Wedding On a Budget-Under £10,000 in London

Planning a wedding can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to stick to a budget. I hope this guide helps you plan a wedding that feels beautiful without spending more than you’re comfortable with.

Our wedding cost around £10,000, and that included the ceremony, reception, food, photography, flowers, outfits, accommodation, a ten-day honeymoon and even our spending money while we were away.

We were married in a beautiful London town hall before celebrating with family in an Irish gastropub over a hot buffet, wedding cake, sweetie jars, toys for the children and a relaxed party. Afterwards, we escaped to one of our favourite destinations, the Canary Islands.

The key to making it all work wasn’t cutting every possible cost. It was balancing our priorities. We spent more on the things that meant the most to us and found sensible savings everywhere else.

If you’re planning a wedding and want to keep your budget under control, I hope this guide gives you practical ideas and the confidence to create a day you’ll love without starting married life in unnecessary debt.

At the end of this article you’ll also be able to download a free Wedding Budget Planner to help you build your own budget, so don’t forget to grab your copy before you leave.

Our £10,000 Wedding Budget

Every couple will spend differently, but this gives you an idea of how a realistic UK wedding budget can be allocated. Remember, this isn’t a template that you have to copy. It’s simply an example of how we balanced a £10,000 wedding budget by deciding what mattered most and adjusting everything else around those priorities.

You’ll notice that we spent more in some areas than others. That wasn’t an accident. Every wedding budget involves compromise, and we always tried to ask ourselves one simple question:

Will we still be glad we spent this money in ten years’ time?

That one question stopped us making emotional purchases simply because they were considered traditional. Instead, we focused on building a wedding that reflected our priorities rather than other people’s expectations.

1. Decide What Matters Most Early On

Before booking anything, choose three or four things that are genuinely important to you. For us, those priorities included:

• A beautiful ceremony.
• Feeding our guests well.
• A relaxing honeymoon.
• Professional photographs.
• Professional hair for me and my bridesmaids.
• A wedding dress that I truly loved.
• Choosing a school holiday date so our family could attend more easily.

Everything else became negotiable after that. Trying to include absolutely everything is what usually pushes a wedding over budget.

2. Choose a Ceremony You’ll Remember

The ceremony is the heart of the day. If you’ve always dreamed of getting married somewhere special, don’t automatically rule it out because it costs a little more.

We chose to spend more on our ceremony venue because it was one of the most important parts of the day for us. We also chose a summer date because it made it much easier for our family to attend with children.

Those decisions increased our costs, but they were worth every penny. We were able to celebrate with the people who mattered most to us in a beautiful location that gave us photographs we’ll treasure forever.

Looking back, I’d make exactly the same decision again.

3. Reception Venue 

One of our biggest savings came from our reception venue. Rather than paying to hire a venue, we chose a gastro pub where the venue itself was free of charge. The only requirement was that we met a minimum spend on the food, which the venue prepared for us. There was no minimum spend behind the bar, allowing guests to simply buy drinks as and when they wanted them.

This is well worth asking about when you’re viewing venues. Smaller pubs, restaurants and independent venues can sometimes offer much better value than traditional wedding venues, particularly if you’re planning a smaller wedding.

When comparing venues, ask questions such as:

• Is there a room hire fee?
• Is there a minimum food spend?
• Is there a minimum drinks spend?
• Are there quieter days of the week that cost less?
• Can we decorate the room ourselves?
• Can we use your sound system?
• What’s the rules with children?

Don’t assume every venue follows the traditional wedding pricing model. You may be surprised by the options available once you start asking the right questions. We were able to go in the night before and drop off our helium balloons, our cakes, and our decorations. The venue owners were so helpful and assisted us in decorating when they really didn’t have to. 

4. Sit Down Meal Vs Buffet

If there’s one thing guests are likely to remember, it’s the food. We decided early on that feeding everyone well was one of our priorities, so we were happy to allocate a larger part of our budget to it. Rather than choosing a formal sit-down meal, we opted for a generous hot buffet. It gave everyone plenty of choice, from guests who wanted a full plated meal to those who preferred lighter buffet favourites. It also created a much more relaxed atmosphere, with people eating when they were ready and chatting between courses rather than sitting through a formal meal.

Our food and drinks came to around **£2,700** not including drinks that were bought in rounds later into the night when many had gone home already, making it one of the largest areas of our budget. Looking back, it was money well spent. Weddings are long days, and making sure your guests are well fed is something people genuinely appreciate.

A buffet isn’t the only affordable option. Depending on the style of wedding you’re planning, you could also consider:

• Afternoon tea
• Grazing tables
• BBQs
• Hog roasts
• Pizza ovens
• Street food vans
• Sharing platters
• Brunch

Choose the style of food that suits your wedding rather than simply following tradition. You’ll often save money while creating a more relaxed and memorable atmosphere.

5.Spend Less on the Things That Don’t Matter to You

One of the easiest ways to stay within your wedding budget is to decide which traditions simply aren’t important to you. Weddings often come with a long list of expected extras, but not every couple wants or needs them. We chose to save money in several areas, by excluding these in the traditional format

• Luxury wedding cars 
• Live musicians 
• Expensive wedding favours 
• Fresh flowers 
• An elaborate designer wedding cake 

Instead, we used taxis and even London buses to get around the city. Our reception venue already had a sound system, and later in the evening there was a live Irish music session, so there was no need to pay for additional entertainment.

Rather than traditional favours, we created a generous sweetie table using vintage-style jars and paper bags for guests to fill themselves. We chose beautiful artificial flowers, which looked stunning in our photographs and could be kept afterwards, and we ordered the popular M&S Naked Wedding Cake, which looked elegant once decorated.

Looking back, I genuinely believe these decisions saved us several thousand pounds without making the day feel like we’d compromised. In fact, many of our guests probably wouldn’t have realised we’d chosen the budget-friendly option.

The money we saved allowed us to spend more on the things that mattered most to us, including our honeymoon and making sure our guests were well fed.

6.Hair, Makeup and Beauty

Hair and beauty costs can quickly increase once the word “wedding” is mentioned, but there are plenty of ways to keep these costs under control without sacrificing the finished look.

Some ideas include:

• Using a talented local hairdresser.
• Booking someone who is building their wedding portfolio.
• Asking a trusted friend or family member if they have the right skills.
• Doing your own makeup if that’s something you’re confident with.                               

I was incredibly fortunate to have two beauticians in my family who gifted their services as our wedding presents. They took care of my nails, eyebrows, eyelashes and makeup, and I bought each of them a thank-you gift to show my appreciation.

For my hair, I chose my regular local hairdresser. She wasn’t a wedding specialist, but she was excellent at creating elegant updos. After a trial appointment and looking through her social media pages, I felt completely confident booking her. Best of all, she charged her normal salon prices rather than specialist bridal prices.

I did treat myself to a proper spray tan with my regular lady here at home before we went to London. Nothing like a spray tan to make you feel fab in my opinion.

Those simple decisions helped keep our hair and beauty costs to around £190, proving that you don’t always need premium wedding packages to look and feel amazing on your big day.

Finding the Perfect Wedding Dress

Wedding dresses are available at almost every price point, so don’t assume you need to spend thousands of pounds to find one you love.

It’s worth looking at:

• Online bridal retailers.
• Bridal outlet stores.
• Charity shops.
• Sample sales.
• Second-hand wedding dresses.
• High street bridal collections.

My own dress cost around £200, and I absolutely loved it. I bought it from JJ’s House using their home try-on service, which allowed me to have up to three dresses sent to my home for a small fee. It’s also worth keeping an eye out for discount codes, as they regularly run offers.

I’d already decided I wanted a 1950s-style tea dress, so I wasn’t distracted by hundreds of different styles. The moment I saw my dress online, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for.

Looking back, I wouldn’t change it for anything. It was comfortable, suited my personality perfectly and made me feel wonderful on the day. It proved to me that a beautiful wedding dress doesn’t have to come with a designer price tag.

My dress, shoes and accessories, along with my husband’s suit, shoes and accessories, came to around £500 altogether.

Don’t Forget the Costs Around the Wedding

When you’re putting together your wedding budget, it’s easy to focus on the big-ticket items such as the venue, food and photography. However, it’s often the smaller costs before and after the wedding that catch couples by surprise.

Building these into your budget from the start can help you avoid unnecessary stress later on.

Accommodation

As we were getting married in London, we decided to stay there for a couple of nights before the wedding. We booked an Airbnb and did a supermarket food shop as soon as we arrived.

Having breakfasts, sandwiches, drinks and snacks ready to go meant we weren’t constantly buying expensive meals while we were busy meeting family, decorating the venue and making final preparations. It also gave us somewhere comfortable to relax before the big day.

Sometimes it’s the simplest decisions that save both money and stress.

Honeymoon

We also made sure to budget properly for our honeymoon rather than just paying for the holiday itself. As well as the flights and all inclusive accommodation, we included money for:

• Airport meals.
• Taxis.
• Excursions.
• Drinks and treats.
• Spending money.

Setting this money aside in advance meant we could completely relax once we arrived. We weren’t worrying about every coffee or meal because we’d already planned for those costs.

Our honeymoon and spending money came to around £3,500 in total, and because we’d budgeted for it from the beginning, it felt like part of the celebration rather than an unexpected expense.

Final Thoughts

For us a wedding on a budget meant choosing a beautiful ceremony venue, making sure our guests were well fed and enjoying a relaxing honeymoon afterwards. We happily spent less on the things that simply weren’t as important to us such as expensive flowers or decorations. I DIY’d all our decorations and even did our own helium balloon bunches. Your priorities may be completely different, and that’s exactly how it should be.

The best wedding budgets aren’t about copying someone else’s spending. They’re about creating a day that reflects your relationship, your values and what you can comfortably afford. Before you go, don’t forget to download your free Wedding Budget Planner. It will help you build your own budget, compare quotes, keep track of your spending and stay organised from your first booking right through to your wedding day.

I hope your wedding is everything you’ve dreamed of and that this guide has shown you that a beautiful, memorable wedding doesn’t have to cost a fortune.