Wedding packages: what wedding packages uk suppliers include, and when uk wedding packages beat a bespoke quote

What suppliers publish, and what they do not

How to compare two packages honestly

1. List what each package covers, in your words. Rewrite both offers as the same checklist. Suppliers do not use the same names for the same things, and the rewriting is where the gaps appear.
2. Price the gaps. Whatever one package includes and the other does not, get a figure for. That figure is the real difference between them.
3. Check the guest number the package assumes. Packages are quoted at a headcount. Above it you pay per head, and the per-head figure is often where the margin is.
4. Check what is fixed. Package menus, package hours and package supplier lists are often not negotiable. That is the trade for the price.

When a package is genuinely cheaper

Packages price the supplier's efficient case: a standard timeline, a familiar room, a menu they can buy for reliably and a guest count they have staffed for a hundred times. When your wedding fits that case, the discount is real and worth taking, and haggling the components apart usually costs you money rather than saving it.

The case turns the other way as soon as you want something the package did not anticipate. An outdoor ceremony, a dietary requirement across a third of the room, a later finish, or a supplier of your own instead of the package's, are all places where the package price stops applying and the supplier's bespoke rates start. Ask what happens to the price when you swap one element out, before you fall in love with the rest of it.

The lines packages commonly leave out

Drinks are the first. A package that includes a meal frequently prices wine, the toast and the evening bar separately, and corkage rules decide whether you can buy them anywhere else. The second is the evening food, which is a separate order at a separate per-head figure almost everywhere.

The third is anything that has to be there before you are: ceremony chairs moved to the reception room, a coordinator on the day, and setup and clear-down time. British packages often name these explicitly and American ones often do not, which is one reason the same words describe different amounts of work in the two markets.

Questions organisers ask before they book

Are wedding packages cheaper than booking suppliers yourself?

They are when your wedding fits the shape the package was priced for, and they stop being when you start replacing parts of it. Price the swaps you actually want before deciding.

Can I use my own supplier inside a package?

Sometimes, sometimes at a fee, and sometimes not at all where a venue has an exclusive list. Ask early, because it changes which venues are worth visiting.

What is a minimum spend?

A figure the venue requires you to reach across the whole booking, common on popular dates. It is not a price for anything: it is a floor, and you can usually choose how to reach it.

Do packages cost more on a Saturday?

Almost always, and the same package is often materially cheaper midweek or out of season. If your date is movable, ask for the package price on three different days before you pick one.

What this costs where you are marrying

• What a wedding costs in the UK, from published supplier prices