Should you Splurge or Save on your wedding?

Ah weddings, just mention the word to a hotel, restaurant, florist and the prices suddenly double or triple. I was recently trying to de-clutter and found my veil. I splurged £200 on that veil. It is very beautiful veil with swarovski crystals and creates a long train….but £200?? Come on what was I thinking?

There were a few other things that we splurged on. The venue was beautiful and it did set us back around £100 per person. We did cut back on costs by only having 60 people and said no to children. My dress came from Monsoon and was around £300 including alterations for my 22 week pregnancy bump. A friend took the photographs. Our wedding cars were given to us free of charge by the wedding venue owner. The cake was made by my mother-in-law.

I thought it would be fun to ask some fellow bloggers what their biggest savings and splurges from their weddings were.

Emma from the Money Whisperer says do not bother with favours!

Worth the money spent was the videographer, 100%. We watch our video with our girls every anniversary; it is beautiful that they can see our wedding and I love the memories which do fade, let’s be honest! It was one of the most expensive bits of our wedding but totally worth the money. 
Not worth the money : the favours. Most of them get left on the table!

Nuria from Sweet Life and Lemons (great blog name) had a full-on budget wedding

I had a wedding on a budget so I can’t think of anything we wasted money on. We had the best wedding ever. But what you said about your veil reminded me of my mum. She made her own wedding dress and then used her long veil to make a frill for my crib when I was born. Great recycling! 😊

Michelle from Time & Pence splurged on her honeymoon

I didn’t actually waste any money because I did everything I could to save money on our wedding. I bought an ex-display dress, did my own flowers, made my own favours and place cards, got a friend to do the video, bought 3 cakes from M&S etc. And we still had the best day. However, we did spend nearly £3,000 on our honeymoon to Mexico which was worth absolutely every penny!

Louise from Mum Of Boys loves her photographs and video

Worth the money – photography and videography. We had a beautiful snowy day in December 2010 and I treasure the pictures and video we got that day. Not worth the money – candy cane favours! We were left with about 100 candy canes! To be fair, not a huge expense but still a waste. 

Lisa from Travel Loving Family wasted money on pumps!

I bought some fancy designer wedding pumps to change into in case my wedding heels were hurting but I didn’t want to miss a single second of my wedding party so didn’t actually go back to my room to change into them! I could barely walk the next day as I had spent hours dancing in the highest heels ever but it was so worth it!

Jo from Mummys Knee loved her wedding food and venue

Money well spent was the food (I am a massive foodie) and venue, it was stunning & photography as we can look back and remember. I am not sure what was a waste, I learned so much from friends I was the last of 9 and borrowed a tiara, had my dress made from my design. Maybe the table decorations, we could have paired that back as you are so busy listening to speeches then it gets cleared away.

Erica from The Incidental Parent says don’t bother with a manicure

I had a manicure and it had chipped by the following morning (the day of my wedding) so a total waste.
Other than that my wedding was on a budget. Our honeymoon was a raffle prize! I am divorced now mind you.

Emma from The Cheshire Wife loves her wedding ring.

Blimey we did our wedding on a budget so didn’t really get anything expensive, but the most expensive one which still makes me smile every day is my wedding ring. It reminds me of my husband & to stay strong when times are tough ( I’m quite ill at the moment)

Hollie from Thrifty Mum is another person saying shoes were a waste. Spotting a theme here!

 Waste of money was my shoes. They were beautiful but I had a full length dress on so no-one saw them and I changed into some £2 white lace ballet pumps for the evening anyway! Worth the expense was my dress as I’m hopefully going to and get a second use out of it with the help of a seamstress friend who will shorten it and add pockets. 

Kate from Refined Pose spent well on her outfit

All the beautiful food I had laid on for myself and the girls whilst getting ready was completely wasted – none of us had an appetite! My outfit was money well spent because I had brilliant comments and lovely compliments – and everything I was wearing came to around £400 I think! Not even because I was being frugal, it’s just what I happened to love. (I had a twenties theme, apart from my heels which were leopard print. My husband said they put him at ease when he saw them peeking out under my dress, because the incongruous quirkiness of them was so ‘me’, whereas everything else was very much ‘wedding’.) 

Faith from Much More With Less hired palm trees!

How’s this for random: we hired a couple of palm trees, and can safely say I don’t think anyone would have noticed if there weren’t there. We were trying to decorate a formal room in a Cuban theme, with a Cuban band who were amazing, plus big travel posters I still mean to put on our walls. I don’t regret those expenses – but palm trees? What was I thinking? I should have held out for the ice cream bicycle….

Penny from Penny Blogs made her own bouquet

My flowers were plastic ones from Hobbycraft that I made into a bouquet myself with a bit of ribbon from a local market stall. Whole thing under £20 including a buttonhole for my husband that I cut off one of the plastic flowers. 

Raimondo from Cosmo Mum had a wedding-moon

The money well spent was the fact that we went for wedding-moon in Bahamas just the two of us and so had a lovely wedding day at the beach and amazing holidays instead of entertaining friends and family for one day for the same cost. The money was wasted was on the photographer as he took some ridiculous photos! 

Thanks everyone for your comments, some common themes here. Don’t bother with favours or expensive shoes under your dress or for the evening. Take note if you are planning a wedding of where you can cut back on costs, some great ideas in here.