Initial Plans

Gemmzie

Don't get too excited, it's a long way off, most likely summer 2012.

The thing is we have £0 going into planning and any money in the short-term is geared towards house.

So I'm thinking save from this summer to the next then plan/save/spend through 2011. Does this seem feasible? What's the minimum we'll need, realistically?

I don't have any close friends who've got married to ask advice from, so will be needing masses of tips/advice if that's okay!

sunny-2009

Hey Gemmzie!

Im getting married next year and have only just started saving, we are hoping to spend around 5-6k tops, Im really hoping we can do it with that budget! I think you plan sounds like a good idea, get as much as you can saved up through the year and when you book things next year, you will have the money sitting there. xo

cheekydi

we're getting married in May 2011, the date is set and reception venue deposit paid. we want our day to be really special as we only plan on doing it once. We've actually suprised ourselves as to what cash we can raise. we have a loose change pot so any coins which are rattling around in our pocket we are popping in there until and banking it at the end of each month. February totallyed at 39.50. We are cutting down on grocery bills, nights out and other 'treats' so freeing up money which is then getting moved into our savings account. Also worth remembering is for special occasions if anyone asks you what gift you would like to receive for bdays etc then simply say you have everything you need but if they would like to put a few pounds into the wedding fund it would be greatly appreciated. It all add's up.

I have a 10k target for the time of the wedding (more than we plan on spending on the wedding!) and have made a spreadsheet with a target to save each month and rolling totals of what we have saved. Seeing it on paper makes it seem so much more realistic.

We're having a spring clean and then heading off to a car boot sale at easter to see if anyone wants to buy the stuff we don't need anymore. Just try as best as you can and you will be suprised how it mounts up. just remember if you want your dream day you have to make sacrafices along the way.....

You CAN do it

sarah_elton

How much you need is really a how long is a piece of string? question at the moment.

The two biggest factors influencing the budget will be the number of guests and the type of venue you want (ranging from register office and reception in yours or a relatives house, up to the fanciest wedding venue in the area you live). If you have even a very rough idea of what you want, it might help us narrow down the budget...

Sammy85_2

Hi Gemmzie and congratulations!

How much to budget? A big question.

You need to sit down and work out what you want for a start.

The Dress! How much do you want to spend. I went and tried some on to figure out what style i liked and prices ranged from £500 - £2000. I then bought my dress on Ebay second hand. Its only been worn for 8 hours and after a dry clean will look good as new. Cost less than £100 and is absolutely stunning. There are other options such as having one custom made which can also work out cheaper.

Bridesmaid/attendants. Factor in how much it is going to cost to kit these out. Most bridesmaids dresses cost upwards of £100, plus tiaras, jewellry and shoes (if you want everyone to be matching) I bought my bridesmaid dresses off Ebay, £11 for the pair and they are absolutely gorgeous.

Church or Civil Ceremony? You can get married for <£50 in the back room of most registry offices (not very glamorous and most likely only room for you two and a couple of witnesses), a church will set you back around £300, plus extras for things like choirs or bells ringing and a civil ceremony at a hotel or equivilant can be just as expensive after paying extra fees to registra and hotel function room hire.

Next - the reception. Do you want a small intimate reception or a big one? In my experience, prices for a sit down meal at venues near me range from £25 to £60 per person! Do you even want a sit down meal? Some people opt for a later marriage and combine the reception meal with the night time buffet. Again, Buffet prices around me vary greatly too, one hotel charged £25pp for buffet with a minimum 120 guests paid for. We are having pie and peas for the "buffet" at our chosen venue at the grand price of £4.50pp!

Entertainment! Live musicians/bands etc will set you back at least £300. A Disco will be upwards of £150. Could you make do with a CD as background music instead? We're having a classical music CD of all my favourite tracks playing through the meal rather than paying for an expensive harpist or string quartet.

Wedding Cake - Its going to set you back a couple of hundred notes at least! Do you really need a cake? Cupcakes are increasingly popular these days. If you do want a cake consider making your own or asking a talented relative, or the supermarkets do a range of different sized celebration cakes which when put together make a good wedding cake! Another option is M&S, fairly good prices - still a couple of hundred notes though.


Wedding Cars - Do you need them? Do you know someone with a flash car that you could ask to drive you? A typical wedding car is around £250 - £350, and you'll probably need two if you're having loads of bridesmaids and the like.



As you can see, so many opitions and thats just the tip of the iceberg, i keep thinking of new things we "need" all the time!



Have fun!

Gemmzie

Thanks for the responses so far.

Our decisions so far are....
* Not a church
* We can get catering done very cheaply (chef in the family who's used to catering weddings).
* Cheap but not scrimping
* Probably have three bridesmaids, maybe a flower girl, one adult usher, best man
* Wedding cake - well I can't eat cake so I expect we'll have that sorted by the caterer
* Both of us really want close family there as a minimum which is 14 guests already!

pretzelnut

BUDGET - its as much or as little as you are willing to spend.

Can you do it off course you can.

I thought we would be cutting it fine finding £7000 in 8 months but we have managed or are managing it really well, and there is always help here to get your costs down. We have just altered what we do, we never went out anyway, DF is doing extra overtime, ive cut the shopping bills down, which i needed to do anyway but this has given me the incentive, USE QUIDCO, find out when all your bills are up for renewal and go through quidco and get cashback, go through quidco for all your online shopping, make use of those tesco points if you shop there, i have just sold £75 reward voucher for £190ish on ebay. Sell any unwanted belongings on ebay and use that money to buy bits and bobs off ebay for your wedding.

In currently swapping all our bill over as they all run out at the end of march and im looking at £500 cashback for going through quidco, i did this last year and got about £600 it all depends on the deals they have on at the time.

Plus as you start planning you will find that people always want to help, my mum has made my cake and paid for our car, my MIL2B is icing our cake as its quite an elaborate design.

Dont let things go mental, if you only want 1 bridesmaid have 1, dont allow yourself to end up with every female me,ber of your family being one. The same goes for ushers, there not really neded, and when they are you only really need 1.

Ive made a lot of things myself, when your getting married so far in the future it allows you to take advantage of sales and bargains.

Put together a quick guest list, see who you do and dont want there, then set a budget and divide the budget by the people you want including yourselfs. Then use this as a figure to remind yourself that each extra person you invite means it will be an extra £xxx

Gemmzie

We'll end up having one usher at least, which is my brother. It's the only way to include him in the wedding.

cm2011

Hi Gemmzie,

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you... we were planning our wedding for next June, but have just decided to put it off until 2012 as we want to buy our first house this year, and saving for both just was not happening! We are now concentrating all our savings on the house deposit, and then when we move in then we will start on the wedding savings.

We are aiming for a £6000 budget for everything, and will try to cut costs wherever possible. This forum is fab for finding ideas!!!

Gemmzie

It's so hard isn't it cm2011 - any extra money and I couldn't decide which pot to put the money in! So now it's all house and I've decided to stick £500 in the wedding pot over the summer incase we need to book some things early!

On another note, I get my engagement ring back on Friday It's been away being re-sized and valued, I've really missed it.

Gemmzie

Decided to use this thread to keep it all together

What do you think of this as a bridesmaid's dress?
http://www.janenorman.co.uk/fcp/product/buy-fashion-look-fabulous/A-List-Style/embroidered-bandeau-maxi-dress/8383?colour=purple