Wedding budget

[ThedementedPenguin]

Hello, so I've just got engaged and I've been thinking about wedding budgets. Currently I am not working as I was made redundant whilst pregnant. So it will just be on my df wages.

So we have been talking about getting married in 2016. I'm hoping it will give me time to get a job and start saving up as well.

So we are going to try and set a budget so that we are saving as much as we can but I have no idea how cheap weddings can be. Everything I read says a wedding is £20,000 which is way out of my price range.

So if you have gotten married within the past 3-4 years could you please give me a rough idea of how much you spent and what your wedding was like. Are even a rough estimate of how much you spent on each thing, eg. Flowers, dresses, etc.

Thanks

We married in 2005 so stuff has gone up since then, but we had a low cost wedding. We had about 45 people
Rings £150
My outfit from Debenhams including shoes £150
His suit £80 from M&S and he still wears it to matches and despatches now
Register office £125
Hire of Pub, disco and food about £1500
Minibus for each side of the family £160 (I travelled with my lot, him with his).
Cake from M&S, decorations found online about £100
Overnight stay in a hotel £150

We didn't have a photographer but make a scrap book of the guests best photos.

We also married in South London, so again costs vary.

BTW if there is a decent village/community hall near you its worth checking out. I recently hired my local hall for 16 quid an hour for my dd 's birthday.

We got married in 2010 and it cost 20k.

Original budget was 12k.

We had a sit down 3 course meal for 120 people and a free bar (booze all bought from France). Spent about 2k on booze and we had tons left over. We had Prosecco instead of champagne as I prefer it. Prosecco, pimms and OJ on arrival. Red and white wine with the meal. Prosecco for toast/cake. French lager, wine, vodka, JD, gin, whiskey and mixers for the bar. Kept it simple.

Venue was 4.5k. Food IIRC was about 4k. Cake was £400 but it was made of cheese so we served it for the evening buffet with breads and chutney.

I spent 2.5k on a dress though

Original dress budget was £800

I spent a fortune on the invites as that was important to my parents.

I did loads of stuff on the cheap too. Table runners etc from eBay. Bought flowers for the tables from the local flower farm and DM and DMIL arranged them. Flowers including bouquets and buttonholes were about £500.

Cheap wedding cars (church is half a mile from our house). But did have a Routemaster to take guests from church to reception (£500ish)

Spent about £600 on bridesmaid dresses. They all bought their own shoes. £400ish on suit hire (5 men)

Oh yes. 1k on photographer. About £700 on rings. Didn't bother with favours.

I am getting married next spring, having 80 to the day, I have saved money in lots of little ways so I can have extra bits.

Registrar fee £360
Venue for wedding ceremony £500
Golf club with 2 course meal for 80 £3300
Hogroast for 150 inc salads and rolls £800 for evening
Dj £200
Photographer £1000 (is a gift though, we were recommended tovring local college as it builds the students portfolio which we would have done)
Cake £250
Dress £400 from an outlet
Bridesmaid dress £35 it was the one I wanted but it was discontinued and only needed one so was 75% off
Flowers £200 thats for 3 bouquets, 3 corsages and 5 buttonholes

Those packages aren't always the best way to go - have a look at 'dry hire' venues, which aren't just limited to village halls.

We paid around £1k to hire our reception venue. We could choose from a list of recommended caterers - ours charged £30 a head for a three-course meal. No corkage, so we just bought in our own wine.

Wedding cakes are a HUGE rip-off. A family member made ours, but otherwise I'd have done what some friends have done: buy some cakes from M&S or similar and add fresh flowers and ribbon.

I have never understood what makes something a bridesmaid's dress apart from the giant price tag - I took my 'maids shopping on the high street and found a very nice dress that suited them all, bought it far enough ahead that none of the guests were likely to turn up in the same thing.

We got LOADS of stuff from Ebay and Etsy, and we also haggled with suppliers - it doesn't hurt to ask, the worst thing that can happen is that they'll say no.

The one thing I really wouldn't scrimp on is photos - you could regret that, I know people who have.

Ugh Triumph sorry but I hate comments like that. Always see them on MN

THe cost cheapness of a wedding has no direct correlation to the success of a marriage.

It always seems like a slight dig at the people who had a more expensive wedding day.

Spending a bit of money on your wedding doesn't automatically mean that your marriage is doomed.

My parents totally organised my wedding, and it was a long time ago, so I'm not going to comment about costs at all, except to say that formal sit down meals seem by far the most expensive, and as a guest are often quite uncomfortable experiences unless you really do know everyone.

We had the latest wedding slot our church would offer (I think it was 4/5pm) and an evening party with a buffet and a band. Everyone seemed to have a grand time and we didn't have any issues about different invites etc that seem to come up on Mumsnet on a relatively frequent basis.

It was in winter so dark by the time we came out of church, but that was quite fun. Off season is also probably cheaper (although not for us as I think it crossed into the Christmas season).

catinboots I think that Triumph was simply reassuring the OP that not having as much money to splash out of her wedding as she might like/be told was required wasn't something she should worry about.

We got married last September (devon) for about £5,200 with around 80 guests, but we had great connections in the industry and would never have had the same wedding without the discounts!! Most expensive thing for us was food - we had hog roast with salads, potatoes etc for wedding breakfast then just served up spare pork and rolls in the evening with a few cheese boards and cake (no extra evening guests) and it still cost about £1,500!

The registrar coming out to the venue approx £500
Chapel blessing £120
Flowers £300
Dress/bridesmaids £300 (my dress came from china!)
Venue £750 (very reduced rate as MIL and FIL work there!)
Hair& makeup £250
Ice cream bike £300
And various other costs that I can't quite remember now!

Photography, husbands suit, toastmaster, fireworks, chair covers, cake were all free or gifts from family so we were very lucky!! Don't even want to think about how much it would all have cost at full price - the venue alone was £7,500

If you are going to buy in a lot yourself then definitely signup to a wholesalers like costco or JJ Wholesalers. It works out cheaper for food & drinks to buy the huge catering packs instead of buying it from supermarkets. I got married in a town hall 12 years ago & paid £1k venue hire, £4k food for 250 guests & we bought the drinks from the wholesalers. Worked out much cheaper.

Our wedding is next June, so we're not finished yet - but these are the prices of things we've arranged so far -

Church Ceremony £400
Venue (including three course meal and arrival drinks for 70ish people) - £4000
Car - £210 (second car with bridesmaids and my mum will be our car, decorated)
BBQ for evening - £1500
DJ - £200
Suits (including for 2 x dc) - £420
Bridesmaids and flowergirl dresses - £500
Brides dress - £500
Photographer - £500 (df's old colleague who is a professional photographer)

So that totals just over £8k for all the 'main' things. We've budgeted around £2k for anything not included - favours and table centres, invites (all done by ourselves, relatively cheap). Hair and make up/small gifts for wedding party)/bouquets.

We are lucky in that our Wedding is a Sunday - and every Sunday the church is decked out in flowers for the am Sunday Service, so our Church decs are already included. The venue is marquee overlooking a beach with clear windows all around - it is beautiful enough that we're not even having any decorations other than the table centres. Which saves a fortune.

So, overall, we're looking at around £10k ish. Obviously not including the honeymoon, for which we've decided we want to go to Malta for a fortnight with the dc. I'm not including that as it would have been a 'normal' expense for us (a holiday) anyway, even if we weren't getting married.