The Wedding Planner in Nepal!

Lara44

Hey Bails!!!

Nice shiny new thread, it's so exciting planning stuff. We got engaged in April and are hoping to get married in August next year. But having applied for the shared ownership house I am not sure if we'll have enough cash. So we might wait until we hear if the offer is on and take another look in the next few weeks.

We have got a small budget (for London anyway) of £5000 - £7000, I know how much more that would buy in other places, but it seemed right to get married where we live.

So far I have looked at hundreds of venues online, almost all of them I couldn't afford. (We chose not to have a hotel wedding because I worked in a hotel doing functions for years as a teenager). So I looked first at charities and also local halls, which were much much better. Your marquee sounds great - I love that idea.

At the moment I think we have both set our hearts on a big artists studio, and we have got reasonable quotes from a caterer, cheap but great hotel 2 minutes away for all the relatives. We are feeling a bit stumped about the table and chairs, as we hadn't wanted to do DIY, but managed services seem so expensive.

We are lucky as OH is a designer so can do the invites, I have a florist friend, we are chossing to leave out a lot of the bits like favours to keep costs down. I haven't been shopping for any dresses or anything like that so it's going to be exciting when (if) we get the venue booked!

Looking forward to hearing all your plans x

funky_snow

Congrats...
Just wanted to tell you about one of the best weddings I went to... The couple didn't have much cash but everyones presents were a gift for the wedding. e.g. someone bought the cake, someone else loaned a car, someone else decorated the tables, someone else sorted the dj...

It wasn't the most co-ordinated of weddings where everything is a perfect match - but do you know what - its one of the best I've ever been to. Because there had been involvement from most of the guests in the planning - everyone was really involved and proud to have helped make it happen.

If you're not too much of a 'control freak' then arrange for responsibility for different bits to be given out. Trust me - the effort friends and family will go to, to make sure the bit that they are doing is fantastic - will mean you have a lovely wedding and probably some lovely surprises as to how it turns out!
(Although I guess prerequisite for this is that you trust your family and friends taste!!!!)

Elfinwings

Hi Bails,

It sounds to me as though you will be very well organised despite being on the other side of the world, what a lot you have managed to do already!

Well done, enjoy every moment of it, I intend to :T

Elfin. x

bails

Hi everyone! Thanks to CMD, Dinah, Tete, kelda, PepPop, Lara, Funky_Snow and Elfin for popping in to say Hello and posting! :T

Thanks for the tip Dinah, will check Etsy out.

Yes, next year Tete I'm quite enjoying it all at the mo and just keep refocusing on why we're doing it; I can't help bu be happy then

Thanks for the support Kelda, PepPop and Elfin, glad you think I'm doing well with the organising - I don't really have anything to judge it against so have no idea

Lara, sounds like your plans are going well. What about going back to the village halls for chair hire etc?

What a lovely post Funky_Snow (great name too!) :T. This just what we're hoping, lots of involvement from family and friends so it's really personal and special to all of us. And surprises, hadn't thought of that! :j

Well, there were exciting developments yesterday!! Thanks to Cinny, who is so clever I am now also marrying her in a joint ceremony with OH , we have a new plan for the venue :T Well, at least I do - OH is away so I haven't mentioned it to him yet :rotfl: First rule of marriage - the woman makes all the rules? :rotfl:

Cinny suggested tipis instead of a marquee :j We'd kind of joked along these lines before but didn't realise you actually could have them for a wedding...so i looked into them yesterday afternoon and they're exactly what we were trying to achieve in a marquee :T They suit us perfectly and create just the atmosphere we want; I'm so excited! So I've got a nice lady doing me a quote and we'll see what the damage is.

Researching also gave me loads ore ideas of little touches we can do ourselves to make it gorgeous!

I also had a lovely helpful email from my bro (who got married last year) :T

I have to say that although it's difficult being torn in two - so much preoccupation back home (I'm also job hunting) when I want to be enjoying my time out here - I am loving the wedding planning! It's just so exciting to be marrying my gorgeous man! :j

PepPop

Trust me you're doing well - just one question "where you gonna go on your honeymoon?" or are you doing it backwards Honeymoon first then wedding??

bails

Don't be silly PepPop, of course we'll be having a honeymoon :rotfl: It was the first thing I started planning after OH asked Really no idea at mo - well, lots of ideas actually but YKWIM! - it'll have to be during Oct half term so possibly not too far flung... We'd like somewhere warm as we'll be freezing our bits off on this trip... gorillas were mentioned...:j

loisa

Wow congratulations!

My partner and I were in Nepal for about a month earlier this year at the end of an almost 2 year trip which included a year working in New Zealand. We also did an Everest trek while we were there which was amazing.

We actually got engaged in India before we went to Nepal. We've been back in the uk since May and are only just starting to think about the wedding now!

We are thinking about getting married in 2012. I know that sounds ages away but we are thinking of doing it somewhere in Europe so would need to give people plenty of notice. We are also skint after travelling and I've not managed to get a job yet. We don't have rich families either unfortunately so I'll be on here looking for tips!

I saw wedding dress shops in many asian cities. A great idea in theory but I could see it been tricky in China unless you had someone to translate. No idea how long it would take either but maybe your OH could get a suit made in somewhere. My OH got some shirts and trousers knocked up in Kathmandu just before we came back for next to nothing. If you spent a bit more money you could get something really nice I bet. In one shop we were given a Next catalogue to choose from!

Oh well, good luck with it all. You're braver than I am, I don't even know where to start!

PepPop

bails wrote: »

Don't be silly PepPop, of course we'll be having a honeymoon :rotfl: It was the first thing I started planning after OH asked Really no idea at mo - well, lots of ideas actually but YKWIM! - it'll have to be during Oct half term so possibly not too far flung... We'd like somewhere warm as we'll be freezing our bits off on this trip... gorillas were mentioned...:j

:rotfl::rotfl:I'm thinking along the lines of having as cheap a wedding as possible and spend the money on the most amazing honeymoon OH agrees but I don't think the parents will - although the way we're going with wedding dress and kilts and venue etc we'll be in his dad's back garden in our tent :rotfl::rotfl:

bails

Did I completely forget you were getting married PepPop, not sure I knew? Congratulations anyway, when you planning for? Great idea about the honeymoon! We've thought the same but do really want a party with our loved ones so... Where would you like to go?

Thanks so much for that loisa, now THAT is a great idea!! :T:T I will get on the case as soon as OH gets back... any specific tips of where to go?
Your trip sounds amazing! Where did you go? We were the same about the wedding, it either had to be when we get back from here or 2012, as we want to start a family and I didn't want to get married whilst pregnant/carrying baby weight I've got to look at those photos for the rest of my life dammit :rotfl:

I love it, even my wedding thread turns into a travel discussion :T:rotfl:

bails

In slightly less jovial spirits, let me tell you where I am with the budget...:(

I prefer to budget top end and then be able to reduce, but weddings always seem to have a habit of costing more, don't they? NB Notice no budget for honeymoon :eek:(yet!:D)


venue £4,000 (this is BEST case scenario if we go down this route :eek:)
land £1,500 we've been quoted £1900 so far, utterly ridiculous!:mad: Field behind my parents is possibly free but OH isn't keen as it's 30 mins from the ceremony. (He hasn't seen the budget yet though!!)
flowers £150 maybe a little cheaper; godmother arranging. Would like to have grown my own but away...Will use greenery/as much as possible from our gardens
food - day £700 £5.83 a head
food - evening £300
dress £1,000 - this includes whole outfit; obviously hoping to find something much cheaper. One of my priorities
bridesmaids £300 3 bridesmaids, Mum making the dresses, approx £100 for material so could be less?
men £500 there are LOTS of them! may wear own suits?
rings £600 no idea about this really; friends on here are £80 - 2k
transport £0 - Dad's car for OH, no idea for me! Don't know where venue is yet so difficult to say. I'm not so bothered about this, unless someone offers me a horse
ceremony £300 may need to hire land for this - v special place to us, to do with my illness and recovery. If we can't get married there, well, can just get married anywhere I guess!
legal £150 registry and something to wear, maybe? Jeans?:rotfl:
stationery £150 hoping to reduce this, making myself but some extra expense sending from here (emailing where I can)
drinks £500 pure guess - friend's budget is worrying me here as much more...
entertainment £500 ditto above!
cake £100 Mum making, prob less than this
Archie outfit £50 my little nephew - no idea how much these things cost (sneakily hoping he will already have an outfit from my SiL's sister's wedding the week before! )
sculptures £200 - for the venue/tables, made by OH. Sell on afterwards?
photographer £1,000 - maybe around the £600 mark if I'm lucky. A priority for me
decorations £200 - for marquee. Some from out here if poss.
TOTAL £12,200
EDIT: darn it, more stuff I forgot:
glass/crockery hire?
presents?

Hit me with any great ideas for reducing this please! eg you know a friend with a free marquee :rotfl: And the bad news too - if I've left anything out, if something looks way too low...etc Post your own budgets up if you're happy to, so I have something to compare it to...I have read the Tips thread all the way through. Will need to look at other threads on here as well.

Not wanting to end on a unhappy note though - the good news is that my dad just bought the car my brother was selling (don't ask!) so now we can use that for OH at the wedding :T There's ALWAYS a silver lining peeps