UK
UKbride Member Request 5 Oct 2017

Hi guys hope everyone is ok I just wanted to no how much was your wedding...

Hi guys hope everyone is ok I just wanted to no how much was your wedding for people that have done cheap ones how have you done it where did you get married in geting married in 2019 and I'm really worried and stressed already haha ???? do I wait till iv saved some money up before I talk to anything? How do I start if some girls could help and give me some advise that would be amazing thank you

35 Comments
Lauren Kay
Lauren Kay 5 Oct 2017

Hiya, i was the same as we are working to a really tight budget. We moved our date to the end of october and went for a sunday for a lower rate as well (fridays and saturdays normally cost more). Our package includes ceremony hire, centrepieces, red carpet, prosecco and canapes on arrival (3 choices), 3 course meal with tea/coffee after, glass of wine with dinner, glass of prosecco with toasts and evening buffet (5 choices), master of ceremonies, wedding coordinator, cake stand and upgrade to suite for £1850 x thats for 45 day guests and an additional 35 in the evening x i was worried as well about money when we started seeing quotes from other places. I only went and viewed ones that i thought would suit us and fitted with our budget. I made sure i got prices from venue first so i had an idea of what they were charging x we just paid a 25% deposit to secure it x good luck ! Xxx 😊

Debbie Nolan
Debbie Nolan 5 Oct 2017

Hi. We booked a Premium ceremony at the registry office £250. We booked reception and night do at a local club. Found a brilliant photographer on Facebook who had a special May day offer for £350. Bought my wedding dress online for £180. Cake £220. Cars £350. Haven't got the total costings yet but estimate in total will be around £3500 altogether

Naomi Chappel
Naomi Chappel 6 Oct 2017

Mine is not on the cheep side but I would start with looking at a list of what you want and what you must have then try to price up the must haves to get an idea of how much they are currently going to cost. If you then need to save before you can afford at least it gives you a target x

Simone Williams
Simone Williams 6 Oct 2017

Getting married in Cyprus and my wedding package includes everything for £6500 we are getting everyone free drinks on the day as well. The total cost of the wedding is no more than 15k

Sonja Gibson
Sonja Gibson 7 Oct 2017

I get married june 18 n i think weve spent about 3 grand all in xx thats church wedding and reception. But for my flowers ect ive brought of wish as i wanted silk ones n my flower girl dresses are from wish to

Samantha Reason
Samantha Reason 7 Oct 2017

My wedding dress is £89 including delivery and having everyone help out with food and that. Saves paying for it and trying to figure out what everyone wants 😂 xx

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

My wedding isn't a cheap one but I'm trying to do as much as I can to save money. So I'm staying at the wedding venue the night before the wedding and therefore not getting a wedding car, which won't be needed then. I'm also planning to buy polystyrene for the cake and ice it myself and just have the top one as actual cake.
Hope it helps a little xx

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

We had a small wedding just family and freinds (13) at Gretna green you can have a package of 10 people but add more it depends what kind you want ours was perfect

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

I get married in 21 days and I've done everything from invites to own centre pieces and got a lot from the pound shop and it's come to £2500 that's including my dress and suits. It also helps if your bridesmaids can buy their own dress. Also Amazon and wish are good. Make lots of lists such as things you want but then try find cheaper also hitched do a budget planner that helps x

Mel Ive
Mel Ive 7 Oct 2017

I get married 2019. Have started paying out for stuff now so can do instalments as we're on a tight budget. Have booked church, not having sit down meal but going straight to cricket club over the road from the church (got it free as I'm a vice president also means no travel to venue), booked an ex pupil who does photography, friend is doing cake for us as wedding present, having a buffet through club and hog roast, we are decorating venue ourselves so total roughly £3k

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

Got my wedding dress from lightinthebox.com made to measure for under £150. Got my bridesmaid dresses from Quiz for about £20 each. Took a wedding package deal with a hotel so that all the bits and bobs are included in the price. My wedding flowers were a groupon deal and so was my Photographer. We were under £3K

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

My venue was expensive but I got pretty much everything else cheap by shopping and buying things over 2 years as waited for the wedding. My centre pieces I found on sale I bought gifts on line. It is about shopping around and buying a bit each month my favorite buy was I found i could get donuts as a wedding cake about 150 of them delivered and set up on a stand at about £250 but I bought directly from Kristy kreme just a bit more than I needed bought a cake stand and had a friend pick them up all together only cost £80 and everyone loved it.

Anne Shields
Anne Shields 7 Oct 2017

We are getting married April 2019. And we are on a tight budget, so we are ceremony is taking place in our local registry office and we have hired a hall which do wedding packages so for 44 us having a 3 course wedding breakfast with drinks was 2500. Cut out on the in evening buffet just having nibbles as getting married in afternoon. And having a paid bar. Still gotta hire dj etc. But think we have got the while wedding done for 5000 which is very goos for surrey x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

we got married in july 2016 and it cost around £5000 if that we had a church ceremony costing around £650 (was cheaper than our local registry office) we than had reception at a local village hall (got it a bit cheaper as my mum is caretaker) my dress was mist expensive thing out of whole wedding coasting £1150 our cake we got from marks n spencer and decorated our selfs, all the table decs invites etc my mum made bridesmaides dresses were brought on ebay and diydress costing around £300 for lot suits were hired to make it cheaper as groomsmen paid for their own photographer we paid £170 for as didnt need them to alter/filter photos as knew how to do that ourselves and food we did ourselves (had afternoon tea then buffet in evening) dj for disco was only £150 for the night too x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

I did mine for around 1400. My dress was bought for me. We had the local church in town which was the most expensive part at 570. All men have suits so my husband designed their own shirts at 20 each. Bridesmaids offered to pay for theirs and we did those online for 30 each. My mate is a hairdresser and did our hairs as a present. We hired the local social hall which was 180. And another friend is a dj so did it for 200. Another friend is a photographer so we got her for 300, and we get all the photos on usb for us to do with what we want. Because we stayed local we didnt need cars. And food wise, i was going to do a buffet but my husbands work did a spread for us.. again for free. And then we asked the local market van to come over on the evening and people just bought their own food from them. The day was for us to get married, so we didnt need to spend a fortune. It was the most perfect day and we wouldnt have changed a thing about it at all xx

Bethan Roberts
Bethan Roberts 7 Oct 2017

I just got all my quotes in (still looking for car and flowers but know what I want to pay) and worked out how much monthly we would need to save. Ours is going to come to about £13,000 overall. Which is why we also booked for 2019 so we could have exactly what we wanted and have plenty of time to save but also do other things like family holidays etc x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

Mine cost around £2k tht was including my dress which I got off the rail rather than getting made to measure and feeding 14 people was small affair up in Gretna Green x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

You can definitely do it cheap. We booked a venue through uk wedding savings and they found our perfect venue for way cheaper than it should have been. Would totally recommend them to anyone it’s free and they are so helpful http://www.ukweddingsavings.co.uk
also just look around for deals on things like shoes and dresses instead of just buying the first ones you see.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

Oh and I got married Ed on a Wednesday coz I wanted the date 12.12.12

Victoria Smith
Victoria Smith 7 Oct 2017

I think definitely decide what is realistic to save by the time of the wedding and then decide that into months so you know how much you need to put away each month and you can adjust from there. Also book the things that are big and the most important to you first so you can have first pick of vendors ..... also getting married 2019 but I have to be really on top of things as my fiancé and I work away

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

Try find an offpeak slot weekdays are cheaper

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

My wedding was 10 k...

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

Holiday Inn do a 999 package as do brittania hotels

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

We started by going to a wedding fair and it helped alot

Natalie McCarthy
Natalie McCarthy 7 Oct 2017

Managed to do it for around 5 xx

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

We are getting married in a registry office but it's in the town hall so feels much more expensive than it is, the ceremony in total with notice and booking fee is £240. The cars are costing £100 total cos we called in a favour, found a photographer on Facebook who charges £275 and only wants £100 up front, we can pay the rest after the wedding. Dress off eBay, it's a £1000 dress, worn once for a photoshoot, I bought it for £30, chucked it in the washing machine and its perfect, I can't wait to wear it. Bridesmaids are wearing rockabilly dresses, cost £14 each on eBay. His suit will be £100. The only big cost is the reception and I haggled them to death, we are getting a three course meal for 30 people then a night do with buffet and dj in our colour scheme, for £1038 and we just paid £125 to secure it and pay off the rest in bits, whatever we can afford that month goes to the reception. If you think creatively and don't mind haggling you can reduce a lot of the price. My cake is gonna cost £80, marks and sparks, three tier and we will decorate it ourselves. My bouquet and the bridesmaids posys cost 60 for all, I you tubed how to make them myself and love em ️

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

We're getting married in Aug 2019, we've gone with people that you can pay over time. We've been paying so much a month for our rings and photographer since Jan 17. Definitely recommend it, we're getting the wedding we want at an affordable rate for us.

Catriona White
Catriona White 7 Oct 2017

I would say you need to define your variables. Work out what savings you can allocate to a wedding and how much you can expect to save up to the wedding. There's your budget. Then work out a guest list, the more guests you have obviously the more expensive it gets. Once you have a budget a ball park date and a number of guests you can look at packages. You might find it easier to go for a package; they are often cheaper and there's less chance of you forgetting to budget for something. Good luck x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

We got married 4wks ago and our final total came to £7,000 We had the most fantastic day we could ever hope for....

We got married at preserved railway we had a steam train wedding ceremony afternoon tea reception for 50 guests exclusive use of the venue all day, including steam train rides for all the guests..... mini bus bought us from hotel to venue an evening buffet & dj for 120 guests....

wedding dress 2x bridesmaid dresses groom suit all accessories flowers (silk) including all button holes corsages bridal boquets table setting (home made decorated jars) oue photography videographer cake registrar fees everything.

We made our own favours centre peices bought our bunting table confetti & photo booth bits from Amazon....

My advice is shop around at wedding fares we found our photographer from a small wedding fare she was great she was actually interested in us as a couple & the venue rather than photographer who shoves packages in ya face!! Which they do which is annoying.... our photographer recommended our videographer he was great.... (looking forward to seeing it....just 2 more weeks) all in all a fantastic day

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

I’d say go and look some venues first then you can start to get a picture of how much things cost for what time of year. It will help you to kick start everything then you can work out your budget from now until the big day. This is what we’ve done and it really helped so we could work out how much a month we needed and if it was realistic or not.. if not.. then we find somewhere else to have the venue/ cut out things which aren’t a must have! Good luck!!

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

We've done register office then a venue that's based it's price on a minimum spend. So all we paid was £100 deposit! The food was less than £900 feeding 70ppl pie and mash then 100ppl bacon/sausage butties. We've kept to simple flowers. My friends a wedding photographer we're using him. Same with hair and makeup, my hairdresser is coming to the wedding anyway as is the makeup artist. So we're getting that cheaper than normal. My cake is also being made by a friend for £150.
We're coming in at under 3k for everything apart from my dress x

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

I organised my wedding in 6 weeks and it cost about 1000. Granted I didn't have a big reception but I had the best day ever. Ceremony at the city chambers, meal after at local restaurant, dress was 120, flowers by a floristry student cost 100, my bridesmaid bought her own dress, flower girl dress from monsoon, did my own make up...it can be done and it can be amazing!

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 7 Oct 2017

My wedding is coming up this month we've been fortunate to keep it as low cost as possible. Worked out to about £6,000 approx. First thing I did was get a wedding planner book, it had checklists and budget planners so you can write down what you would like and how much you hope to spend on it, then see the approx price altogether. We went for an afternoon ceremony and arent having a sit down meal as this is where the expense really skyrockets. Just for the buffet afterwards has cost over £2,000, it would have been double that with a meal too so we scrapped that part! As for stressing, I've found not caring about what other people will think or want really helps. We went for what we wanted and it's all gone pretty smoothly. I'm only now starting to stress because i can't wait to get it done lol

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 8 Oct 2017

We booked our wedding late-2016 for August 2018. We paid a £500 deposit that we had and then made a few parents as and when so that there wasn't a massive lump sum to pay at the end to the venue.

Check if any potential venues (that you fancy) have cheaper package deals in the winter. Ours does, but we fancied a summer wedding.

Save money by getting married on a weekday. My wedding is booked for a Monday and it was half the price of a Saturday!

Invites/save the dates from Vistaprint (or somewhere similar).

Our cake will be M&S.

Not doing wedding cars (getting married in the venue so no need for transport).

Don't go OTT on flowers, especially if they aren't artificial and will end up dying.

We're getting a really good photographer but only for 4-5 hours (before ceremony to dinner), and no album. I don't know when I'd look at it to justify the money, so will be getting digital prints that I can share online and print later on if I want.

Not having a videographer - as above, no idea when I would sit and watch it to justify the cost.

UKbride Administrator
UKbride Administrator 8 Oct 2017

I spent just over 2k for the lot wedding cake my dress, groom suit, bridesmaids outfits and food as my hubby is a chef so we did our own food I even booked 2 nights into a hotel we got married at leeds register office

Comment

Before we add your comment, please: log in to an existing UKbride account or join UKbride
Why Join?