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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:
MrPan · 13/03/2018 13:30

Wildduck - the expensive ones. Well not 'expensive'...the batshit crazy ones.

sarcasmisnotthelowestformofwit · 13/03/2018 13:30

£30k in 2010. 180 guests, we paid for everything. Family were very generous and we paid £10k.

mintich · 13/03/2018 13:31

Mines looking to be about 25k

user1467718508 · 13/03/2018 13:31

Interesting reading here! Smile

I'll be marrying in Yorkshire in Sept this year.

Our initial budget was 10k and it just wasn't adding up. Despite making our own flowers, cake, favours, decorations and invites, buying the dress from the high street, and calling in favours for the photos etc, it's now coming to 13k for 75 guests.

Over half of this figure is going on food and drink.

I have a v.savvy friend who had a beautiful 5k wedding last year (probably my favourite so far!) surrounded by 50 friends and family. She did benefit from living in a village where the registry office was stunning, and her mum's back garden was picture perfect for a marquee reception.

A girl I work with is also getting married this year (500 guests, extended family travelling from Asia to the UK for it) and hers is currently at 50k. Shock Apparently it's pretty standard within Chinese culture, and much of that figure will come back in gifts.

...the average cost of these 3 weddings is £22,666

IllBeAtTheBarIfYouNeedMe · 13/03/2018 13:31

We’re getting married in Oct. I think all in we’re paying about £5k which isn’t bad considering we have 60 sit down guests. I know my dsis paid that just for a marquee for hers two years ago Shock

MrsHathaway · 13/03/2018 13:34

it's now coming to 13k for 75 guests.
I have a v.savvy friend who had a beautiful 5k wedding last year (probably my favourite so far!) surrounded by 50 friends and family.
A girl I work with is also getting married this year (500 guests, extended family travelling from Asia to the UK for it) and hers is currently at 50k.

So yours is £175 per head, whereas savvy friend and friend with Asian family both paid around £100 per head. Which makes yours the luxury one!

RebeccaCloud9 · 13/03/2018 13:35

Currently planning our wedding. Most of the venues we looked at (country house style places) would make it around that cost at least for c 80/100 guests then dresses, suits, flowers, food and drink, band, photographer etc.

Ours is a bit less than that - we went for one of the cheaper venue choices, fewer guests and made savings on some items that other people blow the budget on e.g. venue styling/flowers.

sexnotgender · 13/03/2018 13:37

About a grand including my dress last year.

MummyCuddlesSolveEverything · 13/03/2018 13:38

About £12k including honeymoon. We got what we wanted but didn't want to spend too much. Church wedding, with wedding breakfast and evening reception at a hotel. We made lots of things ourselves and the hotel did package deals.

Jaunty · 13/03/2018 13:42

We spent £25k in 2010. I didn't want to spend so much and only wanted a small affair but my DH is Italian so that put paid to that. My sister's wedding cost £40k. Our NDN's cost £5k. My BF's cost £7k. There is such a wide range in these wedding costs that I can easily see the average wedding costing £27k.

Just as a side note, if you want crazy amounts spent on a wedding then I reckon one of my dh's relatives wins that one spending over £2,000,000 on her wedding last year! Confused The bride and groom (UK based) don't have elaborate or particularly well paid jobs but the bride's father is a Russian shipping tycoon and basically told her there was no budget limit for her wedding. The wedding was stunningly beautiful but the food was tiny, tasteless and everybody left hungry. There wasn't even an evening buffet!

gwenneh · 13/03/2018 13:42

£30,000 for 150 guests. Country house style venue with all of the trimmings. My parents were very generous to help.

Would have been nicer if more of DH's family had opted to come; we made a lot of decisions based on how he felt about wanting his relatives there, which wasn't reciprocated.

user1467718508 · 13/03/2018 13:47

@MrsHathaway Wow, you're right! (no sarcasm there, I genuinely hadn't worked out the cost pp)

Sadly I don't know enough people to benefit from economy of scale, and my mum and dad's back garden - albeit lovely - is more of a gazebo plot than a marquee affair...Grin

Fluffyblanket17 · 13/03/2018 13:49

I'd say mine was about £12000 in Cyprus that included a 10 day holiday for 5 of us, spending money etc, and a party when we got home. And I didn't go over the top for the party, it was just a party.

Talcott2007 · 13/03/2018 13:50

Married last year - it was the perfect day for us - didn't feel like we cut corners at all. 60 guests and altogether everything came to about £11k we had budgeted for between £12-15k initially. We were very fortunate real terms it only cost DH and I about 4k. As several family members on both sides were very generous in offering contributions in lieu of wedding gifts e.g. My DM paid for my dress. DAunt paid for all the flowers. SIL&BIL paid for the cake etc

FishinthePerculator · 13/03/2018 13:58
  1. £7k all in. We had originally budgeted £6k but went over - mainly due to parents insisting on additional and distant family members being included. Parents didn't contribute anything - we saved for it ourselves over a 4-year engagement and didn't get in any debt. Our main priority was the honeymoon - we love to travel and wanted to splurge so that was £4k. We cut corners on the rest where we could - didn't worry about a fancy venue - my view was that there was no point in stately homes with extensive gardens when it would probably rain anyway. We just needed somewhere with a room the right size to accommodate our guests. Other priorities were food and photography. I didn't get chair covers or fancy decorations; I made my own invitations and flower arrangements, an aunt made the cake as a wedding present and DH's uncle drove us in his posh car. My dress was high-street off the peg and I only had one bridesmaid. Lots of savings there. Several friends got married around the same time and I believe their average cost was £25k. I'm happy to live and let live but I couldn't justify that sort of money.

It was a perfect day and if I had to do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing.

FfionFlorist · 13/03/2018 14:01

About £1k but that was only for a tiny wedding with dh and me and 2 guests, so not exactly a bargain

twernip · 13/03/2018 14:04

Oooh, about £200 in 2014- just me, my lovely husband and a couple of friends as witnesses at the registry office; followed by coffee and cake at Muffin Break!
I wore a hand me down dress from my big sister (just an everyday dress, but in my favourite colour) and he wore his funeral suit. Grin

toastedbeagle · 13/03/2018 14:05

£28k for reception ; £10k for honeymoon and £12k for jewellery. So £50k all in.

Seems a lot but already owned a house and car and no kids then so seemed a good use of the money.

Just calculated the daily cost £15.79 a day so far! Ive got shoes that are more "cost per wear" than that!

VileyRose · 13/03/2018 14:15

About 500

Merrz · 13/03/2018 14:19

£30k in 2016. I kept a spreadsheet from when we got engaged so added every little cost. Almost £20k of it was the venue (country house hotel) we had 140 guests all day and another 60 at night so definitely our numbers put the cost up, we also put on quite a lot of free drink and paid for bridal party and parents rooms for the night. But when you add in band, photographer, cake, bridal party outfits, rings, invites etc it really isn't hard to get the other £10k
I think it can definitely be done on the cheap though, just depends what you want. I loved every minute of my wedding and all the build up to it but would i do it again.....not sure

MrsHathaway · 13/03/2018 14:21

planting I'm largely teasing you.

But there are a zillion MN threads where someone is trying to cut costs for a wedding and posters start arguing between themselves about how to make your own table centres or something to save maybe £200, when the bare fact is that you could ditch the pudding course in favour of just serving the wedding cake, and with 100 guests save £1000. Nobody notices the difference.

Or someone says "Is £50,000 a lot to spend on a wedding?" and forgets to mention that it's a Hindu wedding spread over three days and 500 guests.

Price per head, people! Not everything scales (e.g. you pay the same to the band or disco regardless of numbers) but e.g. stationery, food and drink do.

I love pp's calculation of cost per day of the marriage. Partly because it's helped me find out that DH and I will be celebrating a round number of days very soon! and partly because that's a very reassuring way to look at it. I'm sure our guests will be glad to know that nearly all our wedding presents are still in regular use too.

([[https://planetcalc.com/274/ Here is a "how many days" calculator)

MrsHathaway · 13/03/2018 14:22

unfucked link

iklboo · 13/03/2018 14:23

About £4K in 2004 but we only paid about £3k of that - our parents paid towards dress / suit hire, car hire, flowers, photographer etc.

Osopolar · 13/03/2018 14:24

I'm at £1.30 per day after just over 4 years. Bargain Grin

Ninoo25 · 13/03/2018 14:24

23.5K in 2009, but that includes the honeymoon, which was about 4K I think. We got married in a national trust property and had quite a ‘fancy’ wedding, but we did everything we could do ourselves and haggled ALOT over prices