Hello all! :) I won't lie.. I don't have a clue how much things cost! So.. I've sat down tonight with my partner and worked out over the 3 years we have until our desired wedding date, we can save approx. £12000, with the help of a generous donation from my Dad. Now, the venue we want is £9000. This includes the ceremony, reception, registrar, food, cake stand, table linen, cutlery, all those little bits and for us to stay overnight.
So my question is this; will £3000 be enough realistically to get everything else? I know people do weddings on the cheap but I don't have a clue how to do any of that. I've never been very 'thrifty' so any tips would be great! thanks :) x
CommentAuthorMichelleC961
- some people plan the whole wedding on a 3k budget- it just depends how thrifty you are and what you want- a dress can be bought for £100 or 3k, wedding flowers, cars, favours, suits, shoes invitations, shoes, bridesmaids dresses, dj will all add up.
Are you sure you want to spend 9k on the venue- to me it would be sensible to find a cheaper venue and have a bit more to spend on everything else.
I too am just at start of my planning so hopefully the other girls will give you their words of wisdom:-)
CommentAuthorInDreamland
That sounds like plenty to me. If all the ceremony and reception is included in the £9k, then £3k for the rest should be ample.
Check out the brides checklist to get an idea of everything else you need, make a list of everything else you have to pay for, essentials and nice to have then set your budget for each thing and stick to it.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorFlossie
edited
I'm not sure £3k would have been enough for us.
Our venue is coming in at around £6k and we've allowed a further £6k for everything else on top, and we're not exactly being frivolous! No transport, doing DIY things, got bridesmaid dresses on the cheap etc.... You'd be surprised at how quickly it soon mounts up! I'm sure it can be done at £3k but would take meticulous planning and you'd have to be very disciplined with your purchases. A good amount of DIY would help too.
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorprincesspixie
I'm with flossie on this we set a budget of 10k for the whole wedding and no matter how hard i try overtime i check the budget I'm still over and my venue has only cost 5k if you do want to keep to the 3k i would look at high street chains for things such as invites bridesmaids etc as soon as you look at "wedding suppliers" you can triple the amount your spending xx
Officially married my best friend 2/5/2015 (secretly)
Big wedding 18/06/2016
Also depending on what wedding rings you want they could take up a big chunk of that £3k budget. Then you've got things like the hen do and stag do which soon add up... I would make a list of EVERYTHING that you will need, do some research and put an estimated cost next to everything. Then at least you should be able to get an idea of whether it's achievable or not.
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorMrsEmmaP
edited
Our whole wedding is £5K but me and OH are only putting in £3.5K ourselves and we have managed to do everything for that. We have had help from my parents and people offering to pay for things but we have managed to stick to our budget. It is definitely possible just shop around for cheaper things, we got our bridesmaid dresses, venue decoration and lots of other bits and pieces cheap but they are fab! Make sure you don't miss out on the things you have always wanted though!
That 5K doesn't include stag and hen or honeymoon but best man is paying for stag and each of the ladies on my hen will be paying for themselves so that won't cost too much. My parents have paid for our honeymoon too so that's how we have stayed within budget xx
Got together on 14th March 2010
Got engaged on 25th December 2013
Became Mrs P on 14th May 2016 - best day ever!
CommentAuthorEmily17
3k wouldn't be enough for us either. Our venue is £4 and then planning on spending £6 on everything else. That includes me making all the stationary and favours myself plus DIYing the décor.
Photographer is £650 for us which we thought was really cheep. most suppliers near us were asking for £1k just for that which would be a third of your budget
Met in 2009
He proposed Jan 2014
Will become Mrs P 7th October 2017
CommentAuthorErinP42
It can be done (my mum did for fraction of the cost) but it will be vey hard (she didn't have photographer (family member did it) didn't have cars and didn't have a white wedding dress (more an outfit very cheap compared to guess)) depends on how tight you can be with money but definitely DIY your invites my mum did hers for £30 herself some places wanted £90 for same thing (small Wedding)
CommentAuthorJordanG99
I'm quite lucky in that I have friends and family that have offered to do things either cheaper or free as presents to us. My best friend is a professional cake maker and my OHs mum will be doing the flower arrangements. I'm also not fussed about having a new dress. I wouldn't mind a second-hand one. But you're right, definitely need to write everything down I think. Thanks ladies xx
CommentAuthorSam G 2b May 2016
edited
I don't think £3k would be enough for me, our photographer alone is £1000, dress was £600 (and I thought that was cheap because its pre-loved) h2b's suit will be about £400, transport is £300. BM dresses were expensive too but I guess can be done much cheaper. Flowers were £250 plus extra for the venue. Then you have cake, rings, stationery etc.
All depends really on how much you plan to spend on everything else.
CommentAuthorGlitterfairy
It is doable I think seeing as the a large portion of the wedding is in the larger budget. You'd just have to be careful, but remember you could end up spending £1000 + on a dress.
Our wedding day - 6 October 2012
CommentAuthorIrishbride2be
3K would be plenty just sit down and work out how much you want to spend on each thing- and some bits you can make yourself which will cut the costs right down xx
Met my dream man on Halloween 2012
Proposed to me in Spain 22nd July 2014
Getting married 12 september 2015
Marrying my forever best friend :-)
CommentAuthorElinor Claire
It's entirely doable as long as you are disciplined. Dresses and photography/videography are potentially the biggest remaining expenses, so shop about on those, or use skilled friends or relatives. Car and DJ can also be a lot, so again shop around. Flowers and decorations if not provided could possibly be DIY, as could all of your stationery. The main thing is to research costs for everything before committing to anything, in case you find that you don't have enough left for things.
30th August 2014 was the best birthday ever.
It was the day that I became Mrs. Dixon.
CommentAuthorDiddikins
Hi, we're planning for our wedding to be next November, and till then we can only save up to £7000. Our venue is about £2500, but that is cutting out the wedding breakfast and all the toast and dinner drinks. We will need to pay for a DJ and chair covers, but that means that we will have a bit of leeway with the rest of our budget to get everything else. I'm also going to be buying ny dress from an outlet to cut down costs and borrowing decorations that match our colour theme from our friends :) I hope this helps :)
Met in Winter 2002
Together in 06 November 2012
Engaged 11July 2015
Married TBC
CommentAuthorJordanG99
Thank you all for your help and advice. Rather than stressing about it, we've decided to just start putting money away and then look at it again a bit nearer the time. Me and OH had a bit of an argument over the venue cos I fell in love with it but he's saying it's too expensive and doesn't want to spend a years salary on one day... made me cry :( but I can see where he's coming from. Ho hum, we shall see what happens! x
CommentAuthorFlossie
It is pretty pricey Jordan but if it's your dream venue and what you want then I'm sure you can find a way to make it work. Although you can still get some amazing venues at a lower price so don't give up hope just yet - spend some time looking around different venues, you never know, you might fall in love with something else :)
Glad you've got a plan sorted out for now though. x