How much was your wedding?

AndyBSG

I can give you a full breakdown for my wedding as i've still got my spreadsheet from 5 years ago

For the day we had 107 adults and 21 kids with an additional 44 guests for the evening. The whole thing was held at the same venue which pretty much only does weddings so was a registrar affair with no separate church ceremony.

Venue hire - £1,500
107 Adult meals - £4,226.50
21 child meals - £414.75
40 bottles wine - £758
20 jugs lager - £300
Welcome drinks(35 pimms, 35 bucks fizz, 40 lager) - £500
Evening buffet - £1751.60
DJ - £350
Magician - £245
Photographer - £700
Flowers - £259

We also put £2,000 behind the bar which lasted most of the night(we did limit it to single mixers, wine and beer though so no double vodka red bulls or Jagermeisters).

This doesn't include the cost of the gifts for the bridal party, wedding dress, wedding rings or suit hire. We also did all the table decorations ourselves.

Grand total £13,004.85.

For the number of guests we had I think we got terrific value. We didn't go completely outlandish but neither did we really cut corners and it was a beautiful barn venue with plenty of food and no one going hungry.

Everyone had plenty to drink and I think they only had to start paying for their own for the last 30-60 minutes.

Obviously we could have cut the free bar, reduced the table wine/lager slightly, scrapped the magician and probably shaved around 3 to 5 grand off but we paid for it all ourselves.

If we had booked a venue that allowed you to supply your own drink and get an external cater in we also would have been able to shave quite a bit off.

Our primary aim was to not get into debt over it and only pay with money we had so we did have to do a lot of saving but if we didn't have the money we would have shaved that off somewhere as we didn't want to start married life in debt... We just started it without any savings left instead

sillyvixen

2015, total costs came in at £4,500 including reception for 85 people and free bar all evening, food and drink paid for by my parents. My dress was made by a family friend who is a self employed seamstress she charged £100 pounds (including altering my mum's outfit) and would not take any more. fabric, pattern and zips etc cost about £40! .

hugheskevi

Married in 2012 at age 34. Family did not contribute, didn't borrow anything. Approximately 70 guests. Costs were:

Registrar £418
Venue £350
Stationery £124
Seat covers £252
Flowers £655
Make-up and hair £80
Cake £284
String Quartet £400
Dress £270
Suit/shirt/shoes/tie/pocket square £150
Wedding favours £70
Taxis £98
Photographer £495
Car £325
Meal, Reception drinks Wine/corkage £4,445
Champagne £192
Total £8,607

Don't think I'd waste so much nowadays looking down that list

Ziggazee

Just over £4,000. £2,000 contribution from my father (my husbands parents are both deceased). I bought a secondhand dress for just under £200 (was £3,500 new).


We had the most amazing day with lots of friends and family at a beautiful country house near where we live. We got married at 4.00pm so no daytime meal but had a fantastic night 'do' with food.


Our biggest expense was getting the singer from Benidorm, Asa Elliot, (and he's also appeared in the tv series).


No debt whatsoever :-)

pimento

My first wedding in 1986 was £3000 paid for by my dad (who advised me to elope and he'd give me the money).

My last wedding (coming up in January 2018) we're taking my dad's advice and eloping. There will be me, him, my 25 year old son and his friend as witnesses. The cost will be £145.00 plus the flight and hotel to Glasgow where my son lives. They come to about £400 as we've gone 5*.

I already have a frock that I have worn before to another do and he already has a suit. No flowers or music just a swift in and out at the Registry Office and then a few glasses of fizz.

Piggywinkle

Got wed back in 2010 and still wed now.

I like to think I'm a true moneysaver, I was so frivolous in my youth and it bit me in the bum so I learned the hard way - I called in so many favours for our wedding that everyone assumed it cost a fortune, when it was the opposite.

Church - £500
Honeymoon - Cheap and cheerful all inclusive in the Costas - £800
Stationery - nil, I did the invites myself.
Dress - £250 (bespoke but made in China - I realise I was very lucky.)
Bridesmaid dresses x 4 - £80 (excellent made-to-measure Chinese knockoffs!)
Rings - nowt. A gift from MIL.
Hair - nil, my friend's friend was a hairdresser. She paid for it as a wedding gift.
Flowers - £30 mates rates. Old school friend married my cousin and is a florist.
Photographer - £100 (a long term friend who just wanted the money to cover a lens hire)
Car - nil (a bloke with a classic car owed hub's dad a favour!)
Disco - £100 (hubs work colleague's side business)
Buffet for 200 guests - £260 (my aunt is a buffet wizard - people still talk about how good the food was)
Cake - £25 - bought 2 plain iced M&S fruit cakes with a sponge cake for top tier. Decorated myself and bought a topper from ebay and personalised.
Reception venue - £100 but refundable. They made a fortune at the bar from 200 plus wedding guests.

So just over 2k with other bits and bobs. We had a brilliant day! You know what they say, it ain't what you know, it's who you know!

Fireflyaway

About £1200 for the actual wedding ( we were married abroad). The total for 2 weeks accommodation for us and my parents and daughter was around £10,000.

pixo

Our wedding cost approx. £3000. We had a small wedding that was perfect in every way for us.

choccielover

An embarrassingly eye watering amount 8 years ago, more than we paid for our first home 4 years earlier in fact.....

Still together and just as in love as ever proving the previous poster wrong

£5k gifted from the parents, rest paid ourselves and no debt.

An amazing day we remember each and every moment of and have no regrets over.

jimbo747

Ours cost £9k some 10 years ago, a third of that went on wedding dress, but was worth every penny. Lovely wedding at riber hall, sit down meal and chatting and drinking with guests until early evening when they all sodded off and left us to it which was fantastic.

We hate wedding discos with a passion, the thought of kids racing around, embarrassing grannie dancing, s**t music, tacky disco lights, crap buffet food, people sat at sides not talking because it's too loud....eurgh.