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Yup. that includes the honeymoon as well. Many folks go to Mauritius or similar which can easily cost 7-9k these days. We negated that and now have a house deposit 🙂
If you can get friends and family to help. You can save fortune with cakes, flowers and cards if you plan it!
Amazing wedding had for about £6500.
It's just a gathering of friends... don't go over the top. you don't NEED x, y and z. It's a huge industry and everything you read will tell you about everything you need in place, but it's all bollocks. Beyond the legal stuff, just plan a general party. People make a wedding, not matching stationary/Bentley/ring Owl.
rwamartin - Member
...Do it for a grand and put the rest into the mortgage.
Best advice here.
Mine cost 10 shillings. Went out to the pub with friends after, shouted a few rounds, then pissed them off, took missus home and got stuck into our family planning.
Still got the same wife whereas all the fancy weddings of our friends ended up in divorce.
I would guess 15k at todays costs for a nice wedding. This is only the starter though it then increase on this figure by about 10% minimum per year Im on year 19 now and cant see the cost going down with teenagers and all , but I wouldn't change it for a minute!!!
Can I just add that I agree with what a lot of people said. If you can do it on a budget then do so. However imo it is vitally important to make sure you know what both you and the missus want before committing to anything. You also need the right, happy people around you. This includes the registrar, vicar or whoever and get to know them.
Happy people = happy wedding. In reality no one cares what car you turned up in or where it was.
Most of the people on here saying 'spent nowt, pay off your mortgage' are scots. Just saying, FYI. You're a long time dead.
Great reading this - I'm getting married early next year and you wont honestly believe what people charge as soon as 'wedding' is mentioned.
Things we've found so far
- You can save a fair bit of money by moving the date to winter.
- You can save a lot by not being precious about exclusivity at a venue (receptions at a stately home - were in the marquee outside overlooking the lake & there's another wedding inside on the same day!)
- You can barter every possible cost involved!
- Corkage is an absolute rip off, but not as much as 'drink packages'
Some great ideas on here though - although were currently 'on budget' looking to shave costs at every possible juncture without missing anything out...
Our cost about 8 grand back in 2002
Local church, hired church hall, local butcher put on the food, local wine shop did a sale or return on wine & beer. We paid for all the drinks which worked out cheaper than hiring a posh venue.
T'wife bought an nice evening dress in the sale to get married in. I had a suit made from the fines cloth (made in huddersfield of course).
Family decorated the hall, my mum did flowers and favours etc, did our own invitations on MS publisher. It's easy to save if you dont farm out all the organising. Plus it makes it more special.
One piece of advice, dont skimp on photographs. We spent a decent chunk on a good photographer and glad we did. Can recomend this guy if your oop north. http://www.iancave.co.uk/ Ours wasnt a grand do but he didnt make us feel like we were benath him like some did.
Have a good un. Bike shaped confeti anyone ?
Happy people = happy wedding. In reality no one cares what car you turned up in or where it was.
Great advice! Also as someone else said above there isn't much correlation between the cost of the wedding and how memorable it is. The personal stuff makes it memorable... and personal usually means cheaper too- bonus! 😀
Some of your weddings cost more than my annual salary...
Clearly I have a crap job but still, can't imagine spending that much, when it's over don't you get a massive sinking feeling that your 20k lighter?
thestabiliser - Member
Most of the people on here saying 'spent nowt, pay off your mortgage' are scots. Just saying, FYI. You're a long time dead.
True, but when you're paying off a big debt, you often wish you were dead so you didn't have to worry about it.
OK to splash out if you're rich and can afford it out of petty cash.
one thing no one has mentioned, and something we did
got married on a friday - no probs, everyone will take the day off work anyway
easier /cheaper for venue, car hire, reception, etc
we did our own invites (Im a dab hand at calligraphy), tables decs, flowers, a prof photographer friend, wife made the dress, aunt made the cake, reception at a large restaurant in private room, so just paid for food, no room hire and had it all night
married at Newstead Abbey (think stately home) reception nearby
cost about -
venue for wedding about £900
reception for 60 people £1200
rock band at reception £500
material for dress £200
suit and shirt £200
car hire, caddy coupe de ville £120
booze and corkage £600
invites, place names, favors and flowers about £200
so less than £4000 inc honeymoon travel - plus rings
8 yrs ago - blimey is it that long !
Think of your good friends , they will be only to pleased to offer what they can, I had a good friend offer us 2 weeks use of a beautiful new beachside house in Donegal for our honeymoon, all I could have wanted, just cost me the petrol and ferry crossing
We're getting married next year. Its gonna be less than £10k, that's hiring a castle in Scotland for two days, bag piper, a ceilidh band, posh BBQ, lawn games, hedge maze, treasure hunt, plus all the stuff you don't get in a castle that you'd get in a hotel.
We've focussed on making it an awesome weekend for all our friends, and not conforming to tradition.
We're also spending the next week with friends mountains biking in the local hills in Perthshire.
Do something different and memorable, not something old, stale and expensive.
I bloody hate poncy food.
Also, not sure if has been mentioned but (although I'd normally avoid it if at all possible) ebay is an excellent resource for getting table decorations/ invitations/ clothing/ whatever for bargain prices. You can sell on most things for the same price you pay afterwards too.
TBH the reasons i decided to go with an all in one venue/ceremony/meal place was A. Its local to where i grew up B. Its significantly cheaper than anything local to where i live and C. I dont want the wedding to consume my life for the next 18 months as ive watched friends do - if it was me i would run off abroad somewhere with my parents - her parents / brother and sister and get married there quickly and be done. But its not my day its jaynes day really at the end of it - i figured it was a small price to pay to see her happy - its not like she has requested something rediculous. At least this way we dont have to run around like blue arsed flies trying to sort out the little things - but i can fully appreciate why folks do though.
might not be personal but so long as the family are there and the band are good (which they are - ive heard them many times before - the benifits of working the bar at weddings in my youth) then ill be happy
She got wed in a sari from Bombay stores in Bradford
I got a 2nd hand suit from charity shop for £40.
Registry office, then Buttys Caff in Tod for reception.
I had two guests, she had two. Didn't tell the parents.
Seperated now. She kept bringing it up in arguments.
My dad thought it was hilarious.
She got wed in a sari from Bombay stores in Bradford
I got a 2nd hand suit from charity shop for £40.
Registry office, then Buttys Caff in Tod for reception.
I had two guests, she had two. Didn't tell the parents.
Seperated now. She kept bringing it up in arguments.
My dad thought it was hilarious.
Buy cheap, buy twice.*
*offensive mysogyny apologised for in advance, apologies.
No time to read whole thread, but in a nutshell...
- Hire a nice social club or other non-wedding specific venue to save thousands.
- Nice buffet food rather than table service
- Do a deal on corkage and BYOB
- Put a decent wedge behind the bar, this is the most important tip to make sure everyone enjoys themselves
🙂
We spent about £4.5-5k. As said lots of times it costs what you want it to cost. We had a church wedding and a reception (in a marquee) for about 80 people with food. We also had a lot of help with people making table decorations etc. for the marquee, DJ was a friend of bride's dad etc etc. so a bit of saving there. Men just wore their regular suits so there was no paying for everybody else's clothes.
Obviously if you start spending on stuff like that costs will spiral very quickly. We didn't have a photographer either after being underwhelmed professional shots from a few friends weddings, and we still have some great pictures- you won't look at these all that often anyway.
We also sorted it in 3 months. I think the whole year+ to plan and £15-20k stuff is pretty self-fulfilling.