Wedding planning - how would you reduce the costs?

heretolearn_2

Or have the numbers but don't do a formal reception. Hire a hall, get in a disco, and give someone in your family a few hundred quid and ask them to lay on a basic sarnies and sausage rolls type buffet.

zcrat41

Hi,

Congratualtions first! Second, if your fiancee is anything like me do you know what' you've unleashed??!! I got engaged in Dec and am getting married in June. (To the earlier poster btw, I have found A LOT to spend my money in on 5 months, doesn't really work!!)

My tips;
1) Check out the weddings board
2) Have an honest initial chat with both parents to work out if they are going to help financially and if so how much.
3) Check out what your fiancee wants - mine wouldn't have dared suggesting marrying abroad (although after 3 months of wedding planning he may have overcome his fears!)
4) Work out whats really important to you and prioritise in the budget. Cars aren't important to us, tractors on the other hand are so we're getting everyone to the reception on a tractor and trailer. My mum on the other hand refuses to discuss the option of anything bar unlimited champagne at the reception. That's fine we said, but your paying for that bit and not out of the budget you originally told us!

And have LOTS OF FUN planning it all!!

Plans_all_plans

We had the Church service at 2.30 and then a sit down meal for 100 at 4pm. Then we hadd a buffet for 120 (incl. the day guests) at 9pm. If I had my time again I'd have a later Mass and then just the buffet. The day guests were still full from the 3 course meal when the buffet came out!

Get married on a weekday: it's cheaper.

Haggle on everything: we knocked £500 off the photographer and money off flowers, got a wedding car thrown in by the hotel and a complimentary night's stay at the reception venue (this is not normally included in the price at the hotel we went for)

Do your own table decorations (loads of ideas if you search google), invites, orders of services, table plan etc.

Call in favours from people if you know someone with a nice car, or who can dj etc. Buy your wedding cake from M&S (£115 for 3 tiers, as opposed to £600 I was quoted in cake shops!)

We bought my husband's wedding ring from Tesco for £200 (clubcard points!) and bought mine from www.bluenile.co.uk (I'd recommend them)

We were advised by the hotel not to get a drinks package (!) cos the lady said the men don't tend to drink the wine/champagne so it's a waste of money. We put money behind the bar for a first drink that the guests themselves chose and put bottles of wine on the tables for guests.

The likes of BHS and Coast do some lovely dresses for bridesmaids. Wedding dress: you can get them on ebay, but I didn't want a 2nd hand one, so went to a proper bridal shop and haggled on it, you may only get alterations thrown in for free, but it's £50 saved.

Also, get over to the Special Occasions board on here, there's a sub forum called Weddings and Anniversaries: loads of help on there.

Everything all in for ours cost 8k (in the Northwest)

celyn90

Awwwh, congratulations

I second the running away - that's what we did. We got married in the snow castle in Finland. Our biggest expense was flying people out; but it was still significantly cheaper than a normal do and we didn't have to invite people we didn't like. Total cost was under 5k; over half of which was spent on flights.

I did get some stick from my least favorite aunt for not inviting her; but I would have found it hard to invite her even if we had got married in the UK so I don't really care.

One thing I would say about getting hitched abroad is that most other countries don't just add zeros onto the end of the thing like they do here. Our venue hire (chapel and the resturant) was 300 euros (and there was no need to decorate it!), the food and wine was just normal resturant prices and the photographer was 200 euros (and we got prints plus the CD).

If i had of got married here I would have done something super random, like a registery office do followed by a some sort of cookery class or art workshop. Or a theme park or zoo day I think it depends on how traditional you are and what you think is important - I found the more I read about the roots of the traditions, the more determined I was not to do any of it. Maybe work out what is most important to you then go from there.

cel x

floss2

We set our date, found our perfect venue, booked the registrar and then sorted out the guest list according to the maximum numbers possible. This meant that we couldn't invite all the cousins and distant relatives or friends because there physically was not the capacity. As a result, our wedding bill including a civil ceremony at our Town Hall, 4-course sit-down meal with wine & fizz and evening buffet, cake, flowers, favours, photographer, band, accomodation for the wedding party, suit hire, transport (vintage tram from the Town hall to our hotel venue), bridesmaid's outfit, gifts, rings (from Goldsmiths with Tesco reward vouchers), honeymoon and legal costs was just over £7k.

onlyroz

I'd suggest only having a small close-family and a few select friends at the wedding, and then having a bigger doo in the evening. A buffet will reduce costs, and will be much less tedious for the guests as well, and if you don't tell the venue that it's a wedding that might be cheaper as well. Other ways to save costs are to not bother with flowers, or a "traditional" wedding dress, and to do your own music - e.g. with an iPod and a large playlist preloaded.

ellay864

Congratulations
And to echo what at least one other poster has said, come along and visit us on the weddings board - you will get loads of ideas and we're a very friendly bunch there
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142

leandygandy

Hi there.

Congratulations, this is a very exciting time in your life I'm sure.

1. Consider a midweek/out of season wedding as venues often offer discounts for their quieter periods.
2. A lot of places are cheaper if you get married and have your reception in the same place, although obviously this will depend on whether you had hoped for a church wedding or not.
3. Dresses - this will depend on what your fiancee has planned but second hand dresses are often in really good nick and a good price on preloved etc. Similarly for bridesmaids, perhaps you could buy their dresses on the proviso that they cover the cost of hair/makeup/shoes?
4. Suits - these can be hired cheaper than they can be bought if you fancy the full morning suit option, or the chaps could wear their own suits and just buy a specific shirt/tie?
5. Food - buffets are generaly cheaper than sit down meals and can be either a simple cold buffet (think sausage rolls and quiche) or a hot fork buffet (jacket potatoes, pasta salads)
6. Photography - ask at the local college if there are any students who might be willing to cover your day. They should be cheaper although remember that there is the risk of not getting 'top-end' photos if you go down this route.
7. Vehicles - Do any family members have a nice car that could be used? If you're planning to have wedding and reception in the same place you may not even need to have a car at all.
8. Invites and order of services can be homemade for a fraction of the cost of some of the printers.
9. Do not provide a free bar. Nuff said on this one!

That's all I can think of now but there's a lot more ways you can keep the cost down.

We got married two years ago for £8k and the only thing I didn't have that I wanted was an Aston Martin for my wedding car (very hard to source and ridiculously expensive when we could find them). It was what you'd term a 'traditional' wedding i.e. church followed by wedding breakfast (we had a carvery buffet with a formal seating plan) and bar and disco in the evening.

Good luck keeping the costs down, it can be done, you just need to decide what things you and your fiancee are not willing to compromise on, and what can be!

POPPYOSCAR

It's your wedding so what you want is the most important factor but from the perspective as a guest,( and I have been to some very lavish weddings and some not so lavish) the best wedding I ever went to was one of the cheapest.

They got some friends of the family to lay on a buffet, (went over to France for a day to get all the drink) and had the reception in the village hall. The atmosphere was just wonderful, so relaxed and informal.

On the other extreme went to a stuffy silver service reception in a stately home, food was horrible (had half a pineapple for dessert which was still frozen solid!!!) cost a ridiculous amount per head as well.

Going to another wedding in July, dress alone is costing £1800!!!

borokat

I agree with Poppyoscar, it's your day so do it your way. Don't feel like you have to include all the traditions and trimmings if you don't want to, but equally don't feel like you have to cut them to save money.
I would definitely start by limiting the numbers to the 70 people you must have. Find a venue that suits that amount of people. You could save money by getting married later and going straight into a night do but if you can afford it and actually want a daytime reception then that's what you should have. Try reading blogs like rockmywedding.co.uk or rocknrollbride.co.uk they feature lots of different wedding days from the traditional to the very different, they will inspire you and make you realise there is more than one way to do it. I have seen some gorgeous looking village hall afternoon tea party type weddings, and some equally beautiful stately home champagne weddings on there. The best weddings are those that truly reflect the tastes of the couple. Make it personal and you can't go wrong.