Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How much did your wedding cost?

322 replies

WomanEmpire · 13/03/2018 11:08

Average wedding is around the £27k mark in the U.K. I can't think of a wedding I've attended or known of that could of cost this much? no judgement if people do pay this amount, but it seems pretty crazy! I can't believe that it is the average, unless most are paying £5k and the £1,000,000 do's are throwing off the averages?!

How much did your weddings cost?

OP posts:
Amanduh · 13/03/2018 11:59

£10k, church and reception at a beautiful venue for 85, wedding breakfast, band and dj in the evening, hog roast in the eve and bacon baps at midnight. Didn’t scrimp on anything, but did shop bought invites and high street dresses for bridesmaids because they were the nicest we saw! My grandparents bought my dress though. It was a brilliant day.

BadTasteFlump · 13/03/2018 11:59

27k would buy one of my children a car when they hit 18

Blimey that's a very flash car for a new driver - I dread the think what the insurance would be! Shock

LisaSimpsonsbff · 13/03/2018 12:00

Ours cost £10k three years ago.

I also thought I'd never been to a £30k wedding - until I started planning ours, and found out what things cost! I went to look at nice but not ridiculously amazing venues - some of them places where people I knew had got married - and came away shocked to discover that venue hire and the meal and drink there wouldn't leave much change from £20k. We had 100 guests and some of them were charging prices for three-course meals and (a fairly modest amount of) alcohol of more than £100 a head, with cheese, canapes and even bloody coffee costing an extra fortune on top! We obviously didn't go for that kind of place - but I imagine quite a lot of our guests would have guessed that our wedding cost a lot less than it did. I had initial ideas it could be done for £2k, but unless you go pot luck or similar (which can be lovely, but isn't what we wanted to do) there's not a lot you can do for £20 a head!

Amanduh · 13/03/2018 12:00

(And and that was 2013, including wine and table drinks but there was a cash bar for the evening)

namechangerbob · 13/03/2018 12:00

A couple of hundred pounds, we did do it really cheaply, 9 years ago. Church wedding with reception at local hall.

Mrschainsawuk · 13/03/2018 12:01

3 years ago 900 all in all 50 guests, food, dresses, suits shoes ect

Spidergirl999 · 13/03/2018 12:01

£40k 2006. Including £5k honeymoon.

Fantastic day but fuck me what a waste of money.

We’re divorced Blush

FranticallyPeaceful · 13/03/2018 12:02

@BadTasteFlump yeah I certainly didn’t get one for my first car! Ha. But I’ve always had in my mind that I would get them a 4x4 for safety. Our 4x4 was about 60k so I thought 27k seemed reasonable for a first 4x4, but then I’ve never looked

justforthisthread101 · 13/03/2018 12:03

25k or thereabouts, 10 years ago

Church wedding, very nice venue that did exactly what we needed it to, dinner and drinks for 100, DJ.

Do I regret the cost of my dress? A bit. But it was exactly what I wanted, and I bought it in 40 minutes and it was a gift from my mother.

I wish we'd had a better photographer. Actually, I wish we'd had one particular photographer, as he's the best in the world and would actually have been cheaper as he was only starting out.

Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing. The vast majority was on food and the venue and both were exactly what we'd hoped for. People still mention the food at our wedding. It was really really good.

FourForYouGlenCoco · 13/03/2018 12:03

About £3k I think, maybe a little bit more, not sure exactly. This was in 2014. Ceremony and post-ceremony drinks in an old Tudor hall type place - that cost a grand for venue hire + the wedding lady (officiant??). Then we walked round the corner to a nice pub and spent the afternoon in the garden (was July and weather was gorgeous all day). Drinks, bbq, giant cupcake as a wedding cake, everyone tipsy and happy in the sun, job done. 50 guests (half a dozen or so kids, including then-2yo DD) for the whole thing, no big disco or anything - a big group of friends & relatives hit it off and went on to a club later but we’d gone home by then. I suspect my engagement ring (we were engaged for a few years before we got married) cost almost as much as our actual wedding! I absolutely loved getting married, would do it all the same again - the only thing I’d change in an ideal world is that we’d have had a free bar. Between us & relatives there was enough for everyone to have the first couple of drinks free (and we’d done post-ceremony champagne etc too) but it would have been nice for everyone to have it unlimited. Hey ho, no one complained!

Midlandsmummmy · 13/03/2018 12:04

20k including honeymoon

LisaSimpsonsbff · 13/03/2018 12:04

Ps. I actually wanted a registry office and pub meal for 10, it was my husband who wanted a big church wedding - despite popular culture insisting that men like him don't exist!

darkriver198868 · 13/03/2018 12:04

£500. That was 2013.
His nan paid for half of it. My dress cost £40 from tesco. Reception was at wetherspoons. Greatful I didnt pay through the nose as my marriage only lasted 10 months.

Shutupanddance1 · 13/03/2018 12:06

Around £13k in 2015 but I’m Irish and we generally tend to have larger traditional weddings.

This included everything for the day but not our honeymoon Wink. We got mates rates on lots of stuff but spent over half that on the venue/food and drinks package for guests.

I wasn’t a bridal mags type girls and did a lot of DIY to keep the costs low. Weddings in Ireland also tend to be a lot more traditional so not as much leeway as in UK maybe?

We also didn’t get any financial contribution from either of our parents and had it saved for and more in case we needed it. We’ve since saved for a large house deposit so we didn’t lose anything by having a nice wedding that we liked.

crunchymint · 13/03/2018 12:06

Those saying a hundreds, the absolute cheapest way to get married with no ceremony costs £130 with reading of the banns. An actual ceremony costs more.

wendywoopywoo222 · 13/03/2018 12:07

Registry office and pub meal for 14. My dress cost £15. Was 2005 and it was way less than £500 in total. I loved it.

LeNil · 13/03/2018 12:07

Around 1,200 in 2010, if rings are included, about 400 if not.
Mil did the food for 14 guests and raided her wine cellar. My mum bought my dress for 60€ in a sale and my new bil paid for my flowers. The remaining 400 went on champagne and nibbles for a party back at our new house which was still being renovated.

We had just had ds1 and bought our house which needed serious renovation so we both preferred to spend our money on our new home. Organizing a big wedding on top of everything else would have been too much for us.

Our plan is to have a big 10th wedding anniversary party. Mortgage finishes soonish, so before we remortgage we’ll have a few months break and save up to pay for a party. Maybe we’ll have a late honeymoon!

AppleFox · 13/03/2018 12:08

£6k, not including honeymoon. £11k with honeymoon.

SomewhereInbetween1 · 13/03/2018 12:09

5k. Venues are expensive but because of the licensing laws, they can afford to be as legal ceremony space can be a bit limiting. My other half and I are getting around this by having the legal bit first with just close family at a registry office, but won't be exchanging rings or reciting our own vowels. Then our big ceremony with all our loved ones is under an oak tree on an unlicensed country estate. As such the ceremony everybody sees with be more of a blessing, but it will be when we exchange rings and read our own vows 😊

SazCat · 13/03/2018 12:10

Ours cost around £6k a few years ago. Had exclusive use of a small hotel and paid for family to all stay over. Small and intimate, 20 for ceremony and 50 on night. Late wedding with no sit down meal saved loads, had lovely canapés and evening tapas instead.

Our splurge was a £3.5k honeymoon so total was actually nearer £10k.

justforthisthread101 · 13/03/2018 12:10

I never bought a bridal magazine but also didn't do any of it myself, except tying ribbons around the order of service. I just didn't have the time as I'd a) just started a new job and b) was getting married in my home country when I didn't live there.

DeadButDelicious · 13/03/2018 12:11

It was a long time ago now (12 years) but I think it was somewhere in the region of £6k maybe a bit more. Which I thought was a lot of money at the time (still do) had I had my way it would of been a heck of a lot less (immediate family and a meal out would of done me but my mother in law made a fuss and 24 year old me just gave in) but when I compare it to my SIL's £60k wedding it was actually quite reasonable!

DiplomaticBag · 13/03/2018 12:11

About £500 in 2012 that was the cost of the licence, registry office and taking our two witnesses out for tapas and champagne afterwards. Everyone wore jeans no guests, rings, flowers, photographs. It was lovely.

Aprilmightmemynewname · 13/03/2018 12:12

£25 dress off ebay.
Dd's dresses £12each tk maxx
Dh kilt hire £60
Registry office and meal back at home.
Prob less than a grand all in.

BouncyTigger85 · 13/03/2018 12:12

About 15-16k last year all in - that included an 18 day holiday abroad (we got married in NYC so stayed longer for a honeymoon) and 2 parties over here, one intimate with 17 people and one with 60-70 people.

Swipe left for the next trending thread