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

LEJC

It seems to me that the package of food offered by the venue is actually very good value however I cant help but think that they have overpriced on the hire of the table dressing....is it possible to negotiate with them not to have this and do that element yourself or can you not get one without the other?
Chair covers usually cover rather ordinary chairs in order to make them uniform...and I suspect you may be paying quite a premium for the hire of the hotel ones

Table centre pieces again can be as cheap or expensive as you want them to be...at least if you make your own...which I think would be cheaper..you can then give them to some of your guests as reminders of the day...you cant do this of course if they ars hired and you will have to have what the venue offers

The candy buffet...something you want? yes..great...but again can be sourced seperatley..no? well ask for it not to be taken into the costing...

Shop around for your rings there are deals to be done especially at independant jewellers or if you buy both rings together..dont be afraid to ask...10% discount is not unreasonable

Watch how much you spend on,I cant remember how you phrased it,but the ongoing expenses...these are the ones that run away with couples when planning and they do add up therefore increasing your total wedding budget/spend

Sorry I may have missed it..but what about bridal/bridesmaid bouquets...etc..flowers need to be budgeted for or have you a florist in the family?

J3OEF

will take a look at that ring site, the venue dressing is done by an outside company, my OH tells me i posted the wrong description for £450 so here is what we get

Whats included?

100 x Chair Cover & Sash Hire

10 x Centrepiece Hire

10 x Glass Mirror Hire

Tealight Hire, 6 per table

Scatter petals/gems or confetti for 10 tables.

10 x Oraganza table runners

100 x Name place holders and name cards

Decorative Bubbles for each Table

20 x disposable cameras

100 x Favour Boxes with sweets

Top Table Swagging

Cake Table Swagging

Decorated Bay Trees or Standing Candelabras x2

Candy Buffet for 100 guests

Free delivery & set up within 25 miles

now is that good value? The bouquets / flowers, not thought about yet, but again sometime we can sort it without really needed to worry too much.

LEJC

If you think thats a good package..then go for it...although you probably are paying a premium for someone else to sort it out...in my experience and possibly others may agree...that if you put some work into it yourselves you can not only get it cheaper by buying individually but also get exactly what you want as opposed to the bulk standard offered by the hire company....

Can I just ask...are you the bride or the groom?...I SUSPECT youre the groom....please investigate the cost of flowers and plan with your partner what they want...you may be surprised at the cost of a few flowers....and you should budget something rather than relying on "general spends...if you know what I mean"....

seafarers_wife

i went to a few jewlers to ask about rings, my engagement ring is white gold and ive got a platinum wedding band as it worked out cheaper as it was already shaped and it fitted round my engagement ring perfectly. non of the jewlers i went to said that platinum and white gold were incompatible and i did ask a few. the only thing with white gold is that it needs to be redipped every couple of years.

LEJC

J3OEF wrote: »

will take a look at that ring site, the venue dressing is done by an outside company, my OH tells me i posted the wrong description for £450 so here is what we get

Whats included?

100 x Chair Cover & Sash Hire

10 x Centrepiece Hire

10 x Glass Mirror Hire

Tealight Hire, 6 per table

Scatter petals/gems or confetti for 10 tables.

10 x Oraganza table runners

100 x Name place holders and name cards

Decorative Bubbles for each Table

20 x disposable cameras

100 x Favour Boxes with sweets

Top Table Swagging

Cake Table Swagging

Decorated Bay Trees or Standing Candelabras x2

Candy Buffet for 100 guests

Free delivery & set up within 25 miles

now is that good value? The bouquets / flowers, not thought about yet, but again sometime we can sort it without really needed to worry too much.

Just had another look at this from a different perspective...you are paying £450 for this element of the package that caters for 100 guests but you have 65 as your daytime number...therefore you are paying for 35 chair covers that you wont use..35 boxes of favours you wont use...venue is presumably setting tables of 10x 10 but I Guess unless you are only having 6 guests per table..you possibly wont need 10 centre pieces/mirrors etc
So it would appear that you are paying for the hire of things based on 100 guests when in reality you have 35% less guests than the quote...if you only had to buy for those attending then that would definately cut the costs

Seperate note just to add to the mix....disposable cameras...great idea but only if they come with free film processing...20 reels of film at £2.99 per film will work out at just under £60 to get your pictures...all added expense

maggie111

seafarers_wife wrote: »

i went to a few jewlers to ask about rings, my engagement ring is white gold and ive got a platinum wedding band as it worked out cheaper as it was already shaped and it fitted round my engagement ring perfectly. non of the jewlers i went to said that platinum and white gold were incompatible and i did ask a few. the only thing with white gold is that it needs to be redipped every couple of years.

Just because no one's said anything doesn't mean it's not going to cause you a problem. Unfortunately platinum is a harder metal than gold and it will cause your white gold to wear a lot quicker. As you are having to get it redipped every so often I don't think this'll be too much of a problem. As you may end up refilling what's being worn away regardless.

But say for example my 18ct gold engagement ring, if I bought a 9 ct wedding ring it would rub my engagement ring away to nothing given enough time. It's not how it sits at the top of your finger, you'll start to notice it wearing on the other side, next to your palm. If that makes sense.

Metal can be soft, I've had my engagement ring 3 years and I can already see teeny bits of scuff and damage.

The venue dressing fee sounds very reasonable depending on the quality.

shellsuit

LEJC wrote: »

Just had another look at this from a different perspective...you are paying £450 for this element of the package that caters for 100 guests but you have 65 as your daytime number...therefore you are paying for 35 chair covers that you wont use..35 boxes of favours you wont use...venue is presumably setting tables of 10x 10 but I Guess unless you are only having 6 guests per table..you possibly wont need 10 centre pieces/mirrors etc
So it would appear that you are paying for the hire of things based on 100 guests when in reality you have 35% less guests than the quote...if you only had to buy for those attending then that would definately cut the costs

Seperate note just to add to the mix....disposable cameras...great idea but only if they come with free film processing...20 reels of film at £2.99 per film will work out at just under £60 to get your pictures...all added expense

That's a very good point!

I'd ask the company for a quote for the numbers wanted, that should bring the price down a bit.

J3OEF

lejc, i know what you mean about that package, we have emailed the company with our numbers and are waiting a reply but ide imagine it to be cheaper then £600 but i was putting that as the base price if you know what i mean.

sezzie24

I got my bridesmaid dresses from Monsoon in the sale £32.50 each and I had 3.

Have you decided on a gift list? I didn't want to ask for anything but when asked I said we would like Thomas Cook vouchers to go towards our honeymoon. We got lots of vouchers, money and personal gifts from people. The vouchers and money have covered the cost of a honeymoon so we saved on the cost of that.

My sister said she would do my wedding favours and decorations for me as a wedding present. She did little clear boxes with pink chocolate hearts in them and heart confetti. Tables were decorated with various butterfly/heart things - it was beautiful. She also did the candy table, everything was bought from Ebay and Macro and only took 3 of us an hour to do venue the night before. If you've got a close friend/relative may be they could do that for you?

Chair covers look lovely but the plain chairs look just as good and once everyone is sat down you won't even see them. Mine would have cost £150 and I decided against them in the end as the money was best spent on something I really would notice like my dress!

Our cakes were cupcakes from Marks and Spencers http://www.marksandspencer.com/Marks-and-Spencer-Strawberry-Cupcakes/dp/B003J3MXKK?pos=PDP_cwviv_2/2_image
They looked great and I bought the mini ones for the kids which were 3 for 2 at £4 each.

:-)

J3OEF

sezzie24 wrote: »

I got my bridesmaid dresses from Monsoon in the sale £32.50 each and I had 3.

Have you decided on a gift list? I didn't want to ask for anything but when asked I said we would like Thomas Cook vouchers to go towards our honeymoon. We got lots of vouchers, money and personal gifts from people. The vouchers and money have covered the cost of a honeymoon so we saved on the cost of that.

My sister said she would do my wedding favours and decorations for me as a wedding present. She did little clear boxes with pink chocolate hearts in them and heart confetti. Tables were decorated with various butterfly/heart things - it was beautiful. She also did the candy table, everything was bought from Ebay and Macro and only took 3 of us an hour to do venue the night before. If you've got a close friend/relative may be they could do that for you?

Chair covers look lovely but the plain chairs look just as good and once everyone is sat down you won't even see them. Mine would have cost £150 and I decided against them in the end as the money was best spent on something I really would notice like my dress!

Our cakes were cupcakes from Marks and Spencers http://www.marksandspencer.com/Marks-and-Spencer-Strawberry-Cupcakes/dp/B003J3MXKK?pos=PDP_cwviv_2/2_image
They looked great and I bought the mini ones for the kids which were 3 for 2 at £4 each.

:-)

we have seen cheaper bridesmaids dresses but just out of stock, this is one thing we can defo reduce i think.

The cake as i said my mum is getting so not to worry about that.

I like the idea of vouchers as gifts, we originally was just going to say any donation is welcome, as we have most things. We did think about the decorations ourself and considering we are staying there the night before this could be an option, its just sourcing all the stuff