Whats the most expensive and cheapest weddings you have been to and which was best?

Kaz2904

Mine cost £4000 8 years ago. We had the church wedding (had to pay extra as the vicar was really odd and insisted that we had to get an Archbishops licence at £130+ because we didn't live in the parish anymore (despite us going to the church more regularly than a lot of the parishoners and me having sung in the choir and having babysat the previous vicars children).
My dress was in the sale, DH made us our wedding invitations and printed the serviettes. We saw the bridesmaid dresses in Dotty P's who happened to give a student discount at the time! They worked out at £67.50 and the bridesmaids paid 1/2. Ushers and best man paid 1/2 for their suits (about £20 each but all of them wanted to know where stuff was being hired from before hand and had all hired their own suits when attending at a military wedding previously).
Found a fabulous hotel, old style and family run on the sea front. We had actually gone there the night before Bil's wedding and the food was great.
MiL wanted us to go to the same hotel as Bil which only charged £15 per head for food. This one charged £15 per head for food. They included colour coded table cloths and serviettes, and the table flowers.
DH and I spent an entire bank holiday weekend making the wedding favours. But they were beatiful!
I was raised by my Aunt and Uncle and I invited 3 of their very close sets of friends. One of whom does the flowers for the church. It was her turn to do the flowers and she had a set budget for flowers. She asked my Aunty to find out our colours and said she would do the flowers in our colours and would do pew ends for us as our wedding present.
We had a fantastic day and the only thing that I would change if I had to would be to get rid of the wedding car which wasted £250 (?+). I walked to the church. DH and his chaps came up to church in it way before anyone arrived. I was going to hire the black cab we have and expect to pay a little more. Mil insisted that we had a car for the photos despite me saying I was walking to the church (you'd never think she'd known financial hardship would you?!).

Anyway, everyone loved the church and the hotel. There were plenty of comments about how lovely it was there.

Sarahlou_2

pinkshoes wrote: »

Weddings are SO overrated. Far too much politics about who you OUGHT to invite etc... and people getting stroppy because you don't invite them.

My parents recently attended a medium budget wedding, with 80 guests and a buffet meal served by the hotel. My parents were on table 10 of 10, and when they arrived at the buffet, there was nothing but potato wedges left, and a few scraps of chicken! A bit strange, as guests were being served by hotel staff so weren't just helping themselves to masses of food! Turns out the last 3 tables had got very little food, and the hotel just claimed that it was all the couple had paid for, even though they'd paid for a buffet for 80 people, so refused to put out any more food.

If that wasn't upsetting enough for the bride and groom, the hotel also ran out of lager by 8pm, and then at the end of the night when they were shown to the honeymoon suite, which had been booked 12 months in advance, they were horrified to find it was not the room they had booked, and just a normal room. The hotel then told them they'd given it to a family who had needed a bigger room!

Just goes to show that hotels are more interested in making money than customer service...

I went to a great wedding for 500 people, where they had a giant marquis (sp??) on a farm, roasted 2 entire pigs on spits, and each family were asked to bring a home made desert... Budget very low, but such a great wedding!

When we got married, we had booked the wedding two years in advance. But unepectedly had a baby 12 weeks before the big day - an unexpected guest lol! Therefore we had to dramatically cut our budget.
On the day we realised we hadn't ordered enough wine but the managers were fantastic. Discreetly informed us of the problem and supplied 5 extra bottles on the house bless them! Our was at a 3 star hotel.

However I attended a friends 5 star wedding last year where the same happened and the staff spoke to people appallingly. Seems the more you pay the worse service you get!

Sarahlou_2

lolababy wrote: »

How about asking guests to bring a tray of food thats picked from a list and a bottle. You could do this instead of asking for wedding presents. Hire a village hall. Make your own flower arrangements. Ask for wedding things on freecycle. Use ebay for dress suits ect.
Buy your cake from Marksn Spencer.
Buy napkins glasses from pound land. Our poundland have wedding invitations . Cover the chairs in white sheets with ribbon.Ask the local paper to take wedding photographs. You could ask local florists cake makers for discount if the paper mentions their products.
Brew your own booze . Have a table for childrens food. Ask at the local college for trainee nursery nurses who need experience with children. Saves the kids getting bored and gives parents a rest..

I bought mine from M&S..oh god.... went to pick it up the week before the wedding. They brought the boxes out and I just happened to look at one of the teirs and all the icing was smashed. I went biserk and the manager said "oh yes. The delivery man dropped it". What???????????????????????!!

After many tears in the middle of Accrington Marks and Spencers they agreed to bring one up in a taxi from London with a bottle of free champagne. (Still charged us though :mad:). They delivered it to my mum's the day before the wedding and left it in her front room in a green crate type thing. Later that night my mum went dashing into the room, forgot it was there and tripped over it, narrowly missed landing on it.....

Moral of the story - arrange the collection date well in advance!!!!

Bloody yummy cake though.........:rotfl:

Hardup_Hester

My friend's DD got married May 2008 & paid £28000 it was all done in a hotel & they hened it up badly.
My DD got married November 2008 & spent £300, 2 bridesmaids a pageboy, reception at TGI Friday, cake from Costco etc

Sharra

A friend of mine went to a wedding in Vegas a few weeks ago - over 30 people all flown out there, put up in hotel, the full works.
I just sat in stunned silence when she told me that they went to a restaurant after the wedding and the meal for 30 people was £10k!! And their bar bill for the evening before was 2k! I didn't have a voice to ask how much the whole thing must have cost.

absolutebounder

Best wedding was my own. Had it at St Audries park Somerset. saw venue againg on Beeb 4 last night on a prog about weddings. couldnt fault the venue or its organisation and it wasnt expensive.

ilovecheese

Cheapest wedding - My own!

Spent a grand total of about £500 and organised it in 3 weeks from start to finish!

Haven't been to a really expensive wedding, most I think would have been about £5,000.

Interesting point though, I got married at the same time as two work mates, they both had the 2 years planning and spent thousands of pounds, both are now divorced!

skintchick

Sarahlou wrote: »

When we got married, we had booked the wedding two years in advance. But unepectedly had a baby 12 weeks before the big day - an unexpected guest lol! Therefore we had to dramatically cut our budget.
On the day we realised we hadn't ordered enough wine but the managers were fantastic. Discreetly informed us of the problem and supplied 5 extra bottles on the house bless them! Our was at a 3 star hotel.

However I attended a friends 5 star wedding last year where the same happened and the staff spoke to people appallingly. Seems the more you pay the worse service you get!

This is what I meant about the inverse snobbery.

You have taken one incident and extrapolated that out to encompass every other venue in the country or even world!

My venue was costly and the service was impeccable. Good places (as opposed to rubbish places that charge a lot - there is a difference) will give you excellent service. Although obviously cheap places can and do also give good service, it's got nothing to do with the amount you are paying.

MadDogWoman_2

Hi,

I got married 10 years ago, I have no idea how much it cost my parents won't tell me! It was less than 10K though.

The most expensive item was my dress (approx £1k, including alterations etc), a lovely oyster coloured silk.

Hired a hotel halfway between the towns where are 2 sides live, with first drinks free for the guests then a pay bar. The food was stunning, the guests still talk about it to this day!

The only downer was that due to false nails and too much tia maria and coke I couldn't get my contact lenses out at the end of the night so ended up with really sore eyes the next morning. Not fun when you have to drive to Gatwick from the Northwest!