Funding wedding advice

fiisch

You can easily have a lavish do for circa £10k - you definitely do not need to spend £20k+. I got married in 2015 - I used MSE's "get married for £1k" which featured a few years back. The beauty of that was that you could afford to go mad and add on whatever upgrades you wanted - we went mental with upgrades, extra guests etc., got married in a stunning venue in Ross-On-Wye, my wife went a bit OTT on the dress, and still the total wedding spend came in under £10k, including a honeymoon to Hawaii (albeit with free flights owing to family being airline staff).


If you truly have your heart set on a big white wedding then go for it - your best bet to save will be to use regular savers to get the highest interest rates, however you'll need some in an easy access (e.g.: Marcus) as some suppliers will want paying earlier.


However, don't kid yourself - if you're spending £20k+, that's not an "average" wedding, and unless your both on six figure salaries it will set you back considerably in terms of housing ladder and growing your personal wealth for what is essentially an almighty big party...

POPPYOSCAR

Yes £20,000 is a lot of money to spend on a wedding and not something I would do myself.

I also thought this about my nieces wedding which cost over £18,000.

However, when she died at the age of 31 two years later unexpectedly from cancer it was the memories of that day that made her happy until the day she died, and give some comfort to the family.

It turned out to be money well spent.

If that is how much it takes to have the day you really want good luck to you.

MaxiRobriguez

Zanderman wrote: »

Good grief! No one should be spending that much on a wedding - and anyone who does is just falling for the marketing and hype of the venues. You can say it's the norm because all your friends did it all you like, but just because they did doesn't mean you should.

The last wedding we went to the venue cost almost £10k more than ours did. That's lavish. Our venue isn't anything special, it just costs more than I'd like it to because it's a wedding venue, and we couldn't get away with a small wedding, even with direct family and the closest of close friends we'd already hit 50. :rotfl:

Anyway the op seems set on a particular type of wedding. Either they have to change their plans to make it a more MSE type wedding, or if they want the "average" wedding nowadays then they're going to have to accept that it's going to rack up to £20k and maybe more.

You pays your monies and take your choice...

Malthusian

MaxiRobriguez wrote: »

The last wedding we went to the venue cost almost £10k more than ours did. That's lavish.

No, that's extremely lavish. Yours is lavish.

Our venue isn't anything special

Then you've been shafted. With bells on. Bad luck.

You may not like to think you've been shafted, especially as the wedding is now four months away and you're more or less committed to throwing £24k away on something you admit you don't like, but facts are facts. I sympathise with your situation, but how you feel isn't going to change the actual average cost of a wedding.

£20k is not an average wedding, nowhere near. Maybe in central London but London isn't the average.

To add to the anecdata, our wedding was in the 6k-8k region. It was at a beautiful hotel / country house, food and decor absolutely first class, about 80 people.

MaxiRobriguez

Malthusian wrote: »

No, that's extremely lavish. Yours is lavish.

Then you've been shafted. With bells on. Bad luck.

You may not like to think you've been shafted, especially as the wedding is now four months away and you're more or less committed to throwing £24k away on something you admit you don't like, but facts are facts. I sympathise with your situation, but how you feel isn't going to change the actual average cost of a wedding.

£20k is not an average wedding, nowhere near. Maybe in central London but London isn't the average.

To add to the anecdata, our wedding was in the 6k-8k region. It was at a beautiful hotel / country house, food and decor absolutely first class, about 80 people.

4,000 survey says £27k is the new norm:

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/average-british-wedding-cost-uk-27000-hitched-venue-honeymoon-food-london-midlands-a7937551.html

I'm not here to seek sympathy or insults for my situation. The OP was asking about their wedding and the potential costs of it. £20k is less than most people are spending on their weddings (otherwise known as an average), so they either need to budget for more if they're expecting a certain level of lavishness, or they need to reduce expectations.

MaxiRobriguez

And besides, if the op saves up the £20k and then finds the average as per the inde article is a load of rubbish then they can use the money they intelligently saved to invest in something else. Everyone's a winner eh?

justme111

A couple of my friends had big birthday parties recently with the venues that accommodated 50+ guests easily and would be suitable for weddings with venues costing them a couple of hundreds pounds tops. So the argument that you need 8 k wedding venue if you have 50+ people invited does not hold the water.

veryintrigued

Best experiences at weddings have always been at smaller, more intimate places with less people.

They tend to be a lot more memorable unlike those friends and relatives that are off a production line of inviting a cast of hundreds.

That way you get the most important people in your lives and are able to spend time with them rather than it being a 'look at me' affair to very extended family and friends.

Good luck

veryintrigued

veryintrigued wrote: »

Best experiences at weddings have always been at smaller, more intimate places with less people.

They tend to be a lot more memorable unlike those friends and relatives that are off a production line of inviting a cast of hundreds.

That way you get the most important people in your lives and are able to spend time with them rather than it being a 'look at me' affair to very extended family and friends.

Good luck

PS as an aside I wonder how many (more) best wishes/cards etc those that have large weddings get on their first anniversary than smaller ones?

I.e. will there will only ever be a small core of those invited that really, really care?

jamets

DH and I spent about £2,200 4 years ago. Register office and then reception at a local tea room we had to ourselves for the afternoon. About 30 guests total, soft pianist in the background, buffet, champagne, flowers and unlimited tea and cakes - wedding cake provided by mother.

Still not sure if people are just being polite about it, but a number of guests still tell us it's the best wedding they've been to in a long time.

IMHO, it doesn't matter how much you love someone, £20k is obscene and nobody will care or remember in the long run.