Marriage Costs

Gavin83

We're getting married this year in London and our wedding, excluding rings and honeymoon is around £9k. There were 3 areas we really didn't wish to cut back on:

1) The photographer. One of the things that is more than 'just a day' as the photos will last forever. Seen enough threads on here from people hiring amateur photographers that have gone on to regret it.

2) The food. We're very much food fans and we want decent grub on the day.

3) A free bar. Personally I think it's a bit of a cheek inviting people to your wedding and expecting them to pay for drinks and I want my guests to have a good time and not have to bring their wallets.

Our venue is technically free which cuts a large amount off the costs, some we looked at were five figure sums.

However we earn around £100k a year between us and have had help from family so we won't be in any debt from it. In all honesty on your salaries there's no way I'd dream of spending anywhere near that. I wouldn't even spent that on our salaries, our budget was pushing it.

Our wedding will be the cheapest we've been too. Most weddings I've been to seem to have cost in the region of £20k-£25k. The most expensive I've been to was upwards of £60k. Personally I think it's insane to spend that but it's their money and if they felt it worth it then so be it.

ShamA29

I might be a bit young to answer this, but why spend £17,000 on a wedding to please people who may well be chatting absolute rubbish about you behind your back? I mean I've gone to a few weddings, and at quite a few there's been people criticizing the ceremony, even when the couple had things exactly how they wanted.

Perhaps ask her if everything she's got on that 17,000 is really worth it?

pollypenny

I fail to understand the free bar. We have just had a golden wedding do, with red and white wine, good ones, out for guests as they arrive.

Lovely buffet provided by us, then any further drinks wanted are bought by guests themselves.

Gloomendoom

pollypenny wrote: »

I fail to understand the free bar.

It's a bar where drinks cost the guests nothing.

seatbeltnoob

Gloomendoom wrote: »

It's a bar where drinks cost the guests nothing.

Hmm. How do you control costs? I think a couple bottles on the table is OK. But a free bar is asking for trouble.

PasturesNew

Warning signs include the words: Theme, favours, chair covers, sweet trolley, reportage photoshoot ....

A wedding is: venue, dress, ring, somebody saying the words, photos, bit of food, toast, cake, knees up.

After that it's "what people see on the Internet" and think is "what you do/have" .... and it's not, it's what show-offs with loads of money (or big debts) are having .... and are showing it online to show off.... and "floggers of wedding associated tat" who want to lure you into buying stuff you don't need from them.

pollypenny

Gloomendoom wrote: »

It's a bar where drinks cost the guests nothing.

I obviously know what it means. :cool: However, I fail to understand why anyone feels obliged to provide one. Keeping up with the Joneses?


If someone visits your home for a party or dinner they normally bring a bottle.

Gavin83

pollypenny wrote: »

I obviously know what it means. :cool: However, I fail to understand why anyone feels obliged to provide one. Keeping up with the Joneses?

Nothing to do with 'keeping up with the Joneses' for me, I just think it's incredibly rude to invite people to your wedding and then expect them to pay for it. "You're good enough to come to my wedding and give me a present but not good enough that I'll pay for you" springs to mind.

If you can't afford the wedding then don't have one, or at least scale it back.

I've never been to a wedding without a free bar, I genuinely didn't think making guests pay for their drinks was a done thing.

selement

17k is a lot! It really doesn't have to be that expensive to still be a lovely day. Plan to keep numbers down as much as possible, call in favours from friends, shop around venues and compare costs and see what else they'll throw in for the price (we got free canapes, we simply wouldn't have bothered with them at all but weren't going today month freebies), go out of season to cut costs. Get wedding dress from an outlet store, get bridesmaid dresses off eBay or in sales but not from bridal Shop, get accories and decoration on eBay and diy as much as possible, get married all in one venue (no church) save on cars. I had in my opinion a very decent wedding late 2016 for a lot less than 17k. Included 3 course meal, evening food, we even splurged on some fireworks because it was bonfire night . It wasn't cheap but we had cut costs and still had a day that didnt feel budget

74jax

I'm with you on the free bar, I'm Irish and it was just how I was brought up. I've been to weddings with free bars and one without.

We only had friends and family we wanted at our wedding - no aunty we didn't talk to etc, so knew itf wouldn't cause problems, none of our friends would take the Mick and get unruly with it.