Wedding dress cost

[sue52]

Can I ask for a bit of help? DD is getting married next year so DH and I are doing a bit of budgeting. We are paying for the reception and bride and (3) bridesmaids dresses, shoes hair and makeup. I am guessing about £2500 for DD and £1500 total for bridesmaids. Am I about right or in for a bit of a shock. Any recent cost info gratefully received.

That sound fine to me!! You'll have no probs if that's your budget. At the end of the day, you can spend as much or as little as you like on a wedding. Just for ref, my dress was £800, which is the lower end of maggie sottero. Veil £50, shoes £80 rainbow club. Bridesmaids dresses were actually evening dresses from house of fraser £130 each. Hair was done by a friend of a friend, so mates rates. Not sure what it would have cost. I did my own make-up, so not sure there either.
have fun planning!

I started a thread along this vein last week, and got some very helpful replies see here

And if you want some inspiration and waste hours of your life this blog is pretty good

Sounds fine if you can afford it.

I bought a w/dress 2nd hand for 250GBP & b/maid for 45GBP.

Both only worn once!

I bought my wedding dress for £200 in the sale. I probably spent £400 in total on me and the bridesmaids! Was a while ago though...

There was a thread about this the other day

I would say your budget for the bridesmaids is probably higher than you'll end up paying, depending on where you buy the dresses from. In terms of hair and make-up, you are always charged a lot more for the bride than the attendants. I think for my wedding we paid, all in, about £300 per bridesmaid. The dresses were just Monsoon but were £150 each. Shoes £50, hair/makeup/accessories £100. That was 2 years ago so pretty recent.

I don't think you need to spend that much on bridesmaids dresses personally, but if you have the money then you defintely won't struggle on that budget :)

You'll manage fine on that budget, although it would be quite easy for the bride to go over that amount (I know I did) but my BM's came in at less than £500 each so swings and roundabouts.

She will have plenty of choice and you sound very generous

Yep, I went over the bride's budget actually, once you include things like jewellery, veil, shoes, tiara/hairband etc. But again it depends on where your DD buys her dress from and what budget she gives herself for that. Don't forget alterations which are often in addition to the price of the dress.

Thanks very much. We just needed a rough guide then we can get an idea what's in the kitty for the reception, flowers, cake and probably a load of stuff I haven't yet thought about.

I got sent this which is helpful for figuring out what costs should be budgeted for. It's in $s (or else, I just haven't worked out how to change it) but is quite a good guide.

Or else, google has now set up this for assisting in organising weddings.