Countdown to the wedding! - “The feared budget”

Finally I had the scary “wedding budget talk” with my family. And I say scary because I am fully aware that my family’s economic situation at the moment is not great. Since closing the ice-cream parlours, my uncle has realised that maybe we can’t continue having the lifestyle we used to have. That barely includes me, as I’ve always been the “saving bee” of the family. But I know that at the moment they are having more expenses than income due to the global credit crunch that is affecting half the world.

But the outcome of the meeting wasn’t as negative as I thought it would be. I was told not to worry and whatever happens they will be responsible of 50% of the wedding expenses. They are relying on the sale of an old house in order to get the money. If that house doesn’t sell, then they’ll have to get a loan or something similar to obtain the money. Of course, I am not 100% happy with this arrangement, as I don’t think it’s fair that people have to get in debt in order to pay for my wedding.

So now the question is, how much do we really need to spend on the wedding? I’ve heard that the average wedding costs around £20,000, which I think is outrageous. There are websites like Nicola Ray’s that give you lots of tricks to get your wedding as cheap as possible (She had hers under £5,000!). But can’t you get something in between? £12,000 sounds about right to me.

The greatest chunk of the budget goes towards the wedding reception: welcome canapes and drinks, 3 course meal, more drinks, evening buffet, more drinks, a few more drinks… Then the flowers and the photographer are the second and third largest chunks of budget. This is, of course, without taking into account the honeymoon!

A lot of money for just two sets of parents…

A weird situation »« To acclimatise