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

abis21

ITEM.............................................. ............AV. COST........Abi
Insurance......................................... ...........£110..............£0
The Service........................................... ......£520..............£527 (registrar, notice & hire of place where ceremony was)
Reception (venue, food & drinks).....................£4,000...........£0 (wedding ceremony at 4pm)
Evening Reception (venue, food & drinks)..........£1,700..........£800 (hot buffet for 100 people inc function room hire)
Entertainment..................................... .........£850............£455 (DJ & chocolate fountain)
Flowers........................................... ............£685............£10 (foam roses for my little girl to carry & buttonholes)
Balloons & Decorations...................................£460 ............£504
The Bride’s Outfit..........................................£1 ,590..........£174 (Dress from ebay - £104, Designer shoes from ebay - £70)
Hair and Beauty............................................ £170...........£50 (me and 2 bridesmaids inc trial)
The Groom’s Outfit........................................£200 ............£132 (suit hire & new shoes)
Attendants Outfits........................................£57 5............£132 (best man suit hire, my daughters bridesmaid dress & shoes. Adult bridesmaids paid for their own)
Photography....................................... .........£905............£175
Videography....................................... .........£905............£0 (didn't have)
Transport......................................... ..........£480............£0 (ceremony literally across the road from my mums house)
Stationery........................................ ..........£465............£42 (home made invites)
The Wedding Cake.......................................£370... .........£92 (made my own, costs includes ingredients & stand which will be resold)
Wedding Rings............................................. £630............£228
Gifts............................................. .............£205............£50
Stag & Hen Nights........................................£280 ............£200? (didn't count up at the time to be honest)
Honeymoon & First night hotel........................£3,400............£1,200? (2.5 weeks touring france in our motorhome - going in just over a week - yayy!)

Total............................................. ............£18,500............£4,771

ellay864

I'm all for not spending money you don't have to but it does worry me a little that insurance isn't included on a number of the posts here. If anything happened, you've lost the money you have paid, which then isn't at all MSE. To me, insurance is an essential.
Also, I agree with the comment about reverse snobbery - it's about value, about what your priorities are etc. A number of brides on here (me included) have children, and I'd find it hard to justify spending shed loads on a wedding when I've got things like uni fees to think about. And some people do come up with a low budget but only because other people are paying for things. I know there was one thread some time ago claiming they'd done a very low budget wedding - the reality was that family members had probably paid as much again for certain items. It's a case of understanding the difference between a low budget wedding, and the bride&groom staying within their low budget if they have family to help them

SplanK

I agree - insurance costs ~£50 for most under 10k weddings - dont go for just the cheapest either - go for one that will pay out without hastle

there are loads of companies recently going under, been hit hard by the recession. We *ALMOST* lost the wedding dress as the company where my OH bought it from went under. Thankfully she managed to get it from them, but it just shows that it was close and would have had to plough extra money. There are also stories of wedding venues going under, photographer not turning up (but was paid for...) blah blah....

Not only does it protect you from that, these places can also assist in resolving an issue quickly through their own contacts

MrsDrink

ellay864 wrote: »

I'm all for not spending money you don't have to but it does worry me a little that insurance isn't included on a number of the posts here. If anything happened, you've lost the money you have paid, which then isn't at all MSE. To me, insurance is an essential.

I have ummed and ahhed about insurance. And yep it is definitely a risk. The only thing that I would need insuring would be my wedding dress. Everything else pretty much can't fall through because of the nature of our day - ceremony at registry office followed by a party at ours. The only things I'm relying on other people/companies for are my dress, and the chair hire - well that is only £20 deposit (£40 in total) and if that falls through then it wouldn't be the end of the world if I gathered 25 chairs off various family members. Everything else is covered under our household insurance (as would the dress be once it's in my possession).

MrsDrink

I have just looked at ecclesiatical's cover (who seem to have good reviews on here) - and for their basic insurance plus wedding dress it'd be £22.18. So yes I guess it is worth it (dress is worth £825). I have sent them an email asking if there is anyway they can insure just the dress (without their cancellation/curtailment insurance or public liability insurance). Will see what they come back with.

ellay864

MrsDrink wrote: »

I have ummed and ahhed about insurance. And yep it is definitely a risk. The only thing that I would need insuring would be my wedding dress. Everything else pretty much can't fall through because of the nature of our day - ceremony at registry office followed by a party at ours. The only things I'm relying on other people/companies for are my dress, and the chair hire - well that is only £20 deposit (£40 in total) and if that falls through then it wouldn't be the end of the world if I gathered 25 chairs off various family members. Everything else is covered under our household insurance (as would the dress be once it's in my possession).

Yes but it's not just a case of damage/loss to an individual item. What if. god forbid, something happened to you/OH/parent that casued the wedding to be postponed/cancelled (and that has happened to people on this forum). It's then the total of all those things you'd be looking at. Most wedding insurance policies offer a cancellation cover in that sort of situation

Alibali

ITEM.............................................. ............AV. COST........Abi
Insurance......................................... ...........£110..............£0
The Service........................................... ......£520..............£400 (registrar, notice & hire of place where ceremony was)
Reception (venue, food & drinks).....................£4,000...........£1300
Evening Reception (venue, food & drinks)..........£1,700..........£0
(included in above cost)
Entertainment..................................... .........£850............£370 (DJ & piper)
Flowers........................................... ............£685............£250
(my bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouquets, button holes & corsages)
Balloons & Decorations...................................£460 ............£50
Hair and Beauty............................................ £170...........£200 (me, 4 bridesmaids & mum & gran - hair & makeup)
The Groom’s Outfit........................................£200 ............£80 (Kilt hire)
Attendants Outfits........................................£57 5............£1000 (2x best men & 4 bridesmaids)
Photography....................................... .........£905............£800
Videography....................................... .........£905............£0 (didn't have)
Transport......................................... ..........£480............£550
Stationery........................................ ..........£465............£70 (home made invites)
The Wedding Cake.......................................£370... .........£450
Wedding Rings............................................. £630............£1000
Gifts............................................. .............£205............£100
Stag & Hen Nights........................................£280 ............£200? (didn't count up at the time to be honest)
Honeymoon & First night hotel........................£3,400............£1,800
Total............................................. ............£18,500............£8620

Only cost us £5960 thanks to contributions from parents & family :T :j

MrsDrink

ellay864 wrote: »

Yes but it's not just a case of damage/loss to an individual item. What if. god forbid, something happened to you/OH/parent that casued the wedding to be postponed/cancelled (and that has happened to people on this forum). It's then the total of all those things you'd be looking at. Most wedding insurance policies offer a cancellation cover in that sort of situation

If god forbid that was to happen we'd 'only' lose £250 + £67 for the registry office and notice. Everything else can stay in my office/wedding room till we get married. (Although I will seriously scream blue murder if anything stops me getting married on our wedding day :rotfl:). I'm not being deliberately obtuse - as you can see from my post above this I have at least done a few quotes - and no doubt wouldn't have a choice but to take out cancellation cover.

ellay864

MrsDrink wrote: »

If god forbid that was to happen we'd 'only' lose £250 + £67 for the registry office and notice. Everything else can stay in my office/wedding room till we get married. (Although I will seriously scream blue murder if anything stops me getting married on our wedding day :rotfl:). I'm not being deliberately obtuse - as you can see from my post above this I have at least done a few quotes - and no doubt wouldn't have a choice but to take out cancellation cover.

Wouldn't we all...I'd put odds on me being a crying mess if that happened, reagrdless of having insurance :rotfl:
I guess anyone not having it has weighed up the pros and cons...the odds are small but for me it was just too much as one of my best friends had to cancel her wedding with 2 days notice and she'd no insurance. Obviously some of her things were sellable, but even if you're doing a lot of stuff yourself things like food and drinks are usually bought by then, balloons may be blown up etc, invites would need to be re-done. It was surprising just how much the odds and ends amounted to and she had a small pretty low budget wedding but still lost all that she had paid...and in most cases cancelling that close means you still have to pay the final amount anyway

MrsDrink

See now I'm totally confused - reading through ecclesiastical's policy:
Under the wedding attire section:
Following loss or damage by any cause to the wedding attire of the wedding party whilst in the possession of the insured, any member of the wedding party or any relative of such member of the wedding
party we will replace or we will pay for the repair or replacement of such attire or dress hire charges necessarily incurred, up to the amount specified in the schedule.
So the dress would only be covered once it is in my possession (in which case my household insurance would cover it).
Under the failure of supplier's section:
Following the bankruptcy or liquidation of any suppliers booked to supply transport, accommodation, catering, hotographs,
flowers or hired wedding attire or any other wedding services, we will pay up to the amount specified in the schedule for the following: (i) Irrecoverable deposits; (ii) Additional costs in arranging alternative equivalent services but only so far as these costs exceed what would have been incurred had the original supplier not ceased trading.
I would assume 'any other wedding services' would include the making of a wedding dress, as it's not being hired.
Will definitely be waiting till they are open (what an annoying insurance company to be shut at the weekends) to ask them which box I need to tick!

I can actually see what you are saying there - yes if I had to cancel the wedding (or even postpone it by a week or so) only a few days before our wedding then I would be more than just pennies out of pocket. Lol you have me convinced! So you can all add around £20 to the above little dotty table