Typical costs for weddings...

Kinkykitty

As someone who is intending to tie the knot in 2009 I was wondering what are the typical prices of all the various bits and pieces.

Obviously there is going to be alot of variation between those that had big weddings and those that had smaller ones but I am interested in all.

What was the ball park figure all in? What did that include etc?

It would be a real help.

Thanks

Eoin

Don't have many of the figures to hand (herself has done most the work), but here are some of the prices we have seen so far, I'm sure other people can chip in and/or correct me.

car hire: 400 - 500
suit hire: 100 - 150 per fella
photographer: 1500 - 2000
videographer: 1500
Band: 1500
DJ: 500
Rings: huge range of prices obviously - the majority of the ones we saw that herself liked were the guts of 1K.

Invitations can cost a couple of quid each, it may well be worth your while seeing if you can print these off yourself.

haven't a clue about flowers or dresses.

The reception prices will vary hugely from venue to venue.

kmick

Average costs I don't know but we did a wedding for 140 people in a 4* hotel + three weeks in South Africa for 25,000 Euro all in.

JoeyJJ

Photographer 1500 - 3000 some have extensive packages.
Band 1200 - 2500
Cake 200 - 1500
Honeymoon depends on what you want 3k+ maybe.

Reception 40 - 100 per guest, most weddings around 50 id say.

Kinkykitty

The only price that is shocking me so far is the photographer! Had no idea they were so expensive. Am only in the early stages so only looking into venues at this stage. So far your posts have been really helpful

Eoin

Kinkykitty wrote:

The only price that is shocking me so far is the photographer! Had no idea they were so expensive. Am only in the early stages so only looking into venues at this stage. So far your posts have been really helpful

They're pretty pricey, but I suppose it takes them at the least another full day to get everything developed and put into an album, so you're paying for at least 2 days work.

By the way, make sure that you ask the photographer that you either get a copy of all the pictures on CD / DVD if they are using a digital camera, or negatives if they use a standard camera.

olaola

Ohh - the list is endless!!

Flowers - church, bouquet, buttonholes & bouquets for mothers
Wedding dress
Bridesmaids dresses
Shoes
Make up
Hair
Presents for wedding party
Food - not including meal - pre dinner & afters
Drink - at reception & during meal
Money for the Priest

Depending on where you are having it, 15 - 30K would be the conservative range for
approx 120 people.

funloving

I am paying 20 000 onlt for the restaurant:D

Hells_Belle

We did cocktails on the Friday, wedding and reception with dinner and drinks on the Saturday, and brunch on the Sunday for €15,000 for 120 people. We were extremely thoughtful about where we wanted to spend the money and where we didn't, though. We have absolutely no regrets about the stuff we didn't spend money on, btw

DJ_Spider

eoin_s wrote:

DJ: 500

Doing a exchange to Sterling using Xe, that's about £340. I charge between €350 and €450. The reason is this, most DJs in the UK charge around £150-£250 for 4 hours. This depends on the exact location within the area and also the size of show. Some are charging in the £300-£500 range, although this is mainly for the larger venues.

So you can see €400 for a wedding to me is better than I could earn in UK. I have been trying to get more gigs here, but, and not being nasty here, a do find a few people are a little against hiring an English DJ as they think he might not be able to play the songs they want.

I started off doing Karaoke & Discos last year when I moved to Ireland, as I had had alot of experience doing it in the UK. I had to save for all my equipment as it was provided for me in UK I now have got over 10000 songs including Irish ones. My Disco collection now stands at over 25000 tracks.

Now obviously you can't please everyone, and you will always get someone asking you for a song you haven't got. No DJ can have EVERY song released even if they use computers. Except maybe if they can connect to Napster or iTunes at the venue. (I have done it on 3 occaisions!) But I always say if I don't have it, I will look out for it. If you show an interest in your client's music taste they don't just think you are there to look good and show off.

Anyway I would like to wish anyone getting married all the happiness in the world and may their hearts alway be full of love and thier homes full of joy.

Thankyou for reading my waffle!

DJ Spider :cool:

Savman

DJ_Spider wrote:

I have been trying to get more gigs here, but, and not being nasty here, a do find a few people are a little against hiring an English DJ as they think he might not be able to play the songs they want.

I'd say it's more to do with a badly designed website than your Nationality Mister Spider.
From what I see there is plenty of DJ work, your rates seem about average so maybe you should be networking and possibly a bit of advertising on the wedding sites - paid advertising, not freebies!

DoubleL

I did a bit of a spreadsheet on costs for wedding venues, a list of about 10 really nice venues around the coutnry, comparing wine receptions, dinner, wine for dinner, after costs etc. Let me know if you would like me to PM that to you, Im sure it would be some help, it allows you to immediately eliminate what you are not prepared to pay for. All the rest of the stuff is quite variable like how much you want to spend on dress, flowers etc. My opinion is that the most important things are photographer ( this is what you have to look back on for the rest of yourlife) food ( what guests are most critical of) and band ( this determines how good a time people have).

We have spent a bit over the odds on photography and band incll DJ but have done well on the reception cost. Wedding not till next year but loving the deposit end of things- at least its cash gone straight into it! Let me know if you would like the spreadsheet!:D

simu

^^^

Photographer? Now that everyone brings digital cameras everywhere, isn't that unnecessary?

Food's definitely important, though. Some hotels have really poor quality meals.

Gingerspice99

Got married last September in Mullingar registry office - did the whole lot apart from the Church bit.

The only thing I didnt like was the limited numbers that you can get into the registry office, but you can make it your own, we had our own flowers and music and our own vows. The registra was very nice and really made us feel special.

In relation to the amount of money you spend on your wedding,I think it is a personal choice but as we had just bought a house (got the keys exactly a week before the wedding )
So we went with a small wedding
I had my dress made (it was cheaper than buying and it wasn't white)
One bridesmaid dress also made
Bought suits, shirts, waistcoats and ties for the groom and the bestman ties and waistcoats made by the dressmaker
Flowers for myself and the bridesmaid and for the tables in the hotel
Wedding cake (God bless marks and spencers )
Favours for the tables
Limo
Reception for 38 in a hotel - we invited immediate family and a few close friends - no one was put out not being invited to the whole day and we handed out the evening invitations personally.
Finger food for the evening for 80

Luckily we had a hairdresser in the family and the whole family plays music so we didnt have a band
A family friend also played which was fantastic
And a good friend is a amateur photograher - nothing amateur about the photos they were all fab

Will all this and all the extras jewellery, shoes we spent €4500

We had a feckin great time and everyone we talk to said it was the best wedding they were every at

We had a great day wouldnt change it for anything

Eoin

simu wrote:

^^^

Photographer? Now that everyone brings digital cameras everywhere, isn't that unnecessary?

People have always had cameras at weddings, but I think anyone could tell the difference between a photo from an amateur and a professional.