Cheap venue in Hampshire and budgeting help needed

Leona1295

Hi everyone,

My boyfriend FINALLY proposed (after 6 years of insisting that marriage is an outdated institution that has no purpose in modern life!) We have decided to wait 3 years so that we have time to save up and get closer to saving for a house as well. We want to budget £5000 for everything except the honeymoon and I don't know where to start dividing up the budget!

The venues I have looked at all want £3000-£4000 just for hiring the place out and they insist on using their own catering services. There is no way I can afford these prices!

How much of my budget should I be putting aside for the venue and catering costs? Does anyone have any venues that they could recommend?

A bt of background info -

The priority for us is the number of guests (120 day, 180 evening) and a lovely venue e.g. a barn with beautiful gardens. My plan for being able to afford to feed them all is to do an afternoon tea for the wedding breakfast and a hog roast in the evening so that the all day guests get a hot meal at some point. I need a venue that will allow us to bring in our own catering to help keep these costs very low.

My parents have offered some money so I think I will ask them to pay for the photographer as I know that will be one of the biggest costs.

I have no idea how much everything else will cost or even what else I need to have.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Leona

Idiophreak

Ok, the first thing to decide is a rough date. Most crucially which month you'll get married in and on which day of the week. If you choose, say, a Tuesday in February, your money is going to go a LOT further than if you try a Saturday in the summer. (we could be talking a third of the cost or less).

You can find plenty of barns that will allow you to use your own caterers and so on - think you can search on confetti?

In terms of budget, the biggest costs at ours were (in descending cost). I've given percentages rather than amounts, as I think that's more useful:

Honeymoon (25%)
Food / drink /service (20%)
Venue (marquee) (20%)
Gifts (we both gave each other very naughty treats) (7.5%)
Brides outfit (dress, underwear, shoes, veil, accessories) (5%)
Photographers (5%)
Band (3%)
Flowers (2.5%)
Church (inc organist and bells) (2%)
Beauty treatments, hair, makeup (2%)
Mens outfits (2%)
Gifts for ushers, best men, bridesmaids, parents (2%)
Car (1%)
Cake (0.5%)
Speaker hire (0.5%)
Decorations (0.5%)

I'm actually amazed that that doesn't add up to too far off 100% - pure guestimates as I went along. Anyway, the percentages will go up and down, but I'd imagine the order's similar for most weddings (except for the wedding gifts...oops ). If there are specific things that you need rough guides on prices, just ask on here - people are very good at finding things to suit any budget

Idiophreak

OMG how rude of me - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

sharpee

Congratulations!!!!

What sort of area in Hampshire are you in?

Leona1295

Thanks Ideophreak, that list is really helpful. I've edited your post in red to show a possible budget. Does this look realistic? It's over budget by £750. Can anyone think of how I could cut back anymore?

Honeymoon - not included in £5000 budget

Food / drink /service - Tea party wedding breakfast and Hog roast for evening. Only need Champagne/sparkling wine for welcome drink and toast (who has wine with afternoon tea?!) Guests to pay for own drinks in the evening. Hog roast for the evening. I'm hoping I can do all of the food and drink for £1500.
Venue - £2000
Gifts - no gifts for each other
Brides outfit (dress, underwear, shoes, veil, accessories) - second hand/hire/family friend to make it £300
Photographers - paid for by bride's parents
Band - No band, DJ for evening entertainment - £300
Flowers - Buy from wholesaler and DIY the bouquets £100
Civil ceremony - £500
Beauty treatments, hair, makeup - £150
Mens outfits - £150
Gifts for ushers, best men, bridesmaids, parents - pay for their own
Car - £150
Cake - Friend to make as wedding gift
Decorations - £250
Stationery - Mother of the groom to make as wedding gift £100 to cover materials and postage.
Rings - £250

I think I might have found a venue! It's called Exbury Gardens in the New Forest (I can't post links). I think I could probably barter down the price by doing it on a weekday and haggling. Is it really possible to get substantial discounts off list prices? What can I use as a bargaining tool?

Thanks for all your help, I was so convinced that he wouldn't ever want to get married that I didn't think I'd need to worry about budgeting for a wedding.

Sharpee - Thanks I live just outside of Southampton (About 8 miles towards Portsmouth). I really want somewhere in the New Forest and Exbury Gardens looks like the perfect place!

Thanks,

Leona

Idiophreak

My comments in blue...

Leona1295 wrote: »

Thanks Ideophreak, that list is really helpful. I've edited your post in red to show a possible budget. Does this look realistic? It's over budget by £750. Can anyone think of how I could cut back anymore?

Honeymoon - not included in £5000 budget

Food / drink /service - Tea party wedding breakfast and Hog roast for evening. Only need Champagne/sparkling wine for welcome drink and toast (who has wine with afternoon tea?!) Guests to pay for own drinks in the evening. Hog roast for the evening. I'm hoping I can do all of the food and drink for £1500.Might struggle, will have to be very careful. A hog roast is often £10ish per person - so that's over your budget already for 180 people - then the afternoon tea on top. DIY cakes and tea etc are a good option as they can be tackled ahead of the day. Also consider the cost of wine or corkage. Can be £10/bottle (5 glasses a bottle = £240 for 120 people)
Venue - £2000 Actually seems quite high. Some nice barns round here (Oxfordshire) can be had for under a grand weekday...
Gifts - no gifts for each other
Brides outfit (dress, underwear, shoes, veil, accessories) - second hand/hire/family friend to make it £300Doable
Photographers - paid for by bride's parents
Band - No band, DJ for evening entertainment - £300Doable
Flowers - Buy from wholesaler and DIY the bouquets £100£100 isn't much - do you want table centres etc? Even very simple moneysaving options on here can be a fiver each (say a fishbowl with gerberas) - if you're having 12 tables, that's £60 already. Again, probably doable if you're careful.
Civil ceremony - £500About right
Beauty treatments, hair, makeup - £150Make sure this includes everything. This is a cost that crept up on me. We budgetted for hair and makeup on the day, inc waxing and stuff, but not for the gym leading up to it, for tanning sessions, facial treatments etc - adds up. Forgot to budget for the groom's haircut, too...
Mens outfits - £150Do you know how many you're getting? Buying/hiring? Best price online is around £60/each to hire traditional tails.
Gifts for ushers, best men, bridesmaids, parents - pay for their ownpay for their own gifts? really?
Car - £150Isn't very much, but you can find something if you shop around.
Cake - Friend to make as wedding gift
Decorations - £250This actually seems like quite a lot - amy ideas what you want?
Stationery - Mother of the groom to make as wedding gift £100 to cover materials and postage.Oh, forgot about that. Yeah, stamps are the worst of the cost if you make your own.
Rings - £250 Do you know what metals you both want? A bloke's ring can add up through virtue of being thicker. Consider the jewellery quarter or ebay...

Leona1295

Thanks for the extra input. Maybe £3500 would be a good estimate for food and venue then. I can't find any venues for less than £2000 - £3000 though! I'll have a look at venues in more detail. With the evening catering I will probably cater for 120 because I don't think everyone will want to eat.

I got two of them muddled up! Men's outfits to be paid for by themselves, gifts £150!

I think I might have to push the budget to £5500 and have a couple of hundred pounds for odds and sods to make sure we are prepared for everything.

Good point about all the beauty things, I will keep an eye on those costs!

Thank you so much for all your help! It's really useful to get my head around all of the costings.

Leona

Idiophreak

Leona1295 wrote: »

Thanks for the extra input. Maybe £3500 would be a good estimate for food and venue then.

Just putting it out there, so you're aware - but when you start looking at this kind of budget, you could *afford* to look at a traditional wedding format - 3 course breakfast and a buffet etc in the evening.

A lesson I learnt the hard way was assuming that doing something a little different would work out cheaper. Venues are very good at doing cookie-cutter weddings, all the same, bulk bought ingredients, well practised - so these are the things where they really let you drive down the price...and negotiation becomes easier. Most set packages that I saw were for around 60 people in the day and 100 in the evening...So you're in a great position to look at that deal and say "I'll take it, if you up the numbers to 120/180 for the same price...or meet us half way."

A lot of places when I went seemed to be £2000 for hire only or, say, £3500 for a package - and the package ended up costing, in the end, something like £10 extra per person for a 3 course meal.

It doesn't sound like the route you want to go down, but just an FYI.

adamg

Hi Leona, you may as well have writen your introduction for me! Except I only took 3 years to propose. We are also looking for 2014 to give us time to save most probably the summer. Also will be in Hamphire. Rhinefield House is looking best at moment, but also my friend owns east horton golf club by marwell zoo so maybe there. I could not find anything down Porstmouth way that I liked. Not viewed any yet, friends of mine got married at lainstone house winchester which was expensive and others at chilworth manor which was very nice. I would be happy with a Marquee at my rugby club and spend 5k on food and drink but she wont let me

Kohma

Try alpha entertainment for a dj cost from 150 depending on where it is and time wanted. Southampton based. Also we just booked groom suites from a company who deliver found on eBay for 50 each Richardpaulhire.co.uk and check eBay for bridesmaid dresses just ot ours for 20eacj x