Save £7,000 by marrying in 2025 over marrying in 2027

Published by Martin Gover in Wedding Offers · Friday 14 Jun 2024
Tags: Last, Minute, Wedding, Package, Weddings, Packages, 2025

Someone has just asked me for the cheapest possible wedding in 2027! Even I was surprised at the saving made if they moved to a Friday in 2025.

I replied:

"2027 is far too far ahead for the deals. Deals are only on unsold dates in next 12 months. Which is still pretty good.

Just out of interest; I see ...... is a Friday. And your original enquiry was for 50 to 60 guests.

The minimum number for the Friday wedding package is 60 guests and in 2027 the cost for the Friday wedding package for 60 guests will be £10,280.

https://www.craigynoscastleweddings.com/wedding-package-cost-per-head.html

If though you wanted a deal, then you would go for any Friday in 2025. This would be about £7,000 cheaper as follows:

£7,000 – how can that be?

Well it is mad, but that is what you get when you go for the deals.

It also has to do with the 10% increments now being applied to rates for each year so the further ahead you go, the higher the tariff will be, as we have to allow for the increases in costs/ inflation which in hospitality are far higher - like in your average household – than the so called 10% inflation the Gov’t claims we had (still probably have really).

So let's count down how you get a £7,000 saving

– it is not some mad figure I just plucked out of the air but it really is incredible how it works!

1. 60 wedding guests Last Minute Wedding Package Option (A) (guests buying own table wine but includes the welcome drinks, three course wedding breakfast, evening buffet, exclusive use of venue, bridal suite, various decorative extras, canapes and Welsh cakes etc and is a good package overall at best value) on any Friday in 2025 = £5,760.00

2. June offer for viewings in June 2024 that book any wedding in 2025, is £500 towards wedding photography paid by venue. (To be replaced in July by a similar offer of £500 or more off Key Suppliers' rates)

3. June offer on Last Minute (may be removed or altered in July) = 50 free evening guests free, above the day number, so you could have 60 day and 50 extra in evening and still only pay £5,760.00.

4. Or you could go down towards 55 guests as that is your preferred number perhaps, as you said it was mid range between 50 – 60, there is a lower minimum guest number allowed on Last Minute, so 55 guests is £5,280 in 2025,

5. Then add your free evening extras up to 95 – saves another £1000 on the 50 extra Evening Buffets.

How you save £7k on a Friday in 2025 over a Friday in 2027

OK so there's slight difference in numbers - as there is a minimum of 60 on the Friday Wedding Package and 55 on the Last Minute using the upgrade offer from Intimate.

So on a Friday in 2025 you have £5,280 for 55 guests instead of £10,280 for a Friday in 2027 for 60 guests.

This is exactly £5,000 less (but 5 fewer guests).

Plus you save another £1,000 as above if you have 50 evening extras for the evening buffet - this is ONLY offered on Last Minute wedding package.

Then the wedding photography £500.

Total saving £6,500 so far.

But I said £7,000 –

That is because the extras you get with Last Minute compared to the Friday Wedding package include

Bridal Suite worth £150,
Canapes chefs selection of sweet canapes at £3 each worth £165 (at 55 guests)
Welsh Cakes worth £55 and

Some sundries on floral and free chair covers and bows and some other minor free elements in the last minute that are not on the Friday wedding package.

So all in all, if you want the cheapest possible wedding, you book now for a 2025 Friday, and you view in June 2024 to qualify for the current offers.

You have to book the viewing here as the form is coded to these offers: https://www.craigynoscastleweddings.com/book-a-viewing.html

These offers (as they are now) get withdrawn in 14 days. They are only there because we wish to secure a certain number of weddings booked for 2025 by end of June for our forecasting.

Won't there be offers just as good in 2027?

As for 2027, yes, nearer the time there will be offers on last minute then also, probably. But at least 20% higher than now and without some of the current added freebies, as if you apply the 10% increments in tariffs typically being applied to future years, even to the Last minute, the rates will be higher.

But that assumes there are last minute dates free, as by 2026 /7 the 'Covid Gap' will have closed.

We expect the current wedding gap (covid caused – no couples met up for two years) to close, and there will not be the same pattern of empty dates we are seeing in 2025, once you are into 2027.

So the moral of this is, book now to definitely save £7,000, or chance it for 2027 on last minute deal and hope you can get good deals then (less likely as wedding venue rates go up each year).

You certainly cannot book in advance anywhere at low rates for 2027 at the moment. It just won’t happen with venues increasing their rates to cover their costs.

So If I wanted the cheapest wedding, the time is now, for 2025, not 2027.

Of course you would save a bit more if you booked an unsold date in 2024, as you then get down to £4,785.00 for 55. But for 2024 the wedding Photographer offer does not apply. So it balances out.

Kind regards,

Martin Gover.

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