How much roughly will my wedding cost?

Question

Im getting married in June 2008, its my first wedding so im having a white one. I want a lovely white dress and to be married in a lovely big church that holds around 150-200 people, I want all the trimmings e.g. flowers, confetti. but just need to know roughly what it will cost as I need to start saving!! x

Answer 1

15k-25k

Answer 2

Costs depend on all kinds of things - where you live, how many guests, how lavish a reception, the dress, cake, flowers, etc.

Dont be surprised if the costs are in the high tens of thousands. Yeah. you could pay off your student loans, buy a car AND put a down payment on a house for the cost of a "huge church wedding with 200 guests and all the trimmings."

That said, contact a good wedding/event planner now. Even if you only consult with him/her for an hour just to get a feel for what costs are - it's worth the fee.

Answer 3

I was married in 2005. i had a civil wedding in a lovely hotel and had 50 guests for the wedding breakfast and 100 to the evening. My entire wedding and honeymoon cost £6000!
Think about the people you are going to invite. Do you really want to fork out for people you don't really know? Consider a smaller amount for the wedding and invite loads for the evening to keep costs down, and also you want to enjoy your day not be worried that you won't get round to talking to everyone. I used silk flowers in place of real ones, had a cake from M&s and put ribbon round and flowers on top and for my dress i bought a bridesmaid dress in ivory and had an underskirt made (and u can hire these) to make it stick out and it cost £250. Remember that you'll wear this dress for less than a day and you can still look beautiful in something less expensive. Do lots of planning and look out for things well in advance to pick up bargains.

Answer 4

Amy.. it really depends on you. I had a much smaller wedding, and then compromised on things. My husband told me we had 15K for the wedding, and what was left was for the honeymoon, and what was left after that was a down payment on a house. That put my priorities straight. I found a gorgeous dress, that was last years model (who knew wedding dresses were like cars) and got a great deal on it. I went for a Sunday morning wedding (as you want a church you could tray a Saturday morning, it is much less expensive then evening) and then we had brunch, with mostly breakfast food, as it is the cheaper meal. As far as the guest list, we kept it to those people that we could not see living our life without. That cut out a lot of co-workers, acquittance's and cost, but you have to be brutal about it. I had one person repeatedly ask me when and where the wedding was, and I had to finally let him know face to face he was not invited. It was rough, but we had the wedding, spent 13 days in Italy, and only had to wait 1 year to have the full down payment for our house. Flowers and photos are 2 of the most expensive parts, if you know anyone that has a friend or a connection for these 2 you can save tons. My husbands best friend declined being his best man, but said he would love to be our photographer as his wedding gift to us. that saved us a bundle.

Answer 5

I hate the "cost" question, and I think it's one of the most often asked.

No one can tell you just a narrow answer when you have a very broad question.

The church holds 150-200 people? You better get an exact count. You don't want to invite 225 people and 190 show up when the church really holds 170 comfortably.

Are you having a sit down dinner? Buffet? Are you having it catered? Are friends of the family doing it instead to save on costs?

I mean.....you have to figure out your number of guests and THEN give a more details insight on how much you really want to spend and go from there.

Ours cost probably about $6,000.

Answer 6

The average wedding I have seen recently in 2 different wedding mags figures for £15,00 and £18,000. That's including a fancy honeymoon. You can do it for much, much cheaper than that, or you can go horribly overboard and spend loads more. Our wedding is costing around £12,000 for just under 100 in a listed building hotel- so no church and no transport, I don't feel we going to be missing out on anything, although my dress was £240- a bargain by some standards, and our honeymoon is in Cornwall- I would rather save for a fancy holiday when that's the only thing I have to look forward to.
Have fun planning!

Answer 7

Hi

Not sure where you are based but some websites offer online budget planners that are really useful for getting an idea of the costs of your wedding. The Brides Magazine planning tool shows the cost of an average wedding plus you can save your budget and update it as you go along.

For the flowers there is a useful wedding flower checklist and price guide too.

Answer 8

Why don't you work out a budget first to see if you can afford it. Go around all the different venues and get a price quotation. Weddings can range in price from very little to very expensive. You should marry for love not money. All the glamour of the day doesn't always bring a happy marriage. Marriage is something you have to work at. It seems like you are looking for a very costly wedding. Spend your money on the house afterwards.

Answer 9

If your lucky not much more than £5000 (if you know people and are able to call in favours) but for the whole hog you could be looking towards £25-£30,000 depending on if it is a full meal and buffett for evening, band, dress, etc, etc.
I got married 2 years ago and cost including Honeymoon came to just over £4000 as we was able to budget, call in people we know (we worked previously in the hospitality and catering buisness) and that was for 80 main guests and an extra 100 in the evening. Our Middle Daughters 3 years ago was a little over £2000 but very shoestring no Honeymoon. And Our youngests last year which was all trimmings for church, but a country club for after at discount (husband worked there) was £10,000.

Answer 10

Your wedding will cost as much or as little as you want it to I'm having 3 weddings long story (all with the same man). My first cost me £450 Registry office very nice, just the two of us. My second will cost around £3000. as we have to travel to Greece and have a blessing with his family my third is costing £15,000.00 and upward the cost has not stopped that is with all my family, So at the end of the day I think if you want to be married to your man it doesn't have to cost a lot, or it can cost thousands.

Answer 11

we wed in march with about the same # of guests. We spent around $4500. We shopped for sales on flowers and decorations. And we shopped for cakes outside of the wedding section. The cakes were BEAUTIFUL and we saved around $300 on that alone. Look for $99 dress racks. They have beautiful dresses for less money. We estimate if we would have purchased all of the materials full price we would have spent around $10 -12,000. Have someone you know make the food trays. it is easy to roll ham and cheese and put together a fruit & veggie dish! We also had a photographer from a local photography studio for the pics. They were wonderful! Good luck!