Beautiful Weddings on a Budget
25 May 2026If you’re anything like me, you’ll see lots of amazing pictures of beautiful weddings and hear talk about how expensive weddings are these days. Do you ever think, “How can anyone justify spending that much on one day?” The thing is, your wedding budget is a matter of perspective. If even the ‘average’ figures (usually somewhere between £17,000 – £30,000) the press like to shout about make you want to cry, then chances are you’re a ‘budget bride’. And that is OK. Beautiful weddings can still be achieved on a budget
For some of us, it’s just a pipe dream to save that much money. For others, you’d rather spend the money on something that will be with you for years to come, like your first home, a car or simply your family. And that is also fine.
If I hadn’t had a “budget” wedding, it would have taken at least five years to save enough money for an “average” wedding. At the time, we had just moved into a new house with no central heating or double glazing (it was a bargain of a place because it had been repossessed). Just starting out, we were spending what we could on the essentials, but we wanted to get married as quickly as possible. We were given furniture and rugs. Everything else was either an early wedding present or mostly bought second-hand. Without our families, we could not have planned and paid for a wedding.
When it came to our wedding, we were so lucky that we had friends and family willing to do what they could for us. My uncle made our wedding cake, one of my best friends did my make-up, her hubby was our photographer (and yes, he was a professional photographer, not an excitable amateur) and one of the best men was our DJ. Best of all, my mum and her friend made mine and the three bridesmaids’ dresses. We spent around £200 on the fabric for all four dresses. We paid a minimal fee to the church (to cover the cost of the choir), as the vicar was a good friend of my father-in-law. The venue flowers were done between my mother-in-law and a fabulous local supplier. Our wedding breakfast was held in a community centre and the evening reception was in a sports centre event room. Neither space was overly dressed, and we didn’t miss it.
I was a budget bride
I say all this because I didn’t feel like a budget bride, I felt like a well-loved bride with an amazing group of people supporting our fabulous wedding day. Looking back on our wedding today I don’t regret any part of it. I don’t think any of our guests missed any of the “extras” that we just didn’t see as a priority.
The wedding suppliers’ perspective
As a budget bride, it can feel like you are frowned upon by some suppliers. It’s true, I’ve heard suppliers bemoaning the couple who seem to have outrageous demands or “champagne aspirations on a bucks fizz budget”. But I understand that there are likely to be areas of your wedding where you’re willing to spend a bit more, and that it could be the difference between one little extra or two. I also know that worn-out old phrase ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’, so sometimes we want to try our luck with a supplier and see what more we can get from them. And that is also fine.
Suppliers are often very passionate people. They are self employed and believe in what they offer, many have trained and honed their skill over several years and 10s or 100s of weddings. Yes, you might come across the toastmaster who thinks your wedding might be a disaster without their help. Or the photographer who tells you that your friend will ruin your wedding by failing to give you the same service they would. Or a baker who says that the cake your friend is making for you won’t be half as good as one a professional baker would make. But the chances are your wedding will be fine without them. You’ll feel the love that went into the things you do, or have friends and family do for you, and that will make them just as special and amazing, if not more so.
And regarding the suppliers who don’t get your vision or your budget position, don’t worry, they just aren’t the right fit for you. After all we live in a world where both Lambourginis and Nissan Micras exist. There’s a supplier for every budget, just try to avoid walking into a Lambo showroom with a micra budget! X
