Hi there! I'm Mexican and I'll be marrying a Geordie in August 2015. To be honest, I have no idea how to plan a wedding in the UK as I've never attended one here and I'm totally lost regarding budget -I know how much are you suppose to spend in a Mexican wedding, but not in the UK. My fiancé is very optimistic, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a clue either. Any help would be highly appreciated! Thanks!
CommentAuthorStephanieM158
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It depends on where you are, I reckon an average amount on a wedding in the uk is around £15,000 We're looking to spend £5,000 and no more. If you're willing to put the time in and scrimp on non essentials you can spend less but I would say typically if you want everything between £15-20000 xx
(Just to add I googled that but they are very expensive nowadays)
Met 2004
Engaged 2014
Getting Married 2016
CommentAuthorGlitterfairy
It also depends on when y get married, if it's peak season (summer) and weekend it's more expensive, weekdays and winter is cheaper.
Our wedding day - 6 October 2012
CommentAuthorValentinaC
And what about the wedding as such? Is there any post or site where I can read about the wedding protocol in the UK?
CommentAuthorWhovianbride
depends greatly Valentina, Do you want a Religious ceremony, in a church or etc, or in a hotel or in a registry office. If in a hotel most have the whole ceremony, wedding breakfast and evening doo there. while if its at a church / registry office , then you have to find a seperate venue for the reception.
Met June 2009 on my Birthday,Met again July 2009 and got
together, May 2010 Moved in,Jan 2011 got pregnant,
August 2011 Got our own place, 2011 Had our Baby Girl,
Dec 2011 Got engaged, July 2015 Getting married! Yay!
Another foreign bride lost <3 haha I'm Brazilian and all I know about English wedding I learned here. I've watched videos to see the church ceremony (complete) and the girls here help a lot on how the things go. I'm not intending to spend over 8000, however the wedding is already costing over 6400 (it's a winter wedding, for about 60 day/80 evening guests). But all I haven't signed any contract yet, just estimating.
CommentAuthorWhovianbride
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my wedding is costing around £9000 not including hen/stag or honeymoon. this is for just over 100 day, and another 30/40 evening. on a weekday in the summer. im have ceremony at hotel, which is costing £4000 for ceremony, wedding breakfast with wine, and evening buffet. £220 cake £1000 for a band, £450 for registra to come out and legally marry us. £900 for my dress, plus alterations.£600 photographer. £600 Videographer. £140 for flowers. £50 for transport. £200 for hair and make-up.
Met June 2009 on my Birthday,Met again July 2009 and got
together, May 2010 Moved in,Jan 2011 got pregnant,
August 2011 Got our own place, 2011 Had our Baby Girl,
Dec 2011 Got engaged, July 2015 Getting married! Yay!
CommentAuthorCamilaL
I haven't set a band yet :/ You've got a great price, 9000 for 100 guests!
CommentAuthorWhovianbride
having a wedding on a week day cuts costs alot, if i were to have same wedding on saturday would cost another £3500+
Met June 2009 on my Birthday,Met again July 2009 and got
together, May 2010 Moved in,Jan 2011 got pregnant,
August 2011 Got our own place, 2011 Had our Baby Girl,
Dec 2011 Got engaged, July 2015 Getting married! Yay!
CommentAuthorElizabethF49
My Scottish wedding is coming in at £16k not including honeymoon i also read that the average UK wedding cost £20k
After 7 years and 11 months he proposed to me 18.10.13
Our son is 5 years old and our world
Getting married 15.08.15.
Life hasnt been easy but we have each other :)
CommentAuthorMrsRobson2Be
Ours is coming in around £9,000 at the moment, without the stag/hen do & honeymoon. That's for 100 guests, Saturday wedding in August, that price doesnt include our food or cake either as my dad is sorting that, that would have added another £1,500 approx.
CommentAuthorthefuture:Mrs_Hurren
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We are getting married at a hotel everything including honeymoon us costing us around £7000 that also includes a wedding breakfast,wine,flowers etc and that's on sat 1st August, x
CommentAuthorFlossie
edited
I'm echoing everything everyone has already said, but there's no amount you SHOULD spend on an English wedding.. everyone is different, has different tastes/priorities, different budgets, etc... I would sit down and work out what it is that you want first. Do you want to get married in a church, a hotel, a barn, outside?? When you've worked that you can then get quotes for venues and see how much that's going to come out as. Then from there, do you want a 3 course sit down wedding breakfast and an evening buffet, do you want to skip the wedding breakfast and go straight to the buffet, maybe even afternoon tea instead?
Think about colour schemes, themes and all the little detaily bits.. when you've got an idea of what you want in your mind you can sit down and work out roughly how much you think it will cost (I would be over-generous with the estimating) so you know exactly how much you need to save. You can work out how much you can realistically save each month to see if what you want is achievable in a certain timeframe. We gave ourselves 2 years between booking and actually getting married so we know we'd be able to save enough and spread the cost (and the stress).
We are getting a fair bit of help from parents which we're so grateful for.. they are probably contributing £7-8k between them. We're expecting to pay for about £5-6k ourselves, so our budget is about £14k in total, although hoping for more around the £12k mark. That's excluding the honeymoon. We're getting married in a country house hotel, having a 3 course wedding breakfast and evening buffet - on a Saturday xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorAprilS61
It depends entirely on what you want! Some brides get married for say £2000 and can go up to £20/30,000! Our wedding is coming in at roughly £12,000 excluding hen/stag and honeymoon. The honeymoon we want is about £2500/3000 but we can't afford that yet as it wasn't an 'essential' to us as we'll be going about 4 months after the wedding.
Mr & Mrs Swan 04/04/15
CommentAuthorMrsEmmaP
As others have said it completely depends on the type of wedding you want and the location like church/registry, hotel/ function room etc. My wedding is coming in at roughly £2500 without honeymoon which luckily my parents are paying for, we are also getting a lot of help from my parents and FIL. So it can be done on a budget but most weddings are around £15,000.
Got together on 14th March 2010
Got engaged on 25th December 2013
Became Mrs P on 14th May 2016 - best day ever!
CommentAuthorValentinaC
Thank you all! All your comments are really helpful! I just have one question that might seem silly but I don't really understand the concept of wedding breakfast and evening buffet (I wasn't lying when I said I know nothing about English weddings). In Mexico, after the ceremony we have a dinner and then the dancing. :-/
CommentAuthorFlossie
The wedding breakfast is typically a 3 course sit down meal - it's called the breakfast because it's the first meal you have as husband and wife. So you'd get married, have your photos taken etc. then sit down for the meal. The evening buffet is brought out as part of the evening reception - so more the 'party' part of the day, rather than the formal part - you can invite more people to this part of the day to help celebrate with you, so maybe distant friends that you're not close enough to to invite to the day itself, but you still would like to celebrate with them xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorFlossie
edited
Saying that, you don't have to have a wedding breakfast.. you could get married a bit later on in the day and go straight into the evening reception as you would in Mexico xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorMrsEmmaP
^^ what Flossie said. However, I am not having the wedding breakfast, I am having my ceremony later in the afternoon and going straight into the evening reception with a buffet. It is just personal preference :) x
Got together on 14th March 2010
Got engaged on 25th December 2013
Became Mrs P on 14th May 2016 - best day ever!
CommentAuthorGlitterfairy
We got married later in the day so only had to feed our guests once, in total I think our wedding cost around £7-8k. I'm not sure exactly though as not priced everything up.
Our wedding day - 6 October 2012
CommentAuthorCamilaL
I think it's quite like here in Brazil. My parents got surprised when I explained the english wedding to them. In Brazil we have the ceremony around 20h, then go straight to the celebrations (buffet meal and evening volant snacks). Party ends around 2am here, I think.
CommentAuthorValentinaC
You have no idea how helpful your comments are! I have more clarity of what has to be done and the average price of a wedding. Guess I'm ready to start planning now! Thank you so much! :)
CommentAuthorAprilS61
You may get discounts too if you're planning a wedding for 6 months time! Good luck.
Mr & Mrs Swan 04/04/15
CommentAuthorWhovianbride
edited
It varys allot here, but generally weddings seem to be around lunch timeish here with the wedding breakfast then evening do. But more and more people seem to opt not to have a later wedding with just a evening do.
Met June 2009 on my Birthday,Met again July 2009 and got
together, May 2010 Moved in,Jan 2011 got pregnant,
August 2011 Got our own place, 2011 Had our Baby Girl,
Dec 2011 Got engaged, July 2015 Getting married! Yay!
CommentAuthorEmmaG
Agree it totally varies depending what you want, I have been to a wedding that cost £100,000 and a wedding that cost them £500 , both were fabulous ! decide how fancy or not you want it and whether you have funds for anything fancy then go from there.. all you need is marriage licsence, a registra/vicar, couple of witnesses , the rest are all just extras if you want them :) Mine costing around 8/9k , most of that is food, photographer, band, dress, venue . good luck planning x
Soooooo excited to be marrying my Best Friend !!
Life is Wild, Love it Live it !
CommentAuthorFlossie
£100,000?! Wow....
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorWhovianbride
There is a tread on how much cost for budgets under £10,000 well bump it for you.
Met June 2009 on my Birthday,Met again July 2009 and got
together, May 2010 Moved in,Jan 2011 got pregnant,
August 2011 Got our own place, 2011 Had our Baby Girl,
Dec 2011 Got engaged, July 2015 Getting married! Yay!
CommentAuthorAH86
I have to agree with the above, I've also been to weddings with a large budget and ones with a small budget and they have been both equally fun and lovely, mainly because the bride and groom were both so happy and they days suited their personalities to be honest. Don't do what is expected of you, do what you and your fiancé want, the guests will just be happy to be sharing your day with you :)
Friday 10th April 2015
Marrying my best friend
Not long now :D