Realistic Wedding Budget

Sarahj1590

Hi All,

I know this is a money saving site so obviously a lot of posts are going to be about doing a wedding on the cheap but I want to know the costs of an 'average' wedding.

I don't find google very helpful for this as I find it just combines the extremely extravagant with what I would consider average.

I have a rough budget outlined below, we have chosen the venue so that is the only thing I am certain on price-wise, is this realistic costs for things? Am I missing anything out? Thanks in advance!

Venue £5,000
Caterers £2,500
Dress, shoes, veil, jewellery, beauty £1,500
Suits £500
Photographer £1,000
Invitations, decorations, favours £500
Drinks (via venue) £1,000
Cake £500 Cars £500
Music/band £500
Rings £500
Florists £500
Bridesmaids dresses £500
Honeymoon £2000

benjus

It's a pretty much impossible question to answer, I think, as every couple have different ideas of what is important. We probably spent a similar amount to your total, but with rather different distribution. For example, we didn't really want live music (other than a short set from the bride's brother who plays flamenco guitar) so the music budget was just the cost of hiring an amplifier and speaker system. We prepared Spotify playlists in advance instead of getting a DJ, and just let guests change music as the evening went on. We also saved on the flowers by letting the people from the flower guild decorate the church and buying flowers for the reception venue at a wholesale flower market, and our venue was cheaper. On the other hand, we spent about double your figure on the food, and probably a little more on drinks (which we supplied).

I don't see anything on your budget for the cost of the actual wedding (as opposed to the reception, clothes, etc). If it's a church wedding with organist, bell ringers etc you're probably talking about £1000; I'm not sure about what they charge for civil weddings.

mai_taylor

I think that's too low for a band, it would be more like £800 - £1000 at the low end but if you have a d.j. it would be a lot cheaper.

It depends how many flowers you want and what's in season but if you don't have anything specific in mind a florist should be able to work to that budget.

Everything else totally depends, I spent £60 on my bridesmaid but I only had one and went to the high street to get her dress. You can spend as much or as little as you want on most things. We didn't have wedding cars because I stayed the night before at the venue, and my cousin made our cake as a wedding present.

One thing I would say is to have a little bit factored in for going over budget and make sure you take out wedding insurance.

firebird082

Venue £5,000 - this seems reasonable if you're going posh country house type venue.

Caterers £2,500 - our catering costs are £2500 for 90 people, afternoon tea and evening hogroast. 'Wedding breakfast' type things can be astonishingly expensive. If you've booked your venue, they might limit your catering options. Check this out.

Dress, shoes, veil, jewellery, beauty £1,500 - seems reasonable

Suits £500 - my estimate is £300 for 5 suits (Groom, best man, father of the bride, 2 ushers) from one of the big hire companies.

Photographer £1,000 - depends where you are and how much coverage you want. We paid £600 for coverage for whole thing except evening session by using a photographer from Shropshire who is willing to travel.

Invitations, decorations, favours £500 - Invitations - remember save the dates, and for a church wedding, order of service as well. Also, postage costs add up. What do you mean by decorations? Does your venue need extra decorating? Table decorations? Also, favours: a lovely idea, but costs can add up very quickly. These are an easy thing to leave out (barely anyone will notice).

Drinks (via venue) £1,000 - pay bar? We are providing a welcome drink and prosecco for toasting for 90, plus a pay bar: total cost of £420.

Cake £500: No idea - costs were so extortinate when I looked that we are getting a friend to make it and serving it as dessert in the evening...

Cars £500: Again, no idea, have a friend with vintage car who is driving me for free.

Music/band £500 - depends on your band I think. We are actually having 2 bands, total cost of £900 (live music v important to us - and I have contacts with both bands, so they are both cheaper than average).

Rings £500: Again, depends on what you want and type of metal. If you want anything other than plain bands this may well be more costly.

Florists £500: Are you decorating a church as well as the reception venue? I''ve budgeted about this for both, meeting with my florist next month, so unsure on exact costs yet.

Bridesmaids dresses £500: how many are you having, and what sort of dresses? Mine are wearing dresses that cost £30 each...

Honeymoon £2000: Your choice, depends where you are going! I have not budgeted this as part of wedding costs, as it will be our holiday for next year. Separate budget

As benjus said, church weddings are relatively expensive - around £500 for the basics, plus a couple of hundred for bellringers if wanted, £100 additional for organist etc.

Other than that, you seem to have all the major things in there. But I would say, don't worry about what you 'should' have, just do what you both want!

Our total budget is around £8000, but the main difference is that we are hiring a village hall for the reception, which rather changes how the figures add up (e.g. decorating the hall, staffing for catering etc).

Re wedding insurance - it depends how 'traditional' your are being - many of our suppliers are just individual people, and the amounts we would get back if we had to cancel don't at all fit with what we're spending, so we are going without. E.g. £1000 for cars - irrelevent!

I over-budgeted on some items - some turned out to be more than I anticipated, and others less. It's always nice to have a bit spare, so definitely keep a contingency fund.

Sarahj1590

Thank you for all your replies, I've found them very useful! I didn't even think of the cost of the church!

I just sort made an educated guess (by which I mean 'Googled') on the cost of things then added a bit on.

The venue has a selected list of caterers, and one in particular seems very flexible. I want a traditional 3 course wedding breakfast for 50 people, then a chilli buffet in the evening.

Firebird, what do you mean by pay bar?

I don't want a DJ and the venue has a built-in speak system in which you can connect your ipod, so I just sort of wanted a band for a little bit in the evening for some entertainment, hence why I thought £500 would suffice?

I don't know what I meant by decorations! And you're right about the favours... if I have time/money that can always be a last minute thing. So is £500 for save the dates, invitations and postage enough? We are having 50 guests (but obviously a lot of these are couples/families, and 20 evening).

I'm having FIVE bridesmaids! So I was thinking like £70 per dress and £30 for hair? They can wear their own shoes and it's their choice if they want makeup.

Flowers worry me, as although I'm not that fussed I feel like I need a lot... my bouquet, 5 bridesmaids bouquets, wedding buttons, and then flowers for the tables as a centrepiece. I'm not bothered about the church.

duchy

Depending on the church and the time of year it may be decorated anyway -if you are a member of the congregation often the flowers will be at cost.

I think at this point you should be talking to the wedding planner about what is included at the venue -for example how they decorate the tables and if you want your own decorations added (if needed) whether they will add them or if you need someone at the venue to do it.

Plenty of brides have non fresh flower centrepieces - many are homemade.

Invitations/save the dates don't need to be professionally printed if you have access to a decent printer and the time to design and print them yourself.

A band will usually charge you for the whole evening as they have the same travel costs regardless and it usually blocks them for the entire evening so you might want to have them for more than a little bit as it'll probably cost the same. Have you considered what type of band and style of music ?

Make sure you are clear if any quotes especially catering and photographer include VAT or not

DomRavioli

Pay bar - guests pay for their own drinks at the bar.
Free bar - guests either have a certain time limit or a number of vouchers to use at the bar which is prepaid by yourselves.

Dresses for bridesmaids - take them to Debenhams/House of Fraser etc. Super cheap and can get different styles in the same colour, as I'm guessing they aren't all exactly the same shape/size/style.

A band will only play for an hour or so, 2 at the most, so unless you're having a 2 hour evening reception, you may want to rethink the DJ thing. Some bands do both live music and a DJ set.

Invitations - depends what you want. If you can cope with something cheap and from Card Factory, you could do it for £50. If you want hand made individual things, then you may find costs running up. Shop around.

Flowers - that depends on what you want again! Roses are very expensive (and a little done to death at weddings, but each to their own); ask your florist for prices based on what you want.

firebird082

Sarahj1590 wrote: »

Firebird, what do you mean by pay bar?

I don't know what your venue is like, but pay bar is when you arrange for there to be a bar available, but your guests pay for their own drinks

"I just sort of wanted a band for a little bit in the evening for some entertainment, hence why I thought £500 would suffice?"

Consider this from the band's point of view - someone offers them a whole evening gig on a Saturday (?) and another person wants them to do a just an hour in the middle for less money. Which option would you take? It might help if you write down a timeline and see how everything fits in. Also, check out some options and start contacting some people to get pricing guidelines.

I don't know what I meant by decorations!

So take that out of the planning and add it to contingency for now. It will become obvious as you talk to the wedding planner (if you have one) or the venue whether you need extra.

So is £500 for save the dates, invitations and postage enough? We are having 50 guests (but obviously a lot of these are couples/families, and 20 evening).

It's loads. We're posting around 50 invitations for 90 people. And you can do invitations on the cheap quite easily without them looking cheap.

I'm having FIVE bridesmaids! So I was thinking like £70 per dress and £30 for hair? They can wear their own shoes and it's their choice if they want makeup.

Just remember that long dresses cost more than short - you'd be better off budgeting £90 for a long dress or £50/60 for a short.

Flowers worry me, as although I'm not that fussed I feel like I need a lot... my bouquet, 5 bridesmaids bouquets, wedding buttons, and then flowers for the tables as a centrepiece. I'm not bothered about the church.

Silk flowers? I think that the flowers decorating the church and venue (if you have them) are considerably more costly than the bouquet. They'll be cheaper if you go for seasonal flowers as well.

Sarahj1590

Ah, I see. Our venue has a pay bar included in the venue cost. The budget for drinks was for a proseco reception and wine for the tables during the meal.

For bridesmaids dresses I'm thinking somewhere like Coast (in the sale).

I'll rethink the band situation but I don't think it's worth getting a DJ, the wedding planner at the venue said most people make a Spotify playlist and just stick that on?

In regards to the invitations I actually know a couple of graphic designers so could maybe ask them to do it (never thought of this, so thank you!)

I'm not fussed what flowers I actually have as long as I have some

Thanks for all your advice, i'm finding this very useful!

benjus

duchy wrote: »

Depending on the church and the time of year it may be decorated anyway -if you are a member of the congregation often the flowers will be at cost.

The church where we got married gave us 2 options for flowers (both organised by the church flower guild) - their choice based on what was available at the flower market, or done to our specification. The 2nd option was about 4 times more expensive, so we went for the first.

benjus

Sarahj1590 wrote: »

the wedding planner at the venue said most people make a Spotify playlist and just stick that on?

I think doing several playlists is a good idea - you can have a main one that can just run for most of the time, but include a few for specific moods - e.g. fun, high energy, oldies etc. so that the mood can be tweaked. There's never a shortage of wannabe DJs to take care of it for you... Switch on Crossfade to remove gaps between songs, and remember to download the playlists so they are available offline and you don't need to rely on an internet connection. Preferably do this to several devices in case of issues with one.