Wedding Budget

Davebehan

Folks

We getting married next year, are currently planning on inviting 100 guests, my inital figures for the wedding all in is approx 16,000, this figure does not include our honeymoon, in this day and age it seems a huge amount of money to spend, your opinions are welcomed

clint_silver

Davebehan wrote: »

Folks

We getting married next year, are currently planning on inviting 100 guests, my inital figures for the wedding all in is approx 16,000, this figure does not include our honeymoon, in this day and age it seems a huge amount of money to spend, your opinions are welcomed

the answer will be governed by how much people can afford. if you can afford 16k, well tis not too much, if you cant well then it is too much.

If the 16k is either savings or part small loan then maybe its ok, if youre taking out a top-up mortage I would say it isnt.

you can get a good rate hotel at about 50e per head. classier places are going up to 90-100, cheaper venues will do it for 30. A dress, some clothes, a car, photographer, entertainment.

You can get it cheaper if you want, shop around for value for everything. If you knock 10% off every supplier, you're under the 15k mark.

kandr10

It is a lot of money, but as previous poster said, it depends on you and your finances.

If you want to bring cost down, you could cut numbers. Or if you haven't booked venue yet, you could try to price round a bit more. They're the big things that determine budget really.
I guess it's a matter of prioritising what's important for you and OH

annersinoz

hi, we have the same wedding budget, exclusive of honeymoon for around 90 guests.

We are planning on getting married in april/may 2013 so at this stage haven't really done much. My hope is to get around 50 - 60euro a head for the meal and drink which would be around $6,000 euro. Thats the main bulk of the budget. That still leaves quiet alot for band/dj, church, cars, dresses,flowers, suits etc.

I am pretty comfortable that we will be able to work within our budget and will let you know how we go. Another option we are looking at is getting married on a thursday which will give us a 20% discount in most places.

Would be great if you could let me know how you go with suppliers etc.

Heineken Helen

We did ours for about 9,000. Admittedly there were only about 60 guests but to add another 40 would have been about another 1500. We had everything, designer dress, 5 bridesmaids and ushers, 4 star hotel on the beach, fancy car, flowers, make up, hair, irish dancers, top band, evening food, wine on the tables, top photographer, videographer, etc..

It can be done - just get into business mode and be honest about what you're able to pay and negotiate EVERYTHING. Through negotiation alone, I think we saved about 4,000 or 5,000.

missmoo

we've budgeted €20K for ours including honeymoon, and we've approx 150 guests. meal is coming in at €5.5K for 5 course incl wine. i'm willing to compromise on dress, shoes etc, can't fathom paying thousands for a dress thats going to be worn for less than 24 hours, looking at second hand ones, and going to take a trip to the barnardos shop in dun laoghaire. there's so many ways to still have a fabulous day without the massive price tag. friends and family are helping out with so many aspects, eg flowers, music for church. so hopefully will be coming in under budget:D

Heineken Helen

missmoo wrote: »

we've budgeted €20K for ours including honeymoon, and we've approx 150 guests. meal is coming in at €5.5K for 5 course incl wine. i'm willing to compromise on dress, shoes etc, can't fathom paying thousands for a dress thats going to be worn for less than 24 hours, looking at second hand ones, and going to take a trip to the barnardos shop in dun laoghaire. there's so many ways to still have a fabulous day without the massive price tag. friends and family are helping out with so many aspects, eg flowers, music for church. so hopefully will be coming in under budget:D

FYI... 20K IS massive! :eek:

missmoo

ah but it's the max we'll be spending, refusing to go a penny over:rolleyes: doing as much as we can to come in WAY under, it's still not that huge in relation to what we can afford.

wexford12

We had said we would spend 12K but it has come in about 15K for 130 ish guests lots of small things that add up quickly but hay hoo you only do it once I hope!!!!

Moonbeam

missmoo wrote: »

we've budgeted €20K for ours including honeymoon, and we've approx 150 guests. meal is coming in at €5.5K for 5 course incl wine. i'm willing to compromise on dress, shoes etc, can't fathom paying thousands for a dress thats going to be worn for less than 24 hours, looking at second hand ones, and going to take a trip to the barnardos shop in dun laoghaire. there's so many ways to still have a fabulous day without the massive price tag. friends and family are helping out with so many aspects, eg flowers, music for church. so hopefully will be coming in under budget:D

That is a fantastic price for the meal.

I think we are going to work out price then set budget:)

deelite

I got an email from one of those "City deals" sites - there was a deal on a site (I know the hotel name if that helps) they were offering a wedding package for just under 2K - which included nearly everything.

paulbok

Have a look at this, seems about a little high for everything, what stood out was the €1100 for a wedding planner, WTF?
http://www.thejournal.ie/average-cost-of-irish-wedding-is-e23500-122765-Apr2011/

Jelly2

Davebehan wrote: »

Folks

We getting married next year, are currently planning on inviting 100 guests, my inital figures for the wedding all in is approx 16,000, this figure does not include our honeymoon, in this day and age it seems a huge amount of money to spend, your opinions are welcomed

You can do it as cheaply or as expensively as you like! If you think E16000 is a huge amount of money to spend, then it probably is - to you. And if that is so, just ask yourself what you really want. If you want the frills, fine. If you don't, then don't do them. Simple!
We had a small wedding - sixty people - and it cost E3000. It was fantastic - most of the money went on the food and wine, and it was well worth it. People remember that, and the 'mood' of the wedding couple (happiness is infectious - if the bride and groom are enjoying themselves, others will too!), and not much else, as far as we could work out.:)

cocker5

Davebehan wrote: »

Folks

We getting married next year, are currently planning on inviting 100 guests, my inital figures for the wedding all in is approx 16,000, this figure does not include our honeymoon, in this day and age it seems a huge amount of money to spend, your opinions are welcomed

We had 80 guests at our wedding and it cost €35,000...not including the honeymoon.... so i think €16K is pretty good if im honest... by the time you add everything up... band, dresses, suits, DJ, photographer etc ... is seems pretty good :rolleyes:

Moonbeam

Did you get married in the k Club?
How did you spend 35k on 80 people?

Davebehan - I would have said that was a huge budget but now it seems not so big as I am organising a wedding:)

newport2

cocker5 wrote: »

We had 80 guests at our wedding and it cost €35,000...not including the honeymoon.... so i think €16K is pretty good if im honest... by the time you add everything up... band, dresses, suits, DJ, photographer etc ... is seems pretty good :rolleyes:

Wow, for 80 guests!! I thought I was getting it bad at €35k all in for 150 guests!! I agree, it all adds up, and it nuts spending it on one day. But it ain't up to me.......

moco

Does everyone work to a budget?

We're just looking around for the best value in everything we want for the wedding and after that it costs whatever it has to cost. We're not being really extravagant, and anything I can make or do myself I will (invitations and things like that..possibly cake)

kandr10

We didn't have a budget for every aspect, just an overall budget. Once we picked the venue that we liked and how many guests we were having, we had a rough idea of what the whole thing would cost. We then had to plan to save part of the money so just booked the venue to give us enough time to do that. I guess that wouldn't really be an issue if you already had savings or something to work from. Budgets change somewhat as well - some things are dearer and others cheaper but I definitely found it useful to have a guide.

Glitter

Ours is for 60-80 guests (list not finalised) and we're hoping to come in at a bit under 10K.

Most of it is going on a 5 star venue and food. Everything else we're doing on the cheap / making / using our contacts to get good mates rates.

Glitter

Oh and yes, for me anyway, having a fairly detailed budget template is vital. There are so many little things that can add up really quickly - you have to keep an eye on it.