How much did your wedding cost?

[SpanishSahara]

Just starting out with wedding planning. No idea what to budget/expect, only one of my friends has got married so no experience of this! Most venue/caterers etc don't put prices (of course I understand these things are personalised) but just to gauge expectations, do you mind saying what you spent?
Preferably weddings within the last few years so prices are relevant. We will be looking at London or home counties and for approx 100 adults and 40 children. (My friends/family have so many children!)

Main categories I'm interested in finding out about...

1. Venue
2. Food (we don't want a formal sit down meal, would like something informal - buffet/BBQ type thing)
3. Drink - open bar or not?
4. Photographer

Thanks!

venue depends very much on what you want. A hotel might be around £5,000 for the day but a stately home around 10,000 for the day. A church/registry office wedding and village hall /pub a few hundred.

food Anything from £7-8 per head up to £25-30 a head for a buffet. I've known it cost £50 a head but they wanted very specific food (caviar)

drink Roughly 1 and a half bottles of wine a head so £20-30 each.

photographer From a few hundred to a few thousand.

Basically work out your budget then find services to fit your price range. Lots of people go for photographers but imho theyre the 1 thing you really dont need. The very best photos I've seen from weddings have been taken by guests.

I didn't bother with an evening reception. It saved me £7,500. I just got married and had an afternoon tea then went on my honeymoon in the evening. No one ever complained that I didn't have an evening do despite what a lot of people will tell you.

Last year, London wedding. 120 guests for dinner and more in evening. Evening buffet. Church wedding with champagne in church garden after before reception. All in less than £10,000. Photographer £1500, but worth every penny.

Oh beautiful venue in the city, lots of room for dancing and amazing food.

26 years ago, buggered if I can remember.

Mine was approx £5000 for the venue which was marquee and huge outdoor space. Access from fri to sun to decorate/tidy up

Catering was £35 pp with 3 courses and canapés

Photography approx £1200 with all pics on memory card and 6 high quality prints. This was the best money we spent, the photos are incredible.

Wine was all bought in Calais so free bar (was no option for anything else at the venue but would have paid for the bar regardless

This was 3.5 years ago in south east

Lots of people go for photographers but imho theyre the 1 thing you really dont need. The very best photos I've seen from weddings have been taken by guests.

Ugh. Totally disagree with this statement. When you're all done and dusted, the ONLY thing you have left are your memories and the photos. By and large, photos taken by guests are pretty shit!

Imho, you should spend money on the food and the photographer . The rest you have compromise on by economising (eg. I wore a £1500 dress that was a sample, so only paid £350 Was simply stunning)

Thanks all so far!

Nightmanager - do you mind me asking the venue in London? You can PM me if you want. We have no specific location request as we don't live in the UK anymore (coming back for wedding) but most guests based in and around London.

It seems so hard even trying to find somewhere to start!

Yes happy to PM you.

Ours (2005) was under £5000...

• church service family member sang which was lovely also paid for choir
• friend did photos (just charged us costs as is a photographer in her spare time)
• dress was about £500 on sale
• friend was dj- just paid his hotel room

Cake was made by an aunt As a gift Venue was a hotel but if you had a certain number of guests the venue was 'free' was a pretty no frills venue but close to the church and good garden Made our own invitations, service notes Prioritise food and drink Didn't have things like favours and had minimal decoration but it was a fantastic day largely due to a great mix of people, everything close by, good food and a sunny day !

It was 20 years ago but the whole thing cost £6,000. That included kilt hire, bridesmaids dresses, venue and reception.

Ours was central London, £15,000 all in. Food was the biggest spend -£10,000 for 100 people. We were limited to caterers approved by the venue, but the price included drinks and canapés; 2-course dinner; drinks throughout the evening (incl. at the dance) and snacks (cheese board etc) later in the evening. So quite a bit really.

Friends had a hog roast - it was fantastic, everyone loved it! Really informal, but delicious, and cost them hardly anything. I think their mothers did hundreds of cakes for dessert.

Agree with PP that it's best to set your budget and then choose accordingly. Enjoy planning! 👰

This year it will be around £5250 but that's for everything got a v good deal on photographer

Ours was lake district (so obviously not London but still expensive)
Church was £750
Flowers £300
Photographer £850 no prints, just digital copies.
Venue charged £65 per full daytime guest for drink on arrival, 3 course meal with wine on table and their evening buffet.
And they charged £19 per evening guest for buffet.
Dress was just over £1000
Suit hire was £1500 for 9 suits

Our whole wedding came in at around £15k 2 years ago.

5* country house hotel:
-Rental of room for ceremony £400
-Private dining room £400
-3 course & canapés sit down meal £55 a head
-Cocktail for guests after ceremony £5 a guest
-Fees for ceremony £300ish I think
-2x nights in a suite for DH and I £900
-Open bar £1600
-My outfit £800
-DH suit £250
-flowers £55
We had 15 guests and it was brilliant fun.

In the process of looking at venues in Surrey (Hampshire/Berkshire) and looking at 25-30k. £6k for venue hire, 10-12k for wedding breakfast and drinks, £2-3k for evening food, £1k for children’s food. This is based on 100 adults and 30 children.
Seemingly, prices can easily go up 10% every year

It's a lot.

Hampshire this year most venues were £5-6 k and that's without anything including chairs! Cheap packages in run of the mill hotels ( out of season started at £3k.)
Add on to that the fact you need to decorate, do flowers,tat, lights, music etc ...£1000's more. A couple of grand on a dress.
It's nuts once you start on a "traditional" wedding. Friend last year had a ceremony, gastro pub reception and a bbq next day for £25k all in.
I have no idea about London but I expect similar. Possibly cheaper as more suppliers to chose from maybe?

I would also say fix your budget first.
Then find a venue.
Cater to budget ie free bar, buffet or sit down, canapés and drinks - but be a VERY clear on the invite what you include. So if you can't run to drinks on tap or 2 big meals or whatever ,tell people.Guests will happy as long as they are fed and watered - either by you or by themselves but can plan accordingly.
Make sure the "end "of your responsibilities is also clear. Don't say "carriages at 12" if you plan to finish feeding and watering guests at 7pm. Just be as clear as possible on the invites.

This is of course the tricky bit as you may not be able to finalise plans until you know you are dealing with 100 plus 40 kids or just 90 and 15 children ( in which case the inflatable and ice cream van becomes an expense you might think about ditching IYSWIM)

Really is a 'How long is a piece of string' question.

If you want to economise, then make enquiries (eg a hog roast or a buffet provider) without using the word wedding, and just say 'a family party'.

I would say a photographer was well worth spending money on, but you don't have to buy into all the packages that stick with you all day - get the photographer to take some high quality 'official' ones after the ceremony, and ask friends and family to send you stuff from the rest of the day.

Under £1,000.

Free room over a pub. Cold buffet. No photographer, no flowers. Cake made by friends.

Sept 2017 wedding in west sussex.
100 adults and 20 children.
Plus a further 20 guest for evening

Venue: £5500 for a lovely Barn that holds between 150 to 200 guests. Also included 2 nights accomodation for 20 people on site. We got married in the church on site too which cost us £566 for fees etc.

1. Food -

bbq for main meal (we had served on platters to each table for guest to help themselves with two salad choices) which guest told me they loved! followed by dessert platters £2000

Hog roast in evening £500
They also provided popcorn and candy floss machine that went down a treat with kids and adults in the evening

1. Drink

We did a DiY self service bar that included pimms, cocktail served in kilner dispensers, ale taps, bottles of cider, prosecco, also prosecco for the toast and a jagerbomb each! Oh and two kilner dispensers of squash for the kids to help themselves £460

Followed by a cash mobile bar in the evening £200 deposit which you get back if they make x amount. They offered wine, beer, cocktails and spirits. In hindsight we would have just provided £200 more booze and told guest to bring your own booze as we didnt meet the target.

1. Photographer - £790 for all day from bridal prep in a different hotel to first dance and they stayed for band opening songs as extra.

Were getting married this year in the Channel Islands.

Venue (ceremony and reception) inc 3 course meal, a make your own sandwich bar for the evening and drinks pre and post ceremony and dinner drinks comes to £4100. We plan on putting another £2k behind the bar for the evening and accommodation/travel costs are about another grand. We live in London so I think we’ve saved more then half marrying in the Channel Islands then compared to marrying at home.

Wedding no.1. About £8k not including the outfits or honeymoon. Circa 120 guests and a pay bar.

Wedding no.2 about £2k including outfits etc. My dad paid for the bar separately so no idea what that cost.. 25 guests.

Ours is coming in at around £22k, getting married in a couple of weeks.

Venue is a stately home private estate which is exclusively ours, along with rooms for guests to stay. This is our main cost at around £12k including food and drink for 70 guests.

My dress is very expensive £2700 but everything else is average price.

I have gone a little bridezilla and got new ‘wedding’ shoes (£70) and paying for my bridesmaids hair and make up and shoes and handbags and jewellery when I didn’t have to. Has been fun but the little things very quickly add up.

1991 - £750
Register office followed by lunch for 26 in a very posh Chinese restaurant.

26 years on I'm not even sure where my wedding photos are let alone looking at them. IMO the only photographs which matter in the long run are the 'legacy' shots - who was there on the day.

Decide what is important to you. Having sat through many wedding preparations amongst friends and colleagues I can see money gets haemorrhaged on things which nobody really notices or cares about.

The things which I have remembered are the personal touches which cost little except thoughtfulness.

Our budget is £13k. Free bar, accommodation from the whole wedding party, food for all guests all weekend (they will pay for accommodation).

Not having a photographer. Not a fan of the breed since childhood, and have numerous amateur pros in the family.