My Wedding Budget
Stuart and I agreed that we would only allow £5,000 for our wedding budget. For this, we wanted to have a marquee reception with a sit down meal in the garden and free drinks for all our guests, all night. I think that’s a bit of a challenge, but with some help from our friends, we managed it and we hit our target. Below is our wedding budget, so you can see exactly where we splurged and where we saved, and also the final amount we spent. After the budget is a run down of each element in the budget.
Budget Breakdown
How We Achieved the Costs in
Our Wedding Budget
Official elements and legalities
Whether you like it or not, you have to pay for the legal bits of your wedding. So you will need to give notice of marriage, buy a certificate and pay the registrar. We were getting married in a church so we also gave a gift to the priest and organist.The rings
These were pretty straightforward. Stuart gave me a budget and we stuck to it. It includes my engagement ring and both our wedding rings. Stationery
The stationery cost is so low as I did it all myself. I designed the front of the invite with a two heart design in water soluble coloured pencils. The inside was typed on a computer and glued into the centre. The thank you cards followed the same two heart design as well. Postage was all second class. There were 60 invites and 60 thank you cards. Grooms clothes
Stuart had recently been best man for a close friend and so had been bought a lovely new suit. We decided that it would be perfect for our wedding too. Personally, I’m not too keen on morning suits, so was very happy about this. We bought him a new shirt and tie. Ushers clothes
They all wore their own suits. My wedding dress and accessories
My dress was only £225 from the high street. It didn’t need any alterations (very rare for me). I bought some cheap cream shoes from British Homes Stores – a great place for cheap wedding shoes in lots of different styles. I then had some new underwear and a cream silk flower in my hair. My hair was done by my good friend Kelly and I did my own nails and make-up. I didn’t have a veil. The bridesmaids
My two lovely bridesmaids were co-ordinated in black and white. They bought their own dresses, so they could use them again. No cost was allocated to this in the budget. Venue hire and decoration
We had a marquee in Stuart’s parent’s back garden. The company also provided all the electric cabling, lighting, tables, chairs, internal decoration and dance floor. The marquee was powered from the house and Stuart's parents gave us £500 as a gift towards a bit more space. We needed additional toilets which we hired. We borrowed a patio heater so we could continue using the space outside well into the night. We also borrowed garden furniture from neighbours to provide additional seating outdoors. The catering
We did the catering ourselves and decided on a sit-down buffet. We kept it simple with salads, quiches, warm potatoes, poached salmon, meat platter, cheese board and strawberries and cream. We had friends of Stuart’s sister to serve the food, drinks and clear away. We hired all the linens for the tables, cutlery, plates and serving dishes. We used high quality, linen feel, paper napkins. The drinks were bought on a booze cruise which saved us a fortune. We served cava all day, along with white and red wine, and a few beers too. We allowed for one bottle of cava, one bottle of white wine per person, plus a few beers each for the boys. The glass hire was free as we bought all our booze from Majestic Wine (in France), so we only needed ice coolers and ice. The cake
The cake was made by my best friend’s mum and decorated by my mum. It was beautiful and a wedding gift, so free. Table decorations and favours
I had glittery confetti on the tables along with a table centrepiece. This consisted of a hired vase with a pink peony floating in water. I didn’t have favours. Flowers
The bridal bouquet, corsages and buttonholes were done by a local florist. The flowers for the venue and table centrepieces were done by Stuart’s mother. The flowers for the venue and tables were provided at cost price from the florist. Music
We used a friend’s amplifier and speakers with our iPod, allowing us complete control over the music. We spent £23 on new music, the rest was taken from our own music collection. Photography, videography and guest book
My friend photographed the wedding for me and provided me with all the negatives and shots afterwards. We didn’t have a videographer and the guest book was Polaroid shots of all the guests with a special message. This was a gift from my best friend. Transport
We used the best man’s car (it was a fancy sports car) to drive me to the church. I could walk from the church to the reception, so no transport costs. Wedding night and going away outfit
I didn’t have a going away outfit as we were staying in a bed and breakfast locally. I walked to the bed and breakfast in my wedding dress at the end of night. It was a moonlight sky, so very romantic. Honeymoon
Our honeymoon was a lovely weekend away in West Sussex. Thank you gifts
We provided thank you gifts for all of the wedding party including the bridesmaids, ushers and mothers. Miscellaneous
On the day, we needed to buy extra ice and gas for the patio heater. If you need help
slashing your wedding budget
or advice on
where to start with your wedding budget,
there is plenty of information in
Planning and Budgeting.
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