Newbie after some wedding help

kilted_barbarian

I am new to the forums here although I have been using moneysavingexpert for a while. If I have posted this in the wrong place, please can an administrator move it to the correct place? Thanks!

I am interested to know the experience of others on budgeting for their wedding? I am concerned that although we are at the early stages of planning, the budget is already very high despite saving a LOT of money on a few bits and pieces.

I have no idea how much to sensibly budget for flowers, dresses and suits, table decorations etc. We have booked our venue. At £8000 it isnt cheap, but that includes accommodation for all our guests, food, drink, and marriage as well as canapes and buffets. We will recoup some of the costs from the rooms, but even still we are looking at a bill for £7000.

The rest of the wedding, well we have budgeted a further £8000 for but is this realistic? I am so confused. On one hand I read the average cost of a wedding is £21,000 ( and this includes ring and honeymoon and like 100 guests, compared to our 30, no honeymoon and I have excluded the engagement ring - otherwise ours would be well over this figure!). Then I see programmes on the TV where people are organizing fantastic weddings for £12,000. It seems to me that decent advice is hard to come by.

I cannot seem to find any decent brochures for honeymoons, either in the travel agents or on the web. We want to chill out on a beach somewhere for a couple of weeks, and will probably look to spend around £3000 in total, but we want something special for that kind of money, and somewhere not in Europe!

Can anyone help?!?

chaosweddings

hi,

The best thing you can do is sit down and work out what you want for the wedding, what style, theme ect...

im a wedding planner and ive have organised beautiful weddings with budgets from £1000 up to £16K.

its your day

if you need any help feel free to private message me

Chaos

paddingtondoo

Mine cost around the 6k mark last August and at least half of that went on the hotel rooms and reception - I was amazed at how much all the little bits added up.

Have you posted on the Weddings forum? - am sure some of the BTBs on there would be able to give you a better idea of next years prices.

HTH and congratulations!

joolesw1972

Have a read on the weddings & anniversary boards - people have some great ideas & tips on how to save or get the most for your money. Lots of people have a fantastic day on a much lower budget than you're planning.
Our civil partnership will cost about £4,500. We're having the ceremony in a gorgeous (in my opinion!) golf club, then a 'nice' buffet meal for about 85 guests, we chose not to have a formal sit down meal as we want a fairly informal reception as well as it being cheaper! The other bonus is we don't have to do a seating plan! There are many ways to cut costs - decide what you need & what extras you can live without. Doing things yourself can also keep costs down, we're making our own invites, favours (flannel cupcakes!) & decorating the room ourselves(with help from friends), for example, I have bought balloon kits off ebay to do 3 balloons on each table & a balloon archway for £23 & a helium kit from asda for £20, if I'd paid for someone to make these I would have probably paid £120+
Good luck with your planning

frannyann

We set our budget first and then have worked from there. We set a budget of £3500, and have haggled hard. Got venue for £2077 from £2777 with haggling! Dress I am paying for separately as is OH with suits. So get quotes, check on here to see if they are fair and then be prepared to haggle a deal!

roxalana

It seems to me that you have most of the important aspects in the initial £8000. You have food, drink, ceremony and accommodation.

Write a list of the other things and put them in order of importance -you don't have to have everything on the weddings mags list - unless you want to and can afford to.

I don't really know what your financial situation is - only you will know what you can afford and also what you are prepared to spend on each item!

Remember that spending more doesn't necessarily mean a better outcome - some people get a bargain on a dress that they love and then worry it isn't special enough as they aren't spending close to the national average...

Have a think about whether you want a theme or a colour scheme and work from there. Take one item at a time and people on here can help you find the best deal for what you want - don't underestimate this forums ability to point people in the right direction of the best value butterfly shaped placecards!

If you really are a bit lost, it may be worth hiring a planner (though shop around) - although you are paying for their services I would expect a good planner to be able to get you lots of discounts (and if you don't personally like haggling it might be good to have someone to negotiate for you!).

From your post you are paying £8k for 30 guests so I imagine your venue is pretty nice - perhaps see if you can get them to provide decorations for you for free?

With your honeymoon, sit down with your OH and each write a list (with your fave at the top) of places you would like to go. Then any that match, check the price with a travel agent and read up on what it is like (i.e. will you be going at the best time to go, is it hurricane season etc).

If you find something you like, post on the travel board for advice (try the beat my quote thread) and check reviews on somewhere like trip advisor before booking.

Finally, and this is a bit off topic, but if you are spending those kinds of figures, please ensure you get wedding insurance and ensure you get contracts and receipts from your suppliers to prevent any misunderstandings about what you have paid for and what is included.

kilted_barbarian

Hi All,

I am really sorry, I lost this thread and am a bit silly - couldn't find it again!

Thank you for all your useful advice.

Just an update, we are now well on our way to planning, and I have broken down the budget into a lot of detail. This has helped enormously in getting pricing for everything. We are well on track and can afford the wedding by December, 6 months before the big day!

I will let you all know how it is going.

My only concern is we have not budgeted for the VAT increase, but I am hoping to have everything paid for in good time

frannyann

Hopefully most places will swallow the VAT rise rather than pass them on to you, to keep to their quoted prices. If they don't I would be prepared to haggle hard!