Just starting the research how does the best part of £4k sound for venue hire? Nice Georgian house. lovely gardens etc...
Food would be ontop at £27 a head.
Missus thinks it's a really good deal...seems steep to me but nothing to compare it to -
Anyone tell me what they spent?
Getting married in April.. yeah that's about right. Its very dependent on night of the week, time of the year and capacity. Just think how much you reckon things will be and add a 0. That's what everywhere seems to do.
The place we've booked for ours doesn't charge for hire, but it's going to be about £37 p/h.
All in for wedding breakfast for 83, and an evening reception for approx 150 we're looking at roughly £7500
In the same boat mate! So awaiting answers with baited breath.
My best man bet me £100 that it wouldn't happen when I said I'm going to keep it 'low key'. Which he told me the other day, he wants presenting to him at the reception in front of everyone! 
In a former life I put up marquees for weddings, venues were anywhere from free to £3k, just to site a tent, English Heritage very expensive and unreasonable, but some lovely locations.
Unless you know it's going to be a lovely day, I'd get a building though. Traditional canvas for good weather, frames to stay dry but sound like a yacht yard in the wind
As for keeping low key, have put up a tent with just a dancefloor, bar and big 3-phase generator for the PA, that was the other foremans wedding aka rave
As someone who worked in events management, it seems from the info you gave to be a reasonable price. Difficult to judge though because it depends totally on what the venue and food are like, of course. If you're happy with them and are satisfied they'll deliver what you expect then it's a fair price.
Too many people (brides and brides families, in particular - to generalise!) get caught up in the social status thing of weddings while they're planning and lose sight of what they really want from the day. At the end of the day it's unusual for people to be unhappy or feel they made the wrong choice - regardless of what it cost - because the venue and the food are - as long as they're not disastrous! - not as critical to the day or definitive of the experience as lots of people imagine they're going to be.
WOW now I so know why I don't want to get married! Not wanting to start ANY form of argument but WOW £7500 on a venue/food! I am just dreaming of the bike holiday I could have with the money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we just did ouirs jept the breakfast small at 40 then 150 and a bigger buffet in the evening
in the end was about 6grand all in
at chester zoo which id highly recomend as the guests got something fun to do while you went and posed for endless photos
was lots of fun but weddings are a very expensive way of having a party!
My wedding is in Aug next year, and we've saved nearly 3k by having it on a Friday instead of a Saturday. The OP's costs sound about average.
Kimbers that sounds like a top idea! zoo's are great 
we paid 4.5k for, for local hotel 83 guests in day then around another 30 in the night
obviously alot more on top, cars, suits, dress, cake, photographer etc
all in around 16k
was a great day but a stupid amount of money to pay...
the most stressful bit was doing the table arrangements!
good luck
contravertial angle, but we got ours for free, local liberal club. curry buffet cost £300 for 3 courses of some of the best curry and have ever had. The venue was a dump, but with the lights out and everyone drunk you don't notice. People told us we'd regret not spending £25k on a wedding and having a "ghetto" wedding instead. actually, i feel it kept it more in touch with what we felt it was all about, namely a celebration of love, shared with friends and family, and getting very drunk.
don't spend more than you can afford and concentrate on what is most important to you and your fiance.
Hired a village hall in dorset for £375, including table and chairs for 100 people. Hired a marquee for the field outside for £500. No corking fee, had an amazing day... Depends on the kind of thing you want. I personally love villiage halls, they are about community. It depends on where you live though, some villiage halls aren't particularly picturesque.
don't spend more than you can afford and concentrate on what is most important to you and your fiance.
wise words, were still paying for the wedding and the honeymoon 3 years later 
I went to a friends wedding at chester zoo last year, was a fantastic day.
Unfortunately, the size of our wedding is rather dictated by the size of my family. On the plus side though, the inlaws are picking up the bill for the venue.
i'm in the midst of planning mine - it's a long road.
my advise would be to decide what you want first, and who you want there. only then look at costs and see if you think it's worth it. only you can judge that, since budgets i've seen or heard of go from essentially zero to well over 30k.
we're spending as much on the honeymoon as everything else. and i don't get to take a bike, though i do get to go to a couple of my favourite places.
as far as venue hire, it seems steep, but the food seems good value, so if you're having *a lot* of people it may balance out.
a word of warning: cakes and photographers will cost *much* more than you think!
each to their own but another bit of advice if i may....
lay the law down early to both sets of parents (can be hard if they are paying ) i had to bite my tongue a bit as aunty joan that i hadnt seen for 10 years HAD to come, uncle franks dog that i'd never met HAD to come (you get the drift)
it is YOUR day..... for us our mates were far more important than distant family/parents mates that i hadnt seen for over 10 years...
also i wouldnt have paid for a proper photographer as to be honest i dont think we've even looked at the photos since the wedding (i dont even know wher they are!! 
just get a trusted mate who can take a tidy photo to do the honours.
i sound like a right victor meldrew!!
We got married on May 2nd last year. Think it was a bank holidy weekend.
Approached Loch Fyne Leeds about using upstairs for a family get together, (no mention of the W word).
£14 each choice of 3 starters/3 mains, choices to be established beforehand.
£10 per bottle of wine and they allowed us to supply 10 bottles of bubbly for a corkage charge of £5 a bottle.
Wedding at the town hall, lovely.
Food for 55 at Loch Fyne
Tickets for Jongluers for 40 for the evening (oldies went home)
3 nights in Mal Maison
Sat night Pigeon Detectives/Twang at Millenium Square
Sun night Wombats
£3500 inc home made cake/dress from Coast/ my outfit with discount from Sis in Law (works at Reiss)
Plus even though we said no pressies we were blown away with £2500 in gifts and donations!
Be creative (if she'll let you!!)
wahiboy, I know what you mean about the family thing, we're only inviting uncles aunts and first cousins, plus close friends.
We've found a photographer that we like, and as a bonus he's pretty reasonable cost wise.
The price quoted was for a sunday in late august so seems quite a good deal.
I really like the idea of a zoo or similar but they all seem quite a lot more in our area (hampshire/dorset)
We were thinking of getting a friend to do the photography to keep the price down.
Any other suggestions?
I think I'll have to go see the venue this sunday instead of going for a ride 
Agree with wahiboy.
We also had to say from the outset, that it was our wedding and we were choosing the guests the venue and how it was arranged.
We had a very small wedding. Only 27 people at the reception, held in the restaurant of a decent hotel. Luckily other diners has left by the time the speeches were held.
Then a party at night in the same hotel bar.
3 day honeymoon in the Lake District.
So not too expensive.
Glasgow city centre, £50 venue hire, £11 per head for food, tenner a bottle for half decent wine and we got to bring our own fizz with no corkage.
25k ON A FOOKING WEDDING
seriously some people have very warped priorities,thats most of a deposit on a house.
Orkney or Barra - hard to get to, completely cheap, totally romantic
Or you could go for some overpriced manufactured "perfect day" where the underpaid catering staff just want you off the premises as pronto as possible
We paid about £600 to hire the hall accross from the church. It was a lovely big old hall with a stage, big car park, kitchen, bar, cloakroom, porch, toilets etc. The price included tables chairs and bar staff too. We didn't use most of the tables but Kirsty found a woman who hired out chair covers and we hired round tables. Our food was top notch - A South African themed BBQ/posh buffet. Steak, salmon the lot. The caterers we used work fit a F1 team! All the food was just over £2k for about 75 - 80 people. We bought our own wine and champers and for £1.50 a bottle corkage the bar manager chilled, served and supplied glasses. He was brilliant. We even bought our own ale in and he was happy with that.
IIRC our wedding cost about £6k all in. A mate with a Jag took Kirsty to church, an great friend of mine did the pics for free.....
As soon as you mention 'wedding' the price doubles, it's outrageous! But if you're clever you can have a really top quality day for a reasonable price
Oh, and that price includes a free bar for everyone too!
I think people appreciated free drink more than a pretentious sit down meal.
Ours was free in a country house hotel and about £32 per head for the food, held the whole thing there so evening buffet was about £10 per head.
I guess it depends what you want. £4k for a Georgian house sounds plausible - the question is whether you want a Georgian house or not.
I have been to some pretty posh (expensive) weddings and also some very cheap home made ones, and all I can say is that the amount of pleasure I've had (as a guest) has been completely unrelated to the amount of money spent on them.
For example, I quite enjoyed the one where the reception was (optional) pirate fancy dress and we did limbo dancing and had a BBQ, and also the one in Provence where we went to watch Lance on Mont Ventoux the day after. Also the one where we had a potluck (bring your own) supper but they spent the budget on a castle and a bird of prey display on the lawn instead.
I guess the point is that the best weddings (IMO) are the ones where the B&G use their imagination and do what they WANT to do rather than what they think they SHOULD do.
Whatever you decide though, something strange seems to happen on the day, and whatever happens, everyone I know who's married only seem to have good memories of the day.
We really didn't want a big do. Got married in Sheffield centre - I really wanted to go in on the tram but that turned out to be impractical so I went with mum and dad and we walked to the register office.
Afterwards we took our guests to Pizza Express for lunch - we had a private room and it was just right. The restaurant staff couldn't have been more lovely.
In the evening we hired a local real ale pub and had our own bar upstairs - a 'pull your own pint' affair, which was great.
Mum made mine and my sisters dress, a friend made our cake and another friend made some spectacular silver 'crowns' for the cake. The pub did a buffet for the evening at about £5 a head and it was lovely. Another 2 friends did some informal photos for us.
In all I think ours came in at less than £2000 and initially I think my mum was worried it wasn't going to be a 'proper wedding' (seriously, they were her words) but afterwards she said it was perfectly right, exactly mine and J's style.
I might add that almost half the cost went on J having a suit made and his AMAZING shoes. 
I think what I'm trying to say is what peterpoddy said - the cost is irrelevant as long as you do something that's 'you'. Me and J would have been so embarrased to have been the centre of attention in a big, posh venue. Equally though, I think my mum would have killed me if it had been much more relaxed than it was...
I had a wonderful wedding September last year in Comlongan castle near Dumfries. We could never afford a venue like that down south and there is great mountain biking near by. My sister was married at Mabie house hotel, also great.
By getting married in Scotland you really cut the numbers down as only good friends will make the effort. Also staying in the castle means no fancy cars needed, everything is in-house. Also no evening guests, perfect for a more intimate wedding in beautiful romantic surroundings with people you actually care about. Oh and with it being a Wednesday it was cheaper still. Friends and family just made a mini break of it,perfect
for us MTB riders!
The food was amazing, staff amazing, venue amazing. We actually stretched our wedding celebrations over two days, with a buffet lunch, laser shooting and castle tour on the second day. The staff even let us order in takeaways to eat in the bar on the second night.
I can't remember what it was per head, but it knocked the socks off any hotel type wedding I've ever been to in price and content. We had 48 guests.
Bagstard
Return tickets to Las Vegas start at £400.
The first time you get married its usually not the couples choice on how the wedding goes, thats' for the next time
Second time around my (to be) wife had booked a local posh house/hotel - we just wanted a room with full lunch and waitress service plus champagne to start. She had a quote for the lot. The room cost looked expensive (£400), so I sent an email from my work account saying how I wanted a quote for a private business meeting (same service/guests etc).
The quote came back with the same costs for food/drink/service etc, but the room was free! So I printed it off and my wife took it in when she was meeting the 'rep' to agree all the details.
They honoured the 'new' quote and gave us free champagne to cover their embarrassment...
Might be a bit late but we got married in August. Civil ceremony in Hotel, Welcome drink for 100 (wedding guests, BBQ for 100 (loads of food),champers for the toast, hotel room for bride and pals the night before and buffet for 180 and bridal suite for the night came to £5200
On top was DJ @ £300.
We told them what we wanted, they gave us a price,we made a counter offer and they accepted. It was a big brand hotel so was suprised they took the deal but money is money i guess.
its something to explore for me - quite frightening really - I like the idea of low key personally, with a big party afterwards...
@DT78 - if your friends a good photographer then I think its a good idea to let them do the photos - I have 2 sets of thoughts on this -a) it can put incredible strain on friendships, especially if the photos dont for any reason come out as well as expected or they dont deliver what you or your wife-to-be were expecting (and its usually the women that are fussier); b) weddings are harder than you think to photograph well (doing them still terrfies me in the kind of way that I enjoy!) and c) in 20 years your memory of the day will have faded somewhat, but if you have really good photos then they are timeless - personally I would be prepared to spend a good part of my budget on a decent photographer who understands the value of capturing the day properly - for example this guy is based in Bournemouth and seems to have a great ethos and be a really nice guy (been talking to him on Flickr and via his blog):http://www.misterphill.com/photography/
there are also plenty of others around of course
I think the going rate for room hire for a wedding is their standard business hire rate times 3.
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