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Average wedding cost

adocholiday

Hi all, we got engaged at the weekend

and now we are provisionally looking at venues etc. so we can do a budget and attempt to set a provisional date. For anyone who got married this year, what was the ballpark figure of the cost of your wedding? We would love to get married in summer 2015. We will have somewhere between 200-250 guests and it will be a traditional kind of wedding (church and hotel). I know that prices can vary greatly depending on a multitude of different things so this is purely to see what kind of money we would need and how long we would have to save to get that. We would happily wait another year if that's what it takes. We both have large extended families so the number of guests is pretty much non-negotiable!

Thanks in advance

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Cocolola

As I've seen somebody say elsewhere, it costs €200 to get married in Ireland, the rest is bells and whistles

We're together 10 years, engaged for just over 1 of those and there are no immediate plans to get married. We'd like to keep it as small as possible though, immediate family only. More to avoid the usual hassle of who to invite (there's millions of cousins on his side and his parents would be very into "you have to invite Mary and Joe" who you've never even met, and that kinda thing) and also because we think spending large amounts of money of a wedding is mad. Also we're broke :pac: but even if we weren't, it would still be your most basic wedding.

clumsyklutz

Cocolola wrote: »

As I've seen somebody say elsewhere, it costs €200 to get married in Ireland, the rest is bells and whistles

We're together 10 years, engaged for just over 1 of those and there are no immediate plans to get married. We'd like to keep it as small as possible though, immediate family only. More to avoid the usual hassle of who to invite (there's millions of cousins on his side and his parents would be very into "you have to invite Mary and Joe" who you've never even met, and that kinda thing) and also because we think spending large amounts of money of a wedding is mad. Also we're broke :pac: but even if we weren't, it would still be your most basic wedding.

My aunt and uncle did this, registry office and then a nice meal with close family and friends only. I was at it, and it really was nice to have just family you actually know at a wedding! Then there's the other extreme, an uncle on my dads side got married on his lunch break, went and got something to eat afterwards and went back to work! - Don't think I could go that basic!

Moonbeam

The hotel was the biggest cost for us,that can be anywhere from 30pp so until you have idea there you have no idea.
suit hire was 100 each
a friend made the cake
dress was not expensive
Bridesmaids dresses and shoes and jewellery were about 100 each.
Flowers
we had no fancy cars.
We did have a 2 day wedding though so the 2nd days entertainment and dinner did add to the price a bit.
We paid for the bridal party rooms and rooms for both parents for the 2 nights which was significant too(I think 4 rooms were thrown in for the 2 nights.

Annabananna

Hi

I got married 6 years ago for 9,500Eur we had family only in church and at sit down traditional wedding dinner.

We had 240 people come in at 7.30pm when we had a BBQ at 18Eur a head We had a dj play from 8.15 till 2am.

I got my dress in NI for 1000Eur including shoes and tiara. Had one bridesmaid and groomsman. We had a photographer and he did an album also for 800Eur he also came back for the evening part and took as many photos as we wan ted with the extended family.

Everyone said that it was great fun wedding and noone got off dance floor all night.

You can get married for as little or much as you want you just need to work out what important to you we just wanted to get married and have our family there then we got pressure to have a party side to it so we went down the bbq route.

GreenerGrasss

Wow! amazing how expensive weddings are these days o-0 I live in NZ and the average cost is about NZ$30k

I'm having a relatively small wedding (Max. 40ppl) and it's going to be at a beach resort in Fiji. Getting a wedding package (NZ$7k) that includes the ceremony, reception/buffet, music, fire dancing. Willing to pay extra for good edited photos. Our budget's about NZ$20k for the wedding and honeymoon.

We're in our early 20s so we can't afford anything too extravagant. Also don't want to be paying off a loan

I think you can get married at a nice location and have a great time without getting into debt.

rainbow kirby

We started looking at places here in London for our wedding, but very rapidly decided that coming home for it might be a better idea because it seems that £100/head is fairly standard for a reception in a lot of places here! We wanted to keep things fairly small anyway, but if we are to have our wedding here it would literally just be immediate family and a handful of friends because it's so bloody expensive!

blondie29

We got married 2013 and as far as I remember our wedding came in at 24/25k.

We had 300 sitting for meal at 40e per person. We shopped around hotels & bargained them down getting the top (gold) package for cheaper price & getting sparkling wines, canapés etc thrown in for free & ten free rooms & 20 at discounted rates for family.

We got friends/family to do cake & family friend gave us vintage car & used our own cars for bridal party. I done sweet table as favours & got cheapish wedding invites.

You don't have to spend fortune on silly things. Our most expensive was Band & DJ coming in at 2k, photographer at 1400, Videographer 1k although they were worth every penny.

I bought little bits & bobs in penny's etc like lanterns & jars for sweets the year leading up to wedding. I have to say though we got majority of cash gifts & were overwhelmed by people's generosity. Our wedding paid for itself as we got 23k in cash gifts which we were not expecting at all.
We were able to splash out on our HM then (prob extra 5/6k) luxury all the way!!

havana

bangkok wrote: »

150-200 guests €40 a head, lets say 175 guests = 7000. you wont have to pay hotel in full until after wedding.

Get friend with nice car to drive the car.
photographer 500
invitations make them yourself or buy online I got mine cost me 50 euro.
hire wedding dress suits etc €1000

that's 8500 so far don't know how its going to get to 22,000....

Quite easily. Most reputable photographers cost more than €500. Rings. Band and/or DJ. Church or other ceremony fees. Honeymoon. Flowers. Cake. Bridesmaid dress. Accessories. Etc etc.

But it can certainly be done for less than 22000.

Actually it costs €200 to get married. The rest is all the fluff and trappings we decide we want/need! :-)

It is an awful lot to spend on one day but in saying that we are saving hard for it and feel the sacrifices are worth it. If we weren't spending what we are on the wedding we wouldn't be saving so much. So it's not as if the day after the wedding we'd have that €€€€€ in the bank if we hadn't got married. We'd have spent a lot of it along the way just living life.

feckthisgenie

Wedding can cost as much as you want it to cost
Based on 250 guest
Meal/package - 50 euro per head = 12500 euro
Band - anything from 1200 - 2500 euro
Photographer - 1000 - 2500 euro if you go with top package
Videographer - 600 - 1200 euro
Cars - 300 - 500 euro
Cake - 350 - 600 euro
Dress - 500 - 2000 euro
Shoes - 50 - 250 euro
Jewellery - 100-200 euro
Invitations - 300-400 euro
Bridal Party gifts (3 bridesmaids and 3 groomsmen) 300 - 400 euro
Suits - 500- 800 euro
Hair and make up - 300 - 500 euro
Honeymoon - 2000 - 6000 euro
Wedding rings (him)- 150 - 1000 euro
Wedding ring (her) - 500 - 1500 euro
Engagement ring -1000 - 5000 euro
Flowers - 400 - 700 euro
Registration - 200 euro
Pre - marriage course - 100 - 150 euro
Priest - 100 - 200 euro
Servers - 40 euro (20 x 2)
person opening church - 50 euro
Drinks reception on arrival (optional) - based on 30 bottles prosecco @ 12 a bottle - 360 euro (hotel corkage?)
Optional
Sweet trolley
flip flops / toiletries
Favours
Photobooth
Table plan designed
Hotel accommodation for bridal party

I have probably missed out stuff. As you can see it can cost over 30,000 euro if you count everything from the time you get engaged

wuffly

I think you can probably do this for the average 22k, you have lots of time. We took every offer of help we got, including, cake, flowers, wedding car, invites, mass booklets, cake topper. We arranged it all from abroad so having people back home do bits for us was best way, we trusted our family and friends with big enough decisions, as in our band which we heard for the first time on our wedding day, fantastic. We had ours in a 5 star hotel on a thurs in the summer mostly teachers and farmers so this was fairly accommodating. Got a great photographer which was def the best value on the day, only had one bridesmaid, less hassle and sooo much cheaper. We had a photobooth was great craic and love having photos of our guests. Not to mention you will have a certain amount of people that cant make it so unless you invite 280 you wont have 250. Etsy is brill for DIY ideas and generally cute wedding stuff. Like someone else said dont get carried away this can happen when you have lots of time, do pick up bits and pieces as you go. We paid for things as we went along or in installments so it was nearly all covered by the time the day came around. Good luck with it and congrats

Milly33

We are just back from viewing a real perfect spot for ours but the only thing is it doesn't have a perfect room for the party and we would need caterers. We were doing up a plan last night and a rough guide came to €10,000 for around 100 - 120 people. Trying to figure out now how to cut things down.. The most expensive thing is the food really and perhaps the hire of a marquee don't even know how much they would cost as a basic...

Mind boggling so it is..Is it worth spending all that money on well twud be a weekend

wuffly

Honestly yes, don't regret anything we spent on it.(Wouldnt go into debt for it though and we didn't honeymoon for almost a year) Yes its just one day, but its your day, you will never have all those people together again. I prefer to fade into the background mostly but i so enjoyed having everyone be there for us, enjoying the day with us, dancing the night away with us. You just don't expect to enjoy it as much as you do and its all over before you know it. Try and enjoy the planning, pick your battles if you have to and pick your bridesmaid(s) wisely. And delegate!

.jacksparrow.

clumsyklutz wrote: »

Each to their own alright, still think they need their head examined though :P

No point in getting so hung up on money in life!

No one will remember in a thousand years. If you can afford it now then do what you want!

Milly33

wuffly wrote: »

Honestly yes, don't regret anything we spent on it.(Wouldnt go into debt for it though and we didn't honeymoon for almost a year) Yes its just one day, but its your day, you will never have all those people together again. I prefer to fade into the background mostly but i so enjoyed having everyone be there for us, enjoying the day with us, dancing the night away with us. You just don't expect to enjoy it as much as you do and its all over before you know it. Try and enjoy the planning, pick your battles if you have to and pick your bridesmaid(s) wisely. And delegate!

You sound like a breath of fresh air!! haha thank you,. I would kinda be like that too I think I am not into having lets say the limelight I would prefer to be in the backround but just know that everyone is enjoying themselves and that we have a fun time... That quote about delegating that is exactly what Patrick the person who runs the place we went to look at said, he said if you have good friends going they would be more than happy to help out and I think it would make them feel more part of the day also.. Will indeed enjoy all the planning wish in a way it could happen sooner but then again a year we could have it to perfection.. thanks

Soldier of the dawn

€22k sounds about right.(inclusive of the honeymoon for us)

We had mates rates for the photography and got a good deal on the wedding video.

Apart from that, the expense just piles up.

Also, the Hotels don't really haggle much(we found anyways, much to our dissapointment)

Patrickheg

Soldier of the dawn wrote: »

Also, the Hotels don't really haggle much(we found anyways, much to our dissapointment)

That was the biggest shock to us. All well and good haggling the balls of it on a town/city with x number of nice hotels, but if you are getting married at a peak weekend in a town with only one nice hotel which is popular and who can put on a good wedding then you can only haggle so far.

Weddings are supposed to be about the couple but you have to think of the guests at the same time so expecting the majority of your guests to travel 40+ miles so you save a few quid was a non runner for us

Gatica

I agree, a good hotel will always have demand for business, so they're less likely to need to give in to people's requests or demands. If a hotel is dying for your business and gives in on almost everything, that's probably cos they wouldn't get it otherwise...

Milly33

I am still so shocked at how much weddings cost.. Still have it in my head that well do ours for €10 but I am just sick of thinking even that much money when we don't exactly to hand.. Thinking of wonder ideas now of what to do and how to cut it down

rainbow kirby

Milly33 wrote: »

I am still so shocked at how much weddings cost..

Likewise... the more wedding stuff I look at, the more it just seems like a bottomless money pit. I'd be tempted sometimes to just do it at the local town hall for 50 quid on a Monday morning...

Milly33

yep with you on that one!! It really is disgusting at what people are charging. I think at the moment we seem to have found our perfect venue it is just the add-ons after that the catering is the next biggest price. When you think a couple of grand again to feed people, we joked last night of just ordering pizza's for all..

lazygal

Milly33 wrote: »

I am still so shocked at how much weddings cost.. Still have it in my head that well do ours for €10 but I am just sick of thinking even that much money when we don't exactly to hand.. Thinking of wonder ideas now of what to do and how to cut it down

But outside the €200 state fee all other costs incurred are voluntary. We had the basic ceremony with just our parents, total cost €150 at the time, the fee has increased. It made us very aware that the big day we had a week later wasn't really essential, but nice to have. If wedidn't have the money though we wouldn't have had the big day. No one has to spend loads on a wedding day.

Milly33

Oh I know most defiantly it is up to you how much you spend on it. Suppose it is just the ideas you had when you were a little kid it all starts there and then it builds. Was shocked even my dad said after going to see a place that oh sure isn't it what you have always wanted.. I was weak hehe so cute love my dad..

lazygal

I might have had ideas but I'm not a princess for a day type. If you don't want to spend money I can assure you it's not necessary. You're no less married if you don't have the day you planned from childhood.

Milly33

Yes but that is just you, I am not a princess type either but we all have our dreams of what the day will be like, feel like and how you would like to celebrate it.. Everyone has their own take on it

lazygal

Milly33 wrote: »

Yes but that is just you, I am not a princess type either but we all have our dreams of what the day will be like, feel like and how you would like to celebrate it.. Everyone has their own take on it

That's all very well, if you can afford it. We had a big day, we could afford it without loans or stress. If we couldn't afford it we wouldn't have had it, childhood. dreams or not.

Milly33

all getting a bit too serious Lazygal tis ok

jimmii

Putting a figure or it costing X to have a wedding is a bit silly your wedding is going to cost as much or as little as you want you could probably put together a budget wedding for €50 for ceremony and meal etc if you wanted to. For €100-€150 a head you should be able to put together something pretty special depending on where in the country you want it to be.

Faith

Milly33 wrote: »

Yes but that is just you, I am not a princess type either but we all have our dreams of what the day will be like, feel like and how you would like to celebrate it.. Everyone has their own take on it

Would you push your wedding back so you have more time to save?

I think you have to compromise between dreams and cost. Either have cheaper venues/smaller numbers/etc or wait long and save to meet your dreams.

kkcatlou

Milly33 wrote: »

yep with you on that one!! It really is disgusting at what people are charging.

I would have started out the same - thinking how can stuff cost this much....but when you break it down, it's hard to see how anyone is really overcharging or being "disgusting". Fair enough, places make profit out of weddings, but if you want something wow, you pay a lot for it, if you want something average, you pay less for it. Bands, food, catering, venues, flowers, etc. You can do them all cheap or you can pay more for better.

My Mam does wedding flowers, and looking at the amount of work she puts in, I would say after buying the flowers and materials, petrol costs, overheads, etc. she probably makes less than a tenner an hour for her labour. I'd say it's the same with a lot of suppliers. I make cakes for friend's weddings but as a present, but after seeing the amount of work I put in, I can easily see why and how they charge €300+. You're talking at least €100 for ingredients, plus about 2 days labour!

I think there's a lot of people making an honest, and maybe even decent, living out of weddings, but I can't see too many making a killing out of it!

Milly33

I understand where you are coming from there with doing cakes yourself and your mum doing flowers. I do get all this and I do think some people are making a very honest living out of it but then a lot of places seem to just charge and charge. I suppose it is human nature it depends on each individual.

I know my own mum is a florist and I have have seen her work night and day and stress and travel. But her prices are very good a little too good if I was to say, but then she is a florist she has all the stuff needed in bulk, which you get cheaper when you buy in bulk. SHe doesn't charge lets say €20 quid for a stand that she already has got 50 of them for that price alone..

Ah tis all a bit of this and a bit of that isn't, it really. You could go on for a while about the prices. I suppose disgusting was too strong a word.