To ask how much you paid for your wedding?

[augustine77]

Just that really. We're just at the start of saving for our wedding and I'm trying to get an idea of how much we can be prepared to splash out for a wedding that's not super fancy but still nice and fairly big. How much did your wedding cost and how long did it take you to save?

That really is how long is a piece of string! 11 years ago mine was around 8-10K I think, not including a honeymoon. We didn't save it was paid for as we went along over the 15 months of planning and we were gifted some big items instead of wedding presents from a gift list such as the cake, the photographer, the musicians but they are included in the 10k. Small wedding though 18 or 20 guests as we decided on a small very nice wedding rather than a big one on a budget.
My friend married the year after and spent 22k on a medium size wedding they had been saving for 4 years for both the wedding and their house deposit.

25k + in 2008.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I wish we hadn’t spent that much money on a wedding. It’s easy to get swept away during planning, especially when your buying 100’s of wedding magazines and visiting wedding fayres. We invited many people we haven’t seen since.

If I married today, it would be DH and I, DS, and a couple of witnesses abroad. £3000 max on top of the holiday.

About £4K earlier this year. Around 50 people in the day, 70 at night. Registry office and function room type event. Was perfect for us, we spent the money where we wanted it (catering and drink) and saved elsewhere, high street dress, homemade decorations etc.

To add, we paid as we went along and had under 80 guests.

50K. Indian weddings tend to be expensive as we have a number of different events.

About £500 so far for our upcoming nuptials in Dec It might go up to £1000 as we haven't bought rings yet. It's registrars office with 10 guests, champagne 'reception' at a fancy Air BnB my parents have hired, where we will also eat cake, and then a meal out at a restaurant. We aren't weddingy people

Around £5000 for 45 people, not including honeymoon. Late afternoon ceremony in registry office (lovely building) then exclusive hire of a restaurant/bar for dinner, drinks and dancing.

@doraleerhodes @amazingaardvark hope this isn't too nosy, but your weddings sound like exactly what I want - would you be willing to give a rough cost breakdown of the main elements?

This really is a how long is piece of strong question... I think, all in, our wedding cost about £35k... the actual venue, dinner etc I think was around £25,000 (it was central London and it was lovely). What added up were things like bridesmaid dresses (£1000 once we bought and adjusted them), decorations, photographer etc.

I’m not in any way saying you need to spend that much, but it’s little things that add money... I remember running around Westfield a week before my wedding looking for the perfect bra and knickers to go under my dress and probably spend like £100 just on them... you can be careful but stupid things add up..

I think about 6k in 2014. 55 guests for the whole day. It was perfect for us.

About 7k, dinner for 70 and 120 in the evening (mostly work colleagues and distant cousins).
We got married on a Friday to cut costs.

About £5k 2 years ago and we had 100 guests. It was a gorgeous day at a lovely unique venue and I wouldn't have changed a thing. It's definitely possible to have a great wedding on a budget.

40k, less than 10 years ago. hired a marquee inside the grounds of a large house. 120 day guests and 80 extra for the evening (both huge irish families).

About 25k including honeymoon 5 years ago!

Ours was about £12-13k this year. Total of about 120 guests in the day, 140 in the evening. Church and then village hall, 3 course meal, live band, photographer, videographer etc. The biggest expense was the food and wine on tables which was about £5k!

About 13k 5 years ago, that included everything except the honeymoon.

We had it all at one venue, a sit down meal and lots of entertainment in the evening. We absolutely loved it and paid it off over the two years we planned it.
We were very lucky to be in a position where we were living rent free due to DH’s job at that time, so did everything we wanted to.

2 grand, including two nights at the cottage we got married at but it was just us, two friends as witnesses and a photographer.

50k in 2012 for 120 guests. Parents paid and some stuff was a real splurge but other stuff was a bargain- I wore a high street dress for instance. Mostly we just picked stuck we liked!

About 2k three years ago for about 40 people but we got married in November so got some fantastic deals. I got my vintage wedding dress from ebay and paid a bit for alterations, We got married in the registry office which is an old stately home and had a sit down roast dinner in a local pub, renting the whole upstairs area. Buffet in evening. Got wine, soft drinks and champagne from Costco that lasted most of evening and once that was gone, had a pay bar. Pub manager was very chilled and didn't charge corkage.

The biggest saving was doing almost everything myself. I did all invitations, flowers, buttonholes, decoration, cake myself. My husband is a photographer so we just had another professional to do the family photos and we did the rest ourselves and I edited them and made our wedding album online. DH wore a nice suit he already had. No bridesmaids or best men. No wedding cars. DH inherited his ring and I got a thin gold band.

It depends how much you want to do yourself, dates and what things you want to spend on.

Just under £42,000, for 70 people, this was in Scotland in 2006 and my parents paid. To be honest if I was getting married now I’d do it completely different and for a lot less!

Sure! Rough breakdown:
Registry office £250
Reception hire fee £450
Food & drink (welcome drinks & canapés, sit-down main, dessert table, wine with dinner and glass of Prosecco) £2100
Photographer (4 hours) £800
DJ £400
Dress/shoes/etc £250
Hair&makeup £250
Suit £200
Cake (cheese tower from supermarket) £30
Homemade Polaroid photo booth £100
Glow sticks and sparklers £70
My parents paid for the flowers as a wedding present (£200) and we bought each other our rings as birthday presents (£200).

£5K in 2004

Church, reception in hotel 60 day guests fed 3 course meal with wine joined by another 60 for the evening with buffet and disco.

Included my dress, 3 bridesmaids and hire of fancy suits for groom, best man and 2 others. Donation to church, cake and flowers.

Additional £4K for honeymoon

My parents paid for the wedding and a bank loan paid for the honeymoon.

120 guests, £10k, 2017

Not that sure but probably around £3.5k? We didn't save, just paid as we booked stuff.

It was just the two of us in New Zealand. The amount spent included all wedding costs plus three weeks traveling around NZ.

I decided once we got to NZ that I didn't like the evening dress I'd bought six months previously to get married plus it was too big so bought a new proper wedding dress and veil etc three days before the wedding (they altered it while we were in the pub 😂).

Didn't have to pay for flights to NZ as our employer picked up the cost. Splurged on lovely accommodation and a helicopter to fly us to where we got married.

Wouldn't change a thing.

Very little. We did it on a shoestring, almost 30 years ago. It was a church wedding. I still have people say, it was one of the best weddings they have been too. Very little stress, lots of family and friends and a big old disco knees up. My MIL made my dress and I still love it to this day, very simple and it hasn't dated because it was so simple.