Does these costings look about right?

Hello! I think in terms of your overall budget the dress looks quite high at £1500. You should be able to get a nice dress for quite a bit less than that.

You could save by hiring the mens suits too. Hair & makeup at £300 is probably about right.

You could save £150 by ditching favours completely, they are not really necessary.

I think you might find your venue decor needs more money, depends on what the venue include in the package.

Thanks for your reply,

I’ve been watching ‘Say yes to the dress’ so just went off of those average dresses ? the more I save on a dress the better! I think I’ll save just over these coatings if they are about right, and when I save on some areas I can spend it on others but hopefully it’ll come in at under ☺️

I think firstly it depends where you live and what time of year you are planning on getting married. We are getting married next Saturday and started planning about 22 months ago.

My bouquet cost £50 and each bridesmaids bouquets were £35. My flower girl has a wand boquet that is costing £15. Then button holes x 5 were I think an additional £18.

Rings we ended up buying after main wedding season from HSamuels and they had 10% off so only cost us £360. They are 9ct white gold that have half a heart on each.

I went for my final dress fitting today and some of the dresses that were £1k plus were reduced ridiculously so if you have time to play with then savings can be had.

We have hired suits from Moss Bross where if you are hiring more than 4 then the groom goes free. So for our 5 suits it costs £400 for all of them.

Our invitations came from eBay handmade and they were just over £10 and the same for the evening. We didn’t do save the dates, people had a text saying that we were finally getting round to getting married (we’ve been together 14 years this year) and because it was not long after Christmas we wanted to make sure our guests had plenty of notice.

We’ve spent nearly £800 on venue decoration but we have hired a fabulous lady who is doing the chairs all up and the tables etc plus edible favours for the guests. She is so lovely and worth every single penny!

For everything we ordered online we paid for via the topcashback site and we made £50 back on the bridesmaid dresses which then paid for the grooms shoes, well worth doing in my opinion.

hope this all helps x

Hi,

I'd say you're probably on the right track. Here are my costs (for 60-70 guests) from your list and I've added extra's below:

Invitations & save the dates: £200

Photographer: £1450

Videographer: £1000

Wedding dress: £1400

Veil: N/A

Alterations: £350 (it's very beaded!)

Shoes: £60

Bridesmaid dresses: £300

Shoes: N/A - they can wear their own

Menswear: £1200 (groom + 4 suits)

Hair: £255 (bride + 3 bridesmaids)

Make up: £300 (bride + 3 bridesmaids)

Bridal bouquet: £95

Bridesmaid bouquet: £150 (x 3)

Flower girls bouquet: £25 (x 1)

Flower girls dresses: £50 (x 1)

Page boy: £50 (x 1)

Wedding favours: N/A - not having

Thank you gifts: £300 total (3 bridesmaids, 2 best men)

Decorations: £550

Cake: £270

Wedding rings: £1700 (bespoke to match engagement)

Don't forget things like band or music - band £2000. Transport if you need it. Wedding night hotel? Registrar fees, notice to marry and insurance. Then obvs things like venue, catering and drinks (if it's all separate). We have a day caterer, ice cream trike for dessert then a pizza truck in the evening.

I'd say get rid of favours. No one is too fussed by them and it's £150 that can be put to something else. I spent £55 on some lovely handmade save the dates which are wood slices with the date stamped on and a magnet on the back. Everyone has said they are the best save the dates they've ever had so for me, money well spent. Your bouquet cost is quite high so I'd trim that to £150 (obvs depending on what you want).

Yes you can pick up a dress for less than £1500 but I would say if £1500 is your top end budget then let that be your budget. You don't have to spend that but it's nice to have that option, My budget was £2k but my dress was £1400.

Also download Bridebook. It's really good to keep track of your budget and quotes from suppliers and you can manage your guest list too. Plus it gives you a to do list and the timeline for each thing which is so handy.

Good luck with the saving and planning - it's great fun! xxx

This is really helpful, thank you for sharing this with me! I love love love your idea of the save the dates!

Thanks! They were from Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/640027931/save-the-date-cards-wedding-save-the?ref=listing-shop-header-1

She discounts them now and then so I got them around Black Friday so they were a little cheaper