Marriage Costs

Gloomendoom

emperorstevee wrote: »

Hello everyone,

Myself and my partner are planning on getting married. My partner has been doing the planning and she tells me that it is going to cost £17k. We make less than £20k/yr combined. I know that weddings cost a lot, but £17k seems an awful lot?

My first wedding cost barely more than £100. That was a rock bottom Scottish elopement and included the registrar's fee and £10 each for two old ladies as witnesses.

My second was a more lavish church affair with 150+ guests, all day free bar, food and a US road trip honeymoon. It cost around 6k in total.

There are loads of threads on here and in the marriage boards where people have shared their ideas on how to keep wedding cost down. You need to cut your cloth to suit your pocket. Work out what is really important to you and ditch the rest.

paddy's_mum

What does she want the most - you or her "dream day"?

bertiewhite

We spent £1500 - local church wedding, a small spread in the local pub, wife found her dream wedding dress on ebay, a friend did the disco, guests provided photos for the album etc etc.

The only extra on top of the £1500 was the honeymoon.

pollypenny

Is she mad?

How on earth can anyone fund that sort of cost on those earnings? A serious discussion is needed.

Chickabiddybex

I suggest looking on the wedding board: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142

Where abouts do you live (roughly) and how many guests are you thinking of? That will help us to estimate. My wedding was smallish (50 day guests and 80-100 evening guests) and in a low cost part of the country so it didn't set us back too much.

FreddieFrugal

I agree - that amount is stupid, especially compared to your earnings.

Will you be having to take out loans to cover the cost?

You don't have to spend lots of money to have a great day. We really enjoyed our wedding day - the whole thing (ceremony, meal, venue, wedding dress, groom suit, invitations etc.) was less than £2K.

Wife's parents wanted to pay for the venue and her dress. My parents asked to pay for my suit and invitations.

So actually our wedding only cost us - maybe £200. Then we spent a bit more on the honeymoon.

But we could have easily paid for the whole thing ourselves from savings and would have covered it in a couple of months.



Why start your marriage in debt like that unnecessarily?

olgadapolga

Wow, that's a lot of money for one day. A special day, granted, but £17k!

My wedding cost my husband and I one month's combined wages, which at the time was under £2k. We had bills to pay, a mortgage, car loan, etc and had the wedding we could afford.

I couldn't see the point of getting into debt for a wedding, when the important part was actually marrying the person I love.

davidwood681

It's one day that has turned into a competition between (mainly female) friends.

The wedding day is not important.....the relationship is.

Just because you spend £17k on a wedding with a stupid photo booth doesn't mean the relationship is any more likely to succeed than one with a wedding that cost £2k.

You're starting your married life with a huge debt by splashing out on things you don't need and can't afford

seatbeltnoob

Rule of thumb, add 20% to whatever you've budgeted.

people assume they can plan a wedding and stick rigidly to the budget, but it's a fun, special occasion. You tend to add a bit more here and there. Plan for a £1200 ring, but the £1400 one looks so much nicer. Plan for 50 guests, but buy 60 guest worth of food to be on the safe side.

John-K_3

emperorstevee wrote: »

Hello everyone,

Myself and my partner are planning on getting married. My partner has been doing the planning and she tells me that it is going to cost £17k. We make less than £20k/yr combined. I know that weddings cost a lot, but £17k seems an awful lot?

It is a ludicrous amount. I suppose, if it is her savings, and she really has nothing else to spend them on then you cannot really tell her what to do...

My wife and I are each additional rate taxpayers. We had a truly wonderful marriage, that I will remember forever; we went to the local registry office, me in my nicest suit, her in an absolutely beautiful dress from a normal dress shop, where we were married. We then went to a pub near home, met about twenty friends, and had a big party.

I think all-in it might have been five hundred pounds.