show me your budget (under £4k) wedding

kacy1988

I'm on a tight budget (£3500) and i was hoping some of you would be willing to show me your (under £4k) weddings please.

just to give me an idea of what i could (potentially) get my big day to look like:j

I'm really worried it's going to look cheap & nasty & rubbish

reassure me with lots of flashes PLEASE

Roz_V

Our budget is 6.5k, but 2k of that is photographer and this excludes Honeymoon. We are having 16 guests to the ceremony, then about 150 in the evening. No bridesmaids or best man/ushers etc. We're having three locations - ceremony at registry office, photos & lunch in a very pretty village nearby, then evening reception at a bigger venue (thatched barn - very pretty but a blank canvas so I can make it look wowzer with a little bit of effort). I'm not having a proper sit-down meal either so we don't need table plans, place cards etc but there will be tables to decorate... I'm making my own invitations (similar to these), dress is from Monsoon, shoes are Rainbow Club but bought BNIB from Ebay.

Invitations - £75 (inc postage to those that don't live locally
Dress - £225 (Monsoon)
Bride Shoes - £45 (Rainbow Club from Ebay)
Groom Outfit - £100
Bouquet - £21 (ivory foam roses & pearls from Ebay)
Buttonholes - £30 (will make these myself using foam roses, need 9 female & 6 male)
Hair & Make Up - £60 (doing own make up but need to buy products, hair done at local salon)
Wedding Rings - we originally budgeted £425 each though I've found a site called bandsoflove.co.uk which will come in much cheaper, more like £300 each (both platinum rings)
Ceremony/Legal Fees - £110.50
Wedding Car for 6hrs - £300 (having a brand new Merc decorated with ribbons etc)
Pub Lunch for 16 people - £480
Evening Venue Hire - £350
Arrival drinks & BBQ for 120 ppl - £1560
Cake - £0 (wedding present from best friend)
DJ - £150 (have to have venues own)
Venue Decor - £400 (inc chair covers, table linen hire, sweetie buffet, table decorations etc)
Hotel for wedding night - £100
Photographer £1950*

Coming in at £6560 at the min but sure I can make more savings to come in under budget (only items in red are fixed, everything else is still TBC)

*Photographer is somebody I work as an assistant for. This is her standard rate, we haven't discussed prices yet but I'm happy to pay full costs as I think her work is worth it. I wouldn't feel comfortable with anybody else, no matter how much cheaper they are. Cost includes a beautiful custom-designed album from New Zealand.

xxjojo1986xx

wedding 60 guests day and evening
dress/ tiara /veil/shoes 720
suites x 5 380
ceromony/reception/food/drinks 1500 (including 3 nights in hotel)
photogropher 230
cars 215
cake 50
chocolate fountain 200
favors 20
chair covers/swagging/aisle runner 160
registra/giving notice 290
rings 260
hair 50
flowers 50
bridesmaids x3 (hight street walis and warehouse sale) 35
total 4160
eeeeek more than wot i had hoped i did do a buget few weeks ago but i have got my dress since i think i was expecting to pay around 300 for my dress but then i fell in love haha


xxx

Hollie84

we have a budget of £3500 and so far all is good.venue is coting us £1440 which is a package plus some extras on top,35 for a sit down meal,65 for evening buffet,red carpet on arrival,drinks on arrival,drinks to toast,toast master cake stand and knife and table linen and the use of 3 rooms,one we will use for the wedding breakfast,one for the evening as it has its own bar so means we can have it late and the other room which is usually used for ceremonies but were having a church will be used the next nmorning for us and all our guests to have breakfast in

Car £246 for 3 hrs
Church £398 (if we dont have flowers and organist)/£498 if we do
dress £250 in a sample sale should have been £600
Veil £39 bought by my parents,lady reduced it from £89 for us
shoes £28 ebay
underskirt jupon £39 ebay
Tiara swarkovski crystal from facebook a lady local to me
BM bracelets £27 for 2 for my girls swarkovski and personalised
tie pins andpersonalised cufflinks £21 for 3 lots of each ,ebay

suits will be £300 to hire for 3

cake £220 paid for by mum and dad
alterations

---

no idea mums friend is doing it but will be cheap and mums paying for them
thats just some of my list
ebay will be your best friend and if u do things yourself like flowers,invites and favours u will save money.we are doing all the stuff ourself and ebay has been fab

TheSeventh

hmmn,, I'll have a go:

Beause money was so tight for us but we still wanted a ceremony with lots of family and friends, we decided to have a tiny private legal ceremony, followed by a bigger, more elaborate Humanist ceremony (doesn't have to be Humanist, my best friend did the same but with a religious Blessing right after the legal wedding). This means that our 'big' ceremony venue doesn't have to have a wedding licence, so we can get it VASTLY cheaper!

Ceremony
£150 - Legal Ceremony (hire of room in Town Hall for 30 mins, registrar, announcements, marriage licences
£400 - Hire of entire very very pretty village hall from friday afternoon to sunday midday
£350 - Humanist Celebrant (my friend's religious blessing was performed for free by a friend from her church)
£250 - Wedding and engagement rings (titanium with diamonds)
£150 - Venue Decorations - most of this is handmade, but this is the projected cost of all the materials
£90 - Venue flowers (artificial, homemade arrangements)
£50 - Cars & car decorations (family friend and own cars)
£10 - Ceremony music (buying tracks from iTunes / Amazon)
£120 - Stationery - invitations, RSVPs, maps/directions, menu cards, orders of service, guest book, seating plan, etc.
£995 - Photographer (our one BIG splash!)

Food & Reception
£500 - Wedding breakfast for 70 (chicken/salmon/veggie portion, jacket potato, loads of salads, pastas, cheese, etc.)
£60 - Wedding Cake (Family friend, she's also doing the catering!)
£200 - Wine (red, rose, white, sparking), Schloer, orange juice, lemonade & water for tables and toasts.
£30 - Favours for 70 (home-made cake pops!)
£700 - Hog roast in the evening for 200 people, including 70 portions of jacket potato, beans and cheese for people who don't want pork.
£120 - Table decorations
£150 - Hire of tableware, linen, silverware, glassware, serving dishes, etc.
£100 - Bar licence & pay for bar staff for 7 hours for local pub to do a paying bar at pub-prices
£80 - Family friend to DJ for us using village hall's inbuilt PA system.
£20 - Colouring books, games, etc for children (cheap from The Works!)
£10 - Baskets of nice toiletries in the loos! (mostly unused christmas gifts!)

Clothes
£50 - Makeup / hair / nails (makeup = me, hair = MoH, nails = salon!)
£55 - Outfit for legal ceremony (cream suit on sale from Debenhams)
£400 - Wedding dress, including fittings/adjustments
£20 - Shoes (both heels for ceremony, and flats for reception - from eBay!)
£50 - Bridal accessories (underwear, tights, etc)
£10 - Tiara (handmade by me!)
£20 - Veil (handmade by mum!)
£30 - Extra "I'm sick of this huge dress!" dress for evening (on sale from Dorothy Perkins)
£160 - Bridesmaids' dresses & fittings (4 dresses made to measure by woman in Birmingham)
£20 - Flowergirl dress (from eBay)
£350 - Hire of 6 suits for groomsmen (men supply own white shirt and shoes, deal with Moss Bros that groom goes free)
£50 - Ties and handkerchiefs for 6 groomsmen (same material / supplier as bridesmaids' dresses)
£100 - Bridal bouquet, bridesmaids' posies, flowergirl wand, buttonholes, corsages (artificial flowers, homemade)

Grand Total = £5850

BUT - there's a hell of a lot you could cut out!
We're having a pretty big wedding, 70 guests for ceremony and wedding breakfast, rising to 200 in the evening. Cut down on numbers and you'll dramatically cut down on costs as food/drink is the biggest expense.
We're also having two whole ceremonies (legal and Humanist) so if you cut out the blessing, you save £350 (but you'll need to hire a bigger room for the legalities). This would also cut out the need for a second outfit - and you don't NEED an evening outfit, so that's another £100 saved
And our big splash is nearly £1000 on the photographer. This is an extravagance, you can get perfectly good photos for £400ish.

I worked it out again, cutting out a few things, and reducing guest numbers, and came up with £4250 - which isn't bad!

Best of luck!

SugarSpun

50 guests at our wedding:

Legal fees £150
Invitations: £80 (Vistaprint)
Dress: £90 (ebay)
Suit £40: (rented locally)
Photographer £300: (no prints; just a DVD)
Venue for ceremony: £1100
Rings: £1600 (I know but they are 18ct gold engraved Moebius rings and we loved them)
Transport: (free; favour from friend of my dad)
Champagne reception after ceremony plus champagne for toasts: £190 (Aldi Veuve Monsigny beat the Veuve Cliquot and Moet in blind tasting, plus plastic flutes and orange juice. We still have some of this left; we bought 18 bottles and used 12.)
Wedding breakfast buffet £800 (in retrospect I would have hired a room at a restaurant; we did that for dinner and it was much nicer)
Cake: gift from aunt who made it
Music: free from DH's laptop
Dinner: £650 (at a place with a Michelin bib gourmand; wish we'd just gone right there from the ceremony tbh and had two meals there)
Hotel for the night: included in buffet cost

Total is £5020, which is above what you wanted, but since our rings were ridiculously expensive I think it counts

eng3ecd

We're in London and didn't want to spend a fortune so we're having a small Church wedding with a really laid-back reception in a nearby gastro-pub with an open-invite evening do. The ceremony is at 3pm so we're feeding our guests 5.30 - 7pm but not having any food for the evening people *controversial*

Ceremony: £700 total cost including fees, organist, choir and bells. 50 guests.

Reception: £2450 including 2 glasses of pims or half bottle of wine on arrival for 50 guests, gastro-buffet, glass of fizz for toasts and £500 bar tab for arrival of evening guests. Includes service charge, no decorations needed as the venue is fancy.

Bouncy castle for reception garden: £110

Reception entertainment:Free (family band will play a set and we'll have an ipod playlist over the PA system

Cake: Free (MiL is making)

Favours: Free (MiL is making sugared almonds, family tradition)

Dress: Free (gift from my mother) shoes & veil will come from Ebay, max budget £50

Bridesmaid dress:free- she insists on buying her own dress as it's one she wants anyway

Suit: OH buying his own, approx £200. Best man to buy or hire his own too.

Flowers: Budget of £250. Will buy from Covent Garden Flower Market the day before the wedding and make simple posies for me & bridesmaid & oasis arrangements for Church.

Photographer: £600, includes 4 hours of photography, all images on a disk and 300 hosted on website, plus best edited images in a 30-page printed album

Rings: We're buying our own. My budget is £300 for platinum band and will be from Hatton Gardens. OH is looking for something more specialised so will be around £500.

Transport: £200 Rolls hire for 3 hours. Still unsure about this and I'd be happy with taxis, but will have to decide nearer the time,


Total cost: £4360 plus buying our own rings and OH buying own suit. May come down if we decide not to have all the bells and whistles at the Church and if we find cheaper transport.

This is the main outline, there will be other costs but we should still hit our 5k budget. We're spending the same amount on our honeymoon and wanted an unostentatious do followed by a really extravagant holiday. Can't wait

spurs_gal

Okay, lets try:

My dress £31 (Ebay)
My shoes £26 (Ebay)
H2b Suit £70 (Ebay)
Best mans suit £70 (Ebay)
Bridesmaids £300 - this includes outfit/shoes/nails etc as they are having high street dresses which they can then keep and wear again
Hair & Make up £70 which my Dad is paying for as a present
Car £260 Present from Brother in law to be!
Registry office £250.50
Reception (social club) £160
Food £500 - having 2 buffets, one canape type for day guests with proper buffet in evening made by myself, Step mum & Nanna
Photographer £75 this is for 1 and half hours plus a disk to make our own album. This will cover ceremony and guests are being asked take ones in evening
Rings £800 as being bought from New Zealand
Invitations £30 (Ebay)
Favors & decorations £150
For Cakes my sister is making cupcakes which will cost me about £40. We are also having a top layer cake which is £40
DJ £300
Candy floss stand at reception £90

Total= £3262.50

We're not having flowers or button holes, though bridesmaids want one single flower each which they are buying. They are also doing each others hair and make up. We're not having a sit down meal as thats not 'us'. And hoping whatever money we have left in our budget we can put towards free drinks - for a few hours at least!

As long as you're both happy with what you decide to do it doesn't matter what you spend. And tbh I've been to some very posh type weddings that looked cheap! You can certainly have a good, cheap wedding that looks very expensive.
Hth x

AutumnBride85

Instead of gifts from close family Ive asked if people would mind paying towards something so understand this may not be an option for everyone

Church-
Wedding gift payment from Grandparent. Not having a choir but will have the organist. Basic flowers, no pew ends.

Wedding breafast venue-
Country pub- no room hire charges! Were picking out cheapest options (expensive pub anyway!) on the menu and putting together our own to fit in with our budget. Venue is stunning so wont need to decorate

Evening do venue
Village hall £180 for 2 days!- payment a wedding gift from my Mum

Flowers
Sister is going to order some flowers and put together some little bouquets for me and bridesmaids, and buying single flowers for button holes. Thats her gift to us.

Favours
Bought 50 favour/cake boxes for £5 from poundland, will fill with almonds from ebay

Cake
Being baked by MIL- hiring a cake stand from cake shop- deposit refundable.

Shoes
Will buy from BHS website £40

Guest book, cake knife and other fiddly bits
Ebay and amazon

Makeup & nails
Doing my own

Wedding car
Asked around everyone to see if they knew anyone with a posh car who wouldnt mind running us for a few bob. Turns out FIL knows someone with an old Bentley so fingers crossed he'll be up for it.

Venue decos
Sniffed around people who have just got married and picked up their second hand items cheap- managed to get some lovely garlands and table decos.

Photographer
Had an ask round again! Found someone who works at our place does photography on the side and is quite good- got her the whole day for £495

Band
Dad and stepmum paying for this as a gift. Did shop/listen round bands and found my one playing at someone elses wedding so took their details.

Dress
Not sorted yet but BHS do lovely & reasonable priced wedding dresses http://www.bhs.co.uk/mall/departmentpage.cfm/bhsstore/91594/1/1

Honeymoon
Not arranged yet but we are going to ask if wider friends and family would mind making a honeymoon donation instead of buying stuff for the house. I wouldnt mind a romantic country cottage getaway to be honest! http://www.cottages4you.co.uk/

Evening food
Booking hog roast. £500 for pig, rolls, stuffing, crackling, plates and someone to serve. Will feed just over 100 people. Will serve desserts from costco and wedding cake.

My advice is keep your eyes and ears open- always ask around friends and family for stuff cos you never know what people have stashed away or who may know someone who can help you out. We were suprised at what came out of the woodwork.

Also, friends and family are always so eager to help, and we were so pleasantly suprised and grateful when family offered to buy things as gifts- its helped them to feel part of it, but we didnt expect such support and generosity. I hope you can find the same