Your wedding is not really for you. Or is it?
Ever sat back and wondered how your wedding budget disappeared so quickly? Your guests, that’s why.
WARNING - controversial wedding budget post, but hear me out - As a UK based wedding planner, I meet so many couples who go through a range of emotions when it comes to the wedding preparations and the wedding day itself. I know not everyone is going to agree with what I say in this blog but it is my honest opinion that some couples lose sight of the meaning of marriage and the celebrations surrounding it.
Let’s start with marriage, what does it mean and why do we do it? Well marriage is the legal or formal binding of two people uniting their love for each other. Now for you to do this, you need 5/6 people. You (as a couple), 2 witnesses, the person authorised to register the marriage (and if not, another person will be present who can). That’s it.
So back to the point…. Let’s say you get engaged (yippee!) and you start looking at the guest list…. before you know it you’re saying ‘I didn’t realise we knew this many people’ and ‘well they invited us to their wedding so we have to do the same back’ or ‘I guess we have to invite partners too’. Sound familiar? Ok so lets say you now have 100 people coming to your wedding., you now have to look for a venue that caters for 100 people, then you add on accommodation, and transport etc etc. The costs just go up and up and up so technically, all of this cost is for the benefit of your guests, not really you.
Once you’ve tallied up the total cost you could be looking at £18,400 (HItched guide for 2022) and that’s only looking at 6 key spending areas:
Venue hire - £8,400
Wedding dress - £1,350
Photography - £1,300
Videography - £1,150
Catering per head - £70
Wedding hair & makeup - £155
So that’s not even everything you are spending. Let’s say you spend a further £5,000 on top for cake, suits, flowers and entertainment, taking it to £23,400 (see how it adds up!). You are now spending £234,00 per person!
I am the first person to say that I love a big lovely white wedding and I’m not saying don’t spend a high amount, of course, if you have the budget, this blog may not be for you. But for a lot of couples who feel the pressure to conform to what society deems to be a ‘proper wedding’… please don’t. You do you, and if you are going to get into debt for people who barely make the effort to speak to you every 6 months., I say no more.
Too many couples end up stressed out, mainly with the financials of a wedding so my advice comes from the heart when I advise you, really think about where you focus your wedding budget and whether the guests you intend to invite, justify the £23,400.00 spend.
Maybe I’m ruthless but couples who feel obliged to have the ‘big white wedding’ and invite the people they really don’t want to, only to look back and regret some of their decisions to go for the big venue and additional extras that cost a lot of money .
So whilst planning your wedding. Just stop, and really think about who you are doing this for. You or your guests?
Contact Hayley, Award Winning Wedding Planner HERE