Wedding budget
About £14,500 at classic level, outside the big cities and out of peak season (April, May, October): allow £12,300 to £16,700. That is £483 per guest, fixed costs included.
The maths, plainly
£14,500for 30 guests, classic level
Outside the big cities, in April, May or October.
| Level | Likely budget | Range (± 15%) | Per guest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | £7,800 | £6,600 – £8,900 | £258 |
| Classic | £14,500 | £12,300 – £16,700 | £483 |
| Luxury | £29,700 | £25,300 – £34,200 | £991 |
Classic level. Outfits, rings and hair and make-up don’t move with region or season.
| Region | November to March | April, May, October | June to September |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elsewhere in the UK | £13,200 | £14,500 | £15,800 |
| A big city | £13,900 | £15,300 | £16,700 |
| South East | £14,700 | £16,200 | £17,700 |
| London | £15,800 | £17,400 | £19,100 |
Classic level, outside the big cities, April to October.
| Line | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Venue hire | £3,300 | 23% |
| Catering | £2,000 | 14% |
| Photo and video | £1,900 | 13% |
| Outfits | £1,900 | 13% |
| Rings | £1,200 | 9% |
| Flowers and décor | £1,200 | 8% |
| Music | £1,000 | 7% |
| Everything else | £900 | 6% |
| Drinks | £500 | 4% |
| Hair and make-up | £500 | 3% |
| Stationery | £100 | 1% |
Compare
For 30 guests, 19% of the budget depends on the number of people: catering, drinks, décor, stationery. The rest, meaning the venue, photography, outfits, music and rings, costs the same for 30 guests or 200.
Cutting ten guests saves about £900. Adding ten costs the same: £93 per person at classic level.
At this size, the venue weighs almost as much as the meal. Hiring a restaurant, a small hall or a country house for the weekend avoids paying for a barn built for two hundred.
Classic level, outside the big cities.
| Guests | Classic | Per guest | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | £14,500 | £483 | |
| 50 | £16,400 | £327 | See the detail |
| 80 | £19,100 | £239 | See the detail |
| 100 | £21,000 | £210 | See the detail |
| 120 | £22,800 | £190 | See the detail |
| 150 | £25,600 | £171 | See the detail |
| 200 | £30,200 | £151 | See the detail |
Frequently asked questions
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Where the figures come from
Each line is a cost per guest plus a fixed cost, by level, then adjusted by a region and season coefficient (outfits, rings and hair and make-up are excluded). Calibrated on published sector averages and expressed in pounds, rounded to the nearest hundred. Updated September 2026.
Redo the calculation with your own settingsOur editorial policyAll budgets
About £19,100 for eighty guests at a classic level, outside London and out of peak season (£16,300 to £22,000). But the average doesn’t tell you much: what matters is knowing which levers move the bill, and which ones nobody will notice.
On a small budget, pick the three or four decisions that weigh the most and leave alone the ones that show.
The price per person is only half the answer. The other half is what isn’t in it: service, tableware, drinks, staff, overtime. Here is how to read and compare three quotes.
On your Weddtap page, the budget fills in as the quotes come in: what’s planned, what’s paid, what’s left. You see the gap instead of discovering it.
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