Our wedding budget checklist offers a complete guide to planning your wedding budget. Wedding Venues Essex offer a wonderful wedding venue for hire in Hadleigh, Essex. We discuss the average budget for a wedding in the UK and explore the items to include in your wedding budget checklist.

What Is A Reasonable Wedding Budget?

The amount you spend on your wedding will vary depending on your and your partner's savings. Don't go overboard if you can't pay it back within 12-15 months. £20,000 is a reasonable wedding budget, but it's easy to overspend in some areas. Setting aside £20,000 for your wedding should cover all the expenses you can think of.

What Is The Average Budget For A Wedding UK?

Weddings across the UK in 2022 cost £18,400, which is 6% more than the average wedding cost in 2021 at £9,100. 

Wedding Budget Breakdown

A budget breakdown makes it simpler to manage your funds; the venue and catering equal 40% of your budget. Photography and videography equal 15% of your budget, and dress and beauty equal 5% of your budget.

Flowers should be 10% of your budget. Presents should be 2% of your budget. Transportation should be 3% of your budget. Stationery should be 3% of your budget, the cake should be 2% of your budget, and décor should be 10% of your budget.

Wedding planners and Excel spreadsheets are a great way to keep track of your budget. Fill in the columns with all the necessary information, and then create a line for your total and add as you go. This can help maintain your budget and ensure that all the preparation is done.

Items Included On Your Wedding Budget Checklist:

 Photography & Videography

Spend the second biggest part of your budget on photography and videography. Many couples spend up to £1,500 on wedding photography. If you're on a tight budget, ask your wedding photographer what choices are available. Planning for your big day should be high on your list of things to consider, budget for, and reserve.

Wedding photography is crucial because it will preserve your memories. A beautiful one about the day you will always remember. A tale you can share with loved ones. It's something you will always have and be able to cherish. Your flowers will wither. Your cake will be consumed. Your invitations will be thrown away after the event.

Your dress will only be worn once, and those shoes will be put back in their box. Your pictures, however, will last a lifetime. Planning a wedding involves creating a lifetime of memories, not one special day. It's about preserving memories. Preserving feeling, being able to look back on the day. Grinning at moments you didn't even know happened.

Observing the emotion in your loved ones' expressions, and, most of all, having a tale you can cherish forever. Make sure you maximise your budget for your wedding photography. It's not about getting a few pictures of you and your partner looking beautiful on your wedding day.

It's about telling a beautiful story of your wedding day. Capturing the day as it happens. Catching the emotion of your guests. Capturing the wonderful details of your day after hours and days of preparing. From the gorgeous flowers, your dress, and the venue. 

 Wedding Attire & Beauty

The typical UK wedding costs over £17,000, which equates to roughly £170 for hair and makeup. This is a reasonable price if you only need hair and makeup for yourself. If one area is more essential to you than another, you can personalise your budget breakdown.

Whether you want a wedding dress or a suit, you should strive to spend up to 10% of your total budget on wedding garments. Some people will want to spend more on their wedding gown or suit than others.

But, these expenses will have altered to accommodate for it. Wedding rings are a vital part of your wedding ceremony and can be an overlooked cost. Wedding rings can cost a lot of money, so be sure to have those expenses covered.

 Favours & Gifts

Wedding favours are one of those adorable on-the-day extras that guests like. But they don't have to be expensive.

You'll want to treat yourself to a good wedding meal and a beautiful bottle of wine to go with it. So make sure not to overspend on any favours or gifts if you're on a budget.

 Décor

You can plan a budgeted wedding by minimising. Choosing an inexpensive wedding location and DIY décor can help achieve this.

 Music / Entertainment

Or how many layers there were in your wedding cake or the shade of your table linens. They might not recall the starter they had. But they will never forget the wedding music. 

Outstanding music and entertainment create an energetic audience. The bridal couple's enjoyment is heightened by music. Encouraging everyone to rejoice. Lively moods and celebrations continue with the help of music and entertainment.

 Transportation

Wedding transport includes how you and your spouse travel to the wedding location. Especially if your ceremony and reception are taking place in two different venues. You will need to organise transport to transfer your guests from one to the other.

If you stay at the wedding venue the night before or arrange to carpool, you may be able to cut these costs. If you've always wanted to arrive at your wedding, you may want to raise this part of your budget.

 Stationery 

Wedding stationery and invites are crucial components of wedding planning. There are no restrictions when it comes to stationery.

You may pick and choose whatever components are perfect for you and discard the ones that aren't. If your wedding budget is limited, try communicating through a wedding website instead.

 Flowers

Choose who will get a bridal flower bouquet. There might be a lot of expenses in your flower and décor budget for the wedding. Wedding orders for hanging flowers can go as much as £1,000. That said, if your budget won't allow it, you may still reduce your expenditure. The price of a florist depends on your individual circumstances.

Choose a venue for your wedding that requires minimal floral décor. if you do not have a large budget for those goods. Make up your own. During a wedding, flowers are everywhere. in bouquets and boutonnieres. even in arrangements used as table centrepieces. In the aisle during the ceremony. Every wedding would be incomplete without flowers.

They make your special day more colourful, tactile, and emotional. A flower's beauty, colour, and elegance contribute to setting the tone for your wedding. Flowers are used throughout weddings as both a design element and a form of expression. Contrary to what the wedding industry claims, having flowers at your wedding is not at all required. It is also okay to not have any flowers.

We hope this article helped you plan the perfect wedding reception. Are you planning a wedding in Suffolk or Essex? We offer a beautiful Tudor wedding venue located between Ipswich and Colchester.

Follow the link below to find out more about booking our wedding venue in Hadleigh, Essex.