centre of attention and wanted to get married overseas (where we lived at the time) just DH and I, but DH wanted the big English country wedding. I lo de the honeymoon though, and was happy to put up with the big wedding for DH's sake, he is an amazing husband.

Me624 · 04/08/2015 20:33

I'm not sure exactly but I think about £17k/18k all in, in 2011. We paid for our own honeymoon which was about £2k. My parents paid for most of it - about £12k I think - and DH's parents paid the rest, about £3k. It was a lovely but not extravagant wedding. The biggest cost was the reception for 80 people which was roughly £10k for a naice hotel. My dress only cost £600. Bridesmaids dresses another £200 or so. Flowers, suits, photographer were all about £800 each. Cars were £1000 (two beautiful classic cars).

mapmyface · 04/08/2015 20:34

2007 and cost 11k without honeymoon. Amazingly my parents paid for it all except my wedding dress and the flowers which were paid for by dh's parents

gabsdot45 · 04/08/2015 20:34

I got married in 1994. I have no idea what it cost, not much though because we had no money.
My mum made my dress and 2 bridesmaids dresses, some women from my church did the flowers and cooked a Turkey dinner for 60 people. My younger siblings friends were waiters. Dh and his groomsmen hired their suits.
We had the reception in the church hall which we had decorated.
My parents paid for the food, we paid for everything else. We booked a cheap holiday to Majorca for our honeymoon.
I think it was the best wedding ever!

chocomochi · 04/08/2015 20:34

Around £5k in 2004, just under 100 guests. Dress, suit, flowers, hall hire, drinks and buffet in the evening.

MamaLazarou · 04/08/2015 20:36

£750 - including honeymoon! Ah, it was a brilliant day. Smile

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