How much did you spend on your wedding?

[oliveoil]

This may have been done before so sorry if repeating.

Friends are getting married soon and are spending £20K not including honeymoon.

I am gobsmacked, is this the norm now?

How on earth do you spend £20K?

we are having a budget wedding compared to 20k, much more to enjoy in life rather than spending 20k for one day, we are heading to Cyprus for 2 weeks in July to marry and we are just under£5k at the moment, pretty good me thinks!

I think we spent £2000-£3000. My dress was about £50-60 (made by me, material and shoes bought in a sale, veil was my Mum's). DH's suit (can't remember how much) from Littlewoods. Bridesmaid's dress (£40-50) from BHS. Invitations- did ourselves. My ring- £40. Car- £150. Flowers-£40. Reception, a sit down meal- quite a lot £1200-1400 at Newstead Abbey (was the home of Lord Byron, really romantic!), photographers £500, honeymoon- £600 (2wks self-catering in Ireland. Been to the cottage before so owner charged £300 for the 2wks).
Our vicar gave us the advice to spend the most money on the photographers and the reception.

The free bar is amazing don't think I have ever been to a wedding with a free bar (I must know miserable people).

I know a friend whos a bridesmaid for her friend and the bridesmaids have to pay for their own dress/shoes/hair etc!!!

We gave everyone the first drink free i thin. Wedding bars can be really expensive - especially in hotels, it's a nightmare!!

I should also say my 1st wedding 13 years ago cost 10 and half K thounsand and my marriage only last 2 and a half years, this time only £500 on the wedding, my mum made my dress as I was 8 months pregnant, it was in a registry office, reception held in our local pub and he did us a very good deal and we had free welcome drinks and for the toast, only 25 guests though and actually a lot of them are none drinkers. It was much better atmosphere and had so more meaning than my 1st which more about imagine, so many guests who I hadn't seen since I was a baby so false.

£20K!!!!!! In an ideal world when I started looking into our civil ceremony I would have loved to have hired Manchester Art Gallery - they'll do the whole lot - service, reception, food etc. for about £5K, so if I had tons of money I would have gone for it!

Our 'wedding' will cost around £300 I reckon - including clothes, ceremony, rings, alcohol, food in the evening (not lunch - ha, ha).

I'd love to go to a £20K wedding though - all invites welcome!!

we were budgeting for about 9 grand, we spent about 14! some of that was chip ins from family who wanted to pay for things and in the end mum gave us some extra cash to pay for the last few bits. is suprising how much you forget and how much your family and friends like to guzzle when it isn't them paying!

Our weding 5 years ago ws about £13K - not including rings or honeymoon! We went big english white wedding, bridesmaids, page boys, full choir at the church, sit down meal for 100 people.....our friends are getting married and I dread to think how much they are spending, their venue is charging them £5k just to have it there (not including room hire, food etc) and also the venue isn't givng discounts on the bedrooms for the guests!

we spent a fortune.
and im glad we did.
a wedding is a once in a liftime event. it should be something you enjoy then, and remember forever.

We spent getting on for that probably 6 years ago although most of it my parents paid for. Was marvellous though.

10 years ago £7k-1st marriage
2nd time round last year, married in gretna about £2 k altogether

About 3 grand. My mum made the cake (sleepness nights for about two months for her!; my mum and a gaggle of female rellies all did the food; my aunt paid for my car as a wedding present; wedding dress in the sale half price, seven bridesmaids dresses in the sale for £10 each!!

150 guests all day and evening, free bar, dad's mates served behind the bar, we bought kegs of beer and a ton of spirits. All credit to my parents and family and friends for making it a fab day. It's our 14th anniversary on Tuesday.

kbear, that sounds like a wonderful wedding.

Ours was around 11k,nine years ago which I thought was alot,but my brother is getting married in 3 weeks at a cost of around 35k.
I personally think that's an awful lot to spend on one day,but they seem happy enough so that's all that matters.

Good grief. Looks like I'll stay on the shelf then

22k the first time around and about 5 this time!!

Wish to god I had spent the 22k having therapy to have the guts to leave the tosser before we married!!

At the end of the day its the vows that you make that are the important bit and they don't cost a lot!!!

One million pounds.

erm, we spent - i cant remember what the registery office cost, about £50 i think, something like that. - i remember we went to fill in the paperwork beforehand and leave our £20 deposit and hisnibs said to the registrar "its amazing how much you get for £20 these days" Smartarse. our outfits cost about £200 the lot, then we paid for guests (only immediate family at wedding) lunches at (nice) pub after reg office - that was about £150, then we had a party in our local in the evening - they let us have the pub for free (we were mates!) everyone bought their own drinks and we got the local college to cater £70, plus fuel for running about £10, we had no honeymoon but we did go for a day out the next day £50.
it was brill! lots of fun and laughter, everyone had a fab time.

Total, about £530. been married 8 years.

I couldnt imagine spending a fortune on one day, no matter how many look at me im a barbie princess fantasies i might have had as a pre-pubescent!

Not a lot. The register office was about £80 I think. My outfit was less than £100. Dh just wore a suit. I had a corsage with roses and freesias and dh had a buttonhole - can't remember the cost, not much. My Dad drove me there, and dh's Dad drove him. We had 10 guests, just family - including ds1 who was 6 months old. The 'reception' was at my parents' house and Mum had decorated the whole house with flowers and they'd done a beautiful buffet and chmapagne etc but I don't know how much any of it cost. And I had a gorgeous carrot cake (I don't like fruit cake) - which was professionally done but, again, M&D paid. We spent our wedding night there - with ds1 in between us in the bed and dh went back to work on Monday (we were married on a Saturday). I believe the expression is 'low key' .

Guesstimating what Mum and Dad put towards it - less than £500 all told I reckon.

Oh rings..forgot rings...less than £200 for both.

Oooh, just had to resurrect this thread, as a friend of mine who is getting married next year has a wedding budget of £70k!!!!!!! She's spending about £15k on the dress. Anyone else think this is pure madness???

I know - they are only 23 years old too! Mental!

About 3k I think, not including honeymoon. Registry office, my dress made by a friend, my mum made the waistcoats for the men and bridesmade dress, flowers by market stall (absolutely gorgeous but much cheaper than a shop!!) sit down lunch for 25 and then about 100 in the evening buffet. Paying bar in the evening. Photo's professionally done. Fab day - the only thing wrong was the groom - marriage only lasted a year!!!

70k??? For one day???

Not including my wedding ring, it cost approx £1500. My dress was £100, shoes £10 little cape thing £7.50 Tiara £15 (all heavily discounted because of mid summer sale) (picture on profile)
My grandma paid for bridesmaids which came to about £150. My dad's wedding present to us was all the beer/soft drinks Fil got all the wine. A friend did photography (normal digital camera) My grandma made the cake, food was made by close relatives and a couple of friends (finger buffet) The marquee was supplied by my Dad's cousin. Flowers were about £100 and hair about £100. Church was the most expensive at £460

We had a lovely day and the service was lovely. Tbh the reception was solely for the purpose of thanking everyone for coming and everyone having a bite to eat and a drink. We were home in bed for 9.30pm

We got married because we wanted to BE married. Lots now get married because they want to GET married (iyswim?) and its THEIR day to feel special etc, which is fine if thats what you but it does lead to extortionate costs.