Wedding Budget (Rough estimates)

Shybride2016

Hi all,

I've searched the forum but not found anything similar to what I'm looking for.

We're just in the early stages of planning for next spring and I'm beginning to freak out at the prices of everything so wondering if I'm just clueless or if the prices I've seen are the top end.

Basically if anyone could point me in the direction of a rough estimate of how much each thing cost (I.e. Meal, music, invitations, photographer etc) it would be appreciated.
Thanks!

pwurple

um.
It varies WILDLY.

My invitations I printed with vistaprint... cost about 1 euro each. I've seen people spending up to 10 euro per invite, for handmade highly embellished ones with rsvp cards, save the date magnets etc.

Food, music and photographers all have big variations in price.

teggers5

I'm getting married June this year. We set our budget at €10k. So far we're pretty much sticking to it. We're having a traditional wedding so to speak and inviting 130.
Hotel per person €28
Band & Dj € 1500
Dress €1000
Bridesmaids dresses(x4) €100 (got in sale online)
Suit hire for entire bridal party €500
Flowers €400
Invites €100 (template bought on Etsy and used local printers)
Cake €200
Photographer €1000
That's all the prices I can think of off the top of my head. We started planning 6 months ago and remember thinking how will we ever afford it all. But with lots of research online and visiting plenty of local wedding fairs it can be done on a tight budget like ours

stargazer 68

Yep varies wildly OP.
Meal could be 35pp or 135 pp - depends on your venue.
Bands - 1000 ++.
Invites - you can do those really cheaply yourself or there are lots of people on FB who advertise that they do invites. That's where my sis got hers and her flowers.
Flowers - again depends on what you want - 200 or 1000.
Photographers are hugely different as they provide different options - cd, album etc

Recommendations are usually the way to go.

Shybride2016

Thanks so much for your replies, I realise it is one of those how long is a piece of string questions but those figures are really helpful.

There are a few things we definitely don't want and the main ones we obviously do I.e. Food, music, photos but it's great to have an idea of prices for when we are shopping around so we can see if something's extortionate from one supplier or just the average cost.

It really is a minefield out there and I'm just new to it all.

Thanks again :-)

PhoenixParker

The way I think of the wedding budget is in two halves:

1) The per person costs
2) Everything else

The per person costs are what each additional person at the wedding costs you, the price per head of food and drink, though you can count the invites, favours etc. in here too. This is typically the biggest chunk of your wedding budget.

Then there's everything else, the stuff you'll pay for if it's just you and two witnesses - your dress, his outfit, ceremony fees, flowers, cars, photographer. . . . If you google wedding budget template you'll get a good idea of the full list of stuff you can opt for.

Some general tips I've found helpful:

• A lot of sites recommend that you both identify 2/3 things that are important to you and focus your money on them.
• Consider carefully your number of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Outfitting them and hair & make up can add a lot to a wedding's budget.
• Look very carefully at what's included and not included in a venues package. On the face of it our venue was the most expensive but when you added it up it's one of the cheapest. The other venues we looked at quoted E X per head. Turned out that was just for the meal. Welcome canapés & drinks were extra, afters food was extra. One place even wanted E1000 for the room hire. The venue we booked is 1.5 * X, but it includes all that plus the drink with dinner, centrepieces, chair covers and a dozen little things.

lazygal

Most of our budget went on food and drink. After that the band and photographer were the big spends.
I didn't spend a massive sum on my dress or flowers. Didn't bother with a cake or hired cars. Had a very small bridal party (kitting out five bridesmaids really adds up).
I found that while you think it costs a massive amount, most reasonable suppliers were quite well priced-it seems like they are charging a lot because you're hiring a lot of services all at the same time.

whiskeyman

You're best to have a budget and realistic expectations set on it.
From there, get quotes / prices from a host of suppliers etc... within the range.

Pistachios & cream

It does vary wildly and some people get great bargains but here are some of my costs and estimates

Civil wedding fees 200
Church pre-marriage course 200

Brides dress, 500 +, 500 is if you get a sample/second hand or buy from monsoon etc. regular bridal boutique dress 800-3000
Brides shoes? i had mine but spent 40 on a lower heeled pair
Brides other accessories (jewellery. Underwear etc). varies hugely but some dresses need specific underwear which can be expensive
Bridesmaids dresses, 150 -200ish if from a bridal boutique. can get cheaper on high street
Bridesmaids accessories, ?
Grooms suits - are you renting or buying?
Groomsmen suits - as above. suit hires do deals whereby 5th suit is free about 75 to 100 per rental is a good price
Hair & makeup- 400
Flowers 500

Photography, 1000 +, we are paying in the 1500 range i think this is quite normal
Band, 1500 + for a decent one. we are paying about 1750 for band and dj but i got quotes from 1100 to 3500. if you want brass or a male female combo than its more expensive
Ceremony music , 500
Celebrant/church donation, 200 but ultimately up to you
Church Hire, 500 - if you are not gettting married in your own church you may ned to pay for the church.

Invitations, depends on the amount you need and how detailed they are. remember to include price for accommodation cards and RSVPs. anywhere from 2-3 per invite suite is a good price.
Stamps. number of invites by 68 cent and more is sending invitations abroad
Mass booklet - im printing these myself so just the paper.
Cake 350 - 500 is usually a good price depending on number of tiers, selections and decorations. if you want an elaborate cake expect to double this

Milly33

Yep agree with Whiskeyman set up yer own budget and go from there..

The minute you mention wedding it is like ching ching the price goes up and there is no need for it to...If you are paying for a service it should be good no matter if it is for a wedding or a party.

Prepare to be shocked from places offering you exclusive use of the venue for the day, yet saying then you have to pay extra if you want to set a room up for the ceremony, to the bar extension and all bits and pieces..

So far for ours weve got

€1200 for band
€135 max for invites
€200 maybe for hair and makeup for me and the two ladies
food is between €20 per head and around €35 per head

There are plenty of ways to be saffie about things. It might be good to put a list together of what ye would like also defiantly and then even think is there any friend who could do this for ye. You would be surprised at the amount of people who would love to make the cake as a gift or take photos as a gift etc or help with the decorations or invites..

Harika

We used the 2013 version of this as orientation what it will cost. http://www.mrs2be.ie/wedding-business/irish-wedding-survey-2014/2/
ofc this is the average so based on your budget it will go up and down on each point. e.g. for us we paid less on band and dj, but a bit more in the honeymoon and so on.

pooch90

What we decided was to not scrimp on the things we would have after the wedding eg the photos, video and rings.

cookiecakes

What we did was we looked at stuff we liked or wanted and got 3 estimates and took the average of the three as our set amount..A few things were more, a few were less and we did the whole thing bang on budget. We spent more on the things that would make our guests day better and their lives easier on the day, rings and photos.

An Bhanríon

Not sure if anyone has mentioned the ceremony yet...

Depends on what you're having, but our church ceremony, when we put everything together, cost quite a bit! (€200 for normal registration with the state, €200 for pre-marriage course, €300 for renting church as we are not parishioners, €200 for priest (could have given a bit less but he is a priest we have a lot of time for so we wanted to be generous), €50 for sacristan). There were a few fees of €10 / €20 for getting documents (baptismal cert, etc.) as well. Depending on church and celebrant fees / donations might be a bit more or less but I don't think what we spent was over the top for a church wedding.

I've heard of humanist celebrants charging €400-€500. Not sure about other celebrants. (As far as I know this is on top of the €200 that you have to pay the state to get married. Others can confirm.)

Having a civil ceremony in the registry office is the cheapest option! (Somebody else can confirm if there is anything on top of the €200 that has to be spent on that.)

Regarding the dress, you can get dresses cheaper than €1000 if you get sample / second hand / white dress that isn't part of a 'wedding range'. Mine was €300 and it was perfect - for me! But for normal wedding dresses anything from €1000 - the sky's the limit is possible.

Regarding flowers, we had very few so they were under €100. Paid €60 for my bouquet, €7 for groom's buttonhole, and €10 for some fresh flowers for the hairdresser to put in my hair. And the bouquet was really really nice, by the way. It just didn't contain super-expensive flowers.

Best of luck with the budget planning! Be strict on yourselves and don't get carried away. It will be well worth it in the end. And enjoy!!!

Liam McPoyle

Do people include the honeymoon in their budget?

Ours is gonna be around the €10k mark incl spending money so that skews the overall significantly.

Milly33

For the civil it you pay the €200 and then if you want them to travel to a venue for the day. You pay a fee. That they give you, like ours is coming from town to Fermoy for the day and it is €225 for her... to cover travel costs and her for the day or 20min ceremony.

I haven't included the honeymoon in ours, but then we haven't decided get the main thing out of the way first and then some wine and crab claws that will do

lazygal

Business Cat wrote: »

Do people include the honeymoon in their budget?

Ours is gonna be around the €10k mark incl spending money so that skews the overall significantly.

No, the honeymoon wasn't part of our budget.

candytog

Shybride2016 wrote: »

Hi all,

I've searched the forum but not found anything similar to what I'm looking for.

We're just in the early stages of planning for next spring and I'm beginning to freak out at the prices of everything so wondering if I'm just clueless or if the prices I've seen are the top end.

Basically if anyone could point me in the direction of a rough estimate of how much each thing cost (I.e. Meal, music, invitations, photographer etc) it would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Take a seat before you read these

http://www.mrs2be.ie/wedding-business/irish-wedding-survey-2014/

http://www.weddingsonline.ie/blog/69-of-couples-covering-all-wedding-costs-themselves-says-results-of-irelands-largest-wedding-survey-by-weddingsonline/

candytog

One more thing. If you're getting married in Spring 2016 you would want to get booking now. A lot of suppliers may already be booked up.

fits

Even a modest ish day will cost way more than you'd think... It adds up very quickly.

PhoenixParker

candytog wrote: »

One more thing. If you're getting married in Spring 2016 you would want to get booking now. A lot of suppliers may already be booked up.

Honestly this depends on how fussy you are.

If you want a Saturday wedding in a particular dream venue and have a particular photographer & band in mind you'll want to get going.

On the other hand, if you're flexible it's straightforward enough to organise in 6 months. You just have to be willing to work with what's available.
We've had little difficulty starting in November for a wedding at the end of May.

lazygal

PhoenixParker wrote: »

Honestly this depends on how fussy you are.

If you want a Saturday wedding in a particular dream venue and have a particular photographer & band in mind you'll want to get going.

On the other hand, if you're flexible it's straightforward enough to organise in 6 months. You just have to be willing to work with what's available.
We've had little difficulty starting in November for a wedding at the end of May.

Yeah we had most of our things organized over a couple of weekends. I don't know why it takes some couples so long to organize what's usually the same as everything other wedding. We had our pick of most suppliers and I had no problem getting a dress.

candytog

lazygal wrote: »

Yeah we had most of our things organized over a couple of weekends. I don't know why it takes some couples so long to organize what's usually the same as everything other wedding. We had our pick of most suppliers and I had no problem getting a dress.

Must just be the high demand for great suppliers in Mayo

fits

Don't think so. We booked everything easily for a Friday in July. Only started in October. Including a Fab photographer who we only booked last week. (My only problem is hair and makeup.. Grr)

Arbiter of Good Taste

It really depends.

What you will hear time and time again, if you can splash out on anything, it should be the food, music and photographer. Everything else will fall into place.

Don't underestimate a good photographer. Ours was slightly over the average but we wanted him because he does a lot of weddings in our venue and as ours was in November we wanted someone who knew the place well and wouldn't be wasting time looking for good lighting etc. Also, he and his assistant were in suits and blended in with the crowd. They had a great way about them and had the guests at ease which you can really see in the photos. I have been at weddings where, frankly the photographers were dressed like slobs in jeans and tee shirts. I thought it looked awful and stood out badly. But that's just my opinion.

Arbiter of Good Taste

lazygal wrote: »

Yeah we had most of our things organized over a couple of weekends. I don't know why it takes some couples so long to organize what's usually the same as everything other wedding. We had our pick of most suppliers and I had no problem getting a dress.

I think that's a bit unfair. We were lucky in that we knew what we wanted for our church, venue and band and had all those booked within 5 days of getting engaged. It would have ben different if we were more restricted with our budget and had to shop around more, which a lot of couples have to do.

Arbiter of Good Taste

fits wrote: »

Don't think so. We booked everything easily for a Friday in July. Only started in October. Including a Fab photographer who we only booked last week. (My only problem is hair and makeup.. Grr)

Hair - talk to your own hairdresser who might recommend someone for hair - who in turn will have worked with make up people so should be able to recommend. I did that and it worked out perfectly

fits

Arbiter of Good Taste wrote: »

Hair - talk to your own hairdresser who might recommend someone for hair - who in turn will have worked with make up people so should be able to recommend. I did that and it worked out perfectly

My own hairdresser is thinking of travelling especially to do it, which would be freaking awesome, because she is great fun and she knows me and my style, and id love to have her there on the day. So maybe I am sorted there... I dont know yet. Must message her again actually...

Milly33

fits wrote: »

Don't think so. We booked everything easily for a Friday in July. Only started in October. Including a Fab photographer who we only booked last week. (My only problem is hair and makeup.. Grr)

Are you Cork fits? Just incase I got a mobile hair dresser and makeup artist. I am having trial for the hair on the 14th and makeup too soon... if you wanted the numbers

Gatica

There's definitely been a few threads on this exact topic, you might find info there helpful.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=89066029
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58568002


Mrs2be also does a handy spreadsheet for budgeting and tracking...:
http://www.mrs2be.ie/wedding-budget-calculator/

What your wedding will cost you is what you can afford and then what you're actually willing to spend. You can definitely use up all you can afford to save and spend, as they sky's the limit in terms of cost. However, whether you're willing to shell out 10k, 20k or more on it, is your own call.

fret_wimp2

As mentioned a bunch of times, it depends on what you want. You could spend as low as 500 (registry office only) tens of thousands if you go all out.

The main things I learned to keep costs down are:

-diy. We made our own invitations with art shop supplies. We also handed out a lot instead of posting. Probably saved 150 or more that way.

We decorated the function room ourselves, buying most of the stuff in ikea or art shops. This also made it much more personal and really made it our day.

We didn't have a planner. They will save you headaches. You have to weigh up if the cost is worth it or if you can handle organization and a few problems and deal with them yourself.

We didn't have a large cake, instead went for a table of various cakes and deserts, costing way less than half that of a large wedding cake.

-shop around and haggle. Challenge the price and costs Venues give you. Some places won't budge, some will give wiggle room and are flexible with what's on offer.


-don't hire a fancy car. It wasn't worth it in our opinion, when we could book a taxi for about 2% of the cost of a chauffeur driven car.



-d finally, on't cheap out where it counts. Spend the money on Important things like band, photographer & tailor for alterations.

You can get a photographer for 700 quid, but you will know the difference. Trust me. Same with the band. Pick the guy whose portfolio you like the best and the band that you know will fill the dance floor. These things should be booked on quality, and price 2nd in the list of considerations. Memories of an awesome band that kept the place bouncing, and the pictures of the day are all you will have when the party is over, so over a lifetime those memories are worth a few hundred quid extra.

ElectraBlue

Ask skilled family and friends to help in lieu of presents.

I've photographers, musicians, make-up rep, sweetcart hire, dressmaker and florist (in my circle) all sorted; if they are not prefect - I'm not going to worry about it... it's a gift, and will make our day extra special.

fret_wimp2

ElectraBlue wrote: »

Ask skilled family and friends to help in lieu of presents.

I've photographers, musicians, make-up rep, sweetcart hire, dressmaker and florist (in my circle) all sorted; if they are not prefect - I'm not going to worry about it... it's a gift, and will make our day extra special.

Unless the photographer is someone you would normally pay for due to the quality of their work being of a high standard, then this statement is incorrect.

Imagine having a great day, being exited to see the photos, waiting a month and getting lots of very blurry, too dark or over exposed people with heads cropped off, at odd angles.

Your day, your call but the photos are the only real thing you have left from the day that you can show your friends and kids & eventually grand kids hopefully.

And I am not a photographer, I have just seen the difference between good work and "he was a really affordable" work.

Same applies with the band. A band for free or a few hundred quid that gets nobody up and has an empty dance floor is useless. Go see some bands, pick one you like and then worry about the cost.

Milly33

But you see again it all comes down to what ye want. I doubt anyone would pic a friend lets say to do photos is they weren't impressed with the pictures already, I don't think they would be taking pics in bad resolution and with no heads etc.. And if you like photos too would be a big thing, some people like them some people don't..

lazygal

My uncle has a brilliant camera and took loads of shots of our wedding. The photographer actually said his camera was better than hers. But when we got the professional shots, we were so happy we had paid for the professional service. The photos were so well edited, colour corrected, printed on archive grade paper and she had captured everyone at the wedding, whereas my uncle naturally focused on my side of the family and the people he knew. There is no comparison between the two sets of photos, and I'm not terribly interested in photography and scoured the internet for a reasonably priced one we felt happy with before the day.
I would advise anyone to have at least one professional shot of the day. There's about 20 photos of our wedding I could easily have as our 'one' photo to keep from the professional. While the amateur ones were good, they are nothing special and wouldn't really hold up as good enough as a lasting memory.

fits

We are getting the photographer in for a few hours only. I couldnt be bothered with the getting ready or first dance shots. So that might be another way to save. He is very good so im looking forward to seeing the results.

berrecka

Here was mine - hope it helps.
It was a DIY, non-hotel humanist wedding. 2 non-traditional venues - a theatre for the ceremony and cocktails, and a sports club for the dinner and party. I think it was 130 people in the end

We spent €1K on venue hire (both venues).
Food was €6Kish
Booze €1.5kish
B&G Clothes: €1.5k
Bridal party clothing (all bought - 4 adults, 7 kids): €1.2k
Decorations (huge amount of DIY), DJ (from 8 onwards), lighting: €2k
Photographer: €1k (B&Gs houses before ceremony, up until after dinner and speeches)
Invitations: €150 (supplies and stamps- total DIY)
Rings €420
Flowers, candles etc 200 - handmade brooch bouquets (x2) and buttonholes (x5). No other flowers. Loads of candles
Transport €50 - the lads got a lift, I borrowed a car
Humanist Ceremony €550
(HSE) Marriage registration €300
Hair & makeup €520 (hair for 7, makeup for 5)
Manager/overseer for the day - someone to deal with issues as they arise, not an event organiser €280
Ceremony music €0 - family peformed

ElectraBlue

fret_wimp2 wrote: »

Unless the photographer is someone you would normally pay for due to the quality of their work being of a high standard, then this statement is incorrect.

Imagine having a great day, being exited to see the photos, waiting a month and getting lots of very blurry, too dark or over exposed people with heads cropped off, at odd angles.

Your day, your call but the photos are the only real thing you have left from the day that you can show your friends and kids & eventually grand kids hopefully.

And I am not a photographer, I have just seen the difference between good work and "he was a really affordable" work.

Same applies with the band. A band for free or a few hundred quid that gets nobody up and has an empty dance floor is useless. Go see some bands, pick one you like and then worry about the cost.

That's where you are assuming they are bad. I was referring to skilled professionals people who know their stuff:

The musicians already do a lot of weddings themselves, I have no doubt they will get the place rocking. Same with the photographers - both are professionals, one is a well known sports photographer who already did a friend's communion. They just aren't "wedding photographers", that's all. The florist will pick the flowers not me - I just give her the colour theme...

When it's a gift - you have less say, that's all...

Shybride2016

Omg I cannot thank you enough for all your replies. Mild heart attacks at some of the prices quoted for things and decisions made around things we do and don't want so feel a bit less clueless now.

Thank you again so much for taking the time to reply. Have been looking online at venues which cater to small numbers and think I've found one which may suit. Waiting on a call back from liaison person tomorrow.

Thank you all again for these replies, loads of food for thought now :-)

Milly33

Best of luck with it

Toots

Here's mine (or at least what I remember). Bear in mind it was from 2010 so suppliers' prices will probably have changed since then. We got married on a Saturday in October and had about 120ish guests.

Outfit Stuff
Bride's outfit (dress, veil, shoes, undies, bag & tiara & alterations) = €1800
Bridesmaid outfits (dress, shoes, bags & specific cut of bra & alterations) = €450 per BM
Hair for bride, 3 bridesmaids, and mum = €400 including tip for hairdressers
Suit hire for the groom, 3 groomsmen, and two dads (usual wedding suits plus shoes) = €69 each, booked them during a special offer period

Stationery Stuff
Invitations we printed ourselves, and same with the mass booklet, and thank you cards. I think this is what we paid:
Cream cards with envelopes (3 x packs of 100) = €35
Cream fancy A4 textured card for mass booklet covers (150 sheets) = €60
Plain white A4 printer paper for inside booklets (1000 sheets) = less than €10
Stamps = around €20

Ceremony Stuff
Pre-marriage course with Accord = €200
Civil Registration Fee = €150 (I think it's gone up to 200 now)
Donation to church = €200
Gave the priest a nice bottle of whiskey instead of money = €90 approx
Donation to sacristan = €50
Flowers (1 bride and 3 bridesmaid bouquets. Buttonholes for groom, 3 groomsmen, 2 dads and 2 ushers. Corsage things for 2 mums. 2 x altar pedestal arrangements. 2 x porch pedestal arrangements. 1 x unity candle arrangement. 2 x topiary trees for outside church. 6 pew ends. 1 x 'thank you' bouquet for my husband's granny) = €950
Unity candles = €4 for the middle one, the other two came 'free' at the marriage course
Music (string quartet who also played for 2 hours at the reception) = €1050
Car (standard vintage wedding car) = €450 I think
Photographer (from getting ready until meal served) = €1100

Reception Stuff
Price per head (total price including dinner, booze on arrival, wine with dinner and soft drinks for the non-drinkers, round for toast, and evening food) = €70 for adults and €20 for kids - no booze for them!
DJ from about 9pm to 2:30am = €600
Cake (4 tier) = €700

Other Stuff
Wedding album (ordered photos and album separately and made up myself) = $400 can't remember what that was in euro
Photo printing for album (ordered from photobox) = €50 or less
Presents for groomsmen = €30 each
Presents for bridesmaids = €40 each
Presents for mums = €50 each
Presents for dads = €30 each


At the end of that, it's the guts of about €16k. I was very lucky in that my parents paid for our wedding, I was the first child to get married and they went all out I'm just looking back up the list of some of the stuff, and you can see where my mum and I just completely lost the run of ourselves, like by spending a grand on flowers but we were all absolutely delighted with everything on the day.

The only part that wasn't perfect on the wedding day was the cake. It cost a bloody fortune, and the woman didn't do a good job. It was really obvious that she'd been in a rush when she made it - it was a 'topsy turvey' cake, but it was so topsy turvy that it was nearly falling over. Luckily the head chef in the hotel was able to make repairs without it being noticeable, but he advised us to cut the cake before the dinner so that they could get the cake out of the room because he wasn't sure if his repair would last the couple of hours before the end of dinner.

kkcatlou

It really is how long is a piece of string.

I can PM you our really detailed spreadsheet if you want? It includes all the extras like presents, decor, day 2, etc. but it might freak you out a bit. We cut out loads of extras, but our total still came in at €34k. We went all out on the reception - basically spent money on stuff that would enhance the experience for our guests, and cut out on stuff that only effected us, i.e.
My dress - €450
No cars
Mam did flowers
cousin did make up
no videographer
I made my own cake, cousins made sweet treats to for cake table
Got loads of beer at cost price
Made all our decor and favours ourselves - loads of work, but worth it for the satisfaction.

The big things we spent on were:
venue rental - €6.5k (we wanted a full weekend, it was important to us that guests didn't have to take a day off work)
Food (capanes, meal, afters food for 165 guests) - €11k
Drink (prosecco, wine, beer - nobody had to buy a drink til dancing) - €1800
Venue extras (toilets, favours, decor, etc) - €1,200
Band - €1,900
Photographer - €2,100
Day 2 - €1,800

Looking back now, I am really really glad we did it the way we did, and didn't scrimp on things that were important to us, and that made it an unforgettable weekend for our guests. Talking to our friends who go to 5-6 weddings a year, one or two stand out for being different or special, and we hope ours was one of those. That said, I am also glad we didn't spend money on things that weren't noticed.

We were engaged for 9 months, and saved really really hard (€2-3k a month) and got a small bit of help from our parents, which meant we had the full wedding paid for in advance of the big day. We are now doing up the kitchen with the money we got as presents :-)

Milly33

Wow well done for saving that much per month.. Must really get my ass in gear with work the most I can manage is €200 a month. Would love to have more to pay off stuff before we get closer to the day.. Must really start cutting back and saving now

kkcatlou

Milly33 wrote: »

Wow well done for saving that much per month.. Must really get my ass in gear with work the most I can manage is €200 a month. Would love to have more to pay off stuff before we get closer to the day.. Must really start cutting back and saving now

It's tough, but when you put your mind to it, you really can live like a hermit. No meals out, no new clothes, no weekends away/ holidays, saying no to nights out (but still making time to meet up with friends), cutting down on groceries, etc. I get a bonus in work, so that helps as that was one big chunk in one go!Also helped that we only had to do it for 9 months. The problem now is that the wedding is over, we are spending money like it's going out of fashion

Milly33

Haha I can imagine it must be like heaven now... Yes even just thinking now we had three things on the list for doing next month and im cutting back saying no.. We can do one and that's it....True it is only for a few months and if you really want it I am sure it makes it all more enjoyable on the day knowing that ye done this... Heres to saving for the next few months

Rose35

Reading Toots breakdown of costs means my other half wasn't far wrong when he said we would need to
spend around 25k on our day!!! I thought he was mad but maybe he was right, we are probably having a big wedding 200-240 people, I am putting off even starting on it, I am afraid it will consume me if I start ................(thinking of 2016)

newbie1987

Myself and my girlfriend got engaged before Christmas and began planning our 2016 wedding over the past few weeks. So far we have the following organised;

1. Hotel - 72 Eur per person (approx 180 guests) = 12,960 Eur
2. Band - 2,100 Eur
3. DJ - 200 Eur
4. Photographer - 1,500 Eur

Church is booked also.

heroics

My advice would be set a budget and in my mind spend the money on food/music and photographer (your going to have the photos for years)

I got married on a Friday last July and had ~180 for the meal. Just had a look at the spreadsheet there and it cost (exc honeymoon and the second day) ~25k. rough breakdown below. Obviously we could have saved on some stuff
We were glad we spent a bit extra with the photographer. He was brilliant really relaxed and excellent at getting the style of photos we were looking for. Probably could have saved on her dress :P

Hotel - 14k ( Included meal with choices, Prosecco and tea/coffee on arrival for all guests, 1/2 bottle of wine pp, glass of prosecco for toast and evening food (sandwiches, goujons etc) and 9 double suites.
Cake - 350
Invites - 350
Band - 1450
DJ - 300
Flowers - 500
Dress - 2500
Suits - 850
Bridesmaids - 1000
Photographer - 1900
Hair/Makeup - 600
Gifts/favours etc - 800
Other (church etc) - 1000

Best of luck with the planning and the day. Whatever happens try not to stress too much about it.

ZiabR

I am getting married at the end of the year, and I found it better to over budget because things change and some things end up being more expensive than you budgeted for.

We are having 120-130 at ours and we are coming in just shy of 20,000. That is before Honeymoon.

Liam McPoyle

We've over budgeted everything. Our meal is based on 125 people @ €85 pp but realistically we are expecting at a max, around 115.

We broke it down into the different sections ie clothes, reception, decor etc and found that very helpful. We also have about €3500 spread across the sections for "miscellaneous" expenses.

Incl honeymoon at €10k we are around the €37k mark as is, that should reduce by at least 2 to 3k when all is said and done, then it will be around €25k ex the honeymoon.

It's a lot of money but we decided from the get go the type of venue we wanted (exclusivity on the day was paramount) and that we weren't goin to cut corners on things like the band or photos.

We are only goin to do it once so we wanted to do it in style and for us most importantly, we can afford it with a bit of help from our folks.

An Bhanríon

Have been following this out of interest because we finally totted up the amount we had spent on our wedding the other day! We had a church ceremony and a reception at a hotel. The whole thing, including a short honeymoon in Ireland came to €12500. We had 120 guests at our wedding.

We left out a lot of 'normal' wedding things we weren't interested in having. And I can say, hand on heart, this didn't have any bearing on how the day went. It was the happiest and most fun day of our lives, and our guests had an absolute blast as well (or else they are all really good liars and good at pretending they are having a good time :-)) That is not to say, of course, that it is not worth spending more on your wedding... spend according to your means and dreams!

I found it very helpful while planning to see what others had done, so here's a summary of our wedding:

What we paid for (€12500 in total)
Food and drink for 120 people (arrival reception, 5 course dinner with wine, afters food, nicely decorated function room – decent quality food in a hotel providing good efficient service) and tasting beforehand
Accommodation for a few of the guests
Entertainment (singer at end of meal, DJ)
Clothes (suit hire, shoes for groom, dress, fur wrap, shoes, jewellery, underwear)
Hair & make up for bride
Flowers (bouquet, buttonhole, flowers for bride’s hair)
Car (own car driven by relatives but bought some materials to decorate car)
Honeymoon (nice comfy well-decorated self catering in Ireland, two concerts, two dinners, cooked in house rest of time, a few day trips)
Church ceremony (marriage registration with state, rent of church, church documentation (baptismal cert, etc.), salary for priest, donation for sacristan, pre-marriage course)
Invitations & thank you cards (card, ink for printer, envelopes, stamps, stickers to brighten up envelope)
Guest book table (guest book, photo frames)
Favours (scratchcards, fun-size bars, organza bags)
Rings (didn’t buy engagement ring, 2 wedding bands)

What we did ourselves
Invitations – designed on computer, bought nice card, printed and folded ourselves
Mass booklets – got booklet from somebody else and changed to suit our mass, printed ourselves on ordinary paper
Car decoration
Assembled favours

What family and friends did
Driving wedding car
Music for church
Sent us their nice photographs

What we didn’t bother with
Sending ‘save the dates’ in the post (we sent e-mails and texts)
An expensive wedding dress (my dress was one of a line of bridesmaids dresses that I ordered in ivory - the only dress I found under €1000 that I actually liked. The two other dresses I liked were €1400 and I couldn't let myself spend that much on a dress that I would only wear once!)
Hiring a wedding car
Wedding cake
Toast drink
Flowers in church or special decoration for reception venue (we were lucky to have a lovely church and the hotel had flowers on the tables as part of their wedding package)
Gifts for mothers
Bridesmaid or best man (we had our mothers as witnesses)
Wedding band
Wedding photographer / videographer (don't do this unless you are really really sure you don't want professional photos. It suited us not to have a photographer, but don't expect to find professional standard photos among the photos family and friends took!)

Best of luck to all those planning their wedding. Remember to write everything down while budgeting. Then there will be no nasty surprises later on!