Setting your wedding budget

It is vitally important that you set a clear budget that you are comfortable with for your wedding from the outset. We understand that weddings are a huge financial and emotional commitment, so there is no sense in over stretching yourselves on an event that you simply can’t afford. We also understand that many couples have difficulty working out what is a reasonable budget to set without knowing the basic costs involved. Dry hire venues in London range from around £3000 - £18000+ to hire on a Saturday, and that is for an empty space. Catering, drinks, light & sound and live music will be the next major costs on your budget sheet. We’ll also need to hire every glass, every chair, every fork, every spoon. It is incredibly easy for the costs to spiral out of control without a set wedding budget.

An experienced wedding planner such as The Wedding Arrangers will advise you from the outset what it is reasonable to expect on your budget. We have the experience, knowledge, and industry relationships to arrange and advise on economical options for decor, hire and furnishings. We’ll help you avoid the pitfalls of wedding planning and provide a detailed budget break down, which we will update throughout the process. Working with the right wedding planner will save you both stress and money! Contact us today to discuss your plans for the perfect London dry hire wedding.

Fairy lights and rustic tables in Shoreditch
Brixton wedding photography
My partner Byron and I had a great experience working with the Wedding Arrangers, to plan our dream wedding. Using a dry-hire venue for a wedding can be daunting, but from day one they understood completely the unique look and vibe we wanted to create for our wedding - which made our life so easy! The Wedding Arrangers helped turn our vision of a botanical, exotic wedding (in London!) into reality, with lots of creative input (think botanical plants, palm-shaped lighting, a Cuban band.) Chris has lots of brilliant contacts and suppliers in the industry that we were able to make use of - especially in catering and wine. So many of our friends and family said that the food was the best they’ve ever tasted at a wedding, which we were so chuffed about! The Wedding Arrangers are so easy to work with, and offer a great service and value for money - we were able to relax and enjoy the process knowing our wedding was in good hands. We would highly recommend using the Wedding Arrangers to plan your wedding, if you want to create something unique and have fun along the way.
— Olivia & Byron, The Worx

The Wedding Arrangers fees

How much does a UK wedding planner cost?

You don’t need to be a millionaire to comfortably afford a London wedding planner. At The Wedding Arrangers, we do not add large flat fees or percentages to your budget. We’ll set up a free consultation to discuss your budget in detail, alongside your ideas for your perfect event. We’ll advise you from the outset of the kind of costs to expect, including the boring but unexpected ‘hidden’ ones associated with wedding costs. We’ll then build you a budget planner and, once that is signed off, we’ll present you with three or four menus from caterers that will work perfectly for you. 

We’ll then ask for an Administration Fee of 3% of your celebration budget (including venue - minimum fee £600 + VAT) to confirm our services. We will make an additional margin through our suppliers and the industry only discounts we are able to negotiate. You will pay the publicly listed fees on all goods, leaving a small percentage for ourselves. We charge industry standard prices for staff and your event manager (the same kind of prices as all caterers). In return, we work as your one-stop shop for every supplier we organise, and as coordinators for those you have booked directly. In other words, working with The Wedding Arrangers won’t cost you any more than if you had planned the wedding yourselves. We aim for our services to be more or less cost neutral, so that your money can go towards your wedding.

100 Barrington bride & groom

Coordination fees

Please contact us to discuss ‘on the day’ coordination fees. We only provide ‘on the day’ services where clients agree to the following:

  • a six-week event check - we’ll check through your hire sheets, timings, staff plans and supplier contracts. Where necessary, we will make adjustments and recommend alterations essential to the smooth running of your party

  • an advance site visit and walk through

  • allow The Wedding Arrangers to build and sign off your final schedule

  • allow The Wedding Arrangers to make contact with all your suppliers six weeks in advance 

  • staff on site (from either us or your caterer) to assist with set up and load out