Ten months and only £1000 for my wedding venue and food. How can I do it?

Horace

You have said that you cannot compromise on the band - my suggestion would be to have a smaller one instead or as someone else has suggested ask friends to play.

As you have only £1000 for food, drink and venue then I would suggest that you severely cut back on your guest list. To talk about 200 bottles of wine is nonsense - you wont need that many especially when you can get 6 small wine glasses out of one bottle. You also need to decide on whether or not you want a sit down meal or a buffet.

Look on https://www.venues.org.uk - they have 28 venues listed for SW London.

Your best bet would be to maybe get married in a registry office and have the reception elsewhere as others have suggested - try looking at council-run places as these are often cheaper.

You need to sit down with H2B and have a serious chat about money and who is going to pay for everything it cannot fall solely on your shoulders.

glitterycloud

I think you really need to think about your wedding plans, how many people are you thinking of inviting to the wedding meal? Have you found out how much it will all cost per head? If you have it in a pub will you be paying for everyones meal or will guests pay for themselves?
To pay for 2k for a big band in a pub sounds a little bit excessive, but if it makes your day

It sounds like you need to make a realistic list of what you need/want for your wedding as i agree 200 bottles of wine seems an awful amount of alcohol, even if you invited 200 people thats a bottle each.

Take the time to write down what it is you really want as you only have one wedding day, will it be everything you had wished for as a girl?

Take time to research registry offices, pubs, food cost per head, then and only then can you decide how much money is to be spent on what for. If your food budget is too much then cut down your invites, change the type of food you serve, could the pub lay on a buffet instead of a sit down meal?
I find this way you work with a budget that can be manipulated up and down. Once you know the costs then you can decide how your day will be.

Good luck with it and i hope the big band are worth the 2k.

Krystaltips

Can I just say, purplefiona came on here to ask about how to do a wedding on a budget of £1000 and a few people on this board feel it's ok to criticise the financial arrangements she has with her fiancé. My OH has put in about 80% of our wedding budget because his incomings are considerably more than mine and his outgoings are considerably less than mine. He is quite happy with this arrangement and so am I. If purplefiona is happy with the way they manage she and her OH manage their finaces together then it is nobody elses business or place to pass judgement.

I can't help with the food and drink side of things because we're haivng a hotel package which is costing about the full amount of your budget... But for decorations and bits and bobs, eBay is fantastic (if you flog stuff first and build up a paypal balance it offsets what you're buying so things feel even cheaper!) and check out the end of season sales, eg we're coming to the end of the retail summer season now so there will be plenty of bargains to be had!

Francesanne

purplefiona wrote: »

Ten months and the budget from hell. I have £2000 to pay for the band- my fianc! is a jazz musician and composer and he is writing all the music for me, and arranging and rehearsing a big band of pro musicians, which is no mean feat and not cheap. I have to do the rest for £1000, as £3000 is the most realistic amount I can think of being able to save in the time, at the same time as paying off my debts at a sensible rate to keep me sane. I'm paying as I'm the one who is earning. Dress, cake, flowers and invitations are taken care of by the families. I have to fit a venue and food for 200 guests (I'm not kidding- we have a lot of friends) into £1000 and I know it just won't go! Added to that, the jewellery for me and the bridesmaids, though it will all be made by a friend, will be at least £100 worth of swarovski beads. I am a jeweller and I want it to be nice quality- same as the jazz.
I got my (purple) dress for £67 from ebay and I'm absolutely not a snob- I'll scrimp wherever I can- please help! Even the registry office will cost a bomb!

Why not elope and save yourself a small fortune. We had a registry office wedding with family & close friends. My Mum & Nana provided the food. We had a wonderful wedding and on a shoestring. I can't believe you're spending £2,000 on a band. I can easily think of better ways of spending so much money ie the honeymoon for one.

sooz

purplefiona wrote: »

And I've just found crossings for £20 here on day-tripper
http://www.day-tripper.net/ferrypandoferrycheapticket.html

because I can't spend £400... if each bottle is about £2 thats 200 bottles of wine... hang on.. crumbs perhaps thats about right!!! Well it will be 100 bottles maybe and some loss-leading fruit juices and french squash...

sorry, majestic was the first that came to mind. Oddbins next door only want a £250 pre-order http://www.oddbins-calais.com/ferryOffer/ . Try searching the other booze sheds, they all have different offers.

jumb1e

Okay babes, first stop - don't compare what you will be providing to other people's weddings. Just because other weddings that you've been to have had free booze flowing all night doesn't mean that you have to do the same. Some of the best weddings that I've been to have been where friends have done things because it's what they can afford, and is appropriate for them, and it makes the wedding stand out in memories a whole lot more. Bottle of white and bottle of red on each table is more than enough. It does even out. Sure have more available for people to buy if they want it. Oooh I think tesco may still do a kind of sale or return thing on unopened wine (and they didn't make dad give his points back when we got married!)

Food wise, work out what you want to do - I presume a fork or finger buffet? and then ask your mates who can cook to make some of it. It's what 's done at parties, isn't it? and what is a wedding but a great big party! Just tell them you don't expect any presents but they can do this for you instead. And same with others but get them to club together to organise a keg or too of beer.

purplefiona

Thanks everyone for your wonderful advice. I have sat down and had a chat with my lovely jazz boy and we have both chilled out about the 2k band. Its totally impossible to afford it, not fair on me, the whole point is about us two being together not about a flashy do, and we need to pay for a venue etc first anyway.

Most importantly, we've come up with a better idea that might appeal to similar creative couples out there too. Because the whole point of having a big band on the big day was because he wanted to show how much he loved me using his skills- writing music- I suggested that we made a wedding album together: I'll take/paint pictures and design the cover, and maybe write a few lyrics, he will write the music, arrange rehearse and perform it with his friends in their band, the Underdog Ensemble, though they will be called something else for this album. Then he suggested that he writes music for each of a set of ten pieces of art done by me. How romantic is that!!

It costs a lot in studio time to record an album, and I'll need paint and film etc, but theres what we'll ask for on our wedding list, and save for, too. So that at the end we have something lasting for all the money, and so that its equal on both sides- we both put money and creativity into it. And love.
And all the bridesmaids etc can have copies. Talk about hand made gift! He's writing the music for it now to a fisheye photo I took of Brick Lane.....and I'm painting the second picture when I get paid.

We're also planning on buying a rose tree/bush to plant and use the roses from it for buttonholes, so we can keep it afterwards.

You will see me around on the forum burbling on about almonds and ribbons etc in the next few months, but the panic is over, thank goodness!

brownbabygirl

Thanks so much for the update. Sounds really good. Well done!

purplefiona

jumb1e wrote: »

Okay babes, first stop - don't compare what you will be providing to other people's weddings. Just because other weddings that you've been to have had free booze flowing all night doesn't mean that you have to do the same. Some of the best weddings that I've been to have been where friends have done things because it's what they can afford, and is appropriate for them, and it makes the wedding stand out in memories a whole lot more. Bottle of white and bottle of red on each table is more than enough. It does even out. Sure have more available for people to buy if they want it. Oooh I think tesco may still do a kind of sale or return thing on unopened wine (and they didn't make dad give his points back when we got married!)

Food wise, work out what you want to do - I presume a fork or finger buffet? and then ask your mates who can cook to make some of it. It's what 's done at parties, isn't it? and what is a wedding but a great big party! Just tell them you don't expect any presents but they can do this for you instead. And same with others but get them to club together to organise a keg or too of beer.

Thanks for that! I'm thinking of self catering, possibly in that style, but I must say laying on a cheap buffet in a pub is rather appealing, I'm looking in Ealing at the moment, maybe Town Hall then large pub- Ealing is not short of pubs- and without the pressure of laying on the big band its all a LOT more relaxed. And I know exactly who is going to lay on the beer!! Its on my wedding list already!

purplefiona

sooz wrote: »

sorry, majestic was the first that came to mind. Oddbins next door only want a £250 pre-order http://www.oddbins-calais.com/ferryOffer/ . Try searching the other booze sheds, they all have different offers.

Ah yes! by the way- I have been advised that a more local wine shop in France might be lots cheaper still than Oddbins, when I find it I'll post a link to where it is. Though Oddbins is jolly appealing because I can pop into one in the UK to pick up a few wines to try in advance of the big day.