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Original poster

To ask how you paid for your wedding?

223 replies

Picklemuncher123 · 22/05/2019 19:40

Fiance proposed to me last August and the aim is to save as much as possible to afford a decent wedding. But it's proving difficult at the moment as other financial emergencies seem to be cropping up.

Did you fund your wedding your selves ? Get a loan ? Parents or family help? How much did it cost in total and can I still have a lovely( by no means big ) wedding on a budget ? Thanks :)

OP posts:
Oysterbabe · 22/05/2019 20:40

Our parents paid for most of it.

SomewhereInbetween1 · 22/05/2019 20:41

We got engaged, 4 months later bought a house, and then saved £400 a month each for about a year, paying suppliers monthly as we went.

Armadilloboss · 22/05/2019 20:44

About 28k. Very lucky as most was gifted. FIL paid for our honeymoon, my mum paid for dress and videographer, my aunty paid 6k for venue, other aunty paid for the band and dad gifted us 5k. We saved for the rest. 2 years later and we’re getting a divorce! 😂😳 just don’t stress about it and remember, a wedding doesn’t make a marriage!

HerondaleDucks · 22/05/2019 20:44

We saved 2.5k. My mum did 3k and we did 1k on the credit card when stupid things cropped up as we were originally only paying the honeymoon on it.

babysharkah · 22/05/2019 20:45

We got a loan but we're young and child free at the time. Paid off and don't regret it!

Sexnotgender · 22/05/2019 20:46

Cash...

Seriously though we had a small wedding. We were more interested in a marriage than a wedding.

Close family and friends at church then lunch at Michelin star restaurant. Whole thing cost about £1,000.

EL8888 · 22/05/2019 20:47

Paid for it all ourselves. By saving up and doing overtime at work. Didn’t get a penny off anyone else

Allyg1185 · 22/05/2019 20:49

Saved up and paid it ourselves. My Dad bought our cake. My Mum bought our flowers and dh parents paid for our kilts

forkfun · 22/05/2019 20:50

Please don't go into debt for one day. Set a realistic budget you can afford and stick to it. There are many things that may be lovely, but totally unnecessary - expensive invitations, flowers, bridesmaids dresses, etc. Sit down with your fiance and decide what's important for you two. Then take it from there. Congratulations, and I hope you have a great wedding, but much more importantly, a wonderful marriage.

TSSDNCOP · 22/05/2019 20:51

20k. We paid for it all ourselves with the exception of my dress which my parents insisted on.

We got married when we could afford to in our lives.

Yearofchange · 22/05/2019 20:53

We spent £7000 I think. We paid half and both sets of parents contributed a quarter each. We then paid for our honeymoon. We started off intending to keep it budget but my dress, a big guest list and expensive catering threw us off!

Discogarden · 22/05/2019 20:53

£120 for the registry office (DH was supposed to pay half and he still owes me it, I'll go and remind him again!), £80 for lunch for us and our two witnesses who were our only guests and then £600 for the party, our parents gave £200 each and it was at a nice venue who'd had a cancellation and were about to go into administration so took cash in hand about £250 and we had a minimum bar spend of £500. We used their kitchens and just served sandwiches, bits and bobs, MIL used to be in catering so nice stuff but easy to prepare and transport. My DS's bought us our 'wedding cake' which was a Krispy Kreme and Lola's Cupcakes tower thing. Neither of us wore anything new except my wedding shoes which I paid £25 for and I'd always wanted in that style but I didn't wear them, literally only for the 20 mins we got married. We're still married 9 years later so it worked out ok so far and I don't regret the extravagance! Grin
He also owes me the money I paid for us both to give notice. I shall remind him at once and chase payment yet again.

thefirsttimer · 22/05/2019 20:54

Savings, help from parents, and a small loan

waterandmilk · 22/05/2019 20:55

Ourselves, probably around £300. Registry and a meal out for us and witnesses.

Animum2 · 22/05/2019 20:56

My husband and I paid for everything ourselves, we just paid for stuff each month as we got paid, we had registry office and pub reception, all in all we paid just under 2 grand for everything to do with the wedding

If u have the money go for it but we had to budget and we had a great day and that's what counts

graziemille567 · 22/05/2019 20:57

@TSSDNCOP your point about getting married when you could afford to rings true for me too. Although our parents did contribute, we never expected, asked or relied upon them too, and would have spent the same amount regardless. We'd been together for a long time, live in another country from our family and friends and have been through a lot of shit together, so we really wanted to celebrate and enjoy the rare time spent with our loved ones, and ensure we could spoil our guests with booze, food and good music. So for us, it was worth spending what we did (20k as mentioned in earlier post) and we waited until we could afford to throw the wedding we really wanted ourselves.

heroineinahalfshell · 22/05/2019 20:58

My parents gave us £10K, + my dress (they cashed in an insurance picy which had been taken out with the intention of paying for my wedding when I was little), PIL gave us £4K which covered the honeymoon! We spent about another 4K on 0% interest credit card, which we paid off. So about 18K all in. 4th anniversary tomorrow and I wouldn't change a thing!

QueenofallIsee · 22/05/2019 21:00

We are getting married in October a year after our engagement - we have paid for it ourselves (booked and paid for something each month) we are high earners (6 figures) so it’s all relative though

Purpletigers · 22/05/2019 21:01

We paid for our own . My parents wouldn’t have been able to pay for it all but did give me £1000 towards the reception. I paid for reception, dresses, cake , invitations etc . Husband paid for photos , cars , honeymoon , band . Can’t think of anything else off the top of my head .
I don’t think we ever sat down and worked out exactly how much we spent , probably in the region of 12/15 k . We were both back living with parents before we got married so were able to save a lot .
I’m not sure I’d do it all again tbh . It was a lovely day but not perfect and I sometimes wish we had had a much smaller wedding with just immediate family .

lisasimpsonssaxophone · 22/05/2019 21:05

We’re paying about 20k for ours. We’re very lucky that my fiancé had a few big jobs last year (he’s self employed) which have pretty much covered the whole thing. My mum is buying my dress and my dad is contributing towards the booze. We didn’t want to get into any debt but luckily haven’t had to.

My dad paid about 15k for my sister’s wedding and it gave him certain expectations about how much of a say he should have in certain things... so we were keen to avoid that!

Cryalot2 · 22/05/2019 21:06

Saved and paid ourselves.
We just were on a budget and did accordingly. Regret a few things.
Do not borrow or get into debt .
Do what you can yourselves.
Prioritise on what matters .
We did not have evening do or video .
Consider good artificial flower possibly. Get someone to bake cake , do invites yourself
It depends on what you want .

ZippyBungleandGeorge · 22/05/2019 21:08

Saved up ourselves took about two years, but we bought and were renovating our house at the same time which used up a lot of our pre-existing savings. DM bought my veil and shoes because she wanted to. Around £18 - £20k including honeymoon

MatchSetPoint · 22/05/2019 21:09

My parents very kindly paid for the whole wedding and my lovely Auntie paid a chunk of our honeymoon.

BogglesGoggles · 22/05/2019 21:10

We paid in cash. We were hardly going to throw away a massive sum on a glorified party.

OneToThree · 22/05/2019 21:11

We paid £5K
My parents £4K
Dh mum £3K
My grandfather £1K