Just Engaged
What a UK wedding actually costs, line by line
Most wedding budgets fail in the same place: not on the big obvious lines, which are researched carefully, but on the accumulation of medium ones that were each assumed to be small. A realistic budget starts from what things actually cost and how they split, not from a single headline total.
This page sets out both. What the published surveys say the average splits are, what individual lines cost from suppliers who publish their prices, and the specific lines that reliably overrun. Every figure below carries its source, because a budget built on guesses is a budget built to fail.
How the money actually splits
Two large UK surveys put the average spend in a similar place. Bridebook’s 2026 UK Wedding Report, drawn from around 7,000 couples, gives an average of £20,604 for the wedding day itself, excluding the honeymoon and the engagement ring. Hitched, in its 2026 Wedding Industry Report of just over 2,000 newlyweds, reports around £21,990, and an average spend of £272 per head. These are published, attributed figures, not our estimate, and the point of them is the shape rather than the exact number.
That shape is consistent. Venue and catering together take roughly half of the whole budget in the Bridebook data. Attire is close to a fifth. Photography and video together take about a tenth. Everything else, the flowers, the cake, the music, the stationery, the transport, the rings, competes for the remaining quarter or so. Understanding that before allocating anything stops the common error of funding the small lines generously and then finding the large ones underfunded.
| Line | Published average | Source | Captured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Venue hire, excluding catering | £6,040 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Reception catering | £5,406 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Evening catering | £2,002 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Dress | £1,532 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Videographer | £1,514 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Photographer | £1,484 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Décor | £1,404 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Florist | £1,187 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Reception music | £1,061 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Rings and jewellery | £1,057 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Transport | £593 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Stationery | £378 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Cake | £360 | Bridebook 2026 UK Wedding Report, National (UK-wide) | 11 Aug 2026 |
Every figure above is a price the supplier publishes openly on its own website, captured on the date shown. Published prices change, they often exclude VAT, delivery and setup, and they are not a quote. Treat them as a guide to the shape of the market, then confirm anything you are relying on directly with the supplier.
Sample: one published national survey, Bridebook’s 2026 UK Wedding Report of roughly 7,000 UK couples, captured August 2026. These are national averages, not a supplier quote, and regional spend varies widely.
What individual lines cost, from suppliers who publish
Averages hide as much as they show, so it helps to see real published prices from real suppliers across the country. The figures below are read from each supplier’s own price page. Note the region on each, because a London price and a North Wales price for the same thing are genuinely different markets, and note the VAT position, because it is stated on only some of them.
| What it buys | Published price | Source | Captured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Venue, exclusive use, peak Saturday | up to £6,750, inc VAT | Tower Hill Barns, Wales | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Venue, dry hire, exclusive use | from £6,450, plus VAT | Hedsor House, South East England | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Catering, three-course wedding breakfast, per head | from £67.50, inc VAT | Tower Hill Barns, Wales | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Photography, full-day coverage | £2,150, VAT not stated | Allister Freeman, South West England | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Reception disco, five hours | from £400, VAT not stated | Happy Sounds Mobile Disco, West Midlands | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Celebrant, wedding ceremony | from £1,300, VAT not stated | Bex The Celebrant, London | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Toastmaster, wedding | £450, VAT not stated | Toastmaster Bob Lloyd, East of England | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Cake, three to five tiers | £490 to £520, VAT not stated | Sarah’s Wedding Cakes, East of England | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Wedding car, classic, per car | from £350, VAT not stated | A.T Beauford Wedding Cars, London | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Wedding car, classic, per car | from £250, VAT not stated | Prestige and Classic Wedding Cars, East of England | 11 Aug 2026 |
Every figure above is a price the supplier publishes openly on its own website, captured on the date shown. Published prices change, they often exclude VAT, delivery and setup, and they are not a quote. Treat them as a guide to the shape of the market, then confirm anything you are relying on directly with the supplier.
Sample: 9 published supplier prices across Wales, South East England, South West England, the West Midlands, London and the East of England, captured August 2026.
The lines that reliably overrun
Some lines overrun far more predictably than others, and knowing which lets a couple build the contingency where it is actually needed rather than spreading it evenly.
Catering runs over most often, because the per-head figure quoted is rarely the per-head figure paid. Service, drinks, corkage, cake-cutting charges, staffing minimums and evening food are frequently separate lines added to a headline that looked complete. The guest list is the multiplier on all of it, which is why a small increase in numbers moves the total so much.
Flowers overrun because the brief expands. A quote for table arrangements becomes a quote that also includes the arch, the aisle, the top table and the buttonholes, each added reasonably, the total climbing quietly. The dress overruns through alterations, which are a separate cost from the gown and are routinely forgotten. And the small lines, favours, extra stationery, the odds and ends of the final weeks, overrun collectively because none of them is individually large enough to check.
The two lines that reward a contingency are catering and anything priced per head, because they carry the guest-list multiplier, and the total. A budget with ten per cent held back centrally, rather than allocated, absorbs the overruns that are effectively certain to happen somewhere.
Where you marry moves the numbers
The published averages are national, and the spread beneath them is wide. London and the South East sit well above the average on almost every line, while much of the North, Wales and Scotland sit below it for the same specification. A budget copied straight from a national figure will be too low in the South East and unnecessarily generous elsewhere, so treat the averages as a shape to adjust for your region, not a target to hit.
What actually makes the difference
- Allocating from the real split, not from enthusiasm. Venue and catering take about half, so fund them first and let the rest compete for what remains.
- Treating the guest number as the master dial. It multiplies every per-head line, so it changes the total more than any other single decision.
- Reading what a per-head price excludes. Service, drinks and evening food are frequently separate, so the quoted figure is rarely the paid one.
- Holding a central contingency. Ten per cent kept back, not allocated, absorbs the overruns that reliably land somewhere.
- Costing alterations and the extras as their own lines. The dress plus alterations, the flowers plus the buttonholes, so the small additions are seen rather than discovered.
Common mistakes
Building the budget from a headline total
A single big number gives no way to tell whether any line is funded correctly, so it hides the imbalance until it is too late.
Instead: build it line by line from the real split, then check the total, not the other way around.
Taking a per-head catering price as the full price
Drinks, service, corkage and evening food are often separate, so the plate price is a fraction of the catering line.
Instead: ask a caterer to quote the full per-head cost including everything, then multiply by the real headcount.
Forgetting the dress is not the only dress cost
Alterations, accessories and sometimes a second outfit are separate lines that the gown price does not include.
Instead: budget the gown, the alterations and the accessories as three lines, because they are three costs.
Spreading contingency evenly instead of holding it central
A little padding on every line disappears into each line and protects nothing when one big line overruns.
Instead: hold a single central contingency of about ten per cent and spend it against the overruns that actually happen.
Not writing down where the money went
Without a running tally the budget drifts, because each decision looks affordable in isolation while the total quietly climbs.
Instead: keep one live total that every booking updates, so the running figure is always visible.
Protect the total you have just built
A budget spread across a dozen suppliers is a large sum exposed to any one of them failing. Wedding insurance covers supplier failure, venue closure and the deposits at risk, and it costs a small fraction of the budget it protects.
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