How much did you spend and for what?

supersaverkerry

Hi

My friend had enlisted my help to plan her wedding for 18 months time, she has a budget of £8,000 for May, June or July wedding which i thought was pretty massive! She says it is actually quite small and on doing a search I found the average cost is over £20,000 :eek:

So now I am wondering what people spend on their big day and what you got for your money?

She has said to work on 50 guests for the ceremony and meal and 80 for evening with buffet and entertainment.

Unfortunately she is quite unwell with chronic fatigue and other health issues so is leaving a lot of the research to me and I really want to take some lovely ideas to her because she really does deserve an amazing day, so thought I would seek out advice here :j

cashewnut

Food and drink is the biggie regarding cost. Can her fiance not help her plan? I say that as planning a wedding is hard work! In order of cost for my wedding (next march) it goes:

Food and drink/reception venue
Ceremony venue and registrars' fees
Outfits for bridal party
Photographer
Car
Flowers
Cake

We're having our music hooked up from a laptop rather than paying for a DJ or band.

cashewnut

Also, I'm not doing this but hiring a town/village hall for the reception is cheap! But you then have to sort out catering etc. You can Google the different venues in the area she wants to get married

celticcurl

Hi I have cfs and fibromyalgia, I got married in July this year.

Because of my health I needed to consider it's likely impact on a really long day. I wanted to be able to enjoy my wedding day and not flake out part way through.

We got married late in the day 4.45pm. This meant I had a lie in in the morning and didn't get up until 10am.

We had the reception in the same place as the ceremony.
After the ceremony we had nibbles served with the welcome drinks whilst photos were taken. This was followed by a sit down meal of main course only. We then quickly cut the cake and the entertainment started.

There was an ice-cream bar and chocolate buffet for people to help themselves when they wanted and tea and coffee was available from the bar (but paid for by us). It made for a relaxing evening rather than spending up to 3 hours on a formal meal.

About 9.30pm cheese platters were served to the tables.

We had 127 guests and the whole day cost just over £7000.

I hope this helps.

firebird082

Our budget is around £8000, which is covering: church wedding + reception at village hall (we're paying someone to do the decorating for us), afternoon tea for 80, 2 live bands (1 afternoon, 1 evening (ceilidh)) and a hogroast to feed around 120 in the evening. You need to pick your suppliers carefully, but I'm really excited about our day. I suppose it depends what sort of thing she wants...! I don't have expensive tastes, which helps

Fuzzy_Duck

I think with her budget and guest numbers a hotel package might be her best bet. Plenty do £1000 deals where you get a meal for 50 people and can invite more for the evening do. If she does that the catering would be easily sorted through them and they might even have a DJ she could use for the entertainment.

A village hall would be cheap and give greater flexibility but it is a lot of work finding suppliers and decorating the venue- I spent two years planning my wedding and whilst we had a good day I still wish we'd eloped. It just wasn't worth the stress- I can't even imagine planning someone elses wedding!

I think if you're going to do this for her she needs to at least let you know what her priorities are- the venue and catering will cost the most so then it's a case of whether she wants to spend a substantial amount on photography/outfits/etc.

dipsy

this is long and hope it does the colours

this is our list

wedding on a saturday at a old fashioned place in the middle of nowhere - stop them escaping lol


for 50 sit down meal and 100 for the evening


pink is sorted
blue is in hand
red is either a maybe or to be sorted, there are things like fireworks which are not likely to happen and the live singer is still not firm as it is alot of money

Total is at the end

Cake £100.00
DJ £220.00
Venue ** £150.00
Meal ** £1,750.00
eve buffet ** £712.50
Extra 25 for even buffet £356.25
corkage £8 pb £192.00
Arrival drink ** £208.75
Total Deal for ** £0.00
Room for the night ** £0.00
Breakfast with guests in morning £0.00
Room for ceremony £0.00
accomodation for night before wedding £357.00
Registrar £479.00
Save The Date Magnets £0.00
Envelopes for the save the dates £4.99
Postage for save the dates £3.60
Signs £8.00
Insurance £39.50
Easel Stand for seating plan £0.00
Chair covers £150.00
Mirrors £0.00
swag for Cake table £0.00
swag for top table £0.00
Table Center Pieces £0.00
LED candles for center pieces £5.98
Stands for Table numbers £0.00
scatter crystals or petals £5.97
Guest Book £2.99
Knife £0.00
Cake Stand/table £0.00
Cake boxes £21.00
candles spelling Mr & Mrs for top table £16.00
Photographer £250.00
Favour bags £5.50
Wine Charms £11.94
Love Hearts £8.57
thank you tabs with ribbon £3.52
Wine /beer covers £20.00
Toast Drink (£8 corkage) Maybe not… saves £116.58 on corkage and cost of wine
Rings £980.00
Cars £110.00
Wedding gift list £39.00
Website £0.00
Lilac tea lights £3.00
Lace for tea lights £8.34
Dress £668.50
under skirt £10.98
Hair bits £3.62
Bag £5.00
shoes £14.25
Groom Suit (tie/waistcoat/hanky/jacket/trousers ** £300.00
Bestman suit ** (Adrian) £0.00
Dad ** £0.00
Liam suit ** £0.00
Usher (Alexander) Suit **(wearing uniform now) £0.00
Spare suit £0.00
Box for flip flops £0.00
Sparklers £3.50
basket x 2 (one for mens /one for ladies toilets) £4.00
Lilac Straws £5.00
A4 Frames x 4 for signs £2.98
Bridesmaid Dress £25.98
Stuff for Activity box for Page boy £1.95
Nails £0.00
invites 23.75
Postage for Invites £0.00
RSVP/ Song Request £0.00
Place Cards £0.00
Post box £1.98
Table numbers £0.50
Jewelry £0.00
Flowers £117.50
Hair for Bride £12.00
Make up for Bride £25.00
Groom Shoes
Page boy outfit **
Button holes £0.00
Table seating plan £0.00
Decs for the center pieces £50.00
Door Hangers £0.00
stands for place cards £0.00
Tissue paper for Cake Boxes £0.00
entertainment/charactiuirst £240.00
Piper (to pipe into ceremony) £0.00
Tabs for sparklers £0.00
Jigsaw puzzle wooden type thing/drop box £19.00
Miniture spirit bottles/mini prosseco (use for toast)? £52.38
personalised labels for mini prosseco £0.00
28 bottles of wine this is to buy the wine, 18 red and 10 white (28) - need 25 for tables £41.02
Picture of Mum & Dad (both sets) £0.00
Picture of us as kids for toilet doors £0.00
Charging station, multi for various phones £5.00
Hair for Bridesmaid £12.00
Sign for Be wise don't drink and drive with taxi numbers on £0.00
Sign Im still single to go on back of Caleb's chair £0.00
Live singer £375.00
Glass for cake table £50.04
Evening dress tbc
Evening Shoes tbc
Honey Moon tbc
Thoughtful room bags (charger/toothbrush/local biscuits/water/drink etc) tbc
Instagram Sign tbc
mini easels for signs (toilet (2), facebook (1), instagram (1) flipflops on basket with ribbon tbc
CD of playlist tbc
Thank you cards tbc
Bridesmaid gift x 1 tbc
bestman gift x1 tbc
Usher gift x 2 tbc
Activity Box tbc
Gift for Groom £4.44
Flip flops £30.00
Underwear tbc
Mr & Mrs Sign £0.00
Coat hangers with dates etc on them x 4 groom/bride/bm/MOH £10.00
Fireworks tbc


Total £8,338.77

ellay864

Dipsy you have a lot of things there with no cost on them...does that mean that they're gifting or somebody else is paying for them? A lot of people say their wedding budget has come in at a certain amount when in fact it came in a lot higher but the cost to the bride/groom was reduced by others paying. I'm particulary intrigued by the free piper

It also depends so much on the individual...what is essential to one bride might be seen as totally unnecessary to another. For me the photographer was worth paying for but I really don't get the whole chair covers thing. My hubby is a mobile DJ and it never ceases to amaze us how some people pay an absolute fortune for small details but want to scrimp on DJ or band which will take up several hours of the day and hopefully add to the atmosphere. Each to their own I guess but it's so hard to compare one bride's budget with another for that reason

inkie

My daughter is marrying in June And we are happy to pay for the wedding.
So far we have spent:
Dress 69.00
Veil 15.00
Tiara 5.00
Shoes 13.00
Photography 600
Reception (inc cake) 1000 (afternoon tea for 50)
Stationery (invites, order of service, matching thank you cards) 25.00 I made them
Flowers budgeting £100
Special licence for chapel £310
Bridesmaid dresses £50
Bridesmaid access £60
Post-ceremony drinks £40 DIY
Transport free (hubby has a classic jag that we will use)

So certainly doable on a budget

Honeymoon and suits etc grooms costs

ladymarmalade

It is all relative. £8,000 is a healthy budget but your friend is right the 'average' (whatever that means) is closer to £27,000 the last time I checked.

It also depends on the priorities of the couple....my husband and I are foodies and that's what everyone knows us for so for us food was a big part of our day (unfortunately expensive too). We ended up having a three course meal for about 60 people (everyone had a choice of three for each course) and then a hog roast for 150 guests in the evening. We also had a drinks package for the daytime guests. We therefore spend nearly £7,000 on food but to use it was worth it.
We saved money elsewhere though, we got good deals on the suits...I got 20% off of all my bridesmaid outfits as I bought them at the same time as my dress, I found a local jewelery maker who made all of my jewelery and tiara for a fraction of what I would have paid in the shos etc.

One of our friends is a good dj and did the music for us, we provided no other entertainment other than some outdoor games and trivia/ice breakers on the tables. We also didn't provide favours....we chose instead to make gift bags for all the kids under 11 who were there all day which had things like pencil crayons, colouring books, skipping ropes, slinkies, toy cars etc.
Flowers were not especially important to me as they die anyway and my MIL made a miniature sugar work replica of my bouquet which I still have. I think my bouquet, 3 bridesmaid bouquets and all the button holes were about £120.

Both my husband and myself had a great day and were happy with where we spent our money!

hidden_sacrifice

It depends on what your priorities are. Ours is coming in at £11000. There were certain things we wanted for the wedding that we splashed out on - the cars, the entertainment, a sit down meal, a good photographer. But then to save - I went to a factory outlet for all of the dresses, I handmade my invites and favour boxes, we are buying a cheap, plain wedding cake, etc.