How much did your wedding cost?

[WomanEmpire]

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?

Around or just over 20k? It was in 2016, I've never wanted to sit down and reckon up exactly how much it cost !! This doesn't include the cost of a honeymoon either, I think some people include it in the total cost.

I never planned to spend so much and I hated wedding planning and everything weddingy. I think things just snowballed, my mil jumped on the band wagon too and yes...

In the initial stages when we started to discuss getting married I wanted to elope, my husband didn't. So we had a huge wedding with people there I'd never even met before!!! Madness!!!

Zoiks. I'm an average skewer.

£75k budget but that didn't include rings, dress(es), suits and honeymoon.

So the total probably 200k

Still happy and together though!

2013: £1,700. 100 people, central London, Saturday afternoon. London weddings don't have to be expensive.

£5,200 if you include the honeymoon, which I don't because it was nearly a year later.

twer 200k and I thought spending 20k was out of control and ott!! Did you marry a footballer?!

Most weddings I've been to have been in the £15-30k range.

Things are more expensive here anyway (Surrey) but also people generally earn more.

Thundercat

Hahahahaha errrrr yea I did. 😂

The whole thing cost £13. And no, I don’t mean £13,000!
Us, two witnesses and a registrar.
No ring, no guests, no reception, no flowers, no photographer, no honeymoon.
That was in 1981. I went back to work the next day for the remaining 56 hours of my 72 hour continuous shift as a junior hospital doctor.
The good old days!
We had a wonderful marriage (much more important to us than the wedding), right up to my DH’s tragically early death at 36.
I would have hated to waste money on a splashy expensive wedding, and as a feminist would never have accepted being “given away” as a piece of property by a parent, dressed in a white meringue as a virgin sacrifice!
Also, being an extremely introverted Asperger, I would never have coped with being stared at by crowds of people.
Still, each to their own. I expect some people like all that hassle.

10k nearly 20 years ago

Around 12k. I have been to a few weddings that would have cost far more so can see why the average is that much.

About £4K in 2014. Registry office for 40 then a sit down meal in a local bowling club, followed by an evening with a DJ and a buffer with another 25 guests.

Dress was about £300 from phase 8.
Hubble and BM hires kilts.
Food was about £1k.
£300 on wine for meal.
£250 for hall and BYOB fees for the wine.
£200 on invites and place names for the tables.
£120 on favours. (Pin badge representing £3 donation per guest to local charity)
£150 DJ
Flowers were a present and my brother took the photos.
Rest on rings and odds and ends.

Got to be up there as the most bonkers thread on MN, IF all of this is to be believed.

We’re getting married next year and we’re all in for $15,000 (AU) / £8,500 (GBP).

That includes both dresses (SSM), exclusive use of the venue, celebrant, photographer, all the catering, cars, our accomodation, flowers and DJ.

We’ve been engaged for years and I can’t remember how much the rings are and we’re not having a honeymoon. Everything is being paid for by us, using savings.

£20k four years ago, not including hen/stag or honeymoon. I had to reign my mum in or it would have cost double!!

Majority of the budget went on venue, food, drink, band and dresses/suits as this is what was important to us. DH, his best man and groomsmen all got lovely tailored suits that they still wear now.

It seems like so much money looking back but it wasn't a lavish affair. I wouldn't change a minute of it so completely worth it!

Usually when magazines/articles quote this as the average they include things like rings/honeymoon which most wouldn't think of as a cost for the wedding itself.
My wedding was nothing fancy but when you included all the costs that these magazines quote then it came to around £18k in total, this was in 2007

Probably £18k for the wedding, £12k honeymoon and £10kish on rings (including the engagement ring tho...)

But I had a very full on job was a lazy bugger and there was no way I wanted to faff about with wedding stuff so just threw money at it. We had a central London venue (close to home) and I let them sort most of it out.

Bought one bridal magazine, flicked through it and nearly died of laughing when I came across an ad for ‘bridal coaching’ to help you be the most beautiful confident bride you can be... 😂😂😂😂😂😂

MrP what is it you're struggling with? The cheap weddings or the expensive ones?

£15,000 in 2014

I think spending tens of thousands on a wedding is an awful lot of money unless it is a drop in the ocean to you. In other words, it wouldn't make a difference to a house deposit to you. DH and I earn around 100k between us but would rather put £80k deposit on a house and have a small wedding than a £50k deposit on a house and a £30k wedding. Its just a few hours so it'd be mad to forego a nicer house for a party. Just my opinion.

2k 8 years ago, including rings and dress/suit. Invited 50. Dress was €100 off ebay. My 6yo ds put it on last weekend for a prance around, looked adorable!

1-2K I reckon, in 2011.

20k

Our original budget was £17k all in but then DH got a job overseas and we knew we'd have to relocate immediately (ie a fortnight) after the wedding so cut it back to £12k. That's including wedding rings but not my engagement ring which DH paid for. We both worked freelance in the evenings for 6 months to pay for it to ensure we didn't have to touch our house savings / weren't left in any debt.

We had a small wedding in one country and a large celebration in another as we're from different countries and DH has relatives who can't travel for health reasons. Most of the money went on catering - we had wonderful food at both. We saved lots by decorating both venues ourselves. It was perfect and I don't regret a thing. Being married is better than getting married, though.

£7 in 1968. Marriage licence cost 7s 6d = 35p. (At that time a Dog Licence was 10s 0d = 50p - so it was more expensive to have a dog than get a marriage licence 🙄). I was working as a typist in a Transport office earning £9 per week then.

We did not receive any wedding presents as my mother told everyone that the marriage wouldn’t last six weeks and she did not want the bother of sending them back. 50 years later .......

Just shy of 10k in 2014. Would have been hard pressed to get it cheaper as we had very fixed dates (due to a grandma on deaths door) and DH was a teacher so had to be a weekend. Saved where we could - no wedding car, dress from the sale. Had 96 people there.

Last year, about £2k. £1k for the venue and registrar/celebrant, and another £1k for all the other stuff - a boat ride along the river for everyone afterwards, a big second hand marquee, catering van, loads and loads of wine and beer served at the amazing bar DH made out of pallets, second hand dress etc.