Introduction – Our Wedding Budget

When Mike and I began planning our wedding, we knew we wanted to get married in a sensible financial position. With so many choices to make, we focused on what was within our budget and what truly mattered to us. From our gorgeous venue in Bridgend to our custom wedding bands, every decision was made with a purpose. I’ve compiled this breakdown with a full list of the suppliers, why we chose them and our experiences.

As a disclaimer, we paid for everything to do with our wedding with our own money. All of my thoughts regarding suppliers are my own opinions and experiences – your experience may differ to mine. Also, please be kind as I appreciate that tastes in weddings can wildly differ so what we chose is unique to us, just as your choices are unique to you.

As a side note, where I’ve mentioned what each company/person offers, this is not an exhaustive list, only what I’m aware of or have experience with.

If you haven’t read all about what we did for our wedding, check out this post – it might add some context to the below.

Our Spending Overview

For this section on our budget, I won’t be sharing the exact total. Instead, I’ve detailed our spending as a percentage of our overall budget. This approach is designed to give you a clear, honest look at our financial priorities without inviting direct comparisons or judgement.

Notes on Spending Categories:

Cake: The percentage here is lower as a family member kindly covered the remaining cost after I paid the deposit.
Engagement Party: This includes the venue, food, decorations and the DJ.
First Dance: This relates to dance lessons.
Flowers: This includes my bridal bouquet, flower crown, corsage as well as bridesmaids corsages, Mike’s buttonhole and buttonholes for the groomsmen.
Glastonbury Outfit: This was for my dress and cape. Unfortunately, I had to omit my shoes as I cannot find the price I paid – they were <£30 though.
Handfasting Ceremony: This covers the ceremony itself, hoop, sword and cake and mead for guests who attended.
Honeymoon: We covered the deposit, insurance and some small extras such as choosing our plane seats – the rest of the costs were a kind gift from family.
Hotels: This was for our stays at the Travelodge, Crown Hotel and Hersonston Hotel.
Insurance: Wedding insurance policy – something we wouldn’t have been without, just in case something happened.
Legal Ceremony: Giving notice plus the costs associated with getting married at the register office.
Legal Day Outfit: My dress, shoes and alterations.
Legal Day Photography: Photography and videography plus an extra charge when we opted for the documentary cut of our video.
Legal Day Venue: Cobbles, including hiring the venue, DJ, food and drink.
Mike’s Glastonbury Outfit: This includes a shirt and new shoes for Mike – he chose to wear jeans he already owned.
Mike’s Legal Day Outfit: Mike’s suit.
Personal Care & Makeup: This covers my makeup for the day of Cobbles plus my nails beforehand.
Rings: The full cost of our rings (x3).
Stationary, Decor & Misc: Materials for creating save the dates and invitations, confetti, decor bits and bobs.

Limitations: I cannot guarantee that every last item is on here (e.g. small bits of makeup I purchased for Glastonbury) but this is my best guess!

Our Suppliers

Venue: Cobbles

• What they offer: A beautiful grade II listed barn venue perfect for intimate or moderate-sized weddings.
• Why we chose them: We loved the venue’s small size and rustic charm. It didn’t require much decorating, and they were one of the few places that catered to our smaller guest list.
• Our experience: The booking process was straightforward, and the food was amazing.

Photography & Videography: Amor Photographic and LS Films

• What they offer: Candid photography and videography with a light, airy aesthetic.
• Why we chose them: We connected with them instantly at a wedding fayre and loved their style.
• Our experience: We’re thrilled with our photos and wedding films, which was a highlight video and a full documentary cut.

Glastonbury Photographer: Mike Jefferies

• What they offer: Local landscape and event photography.
• Why we chose them: We loved his work and were lucky he agreed to help us out.
• Our experience: We love how relaxed and natural the photos look, as we didn’t want anything too posed.

Glastonbury Bridal Gown & Cape: Second Chance Bridal and Wed2B

• What they offer: Second-hand gowns and new bridal gowns and accessories respectively.
• Why we chose them: I knew I needed to stick to a budget when choosing my Glastonbury outfit, so I visited Wed2B to try on some gowns. When that didn’t work out (I only bought my cape there), I saw Second Chance Bridal on Facebook and thought it was worth a visit.
• Our experience: Wed2B wasn’t the place for me (I wasn’t allowed to browse any of the gowns, the shop assistant chose what I tried on and, as everything is ‘off the peg’ and tried on by many people, one of the dresses had an odour). I did really love the cape though and thought that the price was around average for bridalwear. Second Chance Bridal was great as the owner pulled out several gowns in my size that fitted what I was looking for. The price was an absolute steal given that my dress had only ever been used during a fashion show and fitted without major alterations.

Legal Marriage Gown: Cariad Bridal in Swansea

• What they offer: Bridal gowns with on-site alterations and storage.
• Why we chose them: The owner was knowledgeable and offered a full-service experience, including alterations (extra charge but at a set rate) and free storage. They are also insured.
• Our experience: My dress felt like a great deal, especially since I was able to customise one of the fabric layers. It fit perfectly on the day.

Suit: Slaters

• What they offer: Formal menswear
• Why we chose them: They have stores in both Swansea and Cardiff making them convenient for Mike to visit. They also offer free in-house alterations on your purchase.
• Our experience: Mike was able to choose from plenty of options (his groomsmen also got their outfits from Slaters), the salespeople were very knowledgeable, and the suits fitted perfectly.

Wedding Rings: Smooch

• What they offer: Customised wedding rings.
• Why we chose them: We had a negative experience with a high street jeweller and wanted a more personal approach.
• Our experience: We love our rings, which are customised to match my engagement ring and Mike’s to his personal style.

Cake: Ceri’s Cake Creations

• What they offer: Custom-designed wedding cakes.
• Why we chose them: She brought our long-held vision of a fondant fancy-style cake to life.
• Our experience: The cake was an absolute hit with our guests. It also tasted amazing.

Flowers: ELYN Boutique in Pontypridd

• What they offer: Artificial floral arrangements.
• Why we chose them: The flowers looked incredibly realistic, and I wanted to keep my bouquet as a memento.
• Our experience: The bouquet, flower crown, corsages and buttonholes were beautiful and perfectly matched our colours.

Makeup & Nails: Bleedinbeauty

• What they offer: Makeup artistry and nail services.
• Why we chose them: I’ve been a fan of her work for a while, and she’s a wonderful person.
• Our experience: My makeup looked amazing, matched the specifications we’d discussed and lasted all day and night. My nails also looked gorgeous, and Kay was able to creatively design them based on several different inspiration images on Pinterest.

Hair: The Hair Studio in Llantwit Major

• What they offer: Hair styling.
• Why we chose them: I’ve been a long-time customer and trust their stylists completely.
• Our experience: Both Amber and Danielle were able to create hairstyles that were exactly what I asked for. They also lasted really well.

Stag/Hen Do Activities: Celtic Country Sports

• What they offer: Airsoft, axe throwing and archery.
• Why we chose them: We wanted fun, memorable activities for our joint celebrations.
• Our experience: Airsoft was so much fun – we were all covered in bruises but, for me, that was all part of the experience. Axe throwing was more difficult than it looks, and archery was a nice way to slow down after running around during the airsoft. The location (Merthyr Mawr) was perfect for it as it’s all on sand as opposed to wet mud like many other locations for this type of activity.

DJ: Concept Executive DJ Service

• What they offer: Wedding DJ services.
• Why we chose them: Recommended by Cobbles.
• Our experience: He did a fantastic job, and the party was a blast.

Handfasting Ceremony: Georgina at Sunflower Healing

• What they offer: Handfasting ceremonies, various other types of ceremonies as well as spiritual courses.
• Why we chose them: We were looking for someone who was a specialist in handfasting ceremonies as well as local to the Glastonbury area.
• Our experience: The ceremony was beautiful and involved several elements (read more here) which really helped to deepen our experience. She was also very informative for guests who’d never seen a ceremony of this nature before.

Glastonbury Hotels: Travelodge and The Crown Hotel

• What they offer: Both are hotels in the Glastonbury area.
• Why we chose them: Convenient location in relation to our ceremony. We also wanted to treat ourselves to staying in The Crown Hotel the night of the ceremony.
• Our experience: Comfortable and clean at the Travelodge with convenient parking outside. We found the food at The Crown Hotel’s restaurant to be top quality. We stayed in the -very nice- “Bruce Springsteen” room which had a view over the town, and the breakfast was amazing.

Legal Wedding Day Hotel Stay: Heronston Hotel

• What they offer: The hotel offers a restaurant, spa, and pool. The rooms are also newly renovated.
• Why we chose them: We had been to the hotel several times in the past for afternoon tea or spa days, and it was close to our wedding venue, Cobbles.
• Our experience: Our room was really nice – modern with plenty of space. It photographed beautifully during the getting ready part of our wedding day. Unfortunately, we also experienced several issues during our stay at the Heronston which left us unable to recommend it in the future.

Glastonbury Sword Blacksmith: Sam Smith

• What they offer: Custom-made swords and other custom pieces. He also offers experience days.
• Why we chose them: Sam was more than happy to make a sword for us, and his pricing was very reasonable.
• Our experience: Sam brought our design ideas to life, and we would highly recommend him if you’re looking for a custom piece.

Confetti: Dollz Confetti

• What they offer: High-quality confetti.
• Why we chose them: I saw a Facebook advert and thought it looked lovely in photos (it’s specially designed for this).
• Our experience: The confetti looks amazing in photos, and the company is great at handling issues (we experienced a small problem with our order). Overall, I’d say to order more than you think just to make sure you have enough (we followed the site’s guidelines on amounts but could have benefited from some extra).

Legal Ceremony: Barry Register Office

• What they offer: A legal wedding ceremony.
• Why we chose them: Mike and I wanted to go to Barry as we felt Bridgend was a little too close to where we spend our day-to-day lives, and we wanted our wedding day to feel more unique. We chose the simplest of ceremonies as we did not have any guests in attendance for this.
• Our experience: The ceremony was a simple process at the council building. All of the staff were very friendly and helpful. Our photographer and videographer were our witnesses which was absolutely no problem with any of the staff.

First Dance Lessons: The Dance Centre

• What they offer: Dance classes for adults and children and private lessons for weddings.
• Why we chose them: We had taken Latin and ballroom classes here before and wanted to learn a “proper” dance for our wedding that was within our capabilities. They’re also local to us.
• Our experience: The Dance Centre was amazing at creating something we could easily get to grips with while still looking like we knew what we were doing. After practicing for months, we were so happy with how it turned out, and our guests thought it was really good too.

Wedding Fayres (In General)

• What they offer: A chance to meet various wedding suppliers.
• Why we chose to attend: We wanted to get a feel for what was available as well as build excitement about the wedding planning process. We attended 2 separate fayres.
• Our experience: We met our photographer, videographer, dress shop owner, flower provider and wedding ring supplier at these events. I personally feel you need to go into a wedding fayre with a good idea of budget and goals however, allowing emotions to run away with you could result in you not necessarily finding the right person for you at the right price point for your budget.

Engagement Party: Pen Y Bont Football Club & Bridgend DJ

• What they offer: A venue for parties and DJ services.
• Why we chose them: We wanted to come together to celebrate with a larger group than we were going to be able to host at the actual wedding.
• Our experience: We were able to come in early to decorate the room how we wanted, plenty of choice behind the bar at reasonable prices. The music was also spot on for our group.

Handfasting Hoop: NinaJane Floral Artist

• What they offer: Customised handfasting hoops.
• Why we chose them: Recommended by Georgina, who was leading our handfasting ceremony.
• Our experience: Nina created a beautiful hoop in the colours we chose that was perfect for our ceremony.

Conclusion

Every couple’s story and budget are unique, but we wanted to be as transparent as possible about our own choices and the businesses that made our day so special. If you have any questions about anything I’ve mentioned, I’d be happy to talk more in the comments!