Average cost of a wedding. WTF?!?!?

[kittysailing]

My mate did similar - his mother still not talking to him..having sweated and toiled for my kids I'd be gutted if they deprived me of the chance to see them get married !

[womanofdulwich]

i think a bring and share buffet is good. then you do cake and free drinks.

[MrDude21]

That is ridiculously expensive, me and my family are from a south Asain backgrounds and as you may know (or if you don't know) Asain weddings cost a fortune..from ?15k to ?25k however our family managed to do it under ?6000, we probably broke the Asain wedding record throughout this entire world..

I find it's ridiculouse that it costs a lot to fall in love with someone you love, oh well it's not always the couples fault, it's all for the guests and lots of pressure from

Inlaws and your own parents..

[bodsier]

Agree with Otta, I think money saved by getting married abroad is an expense passed onto their guests. Sometimes that could mean missing a good friends wedding simply because you cant afford the time/money or both. I am attending a wedding in france this year, and will be going alone because the costs were too high. I guess these things are weighed up and weddings abroad can cut out the people you don't really want there but also the people that you do. If lots of notice is given for weddings abroad that can work as guests have time to prepare, its a bit annoying to receive an invite for a wedding abroad 3/4 months before the date...

[ClareC]

We get married in August so mid planning!

We have gone the marquee route which is far from a cheap option once all the extra bits are added on, however it does mean we don't need to be worried (too much) about numbers as the main expense is not per head!

We basically want a really good party so have booked two bands and have a free bar, music and drinking being important to a party - we have also invited guests to bring a tent and camp!

I bought the wine when Tesco had a 25% off offer and have basically been buying beer and cider when its on offer in the supermarket - there are really good deals around if you buy in advance and have the storage.

Edited to add, we are not even close to 24k!!! I can see how it can cost that though if you don't shop around!

[Otta]

"I am attending a wedding in france this year, and will be going alone because the costs were too high."

SNAP!

Old school friend getting married. Wouyld love to be there with my wife and 2 girls, like everyone else will be, but I'll be the one on my own because we just can't afford it.

Someone I know who got married abroad kept saying "well it's a holiday for everyone". I just wanted to say "I don't want my holiday in Cyprus in August thanks".

[ClareC]

I think if people choose to get married abroad they shouldn't be offended when people can't come.

A wedding is potentially expensive to attend without it being overseas!

[Smiler]

I recently fell out with a friend thinking of getting married in cyprus who said that otta, mainly because I said something along those lines, plus the one upthread about it just passing the costs onto everyone else! Oops. Didn't go down well at all! I just really don't like "if you're a true friend you'll spend ?X and take a week off work to celebrate with us", urgh!

The wedding industry is rip-off UK tastic, especially in London. The horniman, for example, was several ?000 to hire before any catering, booze or entertainment. We looked in three different areas of England and found almost no venues other than community centres (Mr Smiler was against that) that didn't insist on using specific caterers and paying ridiculous corkage. Grr.

[ClareC]

That is the bonus of the marquee - we can choose whatever suppliers we want, end the party whenever we want and there is no corkage!

Wouldn't work likecthat with a marquee in a hotel / stately home etc though.

[Chillaxed]

My wife and I were married abroad (well, in her home country) and I had a surprising number of family and mates attend from the UK and NZ.

Every single overseas attendee I looked at as a bonus. Many friends and family couldn't come of course, and that was fine with me. There is no way I would fall out with a mate because he didn't come to my wedding.

[yeknomyeknom]

We got married 2 yrs ago n Vegas. Total cost about ?500. Family watched it live on webcam. The money we saved was spent on honeymoon roadtrip in Vegas, San Francisco and LA. couldn't recommend it more.

[ClareC]

?500....... Presumably that figure doesn't include the flights / hotels etc necessary to get married in Vegas.

[yeknomyeknom]

It includes outfits and price of ceremony. Doesn't include flights and hotels as they would be in honeymoon costs normally. If you want to know all in what we spent, ?3k for the whole shebang. Includes everything including convertible hire, Harley hire, bellagio, chateau marmont, flights and outfits.