Total wedding cost around 5k... doable?

[LetsGetTheBallRolling]

Just wondering how doable a 5k budget would be?
Luckily, my DM will be buying my dress, so that isn't included in the 5k budget we'll have!

We've seen a few venues that we love that come out at around £2000, but that's without food..

I'll be honest, I'm a little clueless about how much everything will cost once totalled so hoping some lovely people on here might have a bit more knowledge than I currently do!

I'm completely willing to do all table decor/centre pieces myself - have a very firm idea of what I want and I think it'll average around £30 per table for decor... it'll be a small wedding likely consisting of only 5 tables.
I have a hairdresser in the family so that'll keep cost down, and also know someone who owns a cake shop so again, can cut some costs there.

I'm not planning on having a swarm of bridesmaids, likely only have one or two, and they've already said they'll buy their own dresses, pay for their own hair and make up etc. OH will be renting his suit and his best man will be buying his own.

The few things I'm not willing to scrimp on will be the photographer and make up artist!

Just how doable is a 'small' budget wedding in the uk?

OP what kind of venues have you looked at? Forgive me for stating the obvious but golf clubs might be more affordable than hotels/country houses and usually have really nice grounds for photos even if the clubhouse isn't that fancy One near us has a package that includes room hire, welcome drink , 3 course meal, dj, evening buffet, event coordinator, fully staffed bar for £68/head....which could work if its quite a small wedding?

I’ve seen so many dresses at over £2000. One of my friends had a Vera Wang that was over £5000! So to me, £800 is okay. I don’t want to spend more than that.

Oh yeah, I could be worse, absolutely but not sure thrifty is the most obvious adjective!

It could be worse, I mean

2k on a venue alone only leaves 3k for a lot of things.

How many people do you want to invite? Church or reg office?

Decent photos are at least 1k.
Food and drink at least another 1k
Suits, flowers, table plan, rings, decorations, hair, make up, shoes, jewellery etc all adds up.

To get the "look" you want you'll be pushing it for 5k.

My entire thing was about £3k. It was at a very posh venue (a manor house in the countryside) with very posh food, a disco and photographer, makeup artist and hair for me and the bridal party, a night at the venue and breakfast the next day. We had a wedding organiser from the venue who talked us through all the decisions we needed to make etc.

Catch was, it was on a Monday and I booked it with only about a month notice, from a website which specialises in cancellations.

It wasn't someone else's wedding, because I got to choose all the details, but it was someone else's date, at that venue, which they had cancelled.

We did ours for 3 and a half grand (£1650 of that was my dress veil and alterations). We had a 3 month engagement and planned the wedding in 2 months.
Small wedding, 30 including us and bridal party all day. Room in the registry office, then one reception straight after in the function room of the pub my husband worked in at the time. Buffet instead of a meal, no honeymoon. We still had everything we wanted, but we didn't have the things we didn't seem necessary.

Absolutely..i have spent far less than that on mine. Less than 2 grand. Although thats because we have friend doing the disco free as a wedding gift, and my hair and nails done by friends or family free of charge. We have gone with a function room in a pub and they are catering, not charged for room just paying for the food. I am.also makimg my own cake so that's saving a big chunk.

We did 10 people
Venue £250 (£495 for your number)
Travel there £500
Hotel 2x nights £300
Meal night before including drinks £750
Meal after in private room £850
Cake £55 (friend)
I did my own makeup but was available in hotel for £95 for 4 people (including hair and glass champagne)
Rings and dress £300
Boots (not a shoe person) £100
Suit Dh £150
Photography was included in the venue and my dad is a semi professional photographer so we had 2 different sets.

My BIL got married for 5k, they had bridesmaids, food, dancing, a big white dress, flowers - everything you'd expect from a traditional wedding. It is possible!

My fiancé and I are planning to get married on a budget closer to 1k but all we want is a simple ceremony followed by a meal in a restaurant and I don't want a fancy, expensive dress.

it all depends on what kind of day you want. Congratulations!

Wether spoons in Holborn has an all inclusive wedding package for £3000
Knights Templar wedding
but I guess that's not what you want.

£5k is easily doable.
£2k seems expensive for venue hire for 35 guests.

Very much depends on how much the venue charges per head for catering.

We got married in 2017 at the local church followed by exclusive use of the golf club and grounds. We had 40 people including me and DH, and hired a Morris minor as our wedding car. Our flowers were £550, £850 for the photography including album, and a £90 cake from M&S. My husband's outfit was from John Lewis (about £200), and mine was a silk maxi skirt and shirt from net a porter for £400. My hair was £90 including trial and I did my own makeup. I didn't have any bridesmaids, DH had a best man but he used his own suit. The golf club catered and sit down wedding breakfast of 3 courses, champagne and wine; and put on a evening buffet of a ploughman's. DJ was £500. All in all, we spent £5,500 and went on a 4 day honeymoon to York.

I got married 2 years ago and it cost us just under 5k all in.

The main thing is keeping guest numbers small. Which is something we wanted anyway regardless of budget. We only wanted close family and friends rather than every single person we’ve ever met, worked with etc!

These are the top budget things I did to keep my wedding under 5k...

*I only had 40 guests at my wedding.

*I did my own makeup (watched hundreds of YouTube videos) and a friend did my hair.

*I used a college student photographer. So it gave them experience but also so cheap! And they did a great job as they really wanted to impress.

*We had a buffet style meal rather than a 3 course sit down meal.

*One of my friends dads had an old Mercedes that he polished up and our ribbons on for my wedding car.

*My venue was small and I actually got a cancellation saving me money.

*I made my own cake!

*My dress was 2nd hand and my mum altered.

Good luck with your wedding x

Absolutely doable!
Have you had a look at hotel packages? I got married in "winter season" my package was 60 day guests and 100 evening guests. 3 course wedding breakfast and hot evening buffet of lasagnes, chilli, curry etc in a 3* hotel, inc DJ only cost £2999.
My bridesmaid dresses I bought from the high street, reduced from £119 to £30.
Bought my wedding dress, grooms suit and flower girl dress all second hand online.
Didn't use wedding cars as no one see's you arrive anyway.
For 5 bridesmaids flowers, my flowers and 7 button holes cost £350.
Centre pieces were from b&m and were about £7 each

Have you thought about a weekday wedding or Sunday? we've just booked our venue where we will have the whole day and have paid £2450 for ceremony and reception, hog roast for 70 people and welcome drink included. also a night stay in bridal suite for me and my hubby. Compared to a Saturday which would cost almost £6k for same amount of people but sit down meal