HOW DO I KEEP MY UK WEDDING COSTS DOWN?
SMART WAYS TO SAVE
UK Wedding Costs Have Risen by 34% Since 2021. Here's How to Keep Your UK Wedding Costs Down
If you're planning your wedding and wondering 'how do I keep my UK wedding costs down?' you're not alone...
The average cost of a UK wedding has jumped by a staggering 34% since 2021, climbing from £17,300 to £23,250 in just three years. From venue hire to catering and décor, prices have risen as suppliers
pass on their own rising costs. This leaves couples like you looking for smart, stylish ways to celebrate your wedding without overspending.
The good news? You CAN have a meaningful wedding day without breaking the bank. With a few creative choices like booking off-peak dates, shopping pre-loved, and supporting local suppliers, it's possible to save big while keeping your day personal, sustainable and memorable.
Book Smart: Save Money by Choosing an Off-Peak or Weekday Wedding date
One of the simplest ways to keep your UK wedding costs down is by rethinking when you get married. Venues and suppliers often charge premium prices for Saturday weddings between May and September, but if you can be flexible with your wedding date you can make big savings.
Booking your wedding date for a weekday or during off-peak months (think October - March) can reduce your venue and suppliers costs by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pounds. You'll often find that the most popular UK wedding venues and suppliers have more availability on those dates too.
For example, Cheshire venue Delamere Manor for a 2025 wedding package is priced at approximately £15,800 for a Saturday date during peak season, whereas for a Monday - Wednesday booking for the same season the cost is roughly £7,750, a saving of over £8,050!
Buy New, Pre-loved or Rent: Budget Friendly Wedding Dress Options in the UK
Your wedding dress doesn't need to cost a fortune to make you feel amazing! One of the most effective ways to keep wedding costs down in the UK is to look beyond traditional bridal boutique visits and explore more sustainable, budget friendly options.
I'd recommend sample sales as a good place to start shopping for your budget friendly wedding dress. This is where wedding dress shops sell off end of season and ex-display designer gowns at a fraction of their original price. These dresses are often in perfect condition and reduced significantly from the original price. By bookmarking the social media accounts of wedding dress shops that stock your favourite designs you'll be first in line for sample sale dates and the big bargains on offer, like Maria Modes in Macclesfield reducing the Pronovias Misti dress from the original selling price of £2,390 to £1,200 a saving of £1,190.
Another way to dramatically save on the cost of your wedding outfit, is to buy from boutiques and websites that sell once worn designs.
At Brides Dress Revisited 🔗 in Sevenoaks, Kent, they describe their boutique as: 'bursting at the seams with over 150 sample and secondhand wedding dresses from 50+ renowned designers, all at jaw-dropping discounts of up to 70% off.' Brides Dress Revisited emphasise that their offer is perfect 'if you're looking to reduce the carbon footprint of your wedding day or simply on the hunt for your dream dress on a budget.'
In North Yorkshire The Little Pearl Bridal Boutique 🔗 offers: 'a carefully curated collection of designer pre-loved wedding dresses featuring gowns from our past Pearls Girls and brides who would like to continue the love of their beautiful gowns.' Their pre-loved dresses range from £500-£2,000 and as they perfectly put it: 'By choosing pre-loved you are...contributing to a sustainable choice, embracing re-using, while having the most luxurious experience.'
Shopping pre-loved doesn't mean you compromising on luxury, but it does mean you saving over £2,000 on your wedding dress, while also protecting the planet. Big wins all round!
Finally, a smart way to significantly keep costs down whilst still securing the wedding dress, jumpsuit, or bridal separates of your dreams, is to rent. As well as being a 'cheaper than buying' way to wear a designer wedding dress, you also save on additional costs such as dry cleaning as most rental sites will clean the dress as a service included in your rental price.
Wedding dress rental sites such as Something Borrowed 🔗 and By Rotation 🔗 could see you seriously keeping wedding costs down for your UK wedding. For example, the gorgeous Vivienne Westwood Cocotte Wedding Dress retailing at £4,500 is available to rent from Something Borrowed 🔗 for just £800 for 4 days. That represents a saving of £3,700 - money that can be put aside for your honeymoon!
Save Big on Wedding Décor with Second-Hand Finds
A quick search of second-hand websites Vinted, Ebay, and Rock My Wedding - Recycle Your Wedding, reveals yet another way to keep your UK wedding costs down, by offering reduced prices on everything from second-hand dried flower vase centrepieces, second-hand neon light displays, second-hand tassel backdrops, and second-hand artificial floral displays.
With the choice and availability of high quality, stylish, wedding decor items, there really is no need to pay full price to have a beautifully and tastefully styled wedding venue whilst keeping the cost of your wedding down.
💡 Pro Tip: Join Facebook groups such as UK Bride or Wedding Items for Sale UK where couples sell once used décor for a fraction of the original cost.
Guest List Secrets: How to Keep Wedding Costs Down by Inviting Intentionally
When it comes to planning your UK wedding, one of the most effective ways of keeping your wedding costs down is by only inviting those people who are present in your lives to celebrate your love with you.
Bear in mind that every name on your guest list adds to your overall catering, seating and stationery expenses, so think about who truly matters to you as a couple. Who has been there for you when you've needed support, or guidance? Who do you always look forward to spending your spare time with? Who has championed your relationship with one another? The most simple rule of thumb is to only invite people to your wedding who you'd happily pay for dinner with in everyday life.
Smaller, more intimate weddings not only save you money but also create a warmer, more personal atmosphere where you get to spend more quality time on the day with your closest friends and family.
Sip, Save & Celebrate: Creative Wedding Bar Ideas to Keep Costs Down
The fact is that if you're are trying to keep costs down for your UK wedding, an open bar, assuming that this costs an average £50-90 per guest, will put serious strain on your budget. And with wedding planning forums and UK bridal surveys indicating that most guests expect to pay for their drinks at some point during the day, a simple "We'll provide wine with dinner, and there'll be a bar open later for those who'd like to keep celebrating" included in your wedding info, communicates your intention clearly and gently manages the expectation of your guests.
Another way to keep your guests feeling well looked after whilst avoiding an open bar is to either provide one gorgeously curated signature cocktail that perhaps says something about the two of you as a couple ahead of the paid bar, or provide each guest with one or two drinks tokens to cash in on the drink of their choice.
By carefully negotiating the issue of a free bar at your UK wedding you could save yourselves an impressive £3,000 - £5,500 for a wedding of 60 guests.
💡 Pro Tip: Check if your venue offers a BYO option and just pay corkage, often much cheaper than bar prices.
Use Local Suppliers to Cut Mileage and Delivery Costs
Choosing suppliers local to your wedding venue for your flowers, catering, hair and makeup and wedding photography represents a huge win for keeping your wedding costs down. Suppliers often charge for mileage beyond their immediate locality so by selecting professionals within a 10-15 mile radius can make a real difference to the final bill. As an example Sarah Meredith Bridal Hair and Makeup 🔗 in Cheshire includes travel costs in her packages up to a 20 mile radius of the SK12 postcode, with a charge of 50p a mile thereafter. And Macclesfield based wedding florist North and Flower 🔗 offers free delivery within a 5 mile radius as well as offering these money saving gems:
"I offer an option where couples can return vases to me themselves to avoid a collection fee."
"I also offer couples options to maximise the use of their wedding flowers, such as repurposing the ceremony flowers at the reception and advising couples on which of their installations can be moved and re-used."
💡 Pro Tip: Ask your venue if they have a list of recommended local suppliers, many do, and those suppliers have the added bonus of knowing the space they'll be working in, making set ups smoother, faster and cheaper.
Book Early to Avoid Last Minute Fees and Other Hidden Costs
When you're looking for ways to keep UK wedding costs down, one of the smartest moves you can make is to book your wedding suppliers well in advance. Many UK wedding services will charge premium prices if your order or booking is a 'rush' or 'last minute' order, so planning ahead can save you hundreds of pounds, and a lot of stress!
As an example, at Glorious by Heidi I will usually offer a 4-12 week lead time on your handcrafted wedding accessories. This allows time for me to order in components that I don't regularly keep in stock, use a standard price postal service, and work within my normal working hours to complete your order. However, if you require your wedding accessory in a hurry, I can usually accommodate your order but have to pass on the extra costs involved in next day delivery of materials, faster postal services and a premium for me working late into the night!
Likewise, leaving your order until last minute at most popular bridal boutiques could mean you having to pay express shipping fees of £150 - £300 or more to guarantee your dress arrives on time.
By securing your date early, ideally a year in advance, you'll not only lock in your prices before any annual increases, but you'll often be able to utilise payment plans spreading your payments and allowing more effective budgeting.
💡 Pro Tip: Most UK wedding dress and wedding accessory designers review their pricing annually, often increasing costs by 5-10% in January to reflect increases in their own business costs. Ordering your dress and wedding accessories before the new year can save you hundreds of pounds. Similarly, booking wedding photographers and venues before their price reviews at the end of the year, can help you lock in lower fees for the same premium services.
Sustainable Choices That Will Save You Money & the Planet!
Making sustainable choices for your wedding isn't just good for the planet, it's also a clever way to keep your wedding costs down.
By thinking mindfully about what you buy, and what you don't, you'll create a celebration that feels both beautiful and responsible.
Start with your wedding flowers. Choosing blooms that are in season and locally grown can cost up to 40% less than imported varieties whilst also reducing your carbon footprint. Speak to your florist about options like British grown Dahlias, Sweet Peas, Cosmos or Roses - an out-of-season peony in November can cost five times the price of an in-season one, so it really is worth taking the time to research those locally grown options.
Skip single use items such as single use flip flops or mass produced favours, these additions to your wedding day add unnecessary expense and end up in landfill after your wedding day. Instead hire tableware, signage and decor, or browse pre-loved wedding marketplaces on Facebook, Vinted and Ebay.
Opting for eco-conscious UK wedding suppliers, like caterers who source local produce, florists who use UK grown flowers, or stylists who re-use decor, will both keep your wedding budget down whilst being environmentally friendly. The result? A wedding that's kinder on your purse and the planet!
💡 Eco Tip: Check out local flower farms like Smokebush 🔗, North & Flower 🔗 and HOMEstead Grown 🔗, which offer seasonal blooms at lower prices than imported stems. For décor companies like Ink & Alder provide the opportunity to rent furniture, props, and table decor
Affordable Wedding Accessories That Will Have You Looking Glorious for Under £100
Planning a UK wedding while keeping costs down absolutely doesn't mean you have to sacrifice those Glorious finishing touches that bring your wedding day look to life.
Wedding accessories can be a cost effective way to elevate your bridal look, and if you choose the design carefully can be something you wear time and time again at Christmas parties, Black Tie events, and any occasion where you want to get dressed up, representing serious cost-per-wear value for money.
At Glorious by Heidi I believe that a luxury look is perfectly achievable without a budget busting price tag. That's why I've curated a collection of eye-catching wedding accessories all at £100 or less, designed to help you achieve a luxurious, high-end wedding day look while keeping your costs down. Each piece has been designed for when you're planning cover star worthy style, and handcrafted ethically and sustainably in my Cheshire studio.
Discover how to complete your look with stunning wedding accessories whilst keeping costs down in my blog article:
Realistically, How Much Could You Save on Your UK Wedding?
By following my tips and making smart, sustainable choices, you could dramatically cut the cost of your UK wedding without the need to sacrifice style, joy or meaning. In real terms, here's what those savings look like:
💒 Choose a week day or off peak date - Save £2,000 - £4,000
👰🏻 Buy pre-loved, in the sample sales, or rent your wedding outfit - Save £1,500 - £2,500
🎀 Source second hand décor and bridesmaids outfits - Save £700 - £800
👥 Trim your guest list - Save around £4,000
🍸 Ditch the full open bar - Save £1,200 - £1,700
🌸 Use local, seasonal flowers - Save £500 - £700
📍 Book local suppliers - Save £200 - £500
📆 Plan ahead to avoid last minute and rush fees - Save £200 - £800
Altogether you could save yourself between £10,000 - £15,000 by following my tips for cutting the cost of your UK wedding. That's 60% lower than the average UK wedding, but while keeping your budget down your celebration will still be meaningful. stylish and gloriously you!
