weddings cost HOW much?!

appealing to all you clever brides to be out there....

H2B and I just got our first proper costing through from our venue, and have had the wind taken out of our sails a bit to say the least.  It includes venue hire, food and all drink for our guests, but is about 70% of what we wanted to spend on the whole wedding. 

Is it possible to find deals and DIY the other bits?!

Alternatively, anyone know a great budget venue in or around London?

xx

Hi 

Venues and food are the biggest outgoings by far! It is hard to judge how much more money you need but there are lots of ways to save money and do things yourself.

Do you have any family/friends who have any skills that can use them as a gift for your wedding. For example, someone who is great at baking to do you cake, maybe a friend with a fancy camera who can do your pictures.

Ebay has lots of fab things for table decs, favours and other bits and bobs.

For your dress lots of wedding shops have sample sales and end of line sales where you can save lots.

Also preloved, gumtree and ebay are good places to look for bargain dresses. Try to avoid cheap China copy dresses, there are many brides on here who have found them to be a disaster.

Another consideration is are you planning to pay for you attendants outfits, suits bridesmaids dresses etc! If you are limit yourself to one or two bridesmaids and that will save alot!

I could go on and on but honestly you can do things on a budget, there are lots of thrifty brides on here who can point you in the right direction!

Good Luck!

Sorry, i'm not london based, and i'm an old married, having got married in 2008.  But we were planning our wedding on a tight budget.

We kept our cost down by having a village hall for our reception venue, it wasn't the flashiest of venues, but it looked lovely once we'd decorated it.  We were also then able to bring in our own caterers rather than using some that were part of a venue package.

We managed to get a 5 course wedding breakfast for 80 people at £15 a head.  It wasn't fancy food, just your standard soup/melon - roast - desert - cheese and biscuits - tea/coffee, but there was lots of it and it was good food.  Everyone commented on how it was nice to have something simple but delicious.

I forgot to add, we did our whole wedding for £5k.  That included church, wedding cars, photographer, venue, food for 80 for the wedding breakfast and 120 in the evening, suit hire, stationery, cake, decorations, buying bridesmaids outfits.