Budget for a wedding?

PRINCESSX87

Silverbird wrote: »

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.

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

Yep already getting that lol. I'm the sort tell me not to do something the more i go and do it!

Alikay

Our lovely daughter gets married in October, and since she's a student nurse (only gets a small bursary) and her fiance's mum and dad are dead we're footing most of the bill. The budget we gave them was £6K and so far they're coming in under budget. They'll be having 80 ish guests for a meal at a nice country pub and about 20 more join them at night.

The biggest saving was on the dress - actually a full length prom dress in ivory which was only about £250. She's very petite and young-looking and the "proper" bridal gowns were just too big and important for her! The bridesmaids dresses were only £99 from Dessy, we're decorating the M&S wedding cakes ourselves and serving bacon and sausage baps in the evening rather than a buffet, as most people will still be full from the meal.

xjoannexxx

our budget is 10,000 hopefully should come in under that

Getting Bridesmaids and my dress from landy
Goin to get m&s cakes and me and mam are going to decorate.
Not sure about doing flowers myself as i not very creative

PRINCESSX87

xjoannexxx wrote: »

our budget is 10,000 hopefully should come in under that

Getting Bridesmaids and my dress from landy
Goin to get m&s cakes and me and mam are going to decorate.
Not sure about doing flowers myself as i not very creative

Same as me. Luckly me and OH parents are kinda creative so the flowers, cake, decs, food, invites, seating ect.. will get sorted that way.

Does people still have pay for your own drinks at weddings or is it easier to just put an open bar?

smartie12

Have a figure in mind and keep to it. And remember.... it's just one day!!

We spent around £800 - there was no way we were going to spend anymore than that on just one day;)

You can have a great day without all the expense and as long as you and groom to be are happy thats all that counts:D

xjoannexxx

PRINCESSX87 wrote: »

Same as me. Luckly me and OH parents are kinda creative so the flowers, cake, decs, food, invites, seating ect.. will get sorted that way.

Does people still have pay for your own drinks at weddings or is it easier to just put an open bar?

we arnt doing a free bar never been to any weddings what have had one so dont think anyone will be expecting one we just got the drinks package with a welcome drink 2 drinks with meal and champagne for toast

mookybargirl

It's tough!! We worked out what was most important to us. It was the venue in our case, so now that we've found that, we work out the basic numbers for everything else and this is how we came to our budget figure.
PS - No free bar either unless we have a lottery win between now and then (and not just a tenner )

PRINCESSX87

mookybargirl wrote: »

It's tough!! We worked out what was most important to us. It was the venue in our case, so now that we've found that, we work out the basic numbers for everything else and this is how we came to our budget figure.
PS - No free bar either unless we have a lottery win between now and then (and not just a tenner )

Lol ok so thats something else to cross off the list.
So come on peeps would anyone buy their dress off Ebay? i have seen some really nice one's and after going to the shops i have deffo found the right dress, only nearly £1.500 in shops same one on Ebay £150 and P&P £80.00?

So there is a massive discount there, my only worry is that it ment i would have to trust buying it from someone in japan?


Thanks all for all the great advice / info!!!:beer:

LucyB-Bride_to_Be

PRINCESSX87 wrote: »

Lol ok so thats something else to cross off the list.
So come on peeps would anyone buy their dress off Ebay? i have seen some really nice one's and after going to the shops i have deffo found the right dress, only nearly £1.500 in shops same one on Ebay £150 and P&P £80.00?

So there is a massive discount there, my only worry is that it ment i would have to trust buying it from someone in japan?


Thanks all for all the great advice / info!!!:beer:

Hi, i got my dress off ebay..it was an ebay shop but from this country, not china. It cost £72 with postage and is fab I love it!!!!! The quality of it is great and it looks like its just come out of a bridal shop! Complete bargain!!!! Only slight problem is....that it dosnt quite fit just yet, but i'm getting there slowly...very slowly :rotfl:
Really worth looking into though, could save yourself a fortune! xx

*Louise*

Work out when you want to get married, then work out how much you can afford to save every month - this will give you a rough idea of how much to budget for.

Then add on anything extra you can put towards it (maybe relatives will offer to help etc) and you have your budget.

I only gave myself 6 months to organise the wedding so our budget is only 4k (5k including the honeymoon)

As for buying dresses on ebay - get yourself over to the Landy thread!!:D My dress was £160 on ebay. I ordered direct from Landy and it only cost £120:money:


Work out your biggest outlay first (wedding venue/reception) then everything else can be tailored to suit your needs.

For instance, we were looking at a church then on to a reception. Then decided to go with a hotel venue with it's own chapel in the grounds. £200 cheaper for venue, plus no need for cars, so nearly £500 cut there.

Do you want to get married later in the day (therefore only having to feed your guests once) I personally wanted my day to last as long as possible, so we are having a meal and a buffet at night, but that's still withing budget.

Flowers - do you want real or fake? I can highly recommend fake foam roses - I have all my colour scheme with gold and ivory ones and they look so real. Again, bargains to be had on ebay. I paid around £32 for 80 foam roses - this done table decs, FG's wands, and some corsages.


All the fun is in the planning and the preparation - start shopping around and see what you like.