Julia*, 30, from North East England, is an accounts assistant who earns £22k. She got engaged to her partner, with whom she has a young son, last September in Mallorca after almost five years together.
Julia and her fiancé originally considered a 2024 wedding to give them more time to plan and save up. But after being shocked by the high price of booking venues so far in advance, they decided to take advantage of a cheaper last-minute deal.
In April, they booked their wedding for this September. For £2.5k they got a package deal that includes their barn venue, a drink and buffet for 100 guests from 5pm on a Sunday. Their remaining £4.5k budget is going towards everything else, from the photographer to dress alterations.
Julia and her partner are using six Pots to save, with a different pot per supplier, and roundups. They’ve also taken on extra work and have made the tricky decision to sacrifice certain social plans to hit their savings goal.
Here, Julia shares how they’re managing their money to make their dream wedding happen.
“We saved £7.5k on the venue by booking it at short notice”
We looked at a few venues and were shocked by the prices – the first one we saw was about £20k just for the venue.
When we first looked at our venue, a pair of barns, we were quoted about £10k to get married there in 2024. It had everything we were looking for from a wedding venue but was more than what we wanted to pay.
Then they advertised a package deal for dates this year that was too good to turn down – £2.5k for the venue, food and a drink for 100 guests. The price difference was massive by booking it a couple of months in advance compared to a year or two in advance.
“We were hoping to keep the budget under £5k, but that wasn’t possible”
My aim was to spend £5k in total, but we’ve had to go to £7k for the wedding we wanted. I'm not happy about it, but I don't think £7k is too bad.
When I started looking properly everything was so much more expensive than I imagined.
I was being quoted £2k for a photographer, which was beyond our budget. And then dresses and kilts and rings and everything else adds up.
The photographer we chose will end up costing about £1k. We didn’t go for the cheapest option because I didn't want to get a really cheap photographer.
“I have six pots for the wedding – three in my personal Monzo and three in our joint account”
In my personal account I have Pots for things that mostly apply to me. There’s one for my hair and makeup, another for my bridal accessories, like my veil and dress alterations, and one for the photo booth. I was very specific about the photo booth I wanted so I said I’d pay for it.
I'm trying to put £50 a month into each Pot.
“The joint Pots are for our musician, my partner’s kilts, and the decor, flowers and cake”
The musician Pot is where our roundups go, so there’s not much money in there yet, just under £3. It’s got a stock party photo as the custom image.
We’ve got £215 in the Pot for my partner’s kilts so far. We're trying to put £100 a month into it because they’re the first payment that has to come out. It’s got an image of the kilt my partner and his groomsmen will be wearing.
We’re putting £10 a month into the Pot for the decor, cake and flowers, which has a custom image of the bouquet I want to get.
“Pots make saving seem less intimidating”
At the start of wedding planning I had a big spreadsheet where I just listed everything down. Seeing £7k as a savings goal was really scary. I couldn't work out how much money I needed to pay off for which things by just seeing the lump sum on the spreadsheet.
Knowing the smaller amounts we need to save makes them seem more achievable and makes me feel a lot better. I can hide them as well, once the Pots are full I’ll lock and hide them.
“Saving up is difficult because we booked so last minute”
We’ve had lots of other pre-agreed commitments to pay for first. We have three weddings this year, plus hen parties and holidays. These things we already had in the diary have hindered our ability to save.
“We’re turning down birthday parties and long-distance travel”
I recently turned 30 and lots of my friends are about to, but we've had to say sorry, we’re not coming because we can’t afford it.
We’re also having to turn down travel that involves any sort of distance. We’re not travelling to see family at the moment. We're having to say, ‘You're going to have to come to us, because we can't afford the petrol’.
“We’ve both taken on extra work for boost our savings”
My partner has started doing Uber delivery driving, so anything that comes from that goes straight into the wedding Pots.
I'm training to be an accountant and trying to take on other bookkeeping work. I'm also decluttering our house and selling things on Vinted and Facebook Marketplace, because our son has grown out of so many toys and clothes. That money will go straight into the musician Pot.
“If you’re planning a wedding at short notice, don’t panic”
It is doable. My advice would be to break your budget down into savings Pots or envelopes so you can see the smaller amounts you owe. And just save up for each thing individually.
It makes a huge difference, rather than having one big money Pot with a goal to save £7k.
“You don’t always have to spend thousands for the wedding you want”
Obviously if people want to spend £20k on a wedding, that’s up to them. But for people who are worried about getting married and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I've got to spend thousands of pounds,’ you don't have to. There are cheaper ways of doing things. You just have to look out for the right deals.
We still got our dream venue. Yes, we've had to rush and maybe compromise on some suppliers that we can't get at the moment. But we're still going to have the wedding we wanted.
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*We’ve changed her name.