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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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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!

hattoncracker

We live in Louth, so we are close enough to the border, we priced some of the places in our area, coming in over 80euro a head. So we went north of the border. So far, for 110 people it's worked out as:

Venue: Including room hire for civil ceremony and reception, fairylight backdrop, all the normal seat covers and sashes, 6 course meal with choice, black velvet reception for all guests with Strawberry bellinis, tea, coffee shortbread, and canapes for the bridal party. Rooms for us and discounted rates for guests, and DJ hire. With exchange, converts to 6025 euros.

Wedding dresses and 4 bridesmaids: 2000
Suits: 250
flowers and bountinerres: 500
Cake: 250
Invitations: 310
Hair: free, my sister is doing it.
Make up and lashes for 9 and all beauty treatments leading up to the wedding for me, (waxing, tan, etc) including her coming to venue on the morning of the wedding: 500
Favours: 150
Band: 1000
Photographer: 500 (she's amazing, and looking to expand her wedding portfolio, so she gave a favourable rate to us.)
Registrar Fees: 250.

I think if you shop around a bit, you can get a favourable rate. We are getting married in two weeks, (off season), so it's not too expensive anyways.

Birdie086

We started planning Christmas 2013 for our wedding on New Year's Eve 2014.

Our budget was 10,000 to 12,000 not including honeymoon.

In the end we spent 20,000 but this included a mini moon in Ireland plus two weeks in Hong Kong and Vietnam.

We had 135 guests on the day plus 18 children.

We had five bridesmaids so a big bridal party.

I feel we got a big day for our money.

Went with a four star city hotel that had four different price plans. We went for a mid price plan and then paid an additional 2 euro a head to add in a third main course option. This was better than spending an extra 10 euro a head for the next plan.

Again we seemed to have everything organised and booked over a few weekends and evenings back at the start of the year.

I got my dress in a sample sale. Retails at 1875 euro, I paid 350 including alterations. I took a gamble on this as I had gone from size 22 to 16 but the dress is a 12. I kept focused and the dress fit, this doesn't always work out for people as it's added pressure.
We didn't hire wedding cars, just asked friends to drive us, a friend made the cake.
Flowers cost 220 euro.
Registry, church , premarraige etc cost 600 in total.
Got the church singer at mates rates 150 euro.
Photographer arrived to my house at 11.30 am and finished up at 6 pm. She was paid for by two of the bridesmaids, I wasn't fussed but glad now. Her shots I have seen so far are fab.
Band - booked through a friend so didn't pay extra for nye, 1500
Dj 250
We did the candy cart ourselves cost just under 100 euro including cost of buying jars etc
Make up was 300 euro and hair done by a friend.
It cost 200 euro for each bridesmaids dress, bolero etc.
We hired the men's suits, went for a plain tux(keep it simple when on a budget) and 650 for 7 suits plus one for my son.
The hotel was great, the do about 1 or 2 weddings a month but do a lot of big ball type functions so anything they were willing to I let them do. They did all table decorations, set out the candy cart, basically all we had to do was turn up.
Invites were 110 euro for 100 from wedding print.ie we did RSVP by text and email
I did the mass booklets myself at a cost of 40 euro for 55 booklets

Sorry for rambling ling still abut jet lagged

rainbow kirby

We've gone for some relatively inexpensive options with ours - we are getting married in Limerick (OH's home town) because it is much cheaper than getting married in London (where we live) or Dublin (my home town) and also the venue is lovely.

Reception is 55 a head and we're expecting around 85 = 4675
Ceremony room hire 300
HSE fee 200
Humanist celebrant 450
DJ 395
Florist - ? (still thrashing out details there)
Photographer - we're having a friend of one of the bridesmaids do it so we got a very good deal there.
One of the bridesmaids is doing my make-up and I'm probably going to sort hair for the girls at the salon in the hotel.
Suit hire for the men - getting my OH to sort that!
My dress, bolero, petticoat together cost just under £200 and I got myself a spare dress too just in case for £48. Shoes £35, hair piece £40, strapless bra £35 etc...
BM dresses £70 each (only 2 though), don't have shoes/accessories yet
Cake - my mum is sorting it, no idea how much it is costing
Invitations - used Vistaprint and got a discount code, cost £68 for 50 invites/50 RSVP cards

Return flights London-Shannon with checked bags - probably around 100-150 quid each depending on which airline we use (probably Ryanair unfortunately, Aer Lingus is still disgustingly expensive for that weekend)
Hotel accomodation in Limerick for around a week too, we only have one night at the venue covered in our package but we can get the bridal suite at the standard room rate for others.

fits

Some of you have done really well. We are having 85 adults and its working out about 100 euro per head for food and wine.... I really don't like cavernous function rooms. and we are foodies I guess. Our other big indulgence is my dress. I probably could have done better there. Everything else we are happy enough with but its going to be hard to keep it all below 20k.

Shybride2016

kkcatlou wrote: »

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

Hiya,

If you get a chance would you mind emailing me your spreadsheet please? I really have no experience of organising/paying for a wedding and I want to make sure we've included everything possible when we're working out our budget so that we don't miss anything closer to the time!

Thanks again all of you for your advice and info too. Visiting some venues over the next few weeks so hopefully will know the when & where soon so we can start saving!

stickybookmark

An Bhanríon wrote: »

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!

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.

!

Do you mind me asking did you not decorate the church with flowers then? I'm wondering if it's necessary i.e. will anyone notice on the day? I don't think I've ever noticed the flowers in a church at a wedding

Gatica

stickybookmark wrote: »

Do you mind me asking did you not decorate the church with flowers then? I'm wondering if it's necessary i.e. will anyone notice on the day? I don't think I've ever noticed the flowers in a church at a wedding

I always notice the flowers in the church and every wedding does something a little different and usually quite pretty. I make a point of mentioning it to them. Then again, at this stage, when once knows all the effort that goes into decorating and organising a wedding, one pays a bit more attention to it.

An Bhanríon

stickybookmark wrote: »

Do you mind me asking did you not decorate the church with flowers then? I'm wondering if it's necessary i.e. will anyone notice on the day? I don't think I've ever noticed the flowers in a church at a wedding

The church we got married in is a lovely country church. Quite small with a few nice stained glass windows, wooden beams across the ceiling, etc. (I have seen quite a few churches like it around Ireland). The parish have flowers there anyway. I actually think they are fake flowers but they looked fine to us. So we just said to ourselves if the church is looking lovely already why bother with decorating it. If I were getting married in a plainer church I probably would want to decorate it a bit. But the minute we walked into this church we thought it looked lovely, so there was no need to decorate.

stickybookmark

Gatica wrote: »

I always notice the flowers in the church and every wedding does something a little different and usually quite pretty. I make a point of mentioning it to them. Then again, at this stage, when once knows all the effort that goes into decorating and organising a wedding, one pays a bit more attention to it.

This is the thing - every person in there that was a bride in the last 10 years will notice if there's no flowers so I have chickened out and am getting some.

Birdie086

We had no flowers at the church. Nobody noticed. Or if they did they didn't say.

We decided the money was better spent on the food drink budget.

No wedding cars either. Asked friends to drive us. Again nobody noticed and it was great having mu uncle drive me to the church.