Average wedding cost £21,000 - let's show them how it can be MSE

roses

I was reading an article about how the average wedding now costs £21,000. Crazy! I thought I would post here a breakdown and would love to see other people's as well as I have seen so many people post on here with MSE weddings

http://www.weddingsday.co.uk/average-wedding-cost/

Thanks Mrs Drink for the table format!

ITEM..........................................................AV. COST........Roses
Insurance....................................................£110..............£0
The Service.................................................£520..............£1,000 (registrar, registry office & notice)
Reception (venue, food & drinks).....................£4,000...........£4,500 (100 guests, sit down meal, no alcohol)
Evening Reception (venue, food & drinks)..........£1,700..........£0 (daytime online)
Entertainment..............................................£850............£800 (5 piece jazz band)
Flowers.......................................................£685............£140 (artificial flowers from ebay - can resell)
Balloons & Decorations...................................£460............£0
The Bride’s Outfit..........................................£1,590..........£220 (ebay - I already sold it in the local paper for £220!)
Hair and Beauty............................................£170...........£85 (me and my mum)
The Groom’s Outfit........................................£200............£0 (suit already owned)
Attendants Outfits........................................£575............£0 (no bridesmaids)
Photography................................................£905............£0 (brother)
Videography................................................£905............£0 (dad)
Transport...................................................£480............£0 (dads car)
Stationery..................................................£465............£50 (bought fancy paper & printed own)
The Wedding Cake.......................................£370............£250 (ebay inc delivery & setup)
Wedding Rings.............................................£630............£30 (sterling silver amazon)
Gifts..........................................................£205............£0
Stag & Hen Nights........................................£280............£0 (no stag/hen do)
Honeymoon & First night hotel........................£3,400............£2,500 (Sandals Cuba)

Total.........................................................£18,500............£9,575

threemuttleys

that is an insane amount of money for what is one day. I dont understand how people afford it TBH. My friend got married a few years ago, it cost 22k. But now she lives in a small 2 bed flat and cannot afford to move, because of the costs of repaying the loan. Id rather have had a smaller wedding, and not have that worry for the next 10 years

White_Sapphire

It's mad isn't it?! I think even if we could afford to spend that much we wouldn't - I love making stuff myself and involving family and friends, as well as hunting for bargains! It's very easy when you have that kind of a budget to not think about what's really important in terms of what your day includes and looks like. However, there are of course couples who can afford, and are prepared to pay for, a very expensive wedding, and who still make sure that they get their money's worth and that the day reflects them rather than just what's in the magazines and wedding fairs. Let's not forget that being MSE is about spending within your means and getting the best value that you can, not just spending as little as possible.

OP, congrats on your budget! :T

spoonymoose

21 thousand?! :eek: Hmmm, if I had that much money lying around, I'd put it towards a house deposit!

I think some people are too caught up in the theory that there are several things which they should have e.g. horse and carriage, 7 tier cake, diamond encrusted tiara, rather than the practice that they can have what they want.

Well done OP on having the wedding you want, in the way you wanted it without spending ridiculous amounts :T :beer: :money:

xxjojo1986xx

So far
Registrar £330
Notice £63
Venue £1800 (70 guests evening and night drinks on arrival, toast and with meal centre pieces flower posies and 3 nights in the hotel and hire of ceremony room and DJ)
Rings £260
5 Suits £360
Favours £6
Cake £50-£60
Chair covers aisle runner top table drapes and cake stand drapes £180
Photographer £230 (6hrs photography including bride getting ready)
Dress ???? budget £300
Flowers ??? (mums making them)
Brides maids dresses there buying their own
Think that’s it have I missed anything I’m sure there’s more I need to do

I’m hoping final spend will be £3500

MrsDrink

We've had this discussion on here before. Personally I don't care at all what people choose to spend their money on. The important thing (for me) is to get value for money. If you choose to spend £21k on a wedding but have been scrupulous, haggled for everything and actually have brought £50k worth of 'wedding' then good on you. If you spend £1k on a wedding but don't search around for the best prices and get ripped off left right and centre then more fool you. Just because your wedding is less money doesn't necessarily mean it's better value for money than an expensive one. The notion of reverse snobbery has been discussed before too.

(For what it's worth I hope to get our wedding in under £3k, not including my dress which my mum has paid for, and MrD's suit which his parents are getting).

Have just looked at that article - it does include £3400 for honeymoon & first night hotel. Not many of us include the honeymoon when we're totalling our budgets for our weddings. (Or hen/stag nights = £280 - lol in that respect ours is going to be nearly double that!)

kacy1988

21k ???? really ???

ours breaks down....
registry office including giving notice £240
sit down meal for 42, buffet for 60, welcome drinks, disco, night at the hotel £1400
dress £45 ebay
hair £50 for me & bridesmaid
table centerpieces £50 but will be able to sell on
sweetie table £40 all in
stationary (std magnets / invites / rsvps / menus / thankyou cards / table plan) £50
2 paigeboy outfits £40
photographer for 10 hours 20 prints 40 page photobook 250 editted pics on cd £500
4 tier / 4 flavour wedding cake & 40 cupcakes FREE (my bm is a pastry chef)
chair cover & sash hire £100
favours
decorations
ummmmmm

but the total will be about £3500

MrsDrink

Just for fun, and because I love spreadsheets ha, I have just done a comparison:

Item..........................................Their price............My price (either budgeted or paid for)
Insurance......................................£110......................0
The Service...................................£520.....................332 (Notice, marriage certificates, Registry office)
Reception .....................................£4,000....................0
Evening!Reception...........................£1,700..................790 (food & drinks, chair hire)
Entertainment.................................£850.....................20 (Giant Jenga)
Balloons & Decorations......................£460....................200.12
The Bride’s Outfit............................£1,590..................204.39 (shoes, underwear, £120 towards dress)
Hair and Beauty...............................£170....................130 (normal cut and colour, mac makeup)
The Groom’s Outfit............................£200...................64.24 (his shoes underwear)
Attendants Outfits...........................£575......................0
Photography...................................£905....................100 (writable CDs, photo album,two large prints)
Videography...................................£905......................0
Transport......................................£480.......................0
Stationery......................................£465...................72.18
The Wedding Cake...........................£370.....................60 (Am making my own individual cheesecakes)
Wedding Rings...............................£630.....................400 (My ring = £152.71)
Gifts............................................£205.......................0 (parents will get the large photos above)
Stag & Hen Nights.........................£280......................£500
Honeymoon & First night hotel........£3,400...................£3,000(4* all incl Red Sea 7 days, & 5 days diving)

Total..........................................£18,500.................£5,909

Hollie84

So far
church £500 (still to be reduced due to not needing organist and flowers)
Venue total £1440
car £246
Dress £250
Shoes £28
Veil £39 (mum paid for)
Underskirt £40
Cake £210 (but not being paid for in our budget,mums paying)
Photographer- free
hair,make up and nails- free
Dj £200
Table decorations £50

thats it so far,as fars as we have got.budget is £3500 which is very do able

tattycath

All together (not including a honeymoon-not had one yet) Ours cost approximately 2.5K including:
cake-was a wedding gift
photos-mates rates
The total includes everything from giving notice-right through to wedding clothes, hair and nails, flowers, invitations, reception, drink for the toast, decorations, favours etc.

SplanK

I can understand how they can get to so much... when we were looking for a venue - a large number of places you were looking at 7-10k JUST for the venue. I explained to the other half that although I would also like to get married there, its only a single day and can we really justify getting ourselves into debt (the *ONLY* debt we have is the morgage so we are in a really good position).
Then as soon as you mention wedding to any supplier - they seem to add an extra 0 onto the price tag... also known as the "wedding tax". Like when we wanted to look at some baloons. I was thinking £30-40 for a small number of baloons. One supplier came up with a quote of £120!!

So far ours is arond the 7k mark. 4k of that is the venue!