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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!

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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.