Can i get it down anymore......

J3OEF

Me and my partner are currently "trying" to plan our wedding, which is taking place next august 2011, so far the below is our rough price estimate plus numbers

65 People for sit down meal
85 Evening Buffett

Venue + Meal + Buffett + Drinks + DJ + Civil Ceremony = £2695
Accomodation = £246 (ours is free, but we are paying for another couple and night before for ourselfs to eliminate car costs)
Rings = £1000 (for 2)
Venue Dressing = £600 (surely we can get this cheaper ??? )
Bridesmaids = £320
Groom = £70 ( hiring i think ? )
Bride = £600 (have looked at the china ones on ebay though)
Photography = £500
Honeymoon = £1500 ( 1 week )
Notice Of Marriage = £250

Total is coming in at £7,800

Any ideas or tips on how to reduce is welcome, or suppliers of things etc.

The Venue is The Whitehall Hotel in Darwen, nothing booked yet but have been looking at others also.

codemonkey

can't help as I have the same problem - my wedding has gone horribly overbudget and all we've done is book the venue, so will await replies with baited breath.

shellsuit

J3OEF wrote: »

Me and my partner are currently "trying" to plan our wedding, which is taking place next august 2011, so far the below is our rough price estimate plus numbers

65 People for sit down meal
85 Evening Buffett

Venue + Meal + Buffett + Drinks + DJ + Civil Ceremony = £2695 That price for those numbers is good actually. have you actually sat down with someone in the venue and told them what you want, then got a total figure you could haggle with??

Accomodation = £246 (ours is free, but we are paying for another couple and night before for ourselfs to eliminate car costs) do you have to pay for the room for the other couple?

Rings = £1000 (for 2) Is there anything you are looking for in particular, ie what metal and do you want stones?

Venue Dressing = £600 (surely we can get this cheaper ??? ) What is it you want? Can you not dress the venue yourselves, or buy the stuff and have someone else you know do it for you?

Bridesmaids = £320 How many bridesmaids? Have you already got their outfits?

Groom = £70 ( hiring i think ? )

Bride = £600 (have looked at the china ones on ebay though) If you can afford to lose the money if it goes wrong or doesn't get delivered, then that is a choice, but personally I wouldn't. Is there a particular dress or style you are after? What size and colour? Some of us may be able to help you track something down.

Photography = £500

Honeymoon = £1500 ( 1 week )

Notice Of Marriage = £250

Total is coming in at £7,800

Any ideas or tips on how to reduce is welcome, or suppliers of things etc.

The Venue is The Whitehall Hotel in Darwen, nothing booked yet but have been looking at others also.

..............

maggie111

What venue dressing did you want? This can be cheaper.

Rings - you can save a lot here. Ours were quoted at £500 - 18 ct gold and 9ct gold for him.

Other than that your budget is pretty similar to ours. Is your bride quote including hair and make-up?

Enchantica

J3OEF wrote: »

Me and my partner are currently "trying" to plan our wedding, which is taking place next august 2011, so far the below is our rough price estimate plus numbers

65 People for sit down meal
85 Evening Buffett

Venue + Meal + Buffett + Drinks + DJ + Civil Ceremony = £2695
Would it be possible to get a cheaper DJ or use your ipod for entertainment? Would you consider that? You could make the full play list yourself and put someone in charge of it like announcing the first dance or buffet arrival etc. Best man perhaps? Or a bridesmaid?

Accomodation = £246 (ours is free, but we are paying for another couple and night before for ourselfs to eliminate car costs)
Do you need to pay for this other couple? Can you find a cheaper hotel? B+B? A friend or family member?

Rings = £1000 (for 2)
I think you could make a big saving on the rings. Tesco are doing an engagement ring for £15, I know that people have different tastes but you could check out their selection. Or online jewellery stores. My ring cost $32 from Disneyland lol but that's just me Can you give a description of the rings you would like and MSE folks can have a scout around for you? Also check Argos, they have some lovely rings that don't cost too much and are just as nice.

Venue Dressing = £600 (surely we can get this cheaper ??? )
What does this include? Perhaps you could do it yourself or ask the venue if they could throw in anything for you for free.

Bridesmaids = £320
How many bridesmaids? There are some nice dresses in stores like BHS or Debenhams. Try Asda especially, they have some good off the rack bridesmaid dresses. You could also all do your own hair and make up to save money.

Groom = £70 ( hiring i think ? )
Bride = £600 (have looked at the china ones on ebay though)
Are you having a proper wedding dress? Because it is possible to get separates cheaper like corset and skirt. I'm doing separates and my full outfit including accessories and shoes has come to £140. If you are buying from China then ask someone here which seller they used so you don't get ripped off.

Photography = £500
Would you consider a photography student doing it for free or a small fee for their portfolio? You could ask around local colleges/universities. Do you have any family or friends or friends of friends who do photography? You could get a discounted mates rate?

Honeymoon = £1500 ( 1 week )
Where are you going on your honeymoon? This seems pretty decent price though.

Notice Of Marriage = £250

Total is coming in at £7,800

Any ideas or tips on how to reduce is welcome, or suppliers of things etc.

The Venue is The Whitehall Hotel in Darwen, nothing booked yet but have been looking at others also.

I hope that is of some help to you.

LEJC

im not sure if im adding to your budget or you just arn't having them but
invitations
wedding transport..or is the night before in lieu of this so not needed?
cake
flowers
do you have a contingency budget,,for example if you wanted to give thank you gifts or for wedding favours?

chelbel1981

I'm with Shellsuit on this

LEJC wrote: »

im not sure if im adding to your budget or you just arn't having them but
invitations
wedding transport..or is the night before in lieu of this so not needed?
cake
flowers
do you have a contingency budget,,for example if you wanted to give thank you gifts or for wedding favours?

Plus
jewellery
tiara
shoes for all members of the bridal party
hair
make-up
cufflinks

monkeymonkey_3

Seeing as how your wedding is next summer, you could always try to get all of the dresses, shoes etc in the January sales? Also, you don't mention what type of rings you want, but I'd imagine you could get something fairly simple for a lot less than your budget.

J3OEF

right, here we go, ill try my best to answer all questions

I have not spoke to the venue in anyway yet bar email communication and a rough price, they wont budge on price as they consider it very good value for what we are gettting anyway.

The venue dressing includes the below.....

100 x Chair Cover & Sash Hire

10 x Fish Bowl Centrepiece Hire

10 x Glass Mirror Hire

Scatter petals/gems or confetti for 10 tables.

100 x Favour Boxes with sweets

Top Table Swagging

Cake Table Swagging

Free delivery & set up
Candy Bar

Accomodation, in an ideal scenario yes we do need to pay for them as they paid for us when we went to their wedding, not only did they pay for our accomodation, they paid for our flights, all weekends worth of food and alcohol etc etc

The rings, well her engagement ring is platinum, so if i get any other metal its going to be worn down by the platinum aint it, so really im stuck and have no option but to get platinum for her, myself its not an issue really.

The bridesmaids dresses, that was for 3 which included shoes etc etc, although she seen an asda thing tonight which stated you can get whats on this link for £156, but no stock

http://www.weddingchaos.co.uk/wedding-news/asda-wedding-dress.asp

Photography, we have looked at the student options, but having seen a few photos of some, ide rather pay tbh unless i come across something better.

Honeymoon, we have not decided where we are going yet but hopefully somewhere abroad, i hope !!

Wedding transport is not needed as we are staying there the night before to save costs of cars etc.

Jewellery, tiara etc can all be brought well before then with general spends if u know what i mean.

Cake, my mum is sorting this out for us.

Invitations, my uncle is a graphic designer with his own business so he is doing them, he actually done our engagement ones which were really good, should show you really, great idea.

hope ive answered everything, i await replies

Bluefire

Have you tried http://www.bettsmetalsales.com/ for the rings? That's where I'm planning on getting mine from. If you register & select your trade as a 'hobbyist' they will sell to you at trade prices, which are miles cheaper than anywhere else from what I can see! Worth giving it a go...

[Deleted User]

Hi J3OEF,
My and the OH are having our Civil Patnership at whitehall next April. I'll drop you a PM with some thoughts
Cheers
Simon