# What is your wedding day budget?



## LynAnne

We don't have a set budget (still) but are saving any pennies we can which has got me thinking about how much we really want to spend/can afford to spend. I know my sister's wedding was about £8000 which she paid for herself but it'll take us a good while longer to save that. Another sister got married in turkey without family to her turkish boyfriend for bare bones but plans to do a wedding here too eventually. I have no idea what my SIL's wedding cost but I know it was more than my sisters and quite costly. All were beautiful days but made me think how much is actually worth being spent on one day. So....

How much is your wedding day budget? Have you cut things out of your "big day" in order to get married sooner?


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## emyandpotato

Venue and food and drink combined, about £2000, dress was £1500 (shocker, I didn't intend to spend that much, and it was second hand too!), extras like fabric, paper, table hire, bits and bobs... I don't know, I'd say £2000 at absolute most but probably nowhere near that. I'm buying at that stuff as I go along anyway, and planning on setting up a business with it afterwards so it's an investment.


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## lozzy21

We can only afford to spend 5k and then what ever family give us


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## wishuwerehere

About £11,000 :blush: 
My parents have an old fashioned 'wedding fund' for me and my sister, although my sister, being a modern woman, has asked for it to do a Masters instead. She puts me to shame! His parents and my grandma have put some money in as well, and we saved about £3500 ourselves.


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## Perfect_pink

Ours was about 5.5k x


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## kmbabycrazy

We're hoping to spend no more than £2,500 but with the fact the only place around here that didn't require you to spend a fortune on a wedding breakfast too that could have over 100 people (we have huge families and just family takes up 100 people) is shutting down so it's unlikely that will happen


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## MadameJ

I'd say ours will be coming in at around £7000 (not including minimoon) £4500 of that being the hotel/food/drink. It would never have been this big if it wasn't for my dad helping though :thumbup:


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## aly888

We don't have a budget as such. Just a 'yeah we're willing to buy that' or a 'no way...we can do that cheaper ourselves' type attitude. We're keeping track of what everything is costing but only to add it up at the end (and give ourselves a heart attack no doubt :lol:). But back before we started planning we had a ballpark figure of £7-8k...scarily I think we've surpassed that. So whatever you 'budget' for, allow yourself about 20% more for overspendature!!


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## emyandpotato

It is so scary how much weddings cost isn't it?! We would ALL be considered to be 'budget brides' and that's with spending £5-12k! I read an article in a magazine the other week saying how you can cut your budget from £40k to £20k :dohh:


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## Elpis_x

I've only just started planning and the wedding isn't going to be for another 3 and a bit years, but I'm hoping we can get away with £3,000 as I'm happy to do a lot of it myself and it won't be a big wedding. I'm also wanting to keep the cost low as we're planning a honeymoon that will cost at least £5,000.


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## wishuwerehere

emyandpotato said:


> It is so scary how much weddings cost isn't it?! We would ALL be considered to be 'budget brides' and that's with spending £5-12k! I read an article in a magazine the other week saying how you can cut your budget from £40k to £20k :dohh:

It's terrifying, but it is incredibly easy to see how you could spend that much! Particularly looking at venues - if you're paying £10,000+ just for a venue you can see how the money will add up...

I agree with Aly as well - I would say our budget is pretty finalised with 6 weeks to go but there's a lot of stuff we didn't think about - for example a massive one for me was petrol because we're getting married in Devon so we've had to make several trips down to see the venue/check out suppliers. At £70 a pop to fill our car it soon adds up!


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## LynAnne

emyandpotato said:


> It is so scary how much weddings cost isn't it?! We would ALL be considered to be 'budget brides' and that's with spending £5-12k! I read an article in a magazine the other week saying how you can cut your budget from £40k to £20k :dohh:

Everyone posted here is definitely a budget bride even if they are still spending thousands of pounds. Everything is so expensive when it comes to weddings. No wonder I'm still waiting to set a date! I read online today that the average cost of a wedding is about £17k - £18k. I'll be waiting a long time to get married if I spend that much!


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## lozzy21

40k on a wedding! We only earn 23k a year between us. I would need to rob a bank.


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## JessdueJan

We've done pretty well so far. We've spent about £2,300 and only got food (which my uncle and auntie are doing for us), cars and a cake left to sort. Ours will be £3500 max I'd think. I'm definitely a budget bride but I still feel what iv spent is an enormous amount for one day!


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## tinkerbelle93

Around 8K, 9K max! 

We're getting 2K from my mum and dad, and then saving up for the rests ourselves. 

I'm doing it on a budget.. looking only at 2nd-hand wedding dresses, cheap cupcakes rather than a wedding cake, cheap ebay bridesmaid dresses, going minimal on flowers, hiring rather than buying suits and it's still that expensive! Sometimes I can't believe we're going to be blowing that much on one day, but i know I would regret not having a nice wedding. 

We both have quite a big family (will need to have 75 guests in the day, 100 evening) and venues are so expensive.. it seems 4500 is about the very cheapest places seem to be for that volume.


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## lozzy21

tinkerbelle93 said:


> Around 8K, 9K max!
> 
> We're getting 2K from my mum and dad, and then saving up for the rests ourselves.
> 
> I'm doing it on a budget.. looking only at 2nd-hand wedding dresses, cheap cupcakes rather than a wedding cake, cheap ebay bridesmaid dresses, going minimal on flowers, hiring rather than buying suits and it's still that expensive! Sometimes I can't believe we're going to be blowing that much on one day, but i know I would regret not having a nice wedding.
> 
> We both have quite a big family (will need to have 75 guests in the day, 100 evening) and venues are so expensive.. it seems 4500 is about the very cheapest places seem to be for that volume.

Depends where you are and how much you look around. Were paying 3k for a carvery for 125, pie and peas for 170, a welcome drink and a drink for the toast, dj and seat covers. 

Granted its in a large but beautiful function room at the back of a pub but if you think outside the usual stately halls and 4* hotels you can find some good deals.


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## LynAnne

It does make me feel a bit sick to think just how much we will spend on one day. I'm seriously considering trying to persuade my OH to go to a registry office with me, our parents, our sisters and their families (that would be 16 of us) and just getting married there, maybe even go for a meal after. I think it would upset a few people though and I'm not sure I'd want the drama. But at this stage I just want to be married and am not so fussed about the actual wedding! Although, a tiny part of me does still want a small but showy day with all our family and friends. *sigh*


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## tinkerbelle93

lozzy21 said:


> tinkerbelle93 said:
> 
> 
> Around 8K, 9K max!
> 
> We're getting 2K from my mum and dad, and then saving up for the rests ourselves.
> 
> I'm doing it on a budget.. looking only at 2nd-hand wedding dresses, cheap cupcakes rather than a wedding cake, cheap ebay bridesmaid dresses, going minimal on flowers, hiring rather than buying suits and it's still that expensive! Sometimes I can't believe we're going to be blowing that much on one day, but i know I would regret not having a nice wedding.
> 
> We both have quite a big family (will need to have 75 guests in the day, 100 evening) and venues are so expensive.. it seems 4500 is about the very cheapest places seem to be for that volume.
> 
> Depends where you are and how much you look around. Were paying 3k for a carvery for 125, pie and peas for 170, a welcome drink and a drink for the toast, dj and seat covers.
> 
> Granted its in a large but beautiful function room at the back of a pub but if you think outside the usual stately halls and 4* hotels you can find some good deals.Click to expand...

Hmm that sounds like a very good deal! How did you go about searching for venues.. did you just think of places and ring round or use Google etc.? Was the food and disco etc included in a package or did you hire the room then get the food and entertainment from seperate places etc.? Sorry for the questions. xx


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## Lauren25

I think ours has ended up going up to about £12000 and I don't even know how!
Our venue was £6000 that was for ceremony, welcome drinks, meal and drink with meal and toast for 115 and evening for 140! That price is really good for round here too, all other venues we looked at were about £9000!

Things really do add up after that, I've brought so much off eBay and cut back on certain things but its all mounted up!


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## lozzy21

tinkerbelle93 said:


> lozzy21 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> tinkerbelle93 said:
> 
> 
> Around 8K, 9K max!
> 
> We're getting 2K from my mum and dad, and then saving up for the rests ourselves.
> 
> I'm doing it on a budget.. looking only at 2nd-hand wedding dresses, cheap cupcakes rather than a wedding cake, cheap ebay bridesmaid dresses, going minimal on flowers, hiring rather than buying suits and it's still that expensive! Sometimes I can't believe we're going to be blowing that much on one day, but i know I would regret not having a nice wedding.
> 
> We both have quite a big family (will need to have 75 guests in the day, 100 evening) and venues are so expensive.. it seems 4500 is about the very cheapest places seem to be for that volume.
> 
> Depends where you are and how much you look around. Were paying 3k for a carvery for 125, pie and peas for 170, a welcome drink and a drink for the toast, dj and seat covers.
> 
> Granted its in a large but beautiful function room at the back of a pub but if you think outside the usual stately halls and 4* hotels you can find some good deals.Click to expand...
> 
> Hmm that sounds like a very good deal! How did you go about searching for venues.. did you just think of places and ring round or use Google etc.? Was the food and disco etc included in a package or did you hire the room then get the food and entertainment from seperate places etc.? Sorry for the questions. xxClick to expand...


I just Googled "wedding receptions in xxxx". Its a build it your self style package, they do everything and have their own DJ that they use. They are licensed for civil ceremonies but i wanted some where different for my pictures.


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## mara16jade

I'm afraid to say how much ours is probably going to cost. More than $15k, that's for sure.... :haha:


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## starlight1

Where are al you guys getting married we got engaged 4 year ago but finally 2 babies and a move later we are planning it and booked venues for 29th march 2014. We booked our venues and for church afternoon venue for wedding breakfast and evening venue for 300 ppl it's costing over 10k they are loverly places but most places in our area arnt much cheaper. X


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## CantHrdlyWait

Our wedding buget is $650 WITH the dress. We are NOT spending enough money to start our marriage off in debt! It's funny because most people can't imagine for less than like $3,000 but we are doing it!


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## mara16jade

We're having our ceremony and reception at a vineyard in California. :flower:


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## taybear

Absolute max is 3k.

Really hoping for more around 2k or less.

If I get a different dress than I really want, then probably around 2.5k. If I can get OH to not invite his huge distant family, since I'm not inviting mine...then more like 1k.

So...yeah. Doing an outside wedding in my dad's backyard. He's getting us a discount on a tent and chairs. Doing a potluck cookout. Making our own cake (I hate wedding cakes, I much prefer my own). Wedding party is picking out their own clothes that they all ready own within certain requirements. 3 groomsmen, 2 bridesmaids. Using dollar store silk flowers since I'm allergic.

for entertainment, we are using our ipod, board games, some wedding games I've made, and of course dancing.

My sister is doing my hair and makeup. Step mom is helping with invites, save the dates, programs, table numbers, and thank you cards. 

And for our car, using my OH's 74 cadillac. :D


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## LynAnne

We were recently "gifted" some money which, if my OH let's me put towards the wedding, brings our savings up to about £2k. Now I need to not only persuade him to do so but see if I can work out if we really can get married for that much. Fingers crossed! What do you think girls?


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## Mummy May

You definitely can! Good Luck! xx


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## kmbabycrazy

You definitely can my sister got married with over 100 guests for a little over £1000 (and the great thing was they got even more than that back in gifts, so they technically made a profit on their wedding)


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## LynAnne

My OH says we have to wait until we have more money coming in each month because he wants that money as an extra safety net. He has a point but we've been waiting for about 20 months to set a date and I thought this was our chance. Heartbroken doesn't even come close to how I feel now :cry: I really thought we could manage it.

He says he worries about money (as do I) but he's always happy to buy things "so long as they're cheap". But £5 here and there does add up to a fair chunk if he's so worried about money, he should think about that! This money we were given was an unexpected gift so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to actually set a date.


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## hshucksmith

We're spending about £8k I think :) 

We have roughly 50 day guests and then around 150 guests coming to the evening party. We're having a church wedding, followed by a 3 course meal and drinks etc at a hotel / pub but we have hired out the pub exclusively - it's a little country pub that's recently been refurbished. The church fees are costing us £500+! My dress cost me £1.4K which was a large chunk but well worth it! We originally had a budget of £5K but we've managed to save a lot more than we thought and my OHs partner has given us £1K. 

We're getting married this July 27th, and it's all going to cost so much in the week before!


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## katherinegrey

We're spending around £4000 in total. We're only having 27 guests to the day and then 80 to the evening party so having a smaller wedding enables us to keep it fairly cheap. We're also getting married on a weekday in the winter which makes it much cheaper, our venue is around £2600, our photographer around £500, flowers around £300 and then all the other bits and bobs will be catered for in our spare bit. We already have my dress and the bridesmaids dresses.


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## maryp0ppins

I really hope no more than £10 000


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## MummyToAmberx

My budget in the beginning was about 3k.
Venue i wanted, badly. Was around 5k, they did package PP thing, so was much better value still, plus DJ was included all things you need.

In the beginning i was very much unfussed about what i had for my wedding day, but as months went in and looked at more stuff, i wanted more things because its 'wedding day' 

End cost was about 10k. x


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## candeur

We have spent about £13k, it better be worth it!! Lol


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## Celesse

We got married last month and it came to £2k. Even that seemed a lot to spend on a party, a dress and a piece of paper.


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## DanielleM

Around 5k


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## lovelylaura

Max of £2000 but its a small wedding 30ish people and its just a simple registary office and after do is at our house so its just clothes and food and drink and decoration we need to pay for. x


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## chelseaharvey

I booked out wedding Oct 2011 to get married Sept 2012. I did a spreadsheet of everything that I wanted for rough prices & then really shipped around bought things on eBay etc

The spreadsheet came in at £24,000 which I could no way save in 9 months not did I want to spend that amount (crazy money) we saved like mad & every spare but of £££ went on the wedding 

Mine evaded up coming in at £16.000 with a honeymoon of £3000


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## Abigailly

About £20k. 

We've spent £13k on the venue. That includes decorations, meal, drink and DJ. And then we've got an ice cream van and chip van for the evening (about 3k). My dress was 2k and then just everything else.

We've saved it all ourselves over the past year and we're having about 250 day and 310 evening.


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## chysantheMUM

Between £500 - 1k. We had originally planned 2k but know thats not possible now. A friend of mine did it for under £500 though so I know we'll still have a great day :)


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## stephx

We don't have a set budget, but under £1.5k for sure and most of that will be on expensive rings. Although were not really having a wedding as such, just getting married. 

It's painful for me to even think about spending £5k+ for one day :argh:


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## foquita

£1k but that's including £370 for two nights in a really nice malaysian hut thing :) I guess once we have got rings and my OH's clothes we'll be about £1200. just going to get cheap rings when we get to malaysia. 

that's not including flights and money for the rest of our 3 week trip but we were going there on holiday anyway so that's holiday costs rather than wedding costs :)


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## bananaboat

I think ours was about 20k, not including rings and honeymoon. It was a great day and we didn't go into debt or anything, but looking back, I would certainly do things differently!


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## shazann

We were planning on getting married next year with a budget of 5k. Then found out I was pregnant so we will be delaying it and hopefully save some more money and have a budget of under7k


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## nugget80

We spent 5k on wedding, which includes everything and also covers all i have spent on stationary etc. Honeymoon is extra so probably 7k overall? Oh has little idea of final prices and would prob have heart attack if he knew!


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