Budget for a wedding?

PRINCESSX87

Hiya peeps, what would you say is a "good" budget for a wedding in these times of a credit crunch....?

All me and OH want is a nice "dream day" without having to lend money from people and banks...!

I have no idea, how to start budgeting and planning as there seems to be thing's needed and its never ending...
We are buying as we are earning and are starting to pay as from next month so any advice / Information / top tips now is greatly needed!!

tattoed_bum

make a list of things you want for the day
eg venue ,flowers , dress etc
once you have these you can whittle down the costs of them
for instance if you have found your dream dress shop about and see if you can get the same one for a lot less .
budgets vary a lot one person will say £10,000 another may say £2,000 .
how much can you afford for the day and work from there as it can be done cheaply but very nicely .
i had my dress for £120 my flowers were from a garden centre and my arrangement cost £20 .
dh suit was from an outlet shop and was only £50 that include shirt and tie .
cake was from marks and spencer which we decorated ourselves .
we had immediate family only at the wedding but had a big party in the evening

DKLS

I have been to two weddings this year one with all the bells and whistles, stunning location costing over 25K! and the other under 1K, to be honest I enjoyed the cheaper event as it was much more relaxed and informal, and hence IMO people had more fun.
Its your day so do what is right for you.
I am planning my wedding for February next year, and after a lot of thought, we have gone with the small simple wedding (40 Guests) and fabulous luxury honeymoon.
Rather than 200 guests and a weekend in Skegness.

catherine_h_2

Hi and Congratulations:beer:
It depends how much you can afford or want to pay, the rest fits in with that figure.
For us it was better to agree a budget to begin with and then fit everything in with that, it also depends whats more important to you...the ceremony/reception/number of guests etc

Our budget was £5000 for everything(110 guests) and we came in just under this figure:j And it was a fabulous day:D:D
Our dresses were off ebay, for 2 bridesmaid, bride, flower girl & page boy = £200 I used Bridal shops to try on dresses so I knew what would suit me but the dress I fell in love with was £600 in the shop:eek: and £110 off ebay(shop was closing down)......it was a no-brainer really:D

We got married at 4pm so we only had to feed the guests once and for this we had a huge buffet and carvery:D.......wedding breakfasts are sooo overpriced;)
Like Tattoed we had cake from m&s decorated ourselves...was lovely:D

As we didn't want wedding gifts(already live together) we asked that nobody bought us anything but if anybody did want to give us a gift a contribution to our honeymoon would be greatly appreciated (ended up being 4days in Lake district and was perfect:p)
Another idea to keep costs down is instead of gifts ask that people 'gift' something towards the wedding e.g if Aunt or Nan is good at cakes, ask them to do wedding cake, same with invitations, entertainment etc etc

Sorry this has turned into a bit of an essay:o, can you tell I miss planning weddings:rotfl:

Good luck with the planning and all the best for your future together x

GucciMane

Do not live above your means, only what you can afford. You will regret it later on in life if you do

MrsTinks

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shelovestobuystuff

PRINCESSX87 wrote: »

Hiya peeps, what would you say is a "good" budget for a wedding in these times of a credit crunch....?

All me and OH want is a nice "dream day" without having to lend money from people and banks...!

I have no idea, how to start budgeting and planning as there seems to be thing's needed and its never ending...
We are buying as we are earning and are starting to pay as from next month so any advice / Information / top tips now is greatly needed!!

Thats what we are doing too.No debt for the wedding.I cant give you an amount for a good budget as its different for everyone and depends what you can save or earn extra towards the day.Base it on what you expect to be able to afford without getting into debt.Mine is 6k.You have to do an outline or wish list for the day and get rough prices and work from there.We had to put our wedding back an extra year to do it debt free.

What I would say though is to prioritise your buys so that if you dont have as much as you hope its only the least important stuff that get dropped and theres no need to resort to credit cards at the last minute.

I used the budget planner on www.youandyourwedding.co.uk as my starting point and I keep track of my spending on that too.There are lots of empty columns on my budgeter as many of the traditional big white wedding stuff we just are not having.Its a very useful tool though.

PRINCESSX87

Thanks to all that replied!

Basically we have not set a budget as we are both so bad at keeping to it, and after looking at weddings mag, americans are doing buy as you earn so you never get into debt as you have nothing to keep to!!!

So this is what we are wanting:-

Small conutry church, which holds around 40 people.
Close family on both side's tricky bit is OH family are from cornwall mine from london. (And as we are near Bristol going to be expensive for family)
No friends as wedding party. Guest only

After party, in a small country venue which hold 300+ People so many can attend after...

So we are kind of lucky that we can use the services of some of our family members provide....

cake made,
photo's and vid sorted,
food cooked,
flowers arraged
ect...

PS:- sorry for the essay lol
PSS:- did anyone use the children in their lifes as a main part of wedding party?

tattoed_bum

instead of proper adult bridesmaids ,i had all my nieces and nephew as my flowergirls /pageboy

PRINCESSX87

tattoed_bum wrote: »

instead of proper adult bridesmaids ,i had all my nieces and nephew as my flowergirls /pageboy

Awww thats what i'm thinking, nieces, nephews and brother and sisters. Lol


Did anyone buy there wedding dress and suits from Ebay?

Silverbird

Ours cost about £3000, although this was more than we'd planned initially. A lot of the cost was due to the videography that we had our hearts set on (and we're so glad we did this) and the catering is where your money will be 'eaten up', so be very careful there. I saw my dream dress at a wedding show in Birmingham not long after we'd gotten engaged and I just had to have it. I went and tried it on the following week at the store and I bought it within minutes. It was the one and only dress I even considered (ivory with sparkly deep red floral pattern down the bodice and back of the dress - we had a Christmas wedding, so it was extra special). My dress cost me nearly £600, but I felt it was money well spent as I was in love with it and the whole colour theme (and the beautiful cake my mother did for us) was based on the dress colours and pattern. I couldn't bear to sell the dress afterwards and so got it cleaned professionally and have it in a special box to keep it as good as new.

Ours was fun and informal - we even had a quiz that I'd created in the evening at the reception (in a local sports hall that had been decorated) and there were prizes for the first and second winners. We also had tabletop games out for the kids as well as glow sticks/bands, which were a hit on the dance floor and look fabulous in the photos and video. We also hired a Caricaturist for a couple of hours who drew pictures of those brave enough to sit for him (all but one guest did this and the results were hilarious and a great keepsake for them). It was a lot of fun and everybody seemed to really enjoy it. My dear Nan - who is in her 80's - said she'd never been to a more enjoyable wedding and had had a wonderful time.

Just make the day to be exactly as you want it and don't let anybody tell you what you should or shouldn't have. You will find (if you haven't already) that friends and family will try to push you into doing things or criticizing your decisions or even laughing at them. In the end OH and I didn't tell anybody anything and we all got along a lot better after that!

Have a great time planning x