Wedding Costs

The cost of a wedding today can be very high, and the bride and groom will usually pay for a large part of it themselves with voluntary contributions from both sets of parents. It's safest to assume you'll have to foot most of the bill yourselves while gratefully and gracefully accepting contributions from both sets of parents, godparents and friends of the family.

There are some special items the bride's parents might still like to pay for, and these include: the wedding dress and veil; bridesmaids' dresses; and flowers.

The bridegroom's parents, on the other hand, are more likely to offer to be responsible for a specific wedding item, such as drinks or catering, or even wedding cars.

Coping with the Costs

There's a lot you can do to keep the costs under control. Not least is to ask yourself what's most important to you - getting married or keeping everybody happy?

Whatever your decision, be sure you are both totally happy with it. When you are, you can work out how to sell that decision to your parents and other interested parties.

When you've answered the question about whom you want to be involved in your wedding, the next thing to do is to work out a budget. Decide how much you can realistically afford to spend. Write it down and share it with your parents and any other financial contributors.

Decide when you're going to get married. Once you know how long you've got to raise the money you can set up a plan for getting it together. This might include a change of lifestyle (less going out for a while) or a special savings account.

Start collecting comparative costings for everything and, when you have them all, you can go through the list and work out what's within your budget and what is definitely out. It may seem obvious, but lots of couples don't do this - they choose everything separately according to what takes their fancy and then panic when they realise just how much they've committed themselves to pay.

Going for the cheaper option can be presented as a style rather than a budget decision. Just recently a number of Hello-style weddings have featured sausages and mash washed down with beer at some otherwise glitzy wedding receptions. Having a late afternoon ceremony followed immediately by the reception can save having to provide both a lunch and an evening party.

The Cost

The average UK wedding in 2002 was costed out by weddingguideuk.com as follows:

Bride's wedding ring £200

Groom's wedding ring £150

Wedding dress £700

Headdress and veil £150

Bridal bouquet £75

Shoes and accessories £125

Bride's beauty treatments £75

Bridesmaids' dresses £500

Groom's outfit £150

Flowers (buttonholes, church, etc.) £200

Printing £300

Wedding cars £300

Civil/church fees £200

Photographs £400

Video £400

Wedding cake £200

Reception venue or marquee £600

Reception decorations £150

Wedding reception £2000

Evening reception £750

Drinks £750

Entertainment £500

Bride's going-away outfit £150

Wedding night venue £125

Honeymoon £1500

Wedding insurance £50

Other expenses £300

Total £11,000

Most people are shocked when they see this total - but none of these individual expenses is over the top for a modern wedding.