ours was oringonally £6000 and is now £5000 we managed to save a bit of money here and there. so your not underdoing it in my estemation. but it depends on what you want out of your day really

its what u do with it that counts xx

Welcome and congrats. ANY budget is realistic - it just depends on what you can afford to spend, what your priorities are and how good at bargain hunting/negotiating you are.

What are your thoughts so far? x

We said £5k max but its looking closer to £6500 tbh but we can manage it if we knuckle down. But we are cutting corners

thanks for your replys... it's just hard when its your big day cos u like the best, but yous are right and its what you do with it that counts. I'm good at shopping around... not too good on the bargin hunting though!! Good luck girls n thanks for your advice, feel better now x

thanks for your very useful advise mrs p ; )

Ours is 5k max but at the moment we're WAY under that at the moment :) x

My budget was £10,000, hadnt realised that during the last 16 months had paid £3000 of that off, have now decided to try and shave £2000 from the budget by doing more myself. I think its realistic, especially if you don't mind thinking outside of the box...

we have been given a big sum of money that will cover costs of venue, food, drink etc so we still need to get suits, flowers, honeymoon,presents, etc and hoping this wont cost more than 5-6000, and i want change :)

Thanks NHR115

Our budget has grown and grown to £16,000, but that's because we want a lot of things and thankfully we can afford it (we already have the money saved). You spend your money however you like and, to be quite frank, there are FANTASTIC ladies on here who have had/will be having BEAUTIFUL weddings for anything between £1,000 and £100,000! Ask and they'll give you some fab tips.

Also, you COULD get some late deals... shop around and be super nice. We got £500 off our venue hire just by asking and because I was 'personable' on the phone to a potential photographer, he offered us his top package for £1,200 (a saving of £300!).

good good u did really well to get all of that for 9,000 wow im impressed! and u are very right.... I got a good deal fully inclusive for venue, foodd, drinks, bridal suite etc... its more the little things, mite just make wedding favour stuff myself etc. Great advice greatly appreciated gl all

We were lucky with the hotel costs as although its a country house its is only 4k for the package which feeds us, waters us and sleeps us etc. They even sort the venue flowers in with that cost. We found it was cheaper to get one car and put me in a hotel for the night so it can do two runs than it was to get two cars. I also went for fake flowers that were half the price but I could keep and they look just as nice. I saved money on the cake by decorating a fake cake and serving up sheet cakes. I'm getting the bridesmaids dresses made to measure from the internet at £65 each and the flower girls dress was £15 for 2 off ebay so I know one size will fit her.

I'm making most of the stationary etc and I got my accessories from ebay which includes a bridal shop veil for £10. I got my shoes for free thanks to Barrets bad service! The suits and waistcoats I managed to find a site with 50% off so it makes the outfits £125 each rather than £250. We could get them cheaper from Matalan or Asda but they will last and be used again so don't mind paying a bit more for them. The boys suits are coming from the shops which are £30 for the set.

We got the harpist from a wedding fayre for £100 which I think is a bargain and the singer is coming from Manchester but even his travel allowance makes it cheaper than some local people @ £400. He has his own lighting and PA system too. We couldn't have a band because of the space at the venue.

The best way to work out your budget is to work out what is important to you and what you can do without. We started with the venue, photographer and dress and worked out everything else out using ball park quotes that I had got. As we started to save money in certain areas we then saw that we could get more bits and bobs like the harpist without going over budget.

Also the main thing for us is that we have only invited people that are close and meaningful to us so our day time numbers are only 60 and 80 for the evening. Why pay to feed people you don't like or don't care about?

well mine started off on 4.5 ha and 2k now ive cutt down hell of a lot and thats how its staying

mines £2k for wedding and £1k for honeymoon, although i'm trying to bring it down as much as i possibly can

So we dont go spending money we need for our next house, weve set a maximum budget of £10k but I will be damned if I spend that much. Im going to make sure I find every bargain I can, make as much as I can and get it as low as possible.
Dove your points are great for keeping costs down. xx

our budget was originally £7000, then came down to £5000 but will probably be closer to £8000 in the end but that's including our £3300 honeymoon :) We have the money saved already luckily though :)

It's like all the other girls have said - you can have a beautiful wedding for whatever you can afford :) xxx

ours is 1k without honeymoon,we have church wedding with 20ish people

we have £2500 as a budget and im very nearly all paid for and at the moment only at £1670.
we didnt want to spend too much as we have 2 children so want a very simple wedding and reception, we want to take the kids to disney world florida in a couple of years and if we have a £3000 + wedding we wont be able to do that. plus there is only one wage coming into our house we cant save much at a time.
i have made all invites and things like that.
we having afternoon wedding so having an evening buffet for around 70 people.
shopped a lot in the sales for cheaper items, high street bmaids dresses, bay of e and other things like that to keep cost low.
:-)

ours was £10000 but think we can get it to about £7000

caralou, yours sounds very similar to ours, same amount of numbers and we have a little boy so would rather spend a smaller amount and take him somewhere too

Ours started at £15k and has crept up to 18k but that's cuz we have gone for a country house wedding and want an amazing honeymoon.

I am grateful to my mum tho because she is buying my wedding dress and contributing to the wedding so I can shave 2k off of my own target to save anyways

Good luck for the big day :) xxx

I think it depends on what you have and where you have it. You can have a fabulous wedding on a low budget and I think £9000 is a good sized budget. Ours is huge but that's because of where it's being held and we have a venue dresser, real flowers, live band etc but it would have been much less if we had chosen differently and I know it won't be any better or worse than anyone elses's because it's what we each want on our day that makes it special however big or small or how much we spend :o) xxx

Chrissy your the same as me , we have a huge budget, but just because of that it doesnt mean ours will be any better than anyone elses wedding. I have made favours not to keep the costs down although they worked out very cheap just because i wanted to make something that was personal and for people to remember our day by. and i am always made up when i have sourced a bargain and enjoy looking for them. we have an expensive venue and the packages per person are really expensive but for what you get they are really good and the food is amazing and thats my biggest passion is food so i am willing to pay for that. I went to my cousins wedding in june they had 3k on theirs and it was really lovely and they were so happy.... so its not about how much you spend its about how happy you will be on your wedding day and if that means spending £500 and being extactic or £1 million and being extactic then thats all that matters, i just think you dont have to go in to debt to pay for the wedding just spend what you can afford and you will be happy

ours is around £14,500 but we can only afford that as both sets of parents are putting money in and we both had some savings put away before we met each other but we are still saving hard to ensure we have everything we want!!

x

ours is costing about 2k but it might go up as i keep seeing things i want lol