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?

 

[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.

 

[lozzy21]

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

 

[wishuwerehere]

About £11,000
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.

 

[Perfect_pink]

Ours was about 5.5k x

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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 ). 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!!

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[wishuwerehere]

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

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!

 

[LynAnne]

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

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!

 

[lozzy21]

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

 

[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!

 

[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.

 

[lozzy21]

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.

 

[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*

 

[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.

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.

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

 

[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!

 

[lozzy21]

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.

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

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.