Budget?

Tweetinat

Hiya,

I just read in a magazine that the average wedding spend is £21.5k!!! I wouldn't dream of spending that much. We haven't set a budget yet, so looking for advice!

- How much did you budget for your wedding.
- How much did you overspend by.
- If you could do it again, would you increase or decrease it.

Cheers,

Nat

Hapless_2

My wedding, budget £700, was £450 all in!

NorthernAngel_2

Hapless wrote: »

My wedding, budget £700, was £450 all in!

:eek: how on earth did you manage that!!

i wish i had've discovered this forum before i started all my preps. Im getting married in 11 weeks and all in all ive spent about 3k, thats not including a honeymoon though.

airforce_beret

i get married next march and keep a spreadsheet to budget...the cost is up at £13000....at the moment! yikes!

loopylass81

Hapless wrote: »

My wedding, budget £700, was £450 all in!

Can I be cheeky! Can you give us a breakdown of your budget???


Thanks :j

halia

OUr budget was around £2,000. Its five eyars ago so can't give exact figures for all of it but i know we came in on budget.

good buys
Invitations: designed and printed at work, packed in homemade boxes covered in pretty paper, cost of paper, gold leaf, etc £50
Dress: pronuptua off the rack - marked down at end of season sale. £250 (was £600)
DH suit: Boden linen and silk ivory suit - looked great with a homemade pink and gold waistcoat to go with colour scheme and he has worn it to 6 other events since. £250
Flowers: bought in bulk from trade place online, 200 roses in pinks delivered for £150 and arranged on the morning by me, mum and Bridesmaid
Cake - an iced fruit cake from an organic bakery for £30, decorated with feather and roses on the day of wedding
room decorated with fairy lights, roses and sparklers £50
photography - none just guests taking their own photo's and passing copies onto us via CD's
transport - none we held wedding and reception at a hotle licensed for civil ceremonies
attendants outfits- none, we didn't really have attendants. My brothers GF helped me get ready and DH old friend hung onto the ring for him.
Rings: £20 white gold ones from argos - we're not into jewellry!
Music: mixed my own tapes and took CD's to play on brothers Boombox
Entertainment: fireworks - £200 let off by DH and friend

My parents offered to pay for the meal and we spent £1,200 extra on a package for two weeks in a private villa on a greek island with small boat hire included , in JUNE! - fantastic holiday thouroughly recomend the company (planos holidays) and the island (Paxos). That was our holiday for the year as well as honeymoon.

anniecave

Food is a big cost. Depending on where you have the reception affects how much you spend on food. I know people who've hired out places where you can do your own catering, then someone organises all the food (as opposed to having a catering service do it or paying for a hotel or whoever do do it). Much cheaper if you can do this. People at the church that I go have had the wedding reception there, then all the facilities for cooking are there on site.

Ask a friend who's good at photography to take some photos for you.

Arrange for people you know to do transport in their vehicles.

Emms

We spent just about £4500 on wedding and honeymoon.

Heres the costs I have on my spreadsheet.



Registrar Fees £230

Wedding Suite £100
Meal per head £19
Total Meal £663
Buffet per head £4.50
Total Buffet £338
Corkage £298
Nibbles per head £1
Nibbles total £35
Hotel Total £1,458

Wine £183
Photographer £270
Chocolate Fountain £375
Make Up £120
Cake £100
DJ £125
Castle Fee £100

Flights £534
Hotel £441

Invites £40
Dress £180
Bridesmaid Dress £100
Best Womans Dress £150
Shoes £20
Guest book £10
Photo Album £10
Favours £30
Flowers £140
Accessories £50
Confetti £5
Stamps £30
Taxi £50


Total £4,751

Were due to get £300 back as we cut down the numbers for meal and buffet. My dress was second hand from ebay so thats why it was so cheap, we got our rings with Clubcard deals vouchers at Goldsmiths. Hubbies outfit isnt included in that as he bought a full kilt outfit but that wasnt just for the wedding as he will use it again over the years. The only transport was the taxi bus that we hired to take the family to Stirling Castle for the wedding pics. Didnt need wedding cars as I got ready in the hotel in the morning and the wedding and reception were in the same hotel.


Emma

Tweetinat

Thanks for the replies - there's so much difference between most and least, but it's great to see that you *can* do it without spending a fortune

newlywed

We spent about £4k.

We made the invites.
Mum made the dresses.
I made the tiaras.
Friends drove their nice cars.
Had a reception in a village hall.
Friends and family all brought food for the buffet meal.
We got wine on a trip to france.
Honeymoon was self-catering.

Edit: Wouldn't have changed anything about the wedding. The honeymoon - perhaps just stayed in a different town on the island but would still have gone self catering. Loved getting up late and deciding where to eat breakfast/dinner etc

Unknown1234_2

Planning on spending 5K in total not inc honeymoon