How do you decide from your overall budget what bit gets what?

Our biggest expense by far is the venue, £2750, food, wedding breakfast and hog roast approx £4500 and drink approx £1500

However I'm not sure what I should allow for what after these.

Overspent on venue and food,thought I'd get a package for £4000, but then fell in love with a venue that cost £4900 on its own, then £3250 for food/drink package so only £4000 over budget there lol

It really depends on your budget Hun. Just decide what aspects are most important to you both and which you aren't really bothered about

Well to be fair we hadn't set a budget at the time so we now know we can afford it but at the time I thought we'd spend that much, we have secured our suits at today's price,as there is a price increase in feb,oct and next feb so saving about £40 a suit there,so that's £400 saved, bridesmaids are buying their own dresses so that's another £400 saved, my dads buying my dress so up to £1000 saved there, h2b's parents are buying the cake (around £300) and giving us £2k towards... We had an engagement party which we got £400 for .... Which is £4500 saved so far...x

I underspent on my dress but we overspent on our rings. It was the one thing we agreed not to compromise on as they are the things we physically carry with us every day for the rest of our lives.
We budgeted for a photographer but it turns out that a friend of mine wouldn't take any payment at all from us, nto even his travel expenses, so I guess that was our biggest saving :)

Reading some of the above comments, I'd never be able to afford to get married at those prices! Wow. We underspent on the venue. We've got ceremony & reception room hire, wedding breakfast for 40, welcome drinks & toast drinks and an evening hog roast for 60.. It cost £999. I tell people the price & they assume it's in a pub function room or something.. Er no lol.. Venue photos are on my page (:

To be fair though we found great bargains for most things.. My wedding dress is designer & was reduced from £925 to £300 as I got it from a place that stocks last season's designer dresses.

The only thing we've really overspent on is the honeymoon, but that's only really because our wedding is in the Easter holidays so going abroad is more expensive anyway.. So one week all inclusive cost £1200 (would normally be around £800-900).

Happy wedding planning everybody (: xxx

Mrs Harrison 2b, you really did get a bargain on your venue - it looks lovely!

Jeez I can't believe how much some places cost just to hire! Our venue is a lovely georgian hotel with big steps and pillars up the entrance and picturesque ivy, and is gorgeous inside...done up like a Victorian town house.

We're getting married in the library and having a three course wedding breakfast there, the cost including drinks (on arrival, with meal and toast) for fifty people is £2,750 which was well under what we expected...they don't charge for room hire though.

The night do, which is at a much less grand location (it's a sports club function room, but it is actually a lot nicer than it sounds) is costing more than anticipated...around 2k including room hire, a live band, DJ, and buffet for 80.

Ironically, it would have worked out cheaper to have the night do at the hotel, which seems mad when you compare the two, however I decided to have the night do there as I want a good knees up with a live band, the bar prices at the hotel were ridiculously expensive and (just my opinion) I sometimes find it hard to have a good time and let my hair down in what would be a more formal environment.

Xx

My dress and Veil and tiara was £2000, £1950 for dress. Venue will be around the £9000 mark including food and drinks.

xxx