Hello ! We are still in the very early stages of planning, so are looking around at the moment. We are finding it really hard to set a realistic budget. Everything we are looking at seems to be so expensive that i'm worried we can't save enough in the 3 years.
What was your budget? How long did you save? Did you pay for the majority?
I've already got some costs down. My wedding dress for example will be made by my grandmother! I'm just having a hard time not stressing about money! :(
Sian and Joe
Marriage dat - 15/08/2015
CommentAuthorEm01
We have a budget of around £15,000. We set up an Isa to pay for the venue as thats the most expensive cost we have and have a standing order go in from each of us the day we get paid, can't miss it too much if it goes out before i see what goes in lol. Then we wrote down on envelopes all the things we would need to save for wedding dress, suits, transport, hair and make up etc and how much we would need to save. We tackle one envelope at a time putting in any spare cash we have, we don't start a new envelope untill we have saved all the money needed for which ever one we are on. Its going well, we have been saving for about 8 months now and have saved around £9000. I think the trick is to set little saving goals as it's easier to meet them and you dont get disheartened feeling you are no where near your target. Hope this helps xx
CommentAuthorSiany
That sounds really good !! If you don't mind me asking, how much do you save a month? xx
Sian and Joe
Marriage dat - 15/08/2015
CommentAuthorStephanieM71
Me and my H2b are getting married in 2 1/2 yrs, we basically just worked out what we could realistically save per week,for me and per month for him. Then totalled what that would be by the end of the saving period. Now we just have to stick within budget!! A friend of mine gave me her spreadsheet of everything she spent which was great - and we have hopefully set a budget :-S
I must admit it is a bigger budget then I would have wanted but like you have found everything just costs sooooo much! Oh and we are paying for everything, just seemed that anyone who wanted to contribute financially thought that meant they had the right to a say in things, which I didn't want.
CommentAuthorChanelP
I am really bad at worrying about money and trying to save for a house deposit at the same time as a wedding is not easy. My budget for the wedding is £10000 and it is hard to stick to it (will have been saving 2 years and we are paying for all of it). I'm doing a lot myself such as cake, invites, favours and order of service to try and keep the costs down. You just need to stay positive and look out for money saving tips. :)
Em01 - I do the envelope thing too - my h2b thinks I'm nuts - least i know now I'm not the only one lol. But it feels great when there is one sealed with DJ or Invites written on them :-)
CommentAuthorEm01
Siany we save 500 pound between us min and then as much as we can each month. H2B gets paid bonuses through work when he meets his targets so we save that too, this is why we have managed to save so well.
CommentAuthorTori
shop about you can get some really good deals. My venue is £2013 for 50 day guests and 100 night guests this includes wedding breakfast, wine, pie supper and DJ, also B and B for Bride and groom. If you want to you can really bring costs down :-)
CommentAuthorMariephiz
Hi Siany, We are currently on target to save about £15,000 for our wedding with family contributing £3,500. We manage to save around £800 a month by going out less, having less meals out etc. Part of this is also the fact I opted out of my pension to save £100 of that a month and got a bar job which is another £100 a month.
For our wedding, we have made savings by not having transport for me and OH, cheap bridesmaid dresses and a few other things (these haven't all gone to plan, like i mentioned in my earlier discussion I'm having a few problems with photographers!) We're likely going to spend around £9,000 on the wedding and £5,500 on the honeymoon.
Hope that helps! x
CommentAuthorEm01
StephanieM71 - Woo someone else like me haha. Its def a boost when you can knock another thing off the list.
CommentAuthorSiany
You are all so good!!! Thankyou so much for your ideas and help!! x
Sian and Joe
Marriage dat - 15/08/2015
CommentAuthorSianyCaitlin
Our budget is around £12,000. We're getting some help from the family, so we added that up & then worked out how much we could save each month, then how many months we have to save etc & added that total onto the funds we're getting from family :)
The envelopes sound like a good idea too! x
Got together 06/07/2009
Got engaged 16/07/2012
I marry my best friend 08/06/2014
Can't wait to be Mrs Sharp x
CommentAuthorKristina
my Budget is around £2000 as i am doing all of it myself apart from the venue, church and rings.
I think you should see what your financial situation is like and then see if you can put money aside each month. It soon adds up.
Met: 1st February 2014
Engaged: 1st June 2014
Getting Married: 31st December 2014
CommentAuthorLauraJo87
Our budget is 5k, and we are getting another 2.5k given from family, so 7.5k in total.
What we did is work out our income and outgoings, then work out what we can save. We then set up a standing order that goes out on the day we get paid..we save £500 a month between us, £400 goes into a thirty day notice account and the rest into an isa which we can access immediately. Closer to the wedding, when things need to be paid off, well transfer money from the thirty day into the isa.
We also try and put £50 a month into a seperate kitty to cover surprise household expenses like the car breaking down or something.
Xx
My Beating Heart Belongs To You
30 August 2013
The First Day Of My Happily Ever After
CommentAuthorLoz K
I'm loving the envelope ideas! I've just had to increase my budget from £7k to about £10k because costs just keep going up! I'm not sure yet what family will be contributing so its all very up in the air...which isn't good for someone who likes control such as myself!
CommentAuthormillz090
We currently have £12k for wedding and further £2.5k for honeymoon. My parents contributed to things rather than giving us money and took responsibility for them. So my dad is paying our reception venue but they are invoicing him directly and not via me so I don't have to worry about it. My mum is paying the church so done it directly. It means I have less money to manage, when we knew what everyone was contributing we knew what else we had to pay for and about £3.5k plus honeymoon. We already saved £3k as been together years and always saving so just broke down the rest and save it monthly. I have been paying some things out of my bank instead of wedding fund so means we should have some spare. It's tough but you have to be realistic and if you can't afford to save £500+ per month then cut back in something or wait longer as life does get in the way and things happen so you don't want to struggle xxxx
Finally marrying the love of my life !!
10th August 2013 - 9 years to the day we met !
CommentAuthorStacyT
i had originally set my budget at 8k that jumped to 10k recently when i had a reality check on the cost of things! i think we will probably go over that too!!!! :(
we are doing it completely on our own though x
Cant wait to become Mrs Ellerington!!!!!
CommentAuthorBev
Hi :)
Setting the budget is hard but it doesn't have to be stressful, just be realistic about how much you can comfortably save in time and plan your wedding accordingly. We are determined not to start married life in debt from the wedding day and decided from the day we started planning that it was the 'marriage' that was important, not spending thousands and thousands on the actual day. Do as much DIY as you can to cut down on costs. We're also having an evening ceremony which has cut costs dramatically!
Good luck with your planning Hun xxx
CommentAuthorLlosa
We set ourselves a budget of 15k max for everything, we have been engaged 2 years, we have payed for the majority of it ourselves....we are a lil over our budget... But you can have a relatively small budget and have a fantastic day (my aunty managed to do her day for 1k...it was fabulous and it was all DIY and help from other people)
CommentAuthorClareB24
Is anyone trying to organise their wedding on a small budget? I haven't set my budget yet but I know it won't be anywhere near the £10,000 mark! We've been together 10 years and have two children together, saving a small amount will be hard enough! I'm just getting very worried about how much everything seems to cost! Any ideas on small budget weddings would be much appreciated, I think we are steering towards something informal for the reception so the children can enjoy the day as well.
CommentAuthorSiany
Clare, my H2B's parents spent £500 on theres! Mostly DIY and favours!
We are hoping to not spend a extravagant amount xx
Sian and Joe
Marriage dat - 15/08/2015
CommentAuthorSarahW515
Hi We had loads of amazing ideas in the beginning such as save the date tea towels! We wrote a list of everything we wanted, highlighted everything we needed and then set a budget for each thing. We added it all together and it was 5k over what we originally thought of, bringing our budget to 20k! We are doing it all ourself and want to get it all paid for this year, we have just had to come to terms with doing very little this year! H2B is paying for the venue and my dress and I'm getting all the other bits. I've set a budget for each month and something to buy that month. I'm terrible at saving so if I have something to get then, and show for it, it helps haha and stops be dipping into my savings!!
CommentAuthorClareB24
Siany, £500 they must have been very creative!
CommentAuthorMrs C to be!
Wow you guys have some fab ideas for saving. Our budget is £15000. However we agreed that i would Pay for my dress, accessories, hair and make up by myself in addition to this. I will be paying for the honeymoon, we've budgeted about £3500 for that. We came to the agreement that as I paid the deposit on our house £11000ish, my partner who now earns a lot more than me with his own business will pay for the wedding, and I'll sort my bits and the honeymoon out. Saving the 3500 is enough stress for me.lol. No help from families, something may come in time but we are not expecting it. Our biggest expense is the venue which is about £9000 for venue, breakfast, some drinks and a hog roast. I still think ouch when I think about the cost, but it was perfect for us. Not spending spare cash is difficult and I'm only in month one!
CommentAuthorVelcro
Im being realistic, tom isnt. he seems to think he can do Vegas for his honeymoon. im not bothering nagging as i know it wont happen even if we did save up - he cant expect his mates to fork out afew grand. thedork, hes getting over excited
minus vegas, i think we are looking at approx #£16,000 the venue is expensive, but im hoping il be able to do alot of stuff on the cheap doing things myself
Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey
*Kelbel* is my wedding twinny!
CommentAuthorLinzi-jo
I'm hoping on £7000 but a more realistic figure would be £10,000. Its all down to who you know and whether or not you can get any favours off of them! xxx
Got together 14.02.2008
Got engaged 31.12.2010
Will become a Mrs on 30.08.2014 xxxxxx
CommentAuthorDanni13
Im going abroad- if thats something you can do then it will literally half your costs. My wedding includes the following: Full ceremony and reception Bridal bouquet in any choice of style or colour multi coloured roses Matching buttonhole for groom Photographer and videographer for two hours, to include … 60 colour photos Four black and white photos Two A4 Post Production photos Photo album and negatives (on CD in digital form) DVD with Kefalonia Highlights (HiDef Video available at extra charge) Ribbon-decorated bridal car for transfer from accommodation to ceremony location (for arrival of bride & father) Fresh flower centerpiece for celebrant’s top table Arch with 3 bouquets of matching flowers – Covered chairs for your guests at the ceremony and reception Decorative stands with flowers to form an aisle (x4) Two tier, decorated sponge wedding cake Instrumental musicians x 2 (mandolin, guitar, accordion) – 20 minutes before the ceremony and 20 minutes after Exclusive use of venue for the entire evening Wedding Menu for 30 persons Sample Menu 10 bottles of local wine, red and white (Linos and San Gerasimos) Unlimited bottled water during the meal Champagne and canapés for adults, juice for kids, after the ceremony Champagne toast for speeches Transfer for your guests (35 persons) to venue and return back to resort (south coast) by private luxury coach Live Greek band for four hours OR professional DJ for 5 hours OR Jerry Hollis for 3 hours Performance by local dance troupe for one hour Fully decorated reception area , consisting of …. Fresh floral centerpieces with candles, on each table (x4) Large fresh floral centerpiece for the couple’s top table Tall lanterns, placed on our stairway for the couple’s entrance, and later placed in front of the top table Organza, for a splash of colour on the table Personalized bombonieres, to match your wedding theme Transportation to the local Municipal building for scheduled appointment to sign for the Greek marriage certificate (same day or day before) Pre-wedding meeting Administration fees Registrar, Celebrant and Town Hall fees Wedding coordinator's fees FIREWORKS All for a grand total of...... £5,000
we are incorporating our honeymoon and putting on a free bar. And will have a bit of a do when we get back for everyone who couldnt make it. Reckon that could set us back up to £2K then the dresses etc. Reckon it might get up to 9 or 10k- With about 7K help from Family.
do consider abroad as an option if your looking to money save- you get so much more for your money, in a setting you couldnt buy in the UK!!
PS. To savea bit of money I started at slimming world to get into the diet, then instead of giving them £5 a week to weigh me, we bought some scales and I put the £5 in the 'wedding fund' pot each week- will only be £320 by the wedding, but every little helps!
Good luck!!
CommentAuthorSiany
Calareb24, i think the parents paid for the venue and everything else was done on a budget, their wedding gifts they asked for food for the reception so that was a big cost down!
Sian and Joe
Marriage dat - 15/08/2015
CommentAuthorHeidiF
Wow, I had no idea it cost so much :(
I love the ideas about saving- I've got so far as starting a spreadsheet trying to list all the things that we have to pay for from what I've gathered so far. I'm just trying to start filling in some blanks of approx. costs...its scary!
CommentAuthorMrsA-J
I put away 250 out of my wage until i got to the 2,000 mark. I then told the other half and we both started putting money away until we got another 1,500. It was alot quicker then I thought! But unfortunatly Im not working anymore so thats had to stop. Ive had my dress bought me and weve been given a contribution to the honoeymoon :) Luckily we paid off 100 of the church and 1000 of the venue. We should just manage it.
All this cost makes me feel abit sick tho...ergh!
CommentAuthorOfficially Mrs M
we had a budget of £7,000 for the major things like venue, photographer, church, suits etc
we then had to up it as my dad got made redundant so i had to pay for my dress we didn't pay for the car or the cake as hubby's parents paid for them for us
just have a look round at prices and put them in a spreadsheet such as
Budgetted cost Actual cost and it will give you a rough idea of what you need to save then we worked it out on the budgetted cost of what we needed to save per month
8th September 2012 I married my best friend
1st September 2014 our little family grew by one
Women are made to be loved, not understood. - Oscar Wilde
CommentAuthorLoisD91
We are budgetting around £7,000 and paying for it all ourselves. We save around £350 a month and any bonuses/unexpected monies go into the pot too. We have a spreadsheet and any spending I do for myself i am always internally comparing to guests (£40=1 guest) I think we will end up going with a package which isn't exactly what I want (I'd love an afternoon tea wedding instead of a three course meal) but will save us a lot of money and means we can get started with our married lives.
It's so expensive for one day!
CommentAuthor*KelBel*
Out budget is £12,000 for ourselves, h2bs parents are giving us £2.5k and buying the cake,my dads giving us some cash and buying my dress,bridesmaids and groomsmen are paying for themselves and my nanna s giving us a bit towards flowers, think in total about £16k x
Velcro...my wedding day twinny! The Two Kel's!
Got engaged 14/10/12 in Central Park NYC!
Became Mrs Macdonald 13th September 2014
Mummy to 4 girlies and baby blue boy Due 10/05/2016
CommentAuthorPaulaE9
I have found the budget planner on this site to be really helpful. We have had a rough idea of what we thought the costs would be then have had to increase the budget slightly. Our budget stands at £6k and we are determined to stick with this. We have cut costs by having immediate family to the ceremony and wedding breakfast then we are having a huge party at a country pub with a hog roast in the evening. The major cost is the venue, we have found by keeping it small in the day we have saved a fortune ( and saved a lot of hassle of who to invite!) the hog roast works out at £8.50 a head which is nothing in comparison to what local hotels wanted to charge for a few sausage rolls! The bay of e is fantastic, I have spotted my invitations, cake topper (cake coming from M and S, bargain) and table decorations at a fraction of the cost. We are determined to make the day about us and our marriage, not about spending a fortune x
CommentAuthorJoanna
My dad's paying the venue but we got a really good package deal on it, my grandma paid for the cake and my mum has bought my dress. Everything else we are doing ourselves. We started off wanting a budget wedding and to spend between £2-5k, but we figured out the other day that we'll end up spending about £7k and we have no idea how and where we will find the money to pay it all off :(
The greatest thing you'll ever learn
is just to love and be loved in return
CommentAuthorsuzky123
we worked out how much a wedding cost on average and started saving. We knew we wanted 2 years for time but we didnt stick to the budget.... it went from 8k to 12k to 20 k to around 30k all in with honeymoon and rings. It all depends on what you can save per month.... we realised over 2 years we could save a lot of money and so we decided that if we wanted to go all out we would but that wasnt the original plan.... just a nice bonus when we started saving and realised how much we had been wasting before on eating out and take a ways. You want to save and have time to save without it interferring with your lives too much so you still need to give yourselves time so you can enjoy a meal out once or twice a month and buy this and that whilst still saving up for the wedding. That way you wont feel the pressure x
cant wait to be Mrs Evans less than 3 weeks woooo
start weight 10st 1.5 lbs
weight now 8st 4.5 lbs
total loss to date: 24.5 lbs now need to maintain!
CommentAuthorlala "mod" bunni
well i had a budget of 7k for the ceremony in america and the one here together ..... and i came in under budget !!!!
ours wa 4000 but the more i add up the more its growing so i dont know yet n we hav saved nothing yet so not doing so good at min x
cant wait to marry the love of my life
my soul mate and my best friend
CommentAuthorLoz K
Dani I'm going abroad too and if it were just that it'd be fine, it's arranging the party back home that's costing! But like Linzi I'm hoping to bring it in for about £7k, I'm just aiming for £10k "just in case" ;-)
CommentAuthorKellyN29
I'm using the budget planner on here, its coming up with £6k but I can only spend what we save, luckily we are getting help with photographer and day time meal and cake. tried to save £100/month each when we were both working and living apart.. not able to do that at the minute but I know the basics are covered from what has been saved and bought already. it will take from April 2012 - August 2014 to save
CommentAuthormym72
We didn't really have a budget as such, but looked around for the best deals once we'd decided where we wanted to get married. We had around a 20 month engagement, so just paid for things as we needed to, when we could - as we paid for the whole wedding and honeymoon ourselves.
I always love a bargain and refuse to pay stupid money for things so we trawled the internet etc and even travelled for the things we wanted.
In the end we spent just over £6.5k or so which included the wedding (plus hotel for us and my son as we got married at Gretna), honeymoon (including spending money) and evening reception when we got back home.
CommentAuthorVelcro
im just waiting for the cost from the venue so we can finally set the budget proper, think it will be monday now. arghhhhh
Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey
*Kelbel* is my wedding twinny!
CommentAuthorHelenW
We were aiming for 7k but definitely looking more like ten. We decided to spend a bit more than originally planned on entertainment and things.. x
"Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary
life, love gives us a fairy tale"
CommentAuthorMrsHarrison
Our entire wedding INCLUDING a honeymoon to Lanzarote has cost just under £6k. If you look around you will find bargains. We didn't even pay all that, we had around £2k generously donated by family, BMs & groomsmen paid for their own dresses/suits. And we haven't cut back majorly on anything we want.. The venue is a Victorian hotel with beautiful gardens, my dress is designer, I'm having roses & calla lilies for my flowers.. It's literally just about shopping around & finding a bargain (:
CommentAuthorHelenW
Wow youve done that well! X
"Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary
life, love gives us a fairy tale"
CommentAuthorLauraB437
We have been given £4k from my parents towards ours, and we have already brought the rings and a couple of other bits too ourselves! We aren't going to be having a honeymoon though, although may book something in the uk where we can take our dog too! All in we should be about £6k I think!! Just trying to get hold of the wedding coordinator at our venue now to finalise our booking!!!!
