Welcome to our real wedding budget breakdown series! We're taking the mystery and stigma out of talking wedding budgets and sharing what other real life couples spent on their big days. How they splurged and where they saved, and whether they felt they got bang for their buck. Today's budget breakdown will be particularly interesting to anyone who's had to downsize their wedding plans due to Covid-19...

Today's couple are based in South Wales. Aged 26 and 31, one works as a university administrator and the other is a university researcher. After cancelling their initial big wedding planned for this year due to issues with their venue, they planned a downsized family wedding in just a few weeks.

Budget: £3560

Guests: 19 (including the couple!)

Venue: Registry office followed by a gastro pub

Wedding Budget Breakdown

Venue & Catering: £700

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Photography: £850
Flowers: £95
Decor & Rentals: £15
Transport: £15

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Wedding Dress: Gifted
Groom's Suit: £70
Groomsmen's Suits: £110
Bridesmaid's Dresses: £92
Shoes & Accessories: £130
Rings: £915
Hair & Makeup: £218

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Registry Office Fees: £335

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Honeymoon: £500

More or less than you expected to spend?

It was what we expected.

Where did your wedding budget come from?

Savings.

Biggest splurge?

Our rings (we designed them, and had them made by a lovely young jeweller) and our photographer. Both completely worth it, they are the two things we will have forever!

Biggest savings?

The fact we had to cancel our original wedding! We had a big wedding planned for next year but then a number of things went wrong with the venue so we made to really hard choice to cancel and get our deposit back. We then planned a far smaller immediate family-only wedding in a couple of weeks. After the stress of the original wedding it was a relief to have a completely different wedding that wasn't second best.

We paid for all the wedding with the deposit of the original wedding! Oh and vouchers! Decor was limited but paid with Clubcard vouchers. We bought a lot on sale as well, his suit was meant to be about £300 but we got for a ridiculous sale price! For music, we made our own playlist on and paid for a month of Spotify premium.

Honeymoon

Just a weekend by the beach, the plan is to do a far bigger trip in a year or two.

Were you happy with what you spent on your wedding?

Very! We would a loved the original wedding but having all that money saved and still in the account is a great feeling. In terms of what we could control, there's nothing we'd do differently.

Any tips or advice?

On the day, what will happen will happen, just settle into it and enjoy. Make sure you take a few minutes to yourself if you need it. We had an unplugged ceremony and no formal ‘wedding’ photos, it was one of the best things we did, don’t feel like you have to do the things that everyone else just does because it’s a wedding. Do what makes you comfortable and that you’ll look back on and be happy with.

Need more wedding budget real talk? We've got lots of tips and advice, and be sure to check out more real wedding budget breakdowns!

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Feature image: We Heart Pictures via One Fab Day  | All images are from a mix of real weddings, not the one featured in this budget breakdown.