Anyone here got any tips for wedding budgeting?

wifey2be

Hello to all!

This is my 1st post so go easy on me.!

Me and my partner have just got engaged, sooooo excited! Getting hitched in June 2010. But the money side of it is really worrying me. Just want to have the best day possible without breaking the bank.

Thought maybe here rather than wedding forum would have more people who have already gone through the wedding experience.

Does anyone have any budgeting tips, where to get info, any great wedding freebies or advice? Its a minefield out there!

THanks xxxx

getmore4less

One way is to work out how much you can save by the date.

Then plan on how to spend it.

Catagorise all the items trade off items against each other if the total comes to more than you can save.

ailuro2

We went abroad to do it, because.....

No stress.

No spending a sum of money similar to a house deposit/year's salary to feed 90 family members I've not seen since I don't know when.

No need for a separate honeymoon - go get married wherever you want to honeymoon(it's called a weddingmoon)

No fights over who sits where, who goes in what car etc.

No less romantic , at least not for us - it was intimate, romantic, special and very sincere even though it was just the two of us.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you're after, but it's definitely a grand way to save a massive amount on your wedding.:p 8 years later I/We don't regret it, we're still very happy together when others we knew had a big wedding and have since separated.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Hi - CONGRATS!

Me and my OH getting married June 26th 2010 so i know how your feeling right now!

Theres a good board on moneysaving expert . .

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=142

theres a budget planner on there too

Hope this helps!

Me x

johncolescarr

This is going to sound really boring, but the most important thing when getting married is to do a budget. There are some good websites that do wedding budget planners, just ignore the advertising on them. You need to work out the cost of all the little things. I personally prefer doing my own spreadsheets (yes, I am a bit of a closet geek)

What me and my GF are doing is to pick 3 things that are really important to us, then get the rest for as little as possible, for me it was photos, rings and honeymoon, for her it was dress, photos and rings. We worked out how much we could save up (or what you may want to borrow, we dont want to borrow anything as we dont want to be paying off our wedding for the next 10 years!), that set our budget, then concentrated on getting what we wanted for our big 4, then keeping the rest as low as possible (I guess this is where the wedding forum comes it).

Also, dont be afraid of upsetting people. We can only afford to have 40 people to the day and 85 to the evening as we are paying it all ourselves, we were really worried that our families would get upset if we didnt invite them to the whole thing, but at the end of the day its your wedding and you have to pay for it!!

ClaireN75

Congratulations!

I'd agree with johncolescarr - decide what is going to be the most important things for you (food, drink and clothes for us) and plan to spend most of your budget there.

What I found most difficult about starting the budget planning was working out what a reasonable spend on thing would be. It's no good budgeting £100 for flowers when you've got your heart set on a big bouquet, flowers for wedding party, table settings, etc. as you simply won't find a florist to do it for that.

In the end we sorted out prices for venue, food, drink then divided up the rest based on what was left in the budget and simply looked for ways to do it for that price. Home made invites, cutting down on flowers, using my (big, black) car instead of a limo, printing our own orders of service, etc.

Don't forget to draw on friends for help where you can - we're getting discounts on our cake and flowers because they're friends of my Mum.

Try not to let the planning takeover your life though and keep reminding yourselves about your priorities for the day so you don't get carried away (money-wise) by the details.

And don't let your families push you into things you don't want - even the most well-meaning will at some point, although my Mum has finally conceded the point on both the limo & me wanting both Dad and her to walk me down the aisle!

Eydon

ClaireN75 wrote: »

And don't let your families push you into things you don't want - even the most well-meaning will at some point, although my Mum has finally conceded the point on both the limo & me wanting both Dad and her to walk me down the aisle!

A cracking piece of advice. It's your wedding, so should all be about you and what you want.

I also think that the idea of picking three things that are important to you is a good idea (although I disagree about the rings - once you've been married a few years, and you've been wearing it while washing up, gardening, cleaning the car, changing a few hundred nappies etc you'll never tell the difference ). Mine cost £90 and to be honest I'm glad I didn't spend more since one of the kids hid it and despite turning the house upside down it was never found.

Still on the subject of rings, I don't know where you're based, but places like the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham have an unbelievable selection and very reasonable prices. If you want to save money on rings but want gold go for 9ct because it's harder and will last longer. 24ct is too soft, and white gold will lose it's coating over time.

never-in-doubt

ailuro2 wrote: »

We went abroad to do it, because.....

No stress.

No spending a sum of money similar to a house deposit/year's salary to feed 90 family members I've not seen since I don't know when.

No need for a separate honeymoon - go get married wherever you want to honeymoon(it's called a weddingmoon)

No fights over who sits where, who goes in what car etc.

No less romantic , at least not for us - it was intimate, romantic, special and very sincere even though it was just the two of us.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you're after, but it's definitely a grand way to save a massive amount on your wedding.:p 8 years later I/We don't regret it, we're still very happy together when others we knew had a big wedding and have since separated.

You know what? You've just said the exact things we thought about a week after we spend £20k odd on our wedding only to watch family fighting, getting drunk and being slobs - at our expense! Its one of those tabo subjects but we worked it out and if we'd thought on, with us and the kids plus 8 close family members we could have all went to the caribbean and done it, and we'd be £5k odd better off.

Wish we'd done what you suggest (and done) - fair play to you. :T

wifey2be

Thanks all for the replies, dont think Ive ever been in this position where im so excited but so worried at the same time! x

wifey2be

mommyme wrote: »

Hi - CONGRATS!

Me and my OH getting married June 26th 2010 so i know how your feeling right now!

Theres a good board on moneysaving expert . .



theres a budget planner on there too

Hope this helps!

Me x

Thank you, will head on over there and check out the budget planner!

Huge congrats for your engagement, I'm sure June 2010 will be a fantastically sunny month!! x

Does anuyone know of any cool wedding freebies out there, or offers/comps I should know about? xx

wifey2be

johncolescarr wrote: »

This is going to sound really boring, but the most important thing when getting married is to do a budget. There are some good websites that do wedding budget planners, just ignore the advertising on them. You need to work out the cost of all the little things. I personally prefer doing my own spreadsheets (yes, I am a bit of a closet geek)

What me and my GF are doing is to pick 3 things that are really important to us, then get the rest for as little as possible, for me it was photos, rings and honeymoon, for her it was dress, photos and rings. We worked out how much we could save up (or what you may want to borrow, we dont want to borrow anything as we dont want to be paying off our wedding for the next 10 years!), that set our budget, then concentrated on getting what we wanted for our big 4, then keeping the rest as low as possible (I guess this is where the wedding forum comes it).

Also, dont be afraid of upsetting people. We can only afford to have 40 people to the day and 85 to the evening as we are paying it all ourselves, we were really worried that our families would get upset if we didnt invite them to the whole thing, but at the end of the day its your wedding and you have to pay for it!!

Thank you, Im not that great with spreadsheets to be honest... I will check out the budget planner on here, are there any others I can take a look at online?

I agree about borrowing, we dont want the worry of wedding debt hanging over our heads. Would much rather go short for a year xx