Wedding expense

[Rose_red]

Hi Ladies, I was just wondering how you found the money to get married?
At the moment we are struggling to get me an engagment ring let alone anything else!

Money from the parents isn't an option & we don't have alot of money coming in atm.

We've always wanted to get married from the start, but it's been nearly 4 years now and we want it official especially now we have LO.

Thx in advance for any responces

 

[dani_tinks]

We saved up. We managed to put aside £500 every month so it took us a just under two years to get married. We still struggled though & we're now very much broke..

 

[babz1986]

I think it all depends on how expensive your planning your wedding to be and what exactly you want from it.

We are by no means well off and never wanted to get into debt just to get married. we decided to get married last feb, wedding is in 3 weeks, and we've done it on complete budget.

I could no way justify spending £1k on a dress, so instead went wedding dress shopping, found the dress and style I liked.. And managed to get it on eBay for £53, brand new with tags.

OH already has a suit, and didn't want him spending £100 on another one.

Rings together were no more than £150, both second hand

And we decided to have a simple registry office, no wedding breakfast, just straight into a reception, where we and the help of family/friends will be doing the food, and decorations ourselves on the morning of the wedding. The hall for hire with bar is £220, which we've paid off slowly over the months. And literally just budgeted £50-£100 each month for wedding stuff.

It might not sound like people's idea fancy wedding, but there's no way I could justify spending so much on it. One of my friends recently spent £4.5k on the wedding breakfast alone lol.

Our whole wedding has cost just a little over £1.5k

Also because people know we're keeping to a budget, we've found everyone wanted to help out, so we've got a team helping with food and decoration on the day so it's not so stressful.

 

[tasha41]

We're not married but people I know have booked off season and gotten discounted rates, cut costs with things like photography (had a friend/relative do it), had a cash bar (or a 5 hour bar vs an 8 hour one), etc.

 

[Mummy Bean]

I got married in grenta green....super romantic (or cheesy depending on how you look at it), and they did they whole wedding including venue, vicar, hotel, car, bag piper, photography and numerours extras (such as cake, doves, flowers) for only £1500. then we had to pay £500 for a hot buffey for our 30 guests. so super cheap.

but some tips:
ebay - i got my dress from shop going broke and selling all there stuff on ebay so got a £2000 dress for £250! Also use ebay to have a clear out of shoes clothes ect and build up money in a paypal account.
Get married in october - always get discounts
get married on a week day - massive discounts.
like me get a cheaper ring then request a more expensive eternity ring which you can save for seperatly later on!
have a buffet instead of sit down meal.
Get married abroad - we just came back from cyprus where they did wedding packages for like £2000 including your stay in the hotel!

also with the gretna thing and other companies do the same you set up a web page where instead of ppl getting you presents they can give you money which pays towards the wedding/honeymoon. even with only 30 guest we managed to get £1000 - very grateful!

 

[suzib76]

we went to the registry office in secret with a couple of witnesses and told everyone after

we had invited family to meet for lunch that day and then we went out that night for a few drinks with freinds

dh wore a suit which he bought in debenhams for around £80 and my dressy outfit cost less than £50

 

[Baby France]

We're off to Gretna Green too

We literally decided about 3 weeks ago to do it and yes I'm having a fancy dress and stuff.

We're lucky in that this year we've slowly paid off outgoings such as car/couch/bed/credit card...they've all come to an end this year so have got a loan and what we would usually pay out on them, we're paying out for our wedding instead.

This is mainly because I cannot stand a year of saving and wedding planning. A years worth of wedding planning would kill me. But it'll take less than a year to pay it off

 

[Rainbow82]

I bought my designer dress on eBay for £80 and we got a hotel package fir £2000 including 3 course meal for 50 and evening buffet fir 100 guests with a dj and karaoke, if we could have found a hall and bar to hire as someone above has said we would have done so as I like tge idea of a big buffet reception where all the guests bring a dish, we have a family member who us a photographer and another who is a hairdresser so they are helping with that, we are having no cars bridesmaids bought their own dresses, we also decided to save money by selecting a cash bar instead of supplying guests with bottomless glasses if wine, invitations and favours etc we have made ourself and we bought cheap rings, £40 each and had then engraved to make them special, maybe when we gave more money we will buy mire expensive rings. We also decided on a cheap engagement ring with sapphires instead of a diamond. It is possible to have a cheap wedding if you want.

 

[Kimboowee]

Like BabyFrance, we got a loan. We had saved up a fair whack but needed a bit extra, it was everything I ever hoped it could be so it's not a massive issue for me.

 

[LuckyYem]

As a pp said it really depends what kind of wedding you want. My dress was from an online shop in china, dh suit was from M&S, his shirt and tie was in a set from Matalan. We had a BBQ in our garden and everyone left by 7pm - we got married at 11.30 and I'd had enough lol. We got married on a Tuesday - it was our 3rd anniversery but getting married on a weekday made it slightly cheaper - registry office, I know if you have reception/wedding at hotels in the week it brings the cost down loads - even more if you do it off season!! My ring was £19.95 white gold, dh was £17.50 silver as he's a landscaper and white gold is not strong enough! We had no bridesmaids but that was out of choice not cost. No wedding cars, just got ribbon off of ebay for 'our' cars. My flowers were a wedding present, as was the food for the BBQ but all in total cost £973 - including the flowers and food. The biggest expense was the registry office, food and drink. I know places like the holiday inn do weddings for £1k all in, like I said it really does depend what you want

ETA: Our cake was from the Tesco wedding cake range, we had a small fruit and medium sponge and it was less than £30 we then added ribbon - some that was left over from the cars lol and our own topper.

 

[Rose_red]

I don't want too much, it doesn't bother me to be honest. I don't mind doing it on the cheap, gretna green is appealing to me!
Rather spend money on a honeymoon