I'm getting married -cannot believe the costs!

DigForVictory

Mine was in a university chapel a long time ago but all the flowers were sorted by my Gardening Aunts who (bless them) not only raided their gardens but also talked to the college head gardener & raided his hedge trimmings etc for bonus greenery (Everyone happy!)
Me, I'm watching what's trendy, checking I have a few wedding flowers growing in the garden so we can bring some of the flowers in-house & if you have a drone flying buddy, ask them to liaise with whomever is doing the photographs. Hopefully they'll do a test together first but it could be the start of a beautiful side hustle.
Long before you even set a day you should sort a list of all your friends & relations & what skills they have admitted to or been seen & admired at other events, then trim your guest list according to their availability & talents.. Oh yes & when you find a chap who only gets his cherished vintage car on the road for 6 miles in glorious weather a year, scheme to include him in the photos even if you never actually have it on the road. (It's a lovely photo & still raises a chuckle.)

HampshireH

Really good site for cheap new/used wedding dresses is whitedressuk.co.uk 

Very reasonable prices and lots of different designers etc. Some shops use it as well to sell their sample dresses.

Weddings can be as cheap or as expensive as you make them. There really is no need to spend £10k plus to have fantastic day with lots of amazing memories 

wkeith

A friend and I are keen amateur photographers.  He was asked to do photos at a wedding and he advised me never to do it - leave it to a pro - its very hard to get results that the couple are happy with. . Also make sure you have a list of any group photos you want taken.  Weddings are often a rare opportunity to get people together and you will appreciate the photos after the event, and regret ones you didn't get taken so think long and hard. 

MovingForwards

Ours came in at just under £1200 a couple of months ago.

My whole outfit was £44, with £70 dress alterations.
Photos were the most expensive, followed by ceremony, food and drink, taxis. 
I got everything from eBay / Etsy with the reception food / wedding cake from M&S.

My ring is a previously loved diamond eternity ring, I had pearls as my jewellery, the buttonholes and bouquet were made between me / OH with 'fake' flowers so they could be kept afterwards. Less than a week before the wedding I decided to have my hair and makeup done by a pro instead of me doing it.

Leegion

We got married at 4pm at the local registry office. Then we went straight to the evening do. Hired a banquet room in a local restaurant, they provided food and DJ. No wedding breakfast so saved a fortune. 

we bought plain iced cakes from M&S, me and my mum made a few sprays of flowers and some ribbon round the cakes.  Cake stand hired from local baker and wrapped with ribbons. 

Bought a beautiful ivory oriental themed suit from Roman Originals for £30 off sale rail! (Didn’t want traditional wedding dress)

we had professional photographers because photos are the one thing you keep as memento.

Did my own hair and makeup and bought hair accessories from Claire’s !

Still married 23 years later and had a great day  ❤️  

I think people get lost in the bells and whistles and forget the true meaning of the day.  

katieellenA

We're getting married at a venue that covers the ceremony/reception/meals/suite for us as a package, but don't get me wrong, it's not cheap.

I have bought my dress from Wed2Be and it doesn't need any alterations. Getting my accessories from Etsy. Came in at £800 with the storage boxes.
We've got the suits from the Moss sale - we're only having 2 bridesmaids/Groomsman, to keep costs down too!
Will be buying the cake for £150 from Lola's cupcakes and just adding some flowers for extra decoration
We're then hiring all decor in and doing all the stationery and table favours ourselves. You can get invite templates on Etsy that you then just print - saved us loads!
Holding out for rings in the Black Friday sales!

I agree with the above, don't scrimp on the photographer and make sure you go for the exact style you like. You'll find that the 'cheaper' options are usually only a couple hundred different from someone who's style you'll love. To us it was worth it!

Wallwife08

retireby35 said:

We are getting married and have started looking into planning our wedding - however we cannot believe the costs that we have been quoted! 

We are very excited for our big day and we cannot wait to marry each other, but don't want to be paying £10k plus for the big day.

I've gone to try on wedding dresses where they cost £1400 to £1800 each, been quoted £450 for a 3 tier cake, photographers £1500-£2000, etc etc

I plan on
- Making my own cake
- Trying charity shops /Wed2be for cheaper dresses
- Making and printing my own invites
- Having a hog roast/similar instead of a sit down meal


Is there anything you have done/seen done that can save us £££? People have said to me to get fake flowers for table decorations/ etc and then reselling on after to save money. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

So this is just mine and hubbys days … my parents had saved around 19k for us for our wedding and to be honest I just couldn’t justify spending for 1 day, so I went on a mission to do it for as cheap as possible so I … 

1. looked around for new and upcoming venues, where we got married had only just got their licence and we were one of the first to get married there. We haggled with them and got the whole house inc 12 rooms and a in house dj, wedding breakfast for 30 people for the weekend for £5k, our guests who wanted to sleep over were asked if they would (not told) contribute with the majority offering £100 back to us for the weekend stay and we set up deals with local B&Bs for others which were around the £100/night/couple price = total £3,800

2. my dress was a sample dress which had a tear in the underskirt which was not noticeable at all on, paid £250 for the dress as it was with free sample veil, it was up for £1200 new, I wore my slippers as wedding shoes! 😂 - total £250 

3. we had no photographer it was our preference to have 50 disposable cameras and we asked all our guests to take photos and give/send them to us as their present to us, we ended up with over 2000 photos in some were the usual drunk photos (if you catch my drift) but overall we were happy with the ones we were gifted and my FIL filmed the day for us aswell. - total 0

4. Our cake was from marks and spencer and cost us £150 quid, we bought 3 cakes we liked and my grandad picked a load of strawberries from his patch to decorate the plain cakes. - total £150

5. We hired wedding suits saved us an absolute bomb! - total £200 

6. Bridesmaid dresses cost £1.50 each from Woolworths in their closing down sale … absolute bargain! So look for end of season sales all the time - total £3.00 😂😂

7. we had a fish and chips van for the food for the evening which went down a treat … if I remember it was around £250 for 100 guests and everyone loved it - total £250

8. flowers were bought the day before from our local market and me and my bridesmaids, mum, MIL and Nan arranged them the night before. - total £150

9. NO FREE BAR! 😂

10. no wedding cars - waste of time for us 

11. Bouncy castle for the kids (and adults for later) went down a treat. This was £150 for the 2 days. - total £150 

So all in all including the licences etc our day came in at around £5k. 

Just don’t try and ‘keep up with the jones’s’ It wasn’t everyone’s choice but we throughly enjoyed our day and 15 years later we still wouldn’t change a thing. 

Congratulations and enjoy this journey hopefully it will be the only wedding you both do! But remember it’s for the 2 of you not everyone else! 

💒 💍👰‍♀️🤵‍♂️

KateBoothbyDevon

It is totally mad, isn't it? Mention the word wedding and the price goes up. Getting married out of the standard wedding season and mid-week gives a lot of choice of suppliers and cost. Dont forget to Barter too, it works honest. 

daivid

Whilst I agree there are lots of savings to make by DIYingthere is also the need to balance enjoyment of the day and build-up against the cost. I made my own cakes which probably saved a few hundred pounds and only stressed me for the drive to the venue and carrying them to the table. I also made the 'vases' by spray painting then wrapping in ribbon in wedding colours - no stress and saved on buying anything for them. Inlaws made the table wine and favours - a hobby for them so they maintain it was no bother. My sister and mother did the flowers, again a hobby and they seemed chilled out with it - I returned the favour of sorts by making my sister's wedding cake. If friends/family are doing bits for you I think it is essential you manage your expectations. I took photos for a friend after the photographer pulled out last minute I made it clear I was happy to do so but they should keep expectations low, in the end the photos were fine and perfectly usable in an album but not to the standard of a decent pro. We spent a significant amount on our photographers (they worked as a pair for the same price range as what we viewed as similar standard solos) because getting a good record of a once in a lifetime (hopefully…) day was a priority.

Vectis

I think it costs £35 per person for a couple to get married.

Anything else is optional.

Surely the marriage ceremony is the important part, not the cake or the flowers or who gets invited (or who doesn't) or even the dress.

I've just read that the average cost of a wedding last year was around £18,000. That would be a nice chunk of money to go towards a deposit for a house or quite a few decent holidays for several years to come if the house is already sorted.

It comes down to priorities and what's more important. Having been down both routes previously, the big wedding and the more personal affair, I know which I'd go for with hindsight.