Typical/Average Wedding budget

kazzer

Can anyone outline some ballpark figures. Something along the lines of:

Photographer €xxx
DJ €xxx
Car hire €xxx

etc, etc

I know it’s a bit vague, just looking for some ballpark figures, for someone who has no concept of what these things might cost! Thanks

bazual

Hey,

It depends on what part of the country you are in and what kind of expectations you have.

You should budget for between €20,000 and €30,000 for the lot.

Photographers can range from €800-€900 for Cds with your shots to up to
€1400-1700 with an album and cd to over €2000 for loads of mini albums and a big one etc.

Videographer would cost from €800 to €1600 depending on what you want covered.

Band DJ, cost anything from €1500 to €4000

Cake €250 - €1000 or more if you are mad!!!

Flowers - Anything up to €1000, depends on your taste

Reception and meal. Depending on hotel its more expensive usually on a Fri/Sat that a Wed or Thursday lets say.
On a thursday the hotel might throw in free corkage and a wine/puch reception when the guests arrive. Small things like this do add up so if you are on a tight budget, consider a midweek wedding.
I would not recommend getting the wine from the hotel either, the best bet would be to buy it yourself (up north at the moment you can get great deals)
Would usually go with half a bottle for each drinker and then get some spare.

Meal can cost anything from €35pp in a deal to up to €70. The basic package would be around €35 to €50 euro per person.

Wedding Dress and bridesmaid dresses can cost from €500 to (you dont want to know). Average wedding dress is usually €700 - €1500. Bridesmaid dress are around €250 to €450.

Suit hire etc, can be up to €1000 so budget this in too.

Think of wedding rings as well €1000

Gifts for parents and bridal party, €500

Priests/Alterservers, €200 - €400

Musicians for the mass, €200 - €700

Invitations, thing of making your own instead of buying them, that goes for the mass booklets too if you are having them.

Hope this is of help.

B~

Dont know about car hire...........

kazzer

Hey thanks alot for that, really appreciate you taking the time for that detailed reply. Thats exactly what I was looking for - just some figures to work with.

Emerald Lass

bazual wrote: »

You should budget for between €20,000 and €30,000 for the lot.

...

Ah fair play to ya! €30,000??? you're all mad! Fair enough if you really HAVE to have a BIG wedding, but it is possible to have a wedding for aroud 100 for less than €10,000, and for some very industrious people even way less.

Shop around, don't assume that all suppliers are teh same price - som wedding cakes are thousands, some are around €300 - and don;t go blindly on what others said things cost, cos not eveyone is honest about prices for one, and two some people are just thick and throw good money away!

My advice is to sit down and make a skeleton list of the things you feel you absolutely HAVE to have on the day. Then get on the net and compare prices. Then you will have a ball park figure of what you NEED to spend to feel you had the wedding you wanted. Then everything after that is on a case by case basis - e.g you simply must HAVE a chocolate fountain? well then, maybe you can't afford the silver package meal so will have to have the bog standard Chicken and ham? things like that.

My minimum list of things I really want to have is coming in at a LOT less than €30,000. I know the bear minimum I must spend to have the day I want, and I hae it all ear marked off (well in theory! :rolleyes:) then any money left after that is 'FUN' money - getting things as an extra - or better yet we might even get away with having a few quid left in the bank for a better honeymoon etc.

Good luck with it all - don't let those 'ball park' figures turn into telephone numbers in your head - spend what you can afford and don't feel the need to compete with others.
x

shane b

I agree with Bazual above that budget between 20- 30K some of which you will get back as gifts/cash.

I got married in september 08 and our wedding cost almost 30 K to include everything including the honey moon although our guests did cover the price of the hotel. Basic Break down of our costs are below.

Photographers. € 1850
Videographer: €800
Band & DJ, cost €1800
Car Hire € 350
Balloons: € 100
Cake € 500
Invitions which we made ourselves € 250 (materials & printer ink)
Thank you cards: € 125 for 180 cards
stamps for invitions and cards: € 80
Flowers € 600,
Reception, meal & wine for 175 people: € 10500 ( which we got back in cash gifts)
Wedding Dress and bridesmaid dress: € 2000
Suit hire for groom & best man: € 250
Wedding rings: € 800
Gifts for parents and bridal party, €500
Priests and 6 Alterservers, €400
Musicians for the mass, € 350
Honeymoon in South Africa including spending money € 7500
Hope this helps

ilovecars

i wanted a big wedding on a small budget, big dress big car small me.. ended up costing about 22grand not including honeymoon.. i got married 6 months ago and believe it or not i got a lot of toasters and i'd been livin with my hubby about 12 years..

esharknz

Having a wedding in Australia on the beach and including honeymoon/flights etc it's going to cost us less than €10K. This includes reception for 25 people. My family are from downunder so only his are (willingly) volunteering to travel.

TutuKaka

I've noticed that a lot of people that are getting married this year are making conscious decisions to trim costs and are no longer worried about keeping up with the Jones'.

The 3 day Stag in Prague definitely seems to have had its day.

hunnymonster

Yeah, I think people will still spend on what they feel is important but not feel like they have to get every little add-on.

galah

getting married in Germany - budget is around 10 k, on target so far.

Food and open bar for 100 people will cost around 6 k, dress and accessories around 1 k, photographer 500 euros (including pictures), DJ around 250 for the night (no band since venue is too small for that, friends will bring guitars for later), don't need a wedding car since church and venue are in one location (castle), flowers around 200 euro, my brother makes the cake, my mom makes the invites (material & postage I'd say around 100 euros, it's a gift to us tho ;-)), rings are around 600 for both, suits and stuff for H2B around 500, and that's it, really...

Haven't factored in the honeymoon, but that should come in under 3 k as well.

molly54

my friend ( in Dublin) makes wedding cakes, she does them for about 300euro. i have contact details if you need them. She is very good! Just realistic about prices!

SeekUp

I'm not sure how much of a help this is, but if you go to theknot.com, there's a budget calculator. You put in how much you actually want to spend, and then it'll give you a breakkdown of how much you should spend on everything (catering, venue, invitations, photographer, etc.). It's neat because you can put in how much you actually spend and keep track of how close you are to your budget as you go along. The thing is, it's in USD, but you can convert everything to kind of get a ballpark.

Hope this helps . . .

BroomBurner

I agree with Emerald Lass. Think about what you actually want for the day, as opposed to what you think others expect you to want. Then research and don't ever just settle for the first price you're told.

We had a wedding and honeymoon with all the trimmings (without the Church, I must say, there's a massive saving right there), all for well under €10,000, so it can be done.

kazzer

Thanks for all the replies. Please feel free to add your own budgets! Maybe this could be a sticky.

Dr. Loon

All this talk of 20 - 30 grand is insane! What is wrong with people? For us, the breakdown is roughly;

Invitations - we'll do ourselves.
Wedding rings - €1000
Photographer - a friend, we'll throw him a 100 quid.
Videographer?!!? - couldn't be arsed.
DJ - €650
Flowers - free
Cake - free
Meal - paid for by parents
Cars - I'll drive myself
Priest/church - €100 or so and a meal.
Dresses/Suits - €2000 or so.
Honeymoon - €4000

This 30 thousand stuff is ridiculous. People would want to start copping on to themselves. Thank God my wife to be isn't some lunatic that thinks she's princess.

krankykitty

Dr. Loon wrote: »

All this talk of 20 - 30 grand is insane! What is wrong with people? For us, the breakdown is roughly;

Invitations - we'll do ourselves.
Wedding rings - €1000
Photographer - a friend, we'll throw him a 100 quid.
Videographer?!!? - couldn't be arsed.
DJ - €650
Flowers - free
Cake - free
Meal - paid for by parents
Cars - I'll drive myself
Priest/church - €100 or so and a meal.
Dresses/Suits - €2000 or so.
Honeymoon - €4000

This 30 thousand stuff is ridiculous. People would want to start copping on to themselves. Thank God my wife to be isn't some lunatic that thinks she's princess.

Big saving right there, that's the biggest expense :rolleyes:

kayos

Dr. Loon wrote: »

All this talk of 20 - 30 grand is insane! What is wrong with people? For us, the breakdown is roughly;

Invitations - we'll do ourselves.
Wedding rings - €1000
Photographer - a friend, we'll throw him a 100 quid.
Videographer?!!? - couldn't be arsed.
DJ - €650
Flowers - free
Cake - free
Meal - paid for by parents
Cars - I'll drive myself
Priest/church - €100 or so and a meal.
Dresses/Suits - €2000 or so.
Honeymoon - €4000

This 30 thousand stuff is ridiculous. People would want to start copping on to themselves. Thank God my wife to be isn't some lunatic that thinks she's princess.

Just looking at your list there and you are saving/getting free/not doing/under budgeted about 5K worth excluding the meal.

Invitations – Even done yourself will cost some money between paper/ink/postage.
2K on Photo/Video
1K under on Music between band and DJ
1k on Flowers
400 on Cake
Church will be more than 100 tbh 400 would be average.

Then the meal depending on where you are having it will be a huge expense lets call it 10K for about 100 people having a sit down meal with wine and sparkling for the toasts and then some evening food for the afters. You are lucky it’s been paid for.

So there you go 15K you are not paying for or missed out on cost. Add the 7K on rings/clothing and honeymoon and tada you are at 22K. Now what about all the other bits that are not listed hair, make up, presents for the wedding party, music in the church…….

Kar!

Hi,

Im getting married next October and I have budgeted the wedding at 5k. I have made all the invitations already at the cost of 70 euro and thats using handmade paper and a lot of different embelishments. The cake is free as my maid of honour is paying for it.( Her mother is an award winning confectionary chef), the photgraphs are free as my fiance is a photgrapher and is getting one of his friends to shoot the pictures. The dress im getting in monsoon, his suit will be custom made. We are having a Civil service and are decorating the place ourselves with just a lot of candles and ivy. The recpetion which we are having in a retaurant is costing the most. its 50 a head per person including a 3 course meal and two bottles of wine per table of 4.

One upside i guess is the fact its a very small wedding of only 50 or 60 tops. There is nbo reason to spend so much on flowers and dresses and stuff....making it more personal will make the day so much better....at the end of the day all i want is a nice wedding with close family and friends and a sit down meal to finish it off!

ShirleyH

That sounds lovely Kar, lots of people are opting for your type of wedding. I definitely think couples are copping onto the fact that some wedding suppliers made a fortune in the days of the celtic tiger, but they realise now with a little resourcefulness, you can have an amazing day for a fraction of the cost.

Our wedding cost us about €10k, my parents paid for the meal, but the €10k included a month long honeymoon in Asia. I am in the trade, so was able to do a lot of the stuff myself, but tbh it was nothing that any other bride couldn't do.

Some people have an element of snobbery about their day, they don't want it to look like they are cutting corners. If you are financially secure and want to have a big budget wedding, fair play to you, but its the people getting loans and going into debt for one day that never ceases to amaze me.

Kar!

I know exactly what you mean. I could have gone up to 10k for the wedding but really what is more important to me is just having close friends and family and having a great day out. I know every girl dreams of her ideal wedding with the big dress and the orchestra and choirs etc, but at the end of the day sonthing simple can be so much more effective and its a day to remember.

I thinki doing most of it myself will save a lot of money in the long run. Since the wedding isn't until next year i'm planning well in advance because i wont have to stress out next year when it comes to finalizing the venue and afters.

I'm amazed at how inexpensive i was able to do it all!

esharknz

Kar! wrote: »

I know exactly what you mean. I could have gone up to 10k for the wedding but really what is more important to me is just having close friends and family and having a great day out. I know every girl dreams of her ideal wedding with the big dress and the orchestra and choirs etc, but at the end of the day sonthing simple can be so much more effective and its a day to remember.

I thinki doing most of it myself will save a lot of money in the long run. Since the wedding isn't until next year i'm planning well in advance because i wont have to stress out next year when it comes to finalizing the venue and afters.

I'm amazed at how inexpensive i was able to do it all!

Agreed. I once told a couple of people my budget (those spending €30K plus) and was labeled "unromantic" as I wasn't taking out a loan etc and spending a house deposit on one day. Mine is going to come in under €10K and that includes a 2 week honeymoon and flights.

Kar!

Oh i'm refusing to go near a bank....i would only be losing out on more money...I really dont see the point in spending 30k on a wedding...yeah you get the big dress and the fancy reception and stuff but its your day at the end of it and its about you and him not 200 odd people who you have to feed! Give me a simple afternoon wedding and a gud meal and a drink or 2 and im happy. Thats all i need!

Thats really good you have your holiday too included in the price.

implausible

Dr. Loon wrote: »

This 30 thousand stuff is ridiculous. People would want to start copping on to themselves. Thank God my wife to be isn't some lunatic that thinks she's princess.

I would definitely not belong to the princess category, but neither do I belong to the parents paying for the meal category! That's quite a judgemental post.

Hotel (meal,booze, afters): 11500
Band & DJ: 1500
Photographer: 1700
Video: none
My dress, bm dress, his and best man's suit hire: 1700
Flowers: 600
Honeymoon flights: 1200
Rings:1200
Flowers: 550
Cake: relative
Priest/civil reg/pre-marriage/affidavit: 500+

We're coming in under the 20k mark; I did some serious shopping around and am quite proud of myself.

We're inviting 200ish people and I haven't budgeted for it, but many of them will bring cash gifts.

Kar!

Only 1150 for meal hotel and drink...please tell me where your having it becuase i have quoted several hotels and each is working out at 3000 mark alone and thats feeding only 50 guests with two bottles of wine per table.

And thats another reason why im not having a hotel afters....too pricey!!!!

implausible

oops! have returned a wandering zero to its rightful home, apologies Kar!

johanne79

Hiya, I just came across a post you put on boards.ie last year and wondered where you found your videographer for €800? That was a great price

Regards

Johanne

shane b wrote: »

I agree with Bazual above that budget between 20- 30K some of which you will get back as gifts/cash.

I got married in september 08 and our wedding cost almost 30 K to include everything including the honey moon although our guests did cover the price of the hotel. Basic Break down of our costs are below.

Photographers. € 1850
Videographer: €800
Band & DJ, cost €1800
Car Hire € 350
Balloons: € 100
Cake € 500
Invitions which we made ourselves € 250 (materials & printer ink)
Thank you cards: € 125 for 180 cards
stamps for invitions and cards: € 80
Flowers € 600,
Reception, meal & wine for 175 people: € 10500 ( which we got back in cash gifts)
Wedding Dress and bridesmaid dress: € 2000
Suit hire for groom & best man: € 250
Wedding rings: € 800
Gifts for parents and bridal party, €500
Priests and 6 Alterservers, €400
Musicians for the mass, € 350
Honeymoon in South Africa including spending money € 7500
Hope this helps

Breaktown

Once the meal if paid for, what extra money do hotels charge? I assume there is some sort of extra charge just for booking.

kayos

Breaktown wrote: »

Once the meal if paid for, what extra money do hotels charge? I assume there is some sort of extra charge just for booking.

Hotels charge for!!!!

Meal
Reception Drinks
Drinks with the meal (or corkage)
Bar extension (sometimes)
According to one post here a while back security

But they normally give you free use of a cake stand and knife!

sofireland

Depends when you booked as well to be fair.
We've had our venue booked nearly 2 years and the prices of the extras are the ones that went up the most.

Breaktown

kayos wrote: »

But they normally give you free use of a cake stand and knife!

Oh that will make it all worthwhile then!

What about deposits? Does that cover the cost of the meal etc or is than an extra thing?

Trinity10

I'm doing a wedding on a budget and what I've found is that the prices for things so high it's hard not to be over budget. The hotel itself is €8500 for 120 people. The most expensive cost so far but we both love the place as it's small and quint.

Church - 480
Priest - 150
Dress - 1000
Bridesmaid - 100
Suits - 350
Photographer - 1800
Music for church - 300
Flowers - doing myself
Cake - 80 M & S
Invites and mass books - doing ourselves
Hair and makeup - doing myself
Wine - we're going to France and expect to pay no more than - 500
Videographer - Not doing
Band - Not having
DJ - Friend
Wedding rings - 2000

So that's over €15 before we add the honeymoon. We've compromised on everything except the venue, which we love.

Flat2dmat

I agree with Dr Loon, however if your parents are paying for the dinner that's another big saving on your side.how are the flowers free? Personally I'm going for a very small budget, avoiding a church, only inviting people I want there - about 30, and not getting the videographer, rented cars etc which are not necessary...unless you do consider yourself someth special!! To be honest, I think a lot of females give the rest of us a bad name, by expecting their new husbands to be happy with all the formal torture on the wedding day, that they consider "important". The wedding is just one day, the marriage is for life - which is more important to you will decide your budget!

Flat2dmat

[We're inviting 200ish people and I haven't budgeted for it, but many of them will bring cash gifts.[/quote]

The way people invite guests and presume the cash gifts will pay for them - what's the point? I'm only inviting people I really want there and am not expecting any gifts at all, I'm happy paying for their day out with us. The expectation of cash just comes across so shallow.

dlambirl

God reading this is giving me the shivers.....

We're not even engaged but we did a rough head count on IF we did get married who we'd have to ask....

Counted 300+ :rolleyes:

emma82

hi guys, im very new to all this boards stuff- other half has always raved bout it but its taken me a while to get here!!

just got engaged- planning for 2011- hotels don't even have 2011 prices yet- should we get signed into something at 2009 prices or wait?

done a very early head count and are looking at 250 already- thats without family input!!! very scared at the thought of prices etc- can i ask a stupid question- how do people afford these huge days?:eek::eek:

seamus

emma82 wrote: »

just got engaged- planning for 2011- hotels don't even have 2011 prices yet- should we get signed into something at 2009 prices or wait?

Wait. Go look at places, but absolutely don't agree to 2009 prices - many places have in past insisted on their "right" to review the cost of the menu from year-to-year, so this shouldn't be a problem.

done a very early head count and are looking at 250 already- thats without family input!!! very scared at the thought of prices etc- can i ask a stupid question- how do people afford these huge days?:eek::eek:

OK. For a very modest meal, you're looking at €50/head. So that's €12,500 on the meal alone. We're getting a particularly expensive meal and we're still spending less than that.

It's time to start culling your numbers. Your only criteria for each guest should be, "Will I look back in 10 years time and be glad that they were there?". You don't invite colleagues unless they are very very good friends. Avoid inviting long-lost cousins or people you see once every five years. "We're keeping down costs" is a perfectly valid excuse for only inviting your parents' siblings and not your cousins.
Old college & school friends that you used to go drinking with but haven't seen them since they moved to the USA ten years ago? Forget them. Your next-door neighbour from when you were a kid? Forget them.

Not inviting children will also keep your numbers down. Even if your best mate has five kids that you all adore, tell them to take the night off and come party with you.

Menas

Agree with what was said above. If money is an issue then you need to keep the numbers down. A good rule of thumb is that if you do not have their number in your mobile phone - do not invite!
It will be a more special wedding to have a nice meal for a smaller (<100) crowd then a cheap and nasty meal for 250!

emma82

seamus wrote: »

Wait. Go look at places, but absolutely don't agree to 2009 prices - many places have in past insisted on their "right" to review the cost of the menu from year-to-year, so this shouldn't be a problem.
OK. For a very modest meal, you're looking at €50/head. So that's €12,500 on the meal alone. We're getting a particularly expensive meal and we're still spending less than that.

It's time to start culling your numbers. Your only criteria for each guest should be, "Will I look back in 10 years time and be glad that they were there?". You don't invite colleagues unless they are very very good friends. Avoid inviting long-lost cousins or people you see once every five years. "We're keeping down costs" is a perfectly valid excuse for only inviting your parents' siblings and not your cousins.
Old college & school friends that you used to go drinking with but haven't seen them since they moved to the USA ten years ago? Forget them. Your next-door neighbour from when you were a kid? Forget them.

Not inviting children will also keep your numbers down. Even if your best mate has five kids that you all adore, tell them to take the night off and come party with you.

thanks seamus- what youre saying really makes sense! my fiancee totally agrees with you as well. looks like we need to start cutting those numbers down!! cheers

Toots

Trigger Happy wrote: »

A good rule of thumb is that if you do not have their number in your mobile phone - do not invite!

That's a great idea!!! Also don't forget, if there's people who you sorta do want there, you can always invite them to the afters. We're having family and close friends only to the ceremony and the meal, but loads of colleagues and other friends to the afters, so you can still spend some of the day with them, but it doesn't work out so scarily expensive.

Edit: actually I'll throw up my budget just for the laugh:

Venue (meal, afters food, drinks reception & booze for about 125): €7300
Photographer: €1200 (including album)
Flowers: €500
Bride's Dress: €800
Bridesmaids (three dresses): €600 for the three
Suit hire: €800 (6 suits, not sure if I've totally overbudgeted here or not, my H2B has to suss out the suits)
Car: €400
DJ: €500
Invitations/Mass booklets supplies & stamps (making myself): €150
Rings: €800
Cake: €200 - €300
Priest: €100 - €150
Wedding registry office fee thing: €150

I'm sure I've left some things out though. We're not going to bother with a videographer, cos frankly the idea of seeing myself on video is horrific! I'm just about coming to terms with a photographer :P Music for the church will be provided by my OH's brothers and one sister. We're not having a band, just a DJ. And our church only allows two small arrangements on either side of the altar, which actually works out very handy for us because it'll keep the flower costs down. I haven't included honeymoon in this because we're not sure what we'll be doing yet, have to see how the finances are closer to the time. My max budget is €15k though.

Unwilling

This is a great break down... hope you dont object to me using it.
8500 is pricey, but you are right, you can not compromise on the venue. That is where we are struggling at present...but each time we find a cheaper option it just doesn't sit right with me.... so I know we have to go with our guts on it.

tatli_lokma

ok, seeings as most of these budgets are listed as what people expect to pay, I thought I'd help and tell you what we actually paid! Got married 10 wks ago in Dublin:

hotel: well our total price was just under €1500 for 46 people, and a further 30 people in the evening. This included tea & coffee for guests on arrival, champagne reception for B&G, red carpet malarky (which shouldn't be charged for but I know some hotels do!), 4 course meal (soup, starter, main, tea/coffee. We opted against dessert - had wedding cake instead - explain why at cake price!), open toast, evening food, accomodation for B&G, reduced accom rate for guests at €66 per room. It also would have included flowers on table and cake stand if we had wanted, but we didn't. It also included use of the Bridal suite from night before as I got ready in the hotel. So going on that it was around €32 per head, and then evening guests cost nothing extra. So if you were having a larger wedding, you could budget for €32-€35 per head. It was a 4 star hotel, in Dublin. final cost €1500 (also just want to add, our menu was bespoke to our needs - we met with chef before and decided what we wanted to serve based on some suggestions from him, it was not a bog standard turkey and ham affair - really top notch food, and everyone was very impressed with the quality of the meals. really was restaurant quality and not a dry piece of turkey or mushy carrot in sight!).

flowers: asked around and got someone who works in a florist to do it as a nixer. flowers cost €600 for the flowers themselves, vases and other sundries and €200 for her time. We assisted her so it was all done in one evening 2 days before the wedding. She did the bouquet the night before. Total price was €800 and this included 10 table arrangements in tall vases, glass mirrors for the tables, votive tea light holders, button holes for 10 people and my bouquet. My flowers had a lot of exotics in them such as orchids, lillies, gloriosa lillies etc. The flowers were used for both the venue and the hotel. had I got these through the florist themselves I would have been looking at about €2k minimum, and the person who did my flowers would have been doing them in the florist anyway, so there was no compromise on quality! I gave the vases and table arrangements as gifts to special people who helped a lot, so that meant there was no extra cost for gifts for them.

Dress/veil/tiara: did some bargaining, searched around and found a place with it on sale. Was priced at €2800 in other shops, I paid €1200 for it as I agreed to take the sample. The shop had it cleaned and it looked brand new. In fairness the girl in the shop said that not many people had tried it on, so it had no wear and tear on it. This price included alterations etc. Bought my veil online - €80 as opposed to the €200 in the shop! my tiara was from debenhams, looked exactly like the one I liked in the bridal shop and was €50 or so and then there was a 20% reduction. Similar one in bridal shop cost €180. Same goes for necklace and earrings, and after the wedding so many people asked me where I got my jewllery and accessories! shoes were sourced online €90 inc P&p and were a copy of the ones I wanted retail which were €200. Total bridal wear: €1400

Grooms suit - bought when on holiday. Got a Pierre Cardin suit direct from their factory outlet. Retail price €1000, paid €350 inc shirt, cravat and waistcoat.

Registrar: €150 to register, €120 call out charge. total €270

Ceremony Venue: got married in a castle, normal cost would be €400 but as i was the first to do it and helped them arrange all the paperwork they charged me €300.

Car: only booked it 3 days before as it was not something we were sure we could afford. When we realised we could, we bargained. Also because the wedding was at 3.30 we bargained with him for a half day rate. So we paid €250 for that.

Invitations and ceremony booklets: sourced from abroad. took a bit of organising to make sure they had teh spelling and wording right, but we got fabulous invitations that everyone commented on. 50 day invites and 50 evening (there was a minimum amount so we had to over order). total price was €80 inc p&p. We then used the extra covers to cover our ceremony booklets which we did up ourselves at the cost of about €20 for the paper.

Ceremony music - downloaded onto a laptop and a friend took charge of this. price for the downloads €5

Dj - got a local Dj so no call out fee. He charged €250 for 5 hours playing and ended up playing 6 for no extra charge! he was really good - good mix for oldies and young. He also offered a karaoke - not everyones cup of tea, but cos we had a small wedding it was good craic and we had some great singsongs! this was inc in the charge.

Witness gifts - €150. Solid silver key rings each, engraved, necklace for female witness, solid silver engraved hip flask for the male.

Photographer and videographer - €800 with 500 photos on a CD, we did our own album which was in reportage style. Photographer also did a video of the ceremony. we didn't want the reception videoed, so he just videoed the ceremony. Cost of the software for the album was €100 and printing €100 (we sent it off online to China and they printed them and sent them back). This included a hardback coffee table album for us, 6 magazines for family, 2 handbag size smaller albums, 2 canvas prints. We just got them back and they are fabulous quality. And we can get them again as many times as we like as we have the software. We also gave lots of our friends CDS and self addressed envelopes and got them to copy their photos and send them to us. We have at least 800 photos and definitely about 60-70% of the photos are fantastic quality and useable. total for everything €1000

Cake: cake large enough to feed 100 people and with plenty left over! we got a fairly simple cake, three tier, different flavours each tier. hire of cake stand also (we didn't like hotels one). This was €300 from a local confectioner. We decorated it with fresh flowers which were already included in the flower price. We opted to serve the cake as dessert - this was on the advice of a friend who is a head waitress and has worked at a lot of weddings. aparrently she would estimate that at least 40% of the desserts go back into the kitchen untouched or barely eaten. People who are not dessert people just aren't bothered. By using the cake as a dessert then those who want it can have it and those who don't wont - much less waste and it saves you about €5 per head.

Wedding rings - got from a local jewller who custom made them. €500 for both, mine has small diamonds and his has engraving on it.

Hair and make up - did my own makeup and was complimented on it highly! practiced different looks for weeks before and trawled the net for tips and advice. Hair was €50 and beauty treatments inc nails, tan and pedicure was €100. He got a haircut and shave and mini-manicure the morning of the wedding - total for both of us was €200, but we also paid for my dad and bro-in-law to also have shaves so the whole lot came to €230.

Honeymoon - €800

Even with some sundry extras here and there it came in at under €8000 and we didn't have any 'cheap' or skimpy things. In fact we probably could have saved more money had we had more time to hunt around for prices. (we booked and organised our wedding in 14 weeks) If I were to do it again I would try to get my wedding dress cheaper for one!

I realise we didn't have bridesmaids and groomsmen so that reduced the costs a bit. But then again, if you are on a budget do you really 'need' a large bridal party?

We got some great compliments from people about our wedding, and I know people are expected to do this, but we even got compliments from people who never give credit where its due! so it must've been ok!

In this price I have included everything we spend on food for our guests etc. We didn't borrow anything to pay for this wedding. We got some money back in gifts, but the best bit was, because we didn't borrow for the wedding the money we got as gifts we actually got to spend on ourselves and our house and not put straight into the bank to pay off a loan! we got a new couch and stuff for the house and garden and its lovely cos we can say 'we got that as a wedding present'. If you take my prices into account, for a wedding of 100 people it would cost an additional €1700 inc drinks and evening food, so for a wedding of 100 it would still be under €10000. Fair enough, we didn't have a mad exotic expensive honeymoon, but again this was something we decided against based on our budget. We had a great honeymoon, in a lovely hotel and we also had a few days away down the country. We are now married 10 weeks and have been away for weekends twice! the reason is because we are not struggling to pay back a wedding loan - we can enjoy our 'honeymoon' period with no worries about bills for a day that has been and gone!

One other tip we were given from our friend who works in a hotel is not to bother with wine on the tables - most of the lads will opt for pints anyway, as they won't start on wine and change to pints. Having heard some of the scams that go on with the wine, I think it is less of a headache to not have it. If you don't want to seem mean, then offer two open rounds to your guests. On the day we offered a second round of drinks which was kindly paid for by my dad and it was appreciated by everyone. I have been told that if you do opt for wine on tables, then you need someone to monitor it. After the meal, check how many bottles have been used, and check how many bottles are left on the tables. Make sure any unopened or half full bottles are left on the tables - one scam hotels sometimes pull is they clear off the tables taking the half full bottles away - then when someone goes to the bar for a glass of wine they sell them your wine which has already been paid for - the guest pays a second time for the wine YOU supplied! i have been told by good authority that this happens even in some TOP hotels! another one they do is to send the half full bottles to the bar or restaurant for use. bearing this in mind I would rather go for 2 toasts than wine!

In the end, family offered to pay for some of the things on our list, such as DJ, cake and car. So the cost to us was almost €1000 less than we had planned, which was wonderful.

I hope this info helps people and gives them some perspective on costs. There is a big difference between what you THINK you need to spend and what you actually need to spend. don't believe everything some people tell you -some people just love to throw money away! and they don't necessarily get any better service or have a better wedding for it.

Good luck to everyone planning a wedding, and to those of you planning on spending 30k - one question - would you not just hunt around, bargain and be sensible and then give me the extra 10k you save???? you might as well give it to me than to a hotel! lol

tatli_lokma

seamus wrote: »

OK. For a very modest meal, you're looking at €50/head. So that's €12,500 on the meal alone. We're getting a particularly expensive meal and we're still spending less than that.

sorry bit €50 per head just for the meal!!! madness! this is a very commom misperception. My 'meal' was well less than that and was fabulous quality food in a 4 star hotel. €29 per head actually. For a hotel to charge €50 is rubbing it in - and this is not just my experience, plenty of people are now realising that hotels CAN be bargained with.

Two friends getting married next year - one in very posh hotel in Wexford. Price for 80 guests, inc wine, evening food, use of ceremony room, bar extension, tea anc coffee on arrival, champagne reception etc is coming in at €50 per person. so to pay €50 for meal alone is a bit much.

Jurys are charging €6500 and according to their raido ad this is for 100 people, with wine on tables and evening food and tea and coffee on arrival. i think (but may be wrong) that this even includes evening entertainment.

there is definitely room to bargain out there.

And if any of you find a hotel with the audacity to charge for a bar extension take your business elsewhere!

wildsaffy

We are doing 150 guests and spending no more than €5,000 including the honeymoon.

It's madness the money people throw at weddings!

Mihalna

Hi! I`m an experienced videographer (four years in video-production studio) PM me if interested and I`ll sand you a link to somw of my works. I`m sure you will like it
Thank you
Anna

Unwilling

Hi

I would really like to learn more about where you got married (venue)
that is my current stumbling block. I know I can do well with my money for dress, cake, flowers, not interested in cars, have a good price for photographer... but it's all hinging on the bloody venue. Most of which charge MORE if I have less than 100 people. Which I do.
Would love your help

Thanks

i-digress

My hotel were going to charge us more because we had less than 120 people, but we agreed to have it on a Wednesday, not a popular day, and they charged us the same amount per head as if we had 120.

prinz

The first thing I don't understand is the whole photographer / videographer thing. Sure every person there is bound to have a digital camera or video anyway. What you do is ask your guests to send you their pics of the day, choose the best and make your own album for <10% of the cost of a photographer. tbh there's not a whole lot of difference in the standard anyway for most.

seamus

prinz wrote: »

The first thing I don't understand is the whole photographer / videographer thing. Sure every person there is bound to have a digital camera or video anyway. What you do is ask your guests to send you their pics of the day, choose the best and make your own album for <10% of the cost of a photographer. tbh there's not a whole lot of difference in the standard anyway for most.

There is an enormous difference between a professional photographer with professional equipment and a 30 year old with a pocket camera after 6 pints of Guinness. To pretend otherwise is fooling yourself. Same goes for a professional videographer versus your Uncle and his Sony handycam.

Whether or not this difference is important to you is the real question. Apart from having the equipment to take good photos and the experience to postprocess them, an experienced professional will also have an eye for good shots and will know when and how to catch good "moments". These are the kinds of things that most people only catch by accident.

That said, there are plenty of very experienced amateurs (look at the Photography board here for instance) who will give you extremely high quality shots at a fraction of the price. To an untrained eye, the difference between them and a professional will be mostly in the finer detail, which many people may not be too fussed about.

prinz

seamus wrote: »

There is an enormous difference between a professional photographer with professional equipment and a 30 year old with a pocket camera after 6 pints of Guinness. To pretend otherwise is fooling yourself. Same goes for a professional videographer versus your Uncle and his Sony handycam.

Is the difference worth the best part of €2000 when people are concerned about budgeting? I think not. Add to that not everyone drinks and plenty of people are quite good with their "pocket cameras".

prinz

shane b wrote: »

Photographers. € 1850
Videographer: €800

deemark wrote: »

Photographer: 1700

Yeah I don't think so. That's quite an amount off any budget don't you think? For essentially the same product? I have seen lots of wedding photographs and I have seen some professional albums, there's not a whole lot of difference for 95% of the pictures in fairness.

seamus

prinz wrote: »

Is the difference worth the best part of €2000 when people are concerned about budgeting? I think not. Add to that not everyone drinks and plenty of people are quite good with their "pocket cameras".

http://www.markgriffinphoto.com/weddings.htm

Look at them and tell me that anyone with a pocket camera would produce something remotely as good as those. I've seen people's facebook albums. Hundreds of "nice" photos, but they don't compare with a professionally-produced album. In general, you're paying for the photographer's skill and their time in post-production. I'll agree that many photos look the "same" before post-production, but as I pointed out, the experience and skill of the photographer you hire will determine the types of shots you will get - shots which an untrained eye would miss or otherwise only get if they were lucky.