wanchai's vintage wedding thread!

wanchai_2

aarchk wrote: »

My first reaction is that your church costs are a bit low. I think the standard CofE charge is £320 plus the extras added on by the local parish. Some regulalr church goers have been lucky enough to pay less or nothing - it depends on the church community and local rev.
I had a church wedding with organist and it cost £640 plus £35 for banns certificate from our local church... we also paid £150 for bells. It will vary from church to church and across the differing types of church, but its best to get this clear from the outset.

My wedding ended up being country vintage in style with homemade bunting (100m cost us about £40 and a few hours time), jam jars decorated with lace and ribbon for tealights and simple flowers (some from grass verges and gardens!) in cheap glass vases for centrepieces. We borrowed loads of fairylights and had Ipod playing during meal and drinks reception and during break for band in the evening. We had a 5 piece barn dance band and they cost £450 and played for 3 hours with a 30 min break.

My invites cost 41p each made by us. The OOS were a little bit more. Easy when you know how to work MS Publisher so worth having a go!

Ebay will become your friend and I recommend signing up for Quidco and topcashback. I regret not doing this! Also keep an eye out for discounts on suits and BM dress. Sign up to as many newsletters as possible (BHS weddings is good as they email you to let you know sales are on). Also Ikea/Wilkinson and Dunelm are great for decorative bits n bobs.

Hi, sorry, missed your message as I was typing for ages!

The church is Catholic and I have been told that there is no charge, but a £100 donation is the norm, plus you pay the organist (just assuming about £80) and usually give the altar boys a few quid to say thanks.

Love the bunting idea, have seen it on loads of blogs! Fairy lights as well!

We will definitely have an iPod playlist in there somewhere, we both have a huge collection of music.

Thanks for the tip-offs re shops! I am already on Quidco and TCB. I am considering getting a cashback credit card and doing all major purchases on it.

wanchai_2

p.s. we would love to have our reception at the Ulster American Folk Park but we won't fit into the rooms, and I am worried about the cost of a marquee! Are they really dear?

http://www.nmni.com/Home/hiring-a-venue/Weddings-(1)/Ulster-American-Folk-Park

http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/Ulster-American-Folk-Park-Omagh-P8406

lollyb84

wanchai wrote: »

Hi

Thanks a mill for the replies so far will try to address each point!

The wedding is in Northern Ireland. We would *love* a buffet or hog roast, or a vintage tea party-style wedding, but people here tend to prefer the sit-down meal. We would also happily have a midweek wedding - I am superstitious and Wednesday is considered the best day to get married. But we would probably be in the church on our own if we did that! :rotfl: People over here are a little traditional i.e. inflexible! If you want something - do it! seriously, if you both would love a hog roast then go for it. I have no idea what time you're getting married (sorry if I've missed this), but why not ask the venue if you could have a hog roast in the evening instead of the sandwiches/canapes? That way, you still get the sit down meal people expect, and you get the hog roast you want. Oh lordy, that probably isn't very MSE is it (sorry!!!)


We *really* want a wedding DVD. My dad passed away a few years ago and I bitterly regret that we don't have a video of him at all. I want the DVD to remember it all in years to come, especially 'absent friends'. Sorry if that sounds a bit daft. Maybe we will get a guest to do it in lieu of a gift to us, but they might feel resentful about being 'on duty' all day! If it's important to you, do it. I was only suggesting you think about if it was important to you.

Re photographers, we have a few in mind and they are not cheap!!! One starts at £1,600! Another is £800 without an album - their shots are good but I'm not 100% convinced about them. Our favourites so far work out at £1,500, and I am actually considering paying an English photographer to come over, their stuff is so amazing!!! A good photographer will make pretty much any dress/venue look fabulous. If anyone has *any* photographer or videographer recommendations, I would absolutely love to hear them! I'd recommend our photographer - Hayden Phoenix. He's based in London, but you could speak to him about the travel. PM me if you want more details.


My dress - I am happy to buy 2nd hand, I've seen a dress that I love online - £2,000 new, £600 on eBay! :T I will be scouring the local vintage/preloved bridal shops too. I actually bought a brand new dress from Monsoon on eBay t'other day for £100 and if it looks the part I'll wear it!!! If not I can always sell it on. Here it is:



I love it!!


My veil, possible headpiece, earrings, shoes etc - I have no idea how much they will cost lol! For the shoes, I don't really care what they look like, but they will need to be very comfortable and not *too* high!!! I bought my veil from Pauline Nichols Bridal - google them. The prices are excluding VAT (so remember to add it on, as they'll charge you for it) but they were the cheapest I found, and the quality was just as good as a shop bought one. The delivery was much faster that quoted too.

My lovely BM says that will wear anything I put her in (bless her :A) and she is slim and gorgeous so will be easy to dress! I will keep an eye out for a dress for her on eBay and in the sales. A Monsoon dress or similar would be great. Her shoes - ditto. What about the Coast sales? They usually have one just after Christmas. Don't forget Debenhams and M&S too (I got my bridesmaid dresses from M&S)

The (Catholic) church doesn't charge - we will paying around £100 as a donation, and then the organist as well. The church doesn't charge, and someone on here will probably know better than me, but I think in a Catholic church, you need to pay for a registrar to come out. That could add £450 to your bill (dependent on your registrars costs)

I think I will defo do my own table decs - will get crafty and make stuff, I have already started saving jam jars!!! I love dried lavender and gypsophila, this would make a lovely table setting in a jam jar with twine or lace tied around it, maybe with some tea lights in pretty vintage holders? I would just buy them and then sell them on. I also adore china cups made into candles!!! Ebay and Pound shops will be your friend here.

Hope all my ramblings help!!

Idiophreak

Thought I'd give my 2 cents...I spent rather more on our wedding, so might have a different take to most on here...

wanchai wrote: »

Hello all

We are recently engaged and starting to plan our wedding for sumemr 2012 (date TBC). I am very excited but also astounded at the cost of everything!! :rotfl: woo! congrats!

We would like to save money wherever possible but still have a lovely intimate wedding with good food, drink and entertainment. We love vintage and retro styles and shabby chic, so hope to incorporate this into the wedding. I would be eternally grateful for any suggestions whatsoever from you lovely people and will be reading this forum avidly from now on!

OK, so here is our budget:

Reception for 100 guests: £5,000 (o.m.g.)see if you can negotiate this down, if not get more stuff thrown in...better food, more wine etc

Photographer: £1,500 (not very MSE at all, but I really want the best possible photos) Are you sure they justify the cost? Ours was in this price range, but we'd seen their work first hand so knew how good they were - we also got 2 photographers for the whole day (plus a student), a consultation, preshoot, a guest book and a very comprehensive pack of albums etc for the money, so it still seemed like good value

Videographer: £300Do you need this? People will take film anyway - and if you've nice photos, you'll probably look at those more. We just got someone to stand and film the speeches for us and we've burnt that to DVD ourselves...

Wedding dress: £700 (hopefully less!)Definitely doable, but be careful where you shop. Don't try on dresses that cost much more. Once you see "the one", you'll feel you have to get it.

My shoes and accessories: £200Again, should be doable - but you'll have to be careful. Veils, especially, can run to hundreds :eek: Be sure what you're budgeting for - shoes, garter, veil, underwear?, jewellery? extra shoes for the evening/flip flops? tiara?

Bridesmaid's dress and shoes: £120

Suit for OH: £250 (just a normal suit, not a 'wedding' suit - his best man already has a really good suit in the same colour)Sounds good, suit hire adds up quickly. Have you thought about his shoes, underwear, accessories etc?

Band: £700 (actual quote - think this is quite good, they are a swing band playing for 2 hours)is this two continuous hours? would they DJ / let you play your ipod through their gear in between?

DJ: £200 or free (iPod and speakers possibly?)we used an ipod between the band at ours - it was just fine.

Car: free (getting a friend to drive us)

Cake: free (my very talented friend is making it) make sure you get a stand, knife etc from the venue

Church/organist: £200a little low, I think - I think this is, typically, more like £350-400

Singers in church: free (two female relatives of mine)

Gifts for bridesmaid, best man and mothers: £100

Decorating the venue: £120 Do you have specific ideas? Venues can be large -anything you buy you have to buy 6-10 of, which notches the price up quickly....

Flowers: £300

I know the flowers budget is probably ridiculously low but we are being optimistic! We need 2 bouquets and about 4 buttonholes - the rest we are going to decide on depending on cost. We may use dried lavender and gyp, or garden flowers for the tables. For the church, we might do the same, with gauze ribbons on the pews.Most churches will let you use their own flowers for a small extra charge - normally much cheaper than having a florist do them. Something to think about.

For those who are doing favours for us, we will buy them gifts to say thank you, so that will add about £200 to the budget.

Total so far = £9,890 but I know that this is probably optimistic.

Any comments??? Have I missed something? Where can we save money? xx

Some things you might not have thought about, not already discussed:
Beauty - Are you having your hair done? Nails? Makeup? Will you have any treatments (tanning, waxing etc) beforehand? Likewise for your OH. Will you try and gym more etc?
Meals - Will you have a meal with family the night before, day after etc? Quite common.
Confetti - If you want to hand some out.
Honeymoon/clothes (a whole other kettle of fish).

re: your question on marquee weddings. They can be very expensive, yes...On top of paying for the marquee, you have to think about toilets, catering tents, staff, furniture, etc - it can add up quite horrifically.

wanchai_2

lollyb - thanks for all your recommendations! Yes please, pm me your photographer's details.

To give you an idea of the type of photos we like, we love this style - check out the wedding day galleries:

http://www.oscar-and-rose.co.uk/

BTW, we don't need a registrar for a Catholic church - just the church register!

The ceremony will be at around 1pm.

ETA: thanks for being so nice about the Monsoon dress, hope it looks as good on me as it does in the pic.

wanchai_2

Idiophreak - good points!!! We have probably under-budgeted for all that stuff.

I have probably allocated too little to my own accessories - as you say, veils and whatnot can be costly! Oh dear!

My bridesmaid is a trained beautician so can probably do our makeup on the day (yay another freebie lol) but she and my mum and I will all be going to the hairdresser.

I will be having beauty treatments no doubt - in fact, I have resolved to start treating myself to facials! So best put that in. I can offset it by not buying any more skincare stuff till I've used my stash (which is huge).

Confetti will be dried lavender or something, and we will make little paper cones for it.

BTW, I should say that we are *buying* OH a suit, not hiring one! More economical in the long run imho.

I probably will have a meal with the family the evening before (as will OH with his), and numerous visitors to my mum's house in the run-up to the big day! Eek, it all adds up!

A marquee wedding scares the life out of me, the cost and logistics sound terrifying! But some of the best venues only have marquee sites - country houses etc can usually only accommodate about 50 inside.

Idiophreak

wanchai wrote: »

A marquee wedding scares the life out of me, the cost and logistics sound terrifying! But some of the best venues only have marquee sites - country houses etc can usually only accommodate about 50 inside.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I loved our marquee wedding to bits - and it was in such a beautiful location - I wouldn't have changed a thing - but it was a long, long way from the cheapest or most straightforward way of getting married.

I was quite thankful that we had an event management company take care of: Site prep (mowing, rolling etc), marquees (3 for us, one for caterers), toilets, generator, electrics, lighting, dancefloor, carpet, furniture, kitchen equipment, catering, service, bar, decoration, arranging car parking etc - If I'd needed to coordinate all that, on top of the usual wedding stuff, it would have broken me, I think. I spoke to a family friend who organised her daughter's marquee wedding herself and she said it was the worst experience of her life - and by the day, she was so tired and full of resentment for the thing that she barely enjoyed it...Very sad.

aarchk

My totally beautiful veil cost £17.50 from a lovely lady on ebay - pink_margaret2005, just email her for custom design quote (ie tell her what you want). DO NOT buy at full price in the shop! My veil was the exact same veil was £100 in my dress shop, same quality and everything.

I have seen some people buy fab shoes from newlook, worth keeping an eye out! Also before I forget remember to freecycle. I got a lot of jam jars and picture frames (used for table names) from there.

Gleeful

I hired my chair covers from https://www.whitechaircovers.co.uk, we got 80 for around £170 inc delivery and collection.

My dress (worth £3000) was £300 off eBay!

wanchai_2

Hello all

Sorry for the delay in replying - was very busy all weekend looking at venues!

Venue 1 - NT property - stunning location and has cottages for guests but the dining room can't accommodate everyone, such a shame.

Venue 2 - country house - fab location but the dining room is REALLY dull and dark, and no accommodation for overnight guests.

Venue 3 (the venue I described in post #11) - small country house hotel - stunning dining room, great facilities, quaint, charming etc - we are seriously considering it.

Venue 3 would work out at about £45 per head - possibly less - we are supplying our own wine and are assuming 70 bottles for 100 guests. They only charge corkage on actual consumption and return unopened bottles to us. This price includes all the aforementioned stuff. It doesn't include chair covers (and the chairs need them, they're dirty), but we might ask them to throw the covers in for free as we don't need a table plan or menus (we're doing our own). OH is a great haggler! So that's about £4,500 for the reception, which is terrifying, but that includes all wine etc. Also, the room is so stunningly beautiful that it doesn't need decorating. They provide lovely tall candelabras and red rose petals on the tables (to match the red curtains) and, with the crockery, cutlery and glassware, it looks amazing. So we will save £££, especially on flowers! We will do our own shabby chic/vintage style decorations in the bar beside the dining room, which will be very cheap.

My Monsoon dress from eBay has arrived!!!! I got it posted to work, am dying to get it home and unwrap it and try it on!!!!!!!!!!!! :j:j:j:j


OH is considering wearing a suit that he already owns, it is really nice and he's only worn it 4 times. He thinks that it matches his best man's 'good' suit, would be very handy if it did. So we are saving money somewhere!

Idiophreak wrote: »

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I loved our marquee wedding to bits - and it was in such a beautiful location - I wouldn't have changed a thing - but it was a long, long way from the cheapest or most straightforward way of getting married.

I was quite thankful that we had an event management company take care of: Site prep (mowing, rolling etc), marquees (3 for us, one for caterers), toilets, generator, electrics, lighting, dancefloor, carpet, furniture, kitchen equipment, catering, service, bar, decoration, arranging car parking etc - If I'd needed to coordinate all that, on top of the usual wedding stuff, it would have broken me, I think. I spoke to a family friend who organised her daughter's marquee wedding herself and she said it was the worst experience of her life - and by the day, she was so tired and full of resentment for the thing that she barely enjoyed it...Very sad.

OMG. Sounds scary!!! Although it's mainly a cost issue for us - if we could afford it, we would go for the marquee/tipi option. How much did your wedding reception work out at, per head? If you don't mind me asking.

aarchk wrote: »

My totally beautiful veil cost £17.50 from a lovely lady on ebay - pink_margaret2005, just email her for custom design quote (ie tell her what you want). DO NOT buy at full price in the shop! My veil was the exact same veil was £100 in my dress shop, same quality and everything.

I have seen some people buy fab shoes from newlook, worth keeping an eye out! Also before I forget remember to freecycle. I got a lot of jam jars and picture frames (used for table names) from there.

Thanks for the tip-off, I suspect that eBay is about to become my new best friend!!! :rotfl: I want to use picture frames for table plans as well, preferably mismatched.

Gleeful wrote: »

I hired my chair covers from www.whitechaircovers.co.uk, we got 80 for around £170 inc delivery and collection.

My dress (worth £3000) was £300 off eBay!

Wow, that's fantastic. :T Well done you!