Rough estimation of how much things are?

Disney_Pluto

Hi All,

We are lucky as my parents are paying for our wedding and have given us a very good budget. We decided what was most important and to us it was the venue and the food.

So we are booked to get married at our local church, booked our venue and caterers. All together this is about £10,000. So I've been trying to get a rough idea and I know a lot of people will say it depends on what you want but roughly by averages how much does the rest cost? Although my parents have offered us a lot of money we don't want to spend all the budget really.

So:
Photographer
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5
Wedding dress plus extras.
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 1/2
1 car
Cake
Invites (a friend and mum are making free)
Wedding rings
Gifts for people
Flowers
Hair on the day
Entertainment - a DJ
May have forgotten things

I know it's hard to tell but really just looking at averages so at least have some idea of how much more we need.

Thanks for your help.

lazer

caroline_john wrote: »

Hi All,

We are lucky as my parents are paying for our wedding and have given us a very good budget. We decided what was most important and to us it was the venue and the food.

So we are booked to get married at our local church, booked our venue and caterers. All together this is about £10,000. So I've been trying to get a rough idea and I know a lot of people will say it depends on what you want but roughly by averages how much does the rest cost? Although my parents have offered us a lot of money we don't want to spend all the budget really.

So:
Photographer - is £800, but that is for the full day, copyright free CD, album, and framed photo. they start from as little as around £300, and go up to thousands. I think we have quite a good deal.
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5 - haven't done this yet, but I understand, tehy range from about £50 - £100 per suit
Wedding dress plus extras. - depends, new from a bridal shop aropund £700, up to around £1.8k, veil around £100, shoes & jewellary - depends, debenhams or somewhere prob around £100, but can be as much as you want
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 1/2 - Bridesmaid - high street - £150 quid, bridal shops similar, up to about £250!. flowergirl- £60 to £100ish
1 car - no quotes yet - some local companies are quoting £350 for 2 cars though
Cake - we are making - although M&S very reasonable.
Invites (a friend and mum are making free) - materials prob around £20 - £50 depending on numbers
Wedding rings - whatever you want - advice go to a wholesaler who sells to the public!- mine is coming in at £250 and the best price i could get in a jeweller was about £800
Gifts for people - eniterly down to you, they could be £1 each or £100 each or homemade and free
Flowers - we're paying between £300 and £500, and it includes "extras" such as the flowery trees for outside the chapel etc
Hair on the day - I got quotes between £20 and £100 for my hair
Entertainment - a DJ - don't know, we are having a band, adn DJ is included
May have forgotten things

I know it's hard to tell but really just looking at averages so at least have some idea of how much more we need.

Thanks for your help.

It basically depends on what you want to spend, and how you want to prioritise your spending.
Decide what things are most important to you, and allocate your budget accordingly

lisajane8482

Photographer – Depends on what you want really, ours is costing £400 for 6 hours and a disc only package.
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5 We looked at about £92 (suit hire plus accidental waiver), it’s £15 to hire shoes and usually if there are 5+ men the groom goes free
Wedding dress plus extras. Would you be looking at preloved or new? Wedding dress shop or department store? I got my dress preloved from eBay for £300, the dress retails at around £900-£1000 new. There are a few marks on it as you would expect but nothing anyone should notice unless they are crawling around on the ground.
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 ½ - again would you be looking at preloved or new? Wedding dress shop or department store? I bought new Debut dresses of eBay, I paid slightly more for the 5 dresses than I would have done new from Debenhams (I only need 2 but didn’t know what size my Maid and bridesmaid were, as it happens I may have another two bridesmaids now and use the spare dress to make panels for a lace up back as they are small sizes). My flowergirl dresses will be from debenhams, BHS and eBay.
1 car Our cars are costing £170 for a seven seater Mercedes Benz and £180 for a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow.
Cake We are making our fruit cake and are buying a shop bought sponge (about £15), M&S have a selection of wedding cakes that I know people on here have bought that are very reasonably priced
Invites (a friend and mum are making free) I used vistaprint for all my stationary and spent about £60 for Save the dates, invites, RSVPs, envelopes and several other bits and pieces
Wedding rings I have a £35 silver Pandora heart ring, OH wants a Tungsten Carbide ring for about £60
Gifts for people Again this depends on what you want to spend/buy
Flowers Do you want real or fake. We are going for Fake and are looking to spend £150-£200
Hair on the day I’ve guestimated £50 for my hair and £20 each for two flowergirls, everyone else is paying for their own
Entertainment - a DJ £120 from 7pm-12am

Have you also considered make up? I’ll be doing my own to save cash plus I also want to look like me on the day as I don’t wear a lot of make up usually.

Favours? not everyone has them and if you do they can be cheap and cheerful.

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head

Idiophreak

I'll just kinda say what we paid - as you'll get the "it depends" thing over and over... I'll also mention whether I think we payed more / less than average...but everyone will disagree with that anyway

caroline_john wrote: »

So:
Photographer - ours ended up a little over 2k, for preshoot, 2 photographers for the whole day (12 hours +), guest book printed from wedding shoot, DVDs of all pictures, main album (110 photos) and two smaller copies for the parents. Also included their travel (c100 miles). A lot of money, but very good value. Above average.
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5 Something like £700 for the same number. Found a lovely local store that was cheaper than austin reed and the other big ones. Cheapest I've seen is around £57/each online.Below average.
Wedding dress plus extras. Dress was 1600ish bit over 2k with alterations, shoes, underwear, veil and the rest...Above average
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 1/2 bridesmaids dresses were around 150 each from the dress shop made to orderAbove average
1 car 320 for mk2 jag, beautiful.Below average
Cake £150 for 3 tier choccy cake. Made by family friend.Below average
Invites (a friend and mum are making free) £10 for card/inkBelow Average
Wedding rings Hers was £380, very small platinum band from Tiffany. Mine's 5mm paladium, heavy - £365 from jewellery quarter, brumAverage?
Gifts for people £300 for the bridal party - roughly £2500 for each other...went a bit nuts.Above average
Flowers Around £1000 - bouquets for bride and 3 bridesmaids. Button holes for 8 men. Corsages for mums. Table centres. Arrangements for bar. Massive stand alone arrangement for marquee.Average
Hair on the day hm, really no idea. I wasn't there N/A
Entertainment - a DJ we had a band for around £1200...DJs are much less. We also hired amp, lights and speakers (£140) for when the band weren't playing.Average
May have forgotten things

Also, a bunch of other stuff you've not mentioned and that I never really thought too much about budgeting for myself...All seemed small, but really added up:


Orders of service - £10 Below average
Thank you cards - £10 Below average
Hotel night before for groom - £65 Average
Honeymoon - LOTS Above average
Groom's bits and bobs - new pants, socks, shoes, watch etc - £200 Above average
Groom's haircut - £60 Above average
Pre-wedding tanning (for both) - £60 Average?
Pre-wedding beauty treatments (skin cleansing etc for bride) - lots. Above average
Pre-wedding weightloss (gym membership) £1,000 Average
Misc - Petrol, parking, postage, wedding insurance, increased contents insurance, new passport for bride, changing name on all different IDs etc - All add up.

lizd87

I've done mine for ~7k excluding honeymoon
and this is roughly what i spent:

Photographer - £125 family friend who's a local news photojournalist
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5 - £500 ish for 6
Wedding dress plus extras. - dress was £250 from a sample sale shop. borrowed veil (they're about £100), shoes £25 from debenhams, undies etc £30, tiara £35
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 1/2 - £200 for four from BHS
1 car - free - family friend
Cake - free - family friend
Invites and other stationary £40 from vistaprint
Wedding rings - £500 ernest jones
Gifts for people - £60 - just little things for each
Flowers - free- again a friend is doing them
Hair on the day - £50
Entertainment - we're having a band - £750
May have forgotten things
Reception hire - £900
Reception drink and food - £2000
Church - £500
Decorations, favours etc -£100

i think that's everything! appreciate we've got a lot of help with things, but some of those you could also if you want to save e.g. cake

McKneff

Do you mind if I make a suggestion.

Take the rings out of the equasion and buy each other a wedding ring. Its nice to know you have given (and paid) for these yourselves.

You lucky, lucky couple.

Hope all goes well for you.

ladymarmalade

As many have already said, it really depends on where you go, what you want and if you haggle. Here is a rough estimate of our costs as they stand at the moment:

Photographer - ours is £1250 but we love their work and their personalities and we get them all day til 9pm (I wanted pictures of people dancing and our first dance etc)
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5 - the suits we have been looking at are about £80 to hire but you usually get the groom's for free if you order a certain amount
Wedding dress plus extras - my dress has cost £1350, underskirt £80, veil £60. I am not budgeting loads for jewellery as I want it to be plain and I have budgetted about £40 for shoes as I want flats.
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 1/2 - my adult dresses are £220 each from Dessy, but you can get much cheaper. My flower girls will be wearing dresses that will cost about £40 (BHS/Debenhams)
1 car - Ours is £350
Cake - been quoted about £200
Invites (a friend and mum are making free) Also making mine....budgetted abour £60 for the materials
Wedding rings - each to their own, you can get them cheaply off the high street or get something custom made. These are one of the most important thins to us so we have spent a bit more than average
Gifts for people - not much for us, don't want to spend more that £15 per person...doens't seem much but we will have provided 2 meals, transport and even outfits for most people who need thanking. We are thinking of puuting both parent sets up in a nice hotel though.
Flowers - not sure yet....not that fussed about them and don't want to spend more than £20
Hair on the day - not sure yet.
Entertainment - a DJ £100 for us, although we are contemplating something extra to amuse the all day guests which may be an extra £300 or so.

Some things I know we are spending a lot more than the average and other things we are spending a lot less on. I guess it depends what is important to you. for us, photos and rings are what you have forever so we wanted the best we could afford for those. Cake and flowers and my hair etc are not that important to me so we won't spend much on those.

The majority of our budget has gone on food and drink. We are both from big families and food is our one biggest joint passion as a couple, so it was important to us that that is right!

PinkPrincess83

Ok so our budget is fairly small but here is our costings:

Photographer We are paying about £300, this is for 4 hours with all pics on a disk, photos to me were important but not priority so we saved money by only having one for four hrs
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5 I have no idea what the mens suits are like but they work out £100 each- theres only 3 of them but places like Moss Bros do groom goes free
Wedding dress plus extras. I got a gorgeous dress in a sample sale reduced from £900 to £200, plus I got a jupon hoop for £15, alterations of length are £50, £80 to get it cleaned, shoes were £30 from debenhams, tiara was £40, earrings were £20 and necklace was £15
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 1/2 These were only £35 each, plus shoes which I got for about £14 each. Flowergirl dress I got in bhs sale for £25 plus £16 for her shoes plus about £20 each per bridesmaid for necklace, earrings and headband
1 car A nice Merc £140
Cake 80 cupcakes plus cutting cake £125 (got an offer, would now be over £200)
Invites (a friend and mum are making free)
Wedding rings I got mine from Goldsmiths £379 (although looked yesterday and its now £449, oh has a cheap ring as he will only wear it for the day, but price depends what metal you want
Gifts for people- we have got bridesmaids a compact mirror (£15 each),plus one has a matching keyring and one has a wine glass (£6 each), best man has a tankard which was £20. Flowergirl has a teddy that was £10. Mums will have a wine glass (£6) and will have flowers (£20)
Flowers- ohs mum is doing them and we are having artifical
Hair on the day- friend is doing this as our present, but I would expect to pay about £30 for a trial, £50 on the day (max that I personally would pay), and probably £30 each bridesmaid
Entertainment - a DJ £250
May have forgotten things Decorations for the venue- centrepieces ohs mum is doing, got a deal for chaircovers at £1 each, do you want favours? we are having a sweetie table which is costing us about £80

Disney_Pluto

Thanks everyone this is all so helpful. Gives me a rough idea of what to expect.

In regards to the photographer I don't want someone taking photos of me getting ready it's just not me so only want them when we get into the cars ready to go to the church then until our first dance.

Wedding dress I will likely get new from a dress shop although I would consider off peg if it's the right dress.

We only need one car as my parents neighbours have offered to drive my dads jag and their merc for my bridesmaids from church.

Cake, mum did offer but we want a sponge and she doesn't want to be making it the week of her daughters wedding. She's making my brother who gets married 3 months before us but he's got a fruit cake.

Invites friends making them including paying for materials as mum looks after her daughter free once a week.

In regards to extras people have posted:

Thank you cards friend had over 100 left from her wedding so she's given them to us. Don't need hotel for groom as he's staying at ours while I go to my parents, honeymoon we are paying for so not taking it in to consideration, we already go to a gym lol, wedding insurance already bought and paid for. Make up I'm doing myself. Save the dates got free from vistaprint. I don't want favours.

In regards to rings we are paying for each others, my other half wants to pay for all the suits and I want to pay for my bridesmaids.

It's been so helpful. I know it's difficult as everyone's budget is different but a rough guide is great.

Thank you.

sugarwalsh

Hi, my answers are in pink. We didn't spend that much compared to some, but a close friend thought we had spent about do4uble. I think the trick lies in calling in favouts, but not expecting people to do too much!

So:
Photographer £500 - from 10am - 10pm, 3330 images on a memory stick (Friend who is a professional.)
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5 Only bought OH's - about £100 from M and S, shoes about £50 M and S. Kids in mismatching but similar outfits - try Debenhams for the 5 year olds, their sales are great.
Wedding dress plus extras. Bought an ex- sample from shop, so £1300 dress cost £700 plus £40 to take it up
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 1/2 Bought different ones, but all in white for the girls. They were all kids and the most I spent was baout £50 per outfit. I bought dresses which reflected their ages.
1 car £20 for petrol plus some images - people setting up their business
Cake Gift from cousin-in-law. And it was stunning!
Invites (a friend and mum are making free) All stationery from Vista print, about £70 with delivery
Wedding rings mine - £330 ebay, his £50 Goldsmiths. Should have been £330 but good old Tesco helped
Gifts for people Didn't do any as we paid and organised it all!
Flowers £120, but did my own
Hair on the day £40 for me and oldest Bm
Entertainment - a DJ - ipod and band £600
May have forgotten things

I know it's hard to tell but really just looking at averages so at least have some idea of how much more we need.

Thanks for your help.[/QUOTE]

katie1812

This is what we are spending:

Photographer £725
Hiring suits x8 plus page boy age 5 Our suits are £80 to hire each, pageboy suit I got from Matalan and school trousers and shoes!
Wedding dress plus extras. My dress is £550, shoes £35, jewellery £25-30, veil £45, underwear £4
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 plus flower girl aged 2 1/2Bridesmaid dresses on eBay from china £28 each, flower girl dress from bhs £30 in sale!
1 car Ours is free as is a relatives - definitely the route I'd go, much cheaper and easier!
Cake Coming from M&S, I reckon about £70
Invites ours were about £30 (a friend and mum are making free)
Wedding rings Ouch for us here! We budgeted £250... Mine was £300 and his £400
Gifts for people Mums getting flowers, we also have we ends and vases for the reception tables which we are going to give away. Bridesmaids and pageboy will probs be about £10
Flowers £400.. That's for mine, three bridesmaids, flower girl, 13 buttonholes, 5 corsages, 10 pew ends and three bouquets for mums
Hair on the day A friend is doing my hair and make up for £50 including as many trials as I want
Entertainment - a DJ £225