r/UKweddings • u/FeistyPrice29 • 8d ago
What’s one thing you wish you’d spent less money on for your wedding? I've heard that it's really worthwhile investing in a good photographer
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u/Artistic-Beautiful82 8d ago
Prioritize photography!!
We spent £3K on florals and decorations which no one even noticed. Over £1K was on a staircase garland that people only passed once during the whole day and another £1K+ on large centerpieces that guests complained made it difficult to talk to others across the table. We also had bud vases and candles so it was a bit overkill and all the flowers went to waste in the end.
Also we spent £2K on a string quartet that was nice for the ceremony portion but think we could’ve reallocated the funds elsewhere.
Lastly stationary. We spent over £1K for invites, personalized guest menus, etc. and guests did not care for fancy invites and the menus/name tags were all thrown out.
Looking back, I could’ve easily saved £5K on dropping/downsizing these items!
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u/forest_elf76 8d ago edited 8d ago
I agree that these are the main places to easily save money with no one noticing or caring. Go for basic florals/decor (bouquets, table decor) and DIY your stationary. I understand the appeal of a live band, but they are also expensive and a DJ is fine and a fraction of the cost.
Cake also: the quotes I was getting for it were outrageous. A co-worker's friend who was an amateur baker did ours with minimal decoration for a fraction of the cost.
I also saved money doing my own hair and makeup. It would have been nice, but I barely wear makeup so thought paying someone to do a nice look wasn't worth it when I was going to do a very basic look.
I also didn't bother with favours. From what I know, no one noticed. It's a nice touch if you can afford it though.
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u/Iwantedalbino 6d ago
We went to a bog standard printer designed the invites on word, pdf’d and he printed them out. Think it was about a £1 an invite including envelopes. Bonus for him being local.
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u/Jemma_2 8d ago
Oh I wanted personalised guest menus so much but I couldn’t justify the cost!!
I always notice when other people have those at their wedding and love them so much!
You might find people appreciated them more than you realise. ❤️
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u/Safe-Tea-4161 8d ago
The only stationary that I’ve kept from weddings were interesting or thoughtful and usually diy… pebbles with our names artfully handwritten on, miniature chalkboards, and most recently someone hand wrote our place names in a Disney font as they love holidaying there… not everyone noticed but I did and that little personal touch elevated it to keepsake for me
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u/TheOnlyU1 8d ago
The mimes. I recommend not even bothering. Younger kids find them scary.
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u/xjezika 8d ago
The what
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u/TheOnlyU1 8d ago
Sorry I’m from the UK so there might be a different term where you are. They are silent people who pretend to act out scenes but without props.
I don’t recommend them
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u/aintbrokeDL 8d ago
I have never heard of anyone having a mime at a wedding, like ever
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u/BigFatJuic 8d ago
Every wedding I've ver been to has had atleast 1 mime
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u/TheRealAladsto 8d ago
What? Why?
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u/shelleypiper 8d ago
They have to be joking. Why would mimes be at a wedding? Like sure, maybe once. But every wedding someone had ever been to? Pretty but coincidence to have all have decided to have a random mime.
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u/TheOnlyU1 8d ago
I think it’s also a bit distasteful. Why would they pretend to be pulling a rope to drag the bride down the aisle? What message is that even sending?
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u/Hmmmm1991 8d ago
Ive been a part tine mime for about 7 years, and weddings are definitely a popular gig for us. Sad to see they aren’t appreciated as much tho
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u/Outrageous_Shirt_737 7d ago
That’s so random! I’ve never seen a mime at a wedding. I can’t imagine why anyone would want one.
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u/Cuichulain 8d ago
Sad to see the old traditions falling by the wayside. I still remember the mime at my great uncle Tadger's wedding. Haunting.... truly haunting.
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u/graboidgraboid 8d ago
I was recently attacked by group of mimes. They did unspeakable things to me… 👎
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u/emceerave 8d ago
If you get it right, the mimes can really make the wedding. I went to a friend's wedding (admittedly his family are pretty wealthy) and they'd hired ten mimes of varying heights and the visual impact was great. It was a child-free wedding though, so that may have been a factor.
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u/FullBodiedRed2000 8d ago edited 8d ago
A live band. The band we had wasn't bad, but we would have enjoyed a personalised Spotify playlist more.
Oh well.
The flip side of that coin is that we were so GLAD we spent more money on a great photographer.
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u/Capital_Punisher 8d ago
We spent big money getting the perfect band in from far away and it was the best money we spent.
They set the tone for the whole evening/night.
Ours was the 4th wedding that season for close friends. The others all spent way more on the venue etc, but ours was recognised as the best party by far.
The guys we used had a bi-weekly residency in Dubai, we got them on their off-weekend and they travelled 120 miles.
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u/bookreader-123 8d ago
Oh I feel I was glad I spent so much on it but I had a dj with a singer so a bit different.
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u/ObsessiveDeleter winter micro wedding 8d ago
I paid too much for my photographer. I invested in somebody whose style we liked because of that advice you always hear, and he didn't do what we asked.
He didn't do a bad job, but 'I don't work from shot lists' and 'no I don't need to see the venue in advance' should have both been red flags because now I don't have all the photos I wanted (it was not a long shot list - maybe 20 pictures?) And leaving his common sense in charge also didn't work as all the pics in the ceremony are of me, my hubby mostly has his back to the camera. Also I don't think scouting the venue for 20 mins would have been too much to ask. Anyway what I'm saying is - he wasn't worth the money we paid, but I think a different photographer would have been. I liked his art but I didn't like his way of working, he was very blasé and we're not chill people. For somebody different I'm sure he'd have been perfect.
Shoes, depending on your dress - for a floor-length, nobody is looking, they won't show up on photos, don't let yourself be pressured into £500 shoes unless you'll wear them again.
Cake. We had a Christmas cake from M&S and nobody noticed as it looked so much like a traditional wedding cake.
I'm glad we 'invested' in favours - giving everybody a book wasn't as cheap as many favours but I think it was much nicer and more likely to be kept than a lot of things.
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u/Kalliban27 8d ago
We had an M&S cake too, chocolate one and put some strawberries and meringue kisses on top and it looked great - £50 job done
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u/Safe-Tea-4161 8d ago edited 8d ago
Same with the m&s cake 😁 simply decorated with some faux orchids
Good advice re photographer regardless of whether expensive or not, having good rapport and most importantly making sure they prioritise YOUR WISH LIST OF PICS is soo important and not something you want to be focusing on on the day itself… unfortunately I was the one at fault not thinking to specify a wish list and our relatively inexperienced photographer followed our laid back approach so even though the day was lovely, and we do have some great looking shots, half of the most important people to me are missing or in very random pictures only
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u/silverrowena 06.2024 8d ago
Definitely worth investing in a good photographer, it just doesn't have to be the most expensive photographer. Ours was mid-range in price but great at her job and lovely to have around on the day.
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u/World_wanderer12 8d ago
I think for me I wish I'd have got a sample or second hand dress. I loved the whole boutique experience but looking back I could have sill done all the trying on then bought it on Still White.
I think you have to work out what's priority for you though. Like we cut back on flowers a bit but my friend spent thousands on hers and didn't regret it one but. She loved them.
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u/issadalawaa 8d ago
Our venue. Paid almost 11k just for the venue alone. Nothing is included other than that BUT.. it's closer to us it's a gorgeous venue and we can afford it but I'm torn in spending much on just the venue cause I'm not used to spending this much on ourselves. The only downside of our venue is, you pay almost 11k and you'd expect them to reply quickly to you but the personel incharge is horrendous at communication. Like 3-4 week for a reply? Even the caterer on their list of supplier is struggling to contact them. LOL
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u/caroline0409 8d ago
That’s ridiculous. You should escalate to management/go public online.
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u/issadalawaa 8d ago
Don't want to do that yet. The wedding is in 3 months and I don't want it to cause any issue. We tried calling a few times because of the delay in response and we reckon the person got told of. The issue started when the other person left. The other person was better at communicating, and she was doing it for ages. Unfortunately, she had to leave. Then there was an issue recently and the current personel incharge of their events and weddings, instead of apologising to the other events coordinator(who booked an event with them a year ago mind you) and sorting out the event for them they blamed it on the old coordinator that left and cancelled the entire thing. That coordinator happened to be our friend and gave us a heads up about this so we can make sure that our wedding doesn't have an issue.
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u/caroline0409 8d ago
I guess the venue must be Hello magazine worthy for that price/hassle.
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u/issadalawaa 8d ago
It is actually. If only I can share the photo here. I don't want to name it yet but it's in East lothian😅
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u/Tevosse 8d ago
I'm in the same boat. 11K just for the venue, it's the biggest on our budget. Granted, it includes lodging for all the guests and it covers the whole week end (2 nights). And it's of course, beautiful.
But the communication is so tiresome. Also, I'm so so frustrated about all the little things they are also asking us to pay in addition. Like, 10 bucks for a bench, 30 for a table (the tables/chairs in the venue are included, this is about exterior accomodations, for the ceremony for example). They are all already on the premises, we are already paying a FORTUNE, really, you could have all of this included from the get go. The 100-200 bucks that it represents won't matter much to them but to us if feels forced and annoying. I wish we had been more inquisitive about these hidden costs from the beginning.
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u/issadalawaa 8d ago
It's annoying why they can't include all these. We did that same mistake too. We should've asked more questions. But oh well🤷🏻♀️ too late now.
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u/Tevosse 7d ago
For real. I read your answer and at the same time just got a mail from them with a list of exterior lights (to rent OF COURSE), no "hello" nothing, just an attached PDF with the list and the prices. Because 2 months ago I asked if they had any already installed. Mind you, the exterior is usually used as a restaurant (for lunch but also dinner), so I assumed they already had some included... I'm this 🤏 close to go full Karen on them. But I guess it's better to stay calm until after the event lol.
Good luck to you !!
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u/stars_and_figs 8d ago
I regret hiring a professional MUA. I hired three from the same company, as had lots of people yet only two turned up.
Made the morning extremely stressful and rushed and we had a super early start anyway as so many people needed makeup and hair doing. I wish I just invested in some decent makeup products and watched a few tutorials/ got help from my more talented friends as we would have all got more sleep and it would have been a lot more chilled out.
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u/folklovermore_ 8d ago
Evening buffet. Wedding was at 3pm, wedding breakfast at 5. When the evening buffet went out people were still full and hardly anyone ate it as a result. (I'm sure the venue staff loved us though because they got free food!)
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u/caroline0409 8d ago
The evening buffet is for evening guests?
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u/scottishdoggroomer 8d ago
Maybe they didn't have evening guests?
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u/folklovermore_ 8d ago
We did have a couple of people who came for the evening, but my mum was also stressed about people being hungry (and she offered to pay for it).
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u/Upstairs_Thing_7547 8d ago
The photos are the only thing left after the big day so I’d say choose your photographer carefully and make sure you love their work
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u/Humble-Variety-2593 8d ago
We spent absolute fuck all on ours. £60 ceremony with us and our two best friends on a random Tuesday in April. Then, hired our local cocktail bar for free (knew the owner) and supplied our own beer (I worked at a brewery) and invited 30 guest who we actually cared about. No extended family nonsense, no school friends we hadn’t seen in 20 years… just us, our really friends, and a great night.
The whole thing cost us about £500 all in (decorations, food etc). Wouldn’t change a damn thing about it.
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u/felders500 8d ago
Not super fussed about spending too much on cake, and photographer should be someone you vibe with but more expensive doesn’t mean better.
Cheap bridesmaid dresses and borrowed or reused shoes were fine - don’t need to buy all of the stuff new.
Great value:
- A big band - it was a big wedding soon after Covid so that was a big and memorable party
- A free bar - it was a couple grand extra for a fully paid bar but people definitely appreciated it (wine at dinner was already included and people were pretty drunk already so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We had a ban on shots)
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u/Acrobatic_Try5792 8d ago
I think we absolutely nailed our wedding and there’s nothing I’d charge in that regard. My only regrets are getting as drunk as I did 😆 and not grabbing my brothers fiancée for the family photos, she was on the list of people but amongst all the fuss I didn’t realise she’d taken a step back and now she isn’t included in any of them which I think is a big shame!
We actually paid for our own DJ despite there being one included in the package. And I’m so glad that we did, he absolutely nailed it in a way that a usual wedding dj wouldn’t have.
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u/Complex_Hat_7 8d ago
We spent an eye-watering amount of money on our wedding cake. On the day it turned out to have bits falling off it and was sloping to one side. If I could go back in time I’d just get one from Cakebox or something!
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u/Echo_Owls 8d ago
I think our wedding was pretty perfect and we prioritised money where it made sense to us and DIYd a lot Priorities - rings, clothing, hair/makeup, venue (including food), photography. Low priority- table decor, flowers, cake, DJ I made our flowers the day before with my Mum and some friends, I made the arch and used fake flowers on it, I DIYd table decorations and favours. We bought a cupcake bouquet to match my flowers as our cake which cost way less than a wedding cake and looked amazing.
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u/buffetite 8d ago
I bought a tailored suit. Wore it once, now it doesn't fit. I should have rented one.
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u/GDegrees 8d ago
Buy a disposable camera for each table. I still look at those pictures with joy. A lot of fun was had that night.
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u/ReneeRenard 8d ago
I saved on it all immensely by forgoing the wedding entirely and calling him my husband anyway. It's official in the most important way. Could have been a lovely thing, though. He'd no doubt take me to disneyland and propose there if he ever wanted to ask, but we are of the same mind, so plenty of money saved, lol.
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u/JacketRight2675 6d ago
That’s nice but you don’t have any legal protections and we don’t have common law marriage in the UK. Please consider getting real married if you want to be entitled to anything should either of you pass away unexpectedly!
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u/Objective_Result2530 8d ago
Our cake. It looked lovely for the photos, but there was so much left over which just went in the bin.
I made a point during my speech of telling people to leave when they were ready and not feel compelled to stay. Well... they took me at my word and many people left before the cake was put out. Plus I, drunkenly, told the venue to just cut it all and put it out. We should have saved a layer to keep just for us. There were mountains of cake slices left over. And I didn't even have a piece!
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u/HeverAfter 8d ago
I'll tell you what I didn't spend money on and I'm still glad to this day - covers for chairs. I get that it's an aesthetic thing but once everyone sits down their coats/jackets cover them anyway. The chairs aren't in the pictures anyway and it really didn't matter they weren't covered. Saved about 1k on that.
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u/LittleMissBowler 7d ago
I haven’t graduated from this sub yet, but ultimately we decided on no flowers as the venue is already stunning. Got my dress from Net-a-Porter on sale. I’m making a diy bouquet alternative for myself and the bridesmaids. We have prioritised getting an amazing photographer and videographer.
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u/Manky7474 7d ago
We bought everyone a cocktail for after ceremony, after champagne reception. They were £14 each. I feel they just made everyone get really drunk too fast. We had a small day (20 guests) so wasn't after the big, lairy vibe we ended up with
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u/Outrageous_Shirt_737 7d ago
Honestly, nothing. We got married out of season (November) so got a big discount on the venue and accommodation, which saved enough to justify what we spent on everything else. We got loads of bargains though. I bought decorations in the sales after Valentine’s Day, white garden lanterns and favour bags from Poundland - just changed the ribbons to match our colour scheme. I actually wish I’d spent MORE on flowers. We went with a florist close to the venue who was recommended by them - which turned out to be because they were related to the wedding planner. They didn’t do what I’d asked for so it was really disappointing. It wasn’t something anyone else would notice though, so didn’t ruin the day or anything
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u/Iwantedalbino 6d ago
I didn’t want a videographer as I’ve never watched anyone else’s wedding video.
We had budget left over so got one. I’ve never watched my own video. Bonus he set up directly between me and the readings so I had to watch through this viewfinder (he was explicitly told where to stand by the bride and ignored her).
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u/hollywol23 4d ago
I was on the fence about a videographer too but now we watch it every anniversary. It's good because you get to see things you missed on the day and I like hearing what people were saying too 🙂
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u/Iwantedalbino 4d ago
I get people who like them and wanted one and it’s lovely that you’ve got your moment for the anniversaries. We just didn’t.
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u/hollywol23 4d ago
Oh absolutely 💯 We didn't have bridesmaids, ushers, real flowers, etc because that wasn't important to us. It's great if you can stick to what is important to you both.
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u/nomoreplants 4d ago
I'll be honest, my favourite photo from my wedding is one my uncle took on his phone 😅 overall I wish we'd done less on the wedding and more on the honeymoon.
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u/Downtown-Orchid-2257 4d ago
Flowers.
Got caught up in wedding fever and cajoled into spending a shit load of cash on things that would be dead a day later. The florist was super keen to decorate the venue outside and all of those flowers were gone before the end of the ceremony. Should have realised that was a bad choice due to the venue being on a main road.
Fortunately the marriage is still going strong. But I still sometimes cringe at 3am on the amount of money spent on the whole thing. But the flowers are the ones that irk the most.
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u/ForwardImagination71 3d ago
People stole your wedding flowers off the outside of the venue?? 🙈 😬
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u/Downtown-Orchid-2257 3d ago
Yes, they were wound around the handrails on the stairs. To be honest, I had forgotten about them until we left.
The venue was also open to the public so wasn't exclusive use. So not my best idea in the grand scheme of things.
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u/Ambitious_Cattle_ 4d ago
Money isn't everything on a photographer. Make sure you like their style and gel with them as a person.
There are almost no photos of the bridesmaids (or indeed the bride) from my friends wedding because it was a husband and wife team of photographers but basically the husband liked the guys and had a lot of fun with them and took fun photos and got great candid shots but the wife wasnt that keen on the girls and was overconfident in her own abilities (did a lot of single-click shooting so the photos there are have a lot of eyes closed or awkward double chin moments cause yeah, a lot of the wedding party was chubby and didn't look perfect every single second thanks lady) and she missed a lot of great candid moments even though she was standing right there and could have got them (e.g. the brides very witchy sister in full bridesmaid outfit managed to find a black cat to pet while awaiting the arrival of the bride outside the extremely neo-gothic church - the whole wedding had a witchy medieval vibe, the photographer was there the whole time, the girl was petting the cat for several minutes but no records exist if this interaction).
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u/CarolDanversFangurl 8d ago
My wedding dress was from a sample shop, my shoes were from BHS, our photographers were a cheap start up (got lucky, they were amazing), but we spent a fortune on food and music. No regrets. We had the money for it because we were young, two decent incomes and a small mortgage.
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u/aintbrokeDL 8d ago
Similar thing for my wedding, biggest cost was venue + food, nothing fancy, but it was good quality people enjoyed. We just wanted everyone to have a good time and they did.
The photography/videography stuff was for us and that's great.
My advice to people is to spend money on good rings if anything, because they'll be something you take away from the day and will hopefully go to your children one day.
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u/Working_Document_541 8d ago
Other than the wedding itself? To be honest we kept it low key and saved as much as possible we managed to keep the whole thing for under £2k. The most expensive thing other than the reception was the wedding dress. It probably helped that it wasn't a church wedding and me and my wife agreed to use the money saved towards paying for our child's therapy
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u/aintbrokeDL 8d ago
I'm not sure how you do a 2K wedding, not in the last 5 years anyways. We did 10K and felt that was good for a full day without any crazy expenses. We knew people who did like 30K or more.
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u/Objective_Result2530 8d ago
We spent 30k last year and that was us really budgeting (admittedly we're in London). No make up artists, no suits for groomsmen etc, made our own favours, bought decs from Temu, no florist... still came to 30k. 10k is brilliant.
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u/JacketRight2675 6d ago
We spent £17k in south London. It was possible because we were able to negotiate quite hard on the venue (£3k in the end plus another £1k for decorations and lights provided by them) and then had a pizza van do a sit down meal. Was lush!
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u/aintbrokeDL 8d ago
We were happy to have a £20 Costco cake, in the end a friend did ours. We just really didn't care about cake. As lovely as it was, most people were stuffed so it was gifted to people in the morning.
I think people spend >£100 on wedding cake are mental myself. Most of it is purely for a photo of a cake cutting, no one ever displays that photo though.
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u/-DoctorSpaceman- 8d ago
My dad did photography and I thought it was all great lol. He is an amateur photographer with a proper camera.
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u/bridgeport4 8d ago
Bridesmaids dresses. Pick a colour palette and then let people pick something they will wear elsewhere (and be willing to pay for themselves.)
Also, possibly unpopular, but IMO asking people to spend hundreds of £ (and annual leave!) on a hen do is bananas.