minimum wedding spend

moohound

this is what we spent 6 weeks ago

venue hire £350 Langdale chase hotel windermere
registrar fee £200
harpist £200 for 2 hours
my dress £1350 pink and a one off incl. underwear and hoop
veil £180
tiara £210 a one off
shoes £60
bridesmaids £550 for 4 not bad
suit hire £210 groom, Best man, ring bearer
cake £310 for 3 tiers
bridesmaid shoes £35
bridesmaid hairclips £100 for 4
bridemaid gifts £75 for 3
chief bridesmaid gift £245
ringbearer gift £15
bestman gift £40
groom shoes £80
bridesmaid earrings £50
gifts for mums £150
favours £100
canapes £80
wine £120
champagne £600:beer:
mineral water £14
misc drinks £20
boat ride £215 for 1 hour across the lake
dinner £900 for 5 courses for 23 guests
bridal suite £400 B&B 2 nights
grooms ring £500 handmade platinum
brides ring £2500 with 2.1 ct diamonds (valued at £4200)
brides jewelley £4175 diamond suite, all antique:eek:
photos £700
flowers £409 mixed colours of roses
honeymoon £3000 2 weeks italy 5 star
invitations £21
placecards £20
guest book £10
confetti cones £14
confetti £25
hair and makeup £140
nails £30

i can't think of anything else

some of these things may seem extravagant but they are mostly things to keep and will be heirlooms.

I dont think it matters what you spend, you can have fun for £500 or £50000 just dont get into debt for it.

cupid_s

angeluk
yours sounds like it was a good day

but when i was enquiring about local registry office fees it was more expensive than the fees at the church where we got married!

your dad doing the photographs is brill but there is no-one we know who's even vaguely trustworthy with a camera and pictures are important.

also there's no-one really creative to make a bouquet and invitations (though mine only cost £30 having them hand-made by someone we found on e-bay who was brill)

also obviously not having a bridesmaid cuts down on costs but as i said in this case this isn't an option the bride would consider.

i agree with rachie - it's about finding the cheapest/best price ratehr than gonig without. We're lucky in that this wedding will be in the same town as I got married so I spent weeks trying to find the best quotes then.

For example the photographer we used was definately the cheapest we could find by miles and was excellent. But still cost £795! Over 1/4 of this budget gone straight away.

Me and OH also didn't go without and it was the perfect day. But as I said we spent over 9k (without this sites help either) which is not an option for this wedding.

Broken_hearted

Argos does rings for £20 each. A wedding can be done for under £100.

angeluk69_2

moohound wrote:

I dont think it matters what you spend, you can have fun for £500 or £50000 just dont get into debt for it.

This is my point exactly, as long as you have a great day and you don't start off married life on a bad foot financially then its all good.

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

cupid_s

angeluk69 wrote:

This is my point exactly, as long as you have a great day and you don't start off married life on a bad foot financially then its all good.

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

i do agree - but my point is it must be very very difficult to spend only £500

Broken_hearted wrote:

Argos does rings for £20 each. A wedding can be done for under £100

but how? i get loads of people telling me this and i just don't see how even if you don't have a dress/bridesmaid/photographer/party

angeluk69_2

cupid_stunt wrote:

i do agree - but my point is it must be very very difficult to spend only £500

It doesn't have to be difficult, we didn't want to spend alot because we didn't want to get ourselves in too deep financially, and we just wanted to show all our friends and family that we do love each other.

Personally we didn't need to spend money to do this.

TBH if it had been up to me, it would have been even cheaper cos we would have have done it in jeans and tee shirts and gone for a pint but no my hubby is ever the romantic and wanted everyone there.

My parents did it even cheaper, went to Lake district with friends (as they do every year) got married went for a pint and a hike.

ianandjody

I am amazed, I know this is money saving but some things are too far! ;-)

Our wedding rapidly apporaching in December is going to be jujst short of £30K and that doesn't include the honeymoon!

I know each to their own but why would you scrimp on some things, isn't it meant to be special (the first time at least ;-) )

(all said in a joking manner!)

Ian

angeluk69_2

My wedding was very special, my husband was ther I was there, our son was there and our family and friends. I was 20 at the time and even tho I had always dreamed of having the big dress, the church and everything else, when it came down to it, I just wanted a day that i could remember and I think about it so fondly now.

I mean, who else does a collection at the registry office? Me thats who!!!

I wasn't even aware of moneysaving then.

Rachie_B

ok if you are talking as cheap as possible some ideas inc

men - wear their own suits,maybe buy matching ties so all the same / similar ?

brides and BM dress,borrow,buy from ebay or other 2nd hand places,sales etc

venue & catering - depending how "flash" / formal they want to go ?? def have a paybar and maybe 1 welcome drink if they can afford it .keep numbers low ,hard to strike people off the guest list though lol you end up offending someone but thats life

cars - ask someone with a "nice" car to drive them ,decorate with ribbons ,cheap on ebay

cake - ask a favour from a family friend etc ? if not the supermarket ones are fab,simply decorate with a few flowers ( fresh / artificial)

flowers - either dont have any / many or use just a few and bulk out with foliage.some brides / BMs prefer to carry a nice bag instead of having flowers,after all once you walk down the aisle you dont see them much afterwards lol,maybe in the pics but this may / may not be important ?

table decs ,nice ideas include a mirror tile with church candles on ,maybe some ribbon round to match the colour scheme, or tea lights and some petals ?

less is more IMO hate fussy tables

natlie

Hi
my wedding dress was £50 reduced from £1870 in a special sale event - first 10 brides through the door got a dress off the rail for £50 woo hoo

hoping to get the location for free, either in new york, but that is a secret as I don't need competition lol and the other option is the national botanic garden of wales mum is boss lol

mine is going to be cheapo affair but in a classy style
Nat
xxx