Average budget for a wedding

[LittlemissMama67]

Hello, needing a bit of guidance, I’m newly engaged and feel like my heads been frazzled 😂 people keep asking if we’ve picked a date yet? I haven’t even given it a thought, I want a nice normal wedding about 80 guests. I’d like a church and a hall/ hotel for the evening. Nothing overly extravagant. Can anyone give me a ball park for what that might cost I put bridesmaid, flower girl and page boy outfits in my basket on next yesterday just to see the sort of cost and it was £1000

There's ways of making it cheaper. We spent about 13k all in. Excluding rings. That was 10years ago.

This really is a how long is a piece of string question.

Dresses can be hundreds of I to the tens of thousands. Same with venues, flowers, food and drink etc

I think you should probably attack it from the how much am I willing/able to spend on a wedding?

You need to start with what you can afford and work backwards.

I refused to spend a fortune, and got a beautiful barn wedding, stunning dress etc, for under £8,000.

I was thrifty, clever about my venue, did lots myself and with the help of family. Don't spend more than you can afford, prioritise whats important, remember it's just one day and marriages don't always last (sorry to put a downer on things). It's important to put it into perspective. It's a single day, in the whole of your life. How much are you really prepared to throw at that. What are your other life goals, do you want a house, need a deposit what are your priorities?

If you're willing to consider a bring and share reception, you will reduce the cost by a ridiculous amount. Also consider second hand outfits.

It depends how much you want to spend!
From my experience, dresses, decorations, flowers etc can be done relatively cheaply, by taking advantage if bargains and by compromising to fit within a budget.

The venue, food and drinks for a large amount of people is the biggest expense.
I think a hall or mid range hotel is a good idea if you want to keep within a budget. Mid range hotels are more likely to be upfront and transparent about ballpark costs as well (may have brochures with package prices on their website which is a good starting point).
From my experience, expensive hotels, stately homes, castles etc often won't give you a ballpark figure until you have looked round and they have hooked you in! So be wary of that.

We spent about £8k for a wedding like youd describe- church ceremony, reception in National Trust property (not as fancy as a stately home kind of do, but still nice). About 80 guests. Sit down 3 course meal, but no "extras" like canapes etc. Mum was horrified because there wasn't bread before the meal, but it was fine. Cheese and light snacks later in the evening. Cheap (but wonderful) photographer. Did a lot of the flowers and decorations ourselves, I was flexible on the dresses which saved money, had a relative do the cake etc. Did own make up and hair. A friend DJ'd the disco for us, live music would have been nice but wasn't in our budget so we didn't have it.

But that was 7 years ago, so would cost more now.

Bring and share catering is cheap if you find a venue that let's you do this - many won't!
Also most venues that make money from selling alcohol will charge you corkage if you byob.

I think it’s best to work backwards. So work out what your budget it first, then think about the things that are really important to you. For us we wanted nice food, free flowing alcohol that guests didnt need to pay for and pretty flowers. We selected DIY venues where we could choose our own caterers and bring our own alcohol without paying any corkage and then went from there. We spent less than 10k but almost 10 years ago.

We spent about 10k all in (including dress, rings, taxis for guests) on the sort of wedding you're talking about but in a capital city which pushed prices up a bit - had the reception in a community hall that we decorated with family and friends. We went a bit overboard on catering and drinks (having read too many horror threads about hungry and parched guests) - so actually everyone went home with some food + bottle of beer/wine.

Rather than getting a florist involved I bought potted roses (for less than a fiver each) and people took those home at the end of the night too, which is kind of cool knowing that some people still have them 4 years later! My mum did my bouquet with a selection of yellow roses and baby's breath from a supermarket so that was also very cheap but looked nice.

I bought a vintage 1950s wedding dress for about £300 so that was a massive saving too.

We saved money on the DJ by creating our own playlist and getting software because we knew we would have a ceilidh band as the main entertainment.

We didn't have best man or bridesmaids so that was a cost saving and saved a lot of stress.

We shopped around for a decent photographer who was trying to break into into wedding market- he is now quoting 3 times the price he quoted us for his photos and they're really nice.

Identify the stuff you truly find important first and throw money at that, make savings on the other stuff that is aesthetic and you and your guests won't actually care about on the day (e.g. we saved so much money on the flowers alone).

Most importantly, have fun!

I used to work in the industry my tips would be :

Set a budget and work back from that and don't let vendors sway you from it.

Decide what really is important to you and what isn't. Eg The only flowers I was fussed about were the bouquet for me, buttonhole for groom and wee posies for the few bridesmaids I had, I didn't have table decorations or anything - honestly once the tables are laid even with simple tablecloths and silverware and glasses and the guests in their finery that's honestly enough to "decorate" the room I didn't even dress the chairs they really can't be seen once everyone is seated/milling about anyway

Do as much as you can yourself or allow others to do for you as a wedding gift. I did my own stationery aside from the order of service and the favours which I did just mints in either net for the ladies or wee boxes for the men. They're really not essential. One friend did the cake which was v generous of them and another did the flower girls dresses (I paid for the fabric)

I've also done stationery for others (calligraphy is a hobby of mine)

Photographer similar to a pp was just starting to do weddings but was an experienced photographer in another sphere and did a fab job.

It was a catered buffet and we bought in the booze ourselves (admittedly this was when you could still do a duty free booze cruise is how we did it)

Venue was church and then a sort of village hall deal we only paid for cleaners after and DJ but these days I agree you could set up your own playlist as long as you've a decent music player/speakers.

This time of year (just before Easter) is actually the best time to shop as vendors are clearing the decks of last years stock to make space for the new stock, this especially applies to bridal wear. Don't be averse to wearing ex display stock and bear in mind that a good bridal seamstress can work wonders. They can change the neckline, sleeves, straps, add or remove train etc mine was ex display stock.

This was almost 30 years ago but 120 guests for around £3k which even allowing for inflation would be around £6k now

And if you wanted you could do it even simpler and cheaper. I've helped with jeans and registry office type weddings costing less than £500 even with dinner for 6 after (bride and groom both sets of parents)

It can be as expensive as you want it to be. Make a list of everything you want and then get some quotes to get an idea of how much it will cost. Work out a comfortable amount that you can save and don’t stretch yourself- it always costs a bit more than you think too so have a bit of a reserve pot.

I got married recently we had 100 guests at a Tudor house. We spent 24k. There’s a great group on Facebook called the cheap wedding stuff community which is great for ideas on saving a few pounds.

I'm getting married in 6 weeks. Mid range hotel on a bank holiday Saturday with 55 day guests and 75 in the evening.

My rough cost breakdown is:

Venue: 6000ish
Registrar: 500
Photographer: 1000
Videographer: 1000
Flowers: 400 (we're getting artificial. Apparently the cost of fresh flowers has gone through the roof)
Cake: 0. Being made by a friend
My dress: 600
Other outfits: probably about 800, but that's 6 bridesmaids and 5 men's outfits
"Fripperies" - christ knows. I've spent so much on bits and pieces, but it's not all essential.

My advice is decide early on what you care about and what you don't. I didn't care about cake or flowers, but I wanted a decent photographer. Once it's all over all you have to show for it is your photos and rings (and husband I suppose...)

Getting married next weekend. Church wedding with reception in the hall. Coming in at £7500-8000 for 57 guests.
No favours
No makeup artist
No hairdresser
Church doing flowers. (Only one pedastle)
Getting wine ourselves. £10 a bottle instead of £20+
Walking to church
One bridesmaid
Can't wait 😁

Ours is next year. Currently sitting on 19k+
We have an exclusive venue where the ceremony and reception will take place.
Growing all my own flowers for next summer as quotes were insane. Won't need travel as staying at the venue etc. No drinks reception music, just a dj in the evening and ceremony singer for ceremony etc.
Its a lot more than I had hoped but could have been thousands more if we hadn't cut out some things and done things ourselves. You can download an app, bridebook or similar and start with a rough budget and see we're you happy to cut back/compromise etc.

For a church wedding and a hotel reception for 80 people (assume you're talking an all day event) with food, if you provide alcohol in the day and have a pay bar in the evening, you will probably be looking at £15k for a basic 'nice' wedding.

£20-25k if you want to have a bit more personalisation. You will find that you can get basic stuff for less but there will be something you really like that will cost more, etc. If you splash out on things like that then it will add up.

Of course, you can also easily spend more than that.

Ours (last year) was a church wedding, village hall reception, 60 guests, wedding breakfast and evening buffet, live band, open bar, flowers and a hired coach for £18.5k. Not bragging, just to give you and idea!

We budgeted £15k and we’re annoyed to go over. Everyone had a great time (except me because I hate being on show and my nerves were fried!). I wouldn’t say it was worth it though and I definitely wouldn’t do it again.

We spent approx £10,000 including 10 night honeymoon. I think we spent the money quite well. I can't remember all of the costs.

It cost us £400 to have the Registrar and assistant attend from our County Council to officiate. We couldn't have spent less on that.

Reception at a hotel. 80 guests, 3 course wedding breakfast, evening buffet, DJ. Fixed price for all of that.

Flowers. Used an independent florist run by 1 woman and spent less than if we had used a bigger florist.

Invitations - self designed and printed from a website.

Wedding dress (shop sample). My parents paid for it.

2 bridesmaids - dresses from Dorothy Perkins sale, approx £20 each.

Suits (groom, best man, 2 ushers) - from memory the suits were £80 each. My dad insisted on paying for his.

Wedding cake - £200 ish, local small 1 woman company and she was a more than worth it.

Hair and makeup for me, 2 bridesmaids, my mum (my mum contributed to this).

10 night honeymoon.

Although I do partly wish we had spent less and had a very small wedding (felt bit nerve wracking organising / politics of my mum and mother in law / hoping everyone was enjoying the day etc), we got married late 2019 and the next family gathering was a funeral in 2021. So it's worth it to know everyone had a lovely time together when they could. Plus they all really enjoyed the food (and still remember it) which isn't always the case at a wedding!