With the average wedding costing around £17,800, it is vital for couples to sit down and work out a budget for their big day.

At least that is the advice of Francesca Moore of hitched.co.uk, who said that writing down a list of priorities will help brides-to-be calculate how they are going to fund an extravagant dress.

Couples may have to spend a little less on one aspect of the wedding, in order to afford their dream venue, for example, she said.

Although there are many cases where the bride's father follows tradition and pays for the big day, more couples are footing the bill themselves now, remarked Ms Moore.

She commented: "Some couples prefer to pay for their own wedding so they can do things their way, whereas if a set of parents were paying for the wedding it might not be as easy to dictate."

However, there are no fixed rules over who can pay, she added.

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