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  1.  
    • KatieE92
      CommentAuthorKatieE92
      Is poweruserJust marriedBadgeBadge
     
    Hi Everyone,
    I am pretty new to this site and newly engaged! Just wondered if anyone could give me averages as to what everything costs, as I made a budget plan but since I have been getting quotes, my budget seems unrealistic. Can people give me the average on how much you'd pay realistically for:
    flowers
    Entertainment (a band)
    Photography
    Video
    Stationery
    And also how much you put behind the bar for the evening party, completely stuck here!

    Any help would be great thank you
  2.  
    • Whovianbride
      CommentAuthorWhovianbride
      Ticker backgroundIs poweruserJust marriedBadgeBadgeTicker foreground
     
    There is a budget bride thread where everyone had put what they are passing for things, will bump it for you x

    Members signature icon
    Met June 2009 on my Birthday,Met again July 2009 and got
    together, May 2010 Moved in,Jan 2011 got pregnant,
    August 2011 Got our own place, 2011 Had our Baby Girl,
    Dec 2011 Got engaged, July 2015 Getting married! Yay!
  3.  
    • *KelBel*
      CommentAuthor*KelBel*
      Is poweruserJust marriedBadgeBadge
     
    Ok...
    Our flowers for everything including mothers bouquets and centrepieces was £455
    Our band cost us £300 for two sets of 45 mins
    Photography was £995 from 7am til 9.45pm,including storybook album, a dvd slideshow and all prints one copy plus USB with them on
    Video we didn't have as we didn't want and don't regret it
    Stationery cost us around £300 for 60 day invites, 40 evening invites and a bespoke guestbook all handmade.

    We didn't put any money behind a bar x

    Members signature icon
    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
  4.  
    • barbie86
      CommentAuthorbarbie86
      Is poweruserJust marriedBadgeBadge
     
    It depends on many factors including where you live, what you want, etc. Our costs for the things you listed were:

    Flowers: £830. That was for 1 bridal bouquet, 1 MOH bouquet, 3 adult bridesmaid bouquets, and one junior bridesmaid bouquet (all roses and hydrangeas); 7 button holes and 2 corsages (roses and orchids); 9 mini fishbowls filled with hydrangeas; 3 large fishbowls with posies of roses.

    Entertainment: £1830. That was for a string trio for the ceremony and drinks reception (£530), acoustic guitarist/singer from 6.30-8pm and again during the band's break (£250); band (£800, 'mate's rates' (their usual fee is £1300, they charged us £600 but we gave them an extra £200)), and DJ equipment rental (£250)

    Photographer: £2000. That included a pre-wedding shoot with about 40 images, then coverage on the day from 9am-9.30pm, with about 400 images. Albums are an extra and will set us back about £1100 for one for us and a smaller identical version for my parents.

    Videography: we opted not to have this, but I did have a brief look and it seemed prices started at around £1200 for a decent one.

    Stationery: we DIYed everything bar the invitations. I think the total (Inc postage) for our save the dates, invitations, seating/table plan, table names, and name/place cards, was about £800-900.

    Bar: we were prepared to put up to £3k behind it if necessary. The tab ended up being £2150. That was for about 60 drinkers and 15 non-drinkers and it ran from 7pm to 2.30am (though the bulk of people had left by about 1am), and included the cheapest of each type of wine (red, white and rose) by the glass, most spirits and mixers, and all beers and lagers. Essentially, the cap was about £8 max per drink, with cocktails and more expensive wines and spirits excluded.
  5.  
    • *KelBel*
      CommentAuthor*KelBel*
      Is poweruserJust marriedBadgeBadge
     
    Like Barbie said it does vary where u live so asking for an average is difficult,x

    Members signature icon
    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
  6.  
    • barbie86
      CommentAuthorbarbie86
      Is poweruserJust marriedBadgeBadge
     
    Totally. We're London/South East which tends to be a lot more expensive than most parts of the country.

    It also depends on your overall budget. We had a bigger budget so didn't have to make too many compromises/sacrifices. If we'd had a smaller budget, there is no way we'd have spent as much as we did on those things eg we probably wouldn't have put any money at all behind the bar, we'd have gone for a less experienced photographer, we'd have cut back on flowers (eg not bothered with the pedestals or table centres, or had something very simple like 2-3 gerberas in tall, thin vases, and done them ourselves), we'd have gone with simpler and cheaper stationery, etc etc.

    Best thing to do is set a realistic overall budget, work out what your priorities are (our main ones were food and drink, music, photography and the rings, and those things accounted for some of the biggest chunks of our budget percentage-wise (bridesmaid's dresses and my outfit were also up there)) and go from there.
  7.  
    • Nonna77
      CommentAuthorNonna77
      Just marriedBadgeBadge
     
    Our budget is looking like this so far:
    Flowers - £100 max. We're just having a bouquet for me, plus corsages for our mums and button holes for the groom, my son, and both of our dads. Plus I'm having silk flowers as the real ones are extortionate in price!
    Photography - £250. That's for a photographer taking pics during the ceremony, plus the formal shots afterwards and up until the food, when he leaves. We also get 2 DVDs and an album for that, so I'm chuffed at the price! We're going to put disposable cameras on the tables for the guests to take more pics once the photographer's gone, as he isn't there for long, so we should get some nice informal pics too.
    Entertainment - £450. We're not having a disco/DJ (doing our own music as we prefer that) We are, however, having a magician do a 45 min cabaret show then 2 hours of going round the tables performing close up magic.
    Stationery - £100 max again. I've made all our invites, and we're not bothering with a seating/table plan so don't need that.
    Bar - We're not putting anything behind the bar because most of our guests don't drink much. We might do something for drinks yet, I'm just not sure what.

    Like Kelbel said, it's really difficult asking for an average as everyone's wedding varies so much, as do regional prices and offers etc. I think it's also really easy to get carried away with wedding spending, especially if you got to lots of wedding fayres (like we have been doing) and see all the wonderful things you can have, like the portable build a bear workshop thing that I saw today :P
  8.  
    • Whovianbride
      CommentAuthorWhovianbride
      Ticker backgroundIs poweruserJust marriedBadgeBadgeTicker foreground
     
    flowers - £240 for 2 bridal, 4 bms, 1 fg, 4 button holes and 2 corsages
    Entertainment (a band) - £1200 for band 3 - 45min sets with free dj inbetween
    Photography- £600 for full day , full rights to photos , no album
    Video - £500 full day
    Stationery - £120 for STD,invites, place cards, table plan and OOS.
    Bar, not putting any behind bar, guests will have welcome drink, wine(or alternative) with meal, and evening signature cocktail to start.
    im having a midweek wedding and this cuts costs buy around atleast 20% ish

    Members signature icon
    Met June 2009 on my Birthday,Met again July 2009 and got
    together, May 2010 Moved in,Jan 2011 got pregnant,
    August 2011 Got our own place, 2011 Had our Baby Girl,
    Dec 2011 Got engaged, July 2015 Getting married! Yay!
  9.  
    • InDreamland
      CommentAuthorInDreamland
      Ticker backgroundIs poweruserJust marriedBadgeBadgeTicker foreground
     
    We paid approximately:

    flowers £1000 but this included my bouquet, 3 bridesmaids bouquets, 6 button holes, big presentation bouquet for my mum, all table centers, venue decorations, and over 100 chair covers.

    Entertainment (a band), we only had a DJ for £250

    Photography £1700 which was including engagement shoot, engagement print, all shots on dvd and cd, master album, 2 parents albums, 4 mini albums.

    Video , free by my uncle and cousin

    Stationery approximately £250 including the OOS

    We didn't put a penny behind the bar but we provided welcome drinks with canapés, wine and water at the wedding breakfast meal and a glass of bubbly per person for toasting.

    Set your budget and stick to it. There are many ways you can have a great wedding on a smaller budget.

    Members signature icon
    Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
    Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!

  10.  
    • Irishbride2be
      CommentAuthorIrishbride2be
      Just marriedBadgeBadge
     
    im not putting any money behind the bar, i think it just encourages people to get too drunk 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 :-)
 

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