Engaged - what now!

katebl

Hey all,

Very new to this - have been lurking on here for a few days but definitely think I need some help!

We are newly engaged and planning an engagement party for before the end of the year - thinking of booking a local hall with kitchen, and putting on a buffet and drinks for around 100 guests (assuming they all want to come!). Was hoping if we asked family to hire a DJ for us (if we can't get a friend to do it) we may be able top do it on a budget of around £1,000. A few people have said "why free drink?" but at the moment we can sort of spare the money, whereas by the time we get married (thinking 2014) we'll be homeowners with a lot less to splash!

We would like to get married at a local register office (which thankfully is beautiful!), but aside from the cost of that - £600 max. depending on date - I haven't a clue what we should be doing. Would like to have a budget in mind that we can save towards - so what would you expect of a typical registry office wedding, and what do I need to allow for?

The last wedding I went to I was a bridesmaid, however as I was only 10 I don't remember much at all! Any help appreciated.

Gem123_2

Congratulations!

Looking around on this forum will help you. When we had just started planning I found out a lot on here. Good luck and enjoy the planning!

Marrying my wonderful OH on the 5th April 2013

Idiophreak

Stolen this from a post on another thread...This is a rough idea of what everything cost as a proportion of our budget:
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%)
Insurance (0.5%)

Rest assured that you can spend *any* budget on a wedding, no problem...so really, you have to work from that side of things - decide how long you want the engagement to be, work out how much you can save each month and multiply it out. Add on any contribution from family etc and then start working out how to get everything for that budget....

If_My_Pennies_Were_Pounds

Congratulations!

As people have already said, take a look around the boards, you'll get plenty of advice from everyone.

Most of all enjoy it, don't try to get too stressed!

If you're looking for someone to help out with invitations and stationery (for both the engagement party and the wedding) then you could PM me, might be able to help!

clearing_out_my_pockets

If I were you, I would flip the question round and work out how much you can realistically afford to save for the wedding before 2014 and work around that figure.

In terms of what you would 'expect' at a wedding - how long is a bit of string, really??? In the past few years, myself and two close friends have all got married, and my brother gets married next year.

The first friend to get married had a 4.30 registry office ceremony, followed by three course wedding breakfast, then an evening buffet and cash bar. She had no photographer, no favours, don't remember the centrepieces, to be honest and she did her own make-up.

Our wedding this year we had a 2.30 church ceremony with two course sit down and an evening buffet with a limited free bar. We had the full works but made our budget work extremely hard pushing suppliers for their absolute minimum prices, I got my dress in a sample sale, bought the bridesmaids dresses when there was a 20% off offer on, had my normal hairdresser do my hair, and had my makeup done in Boots.

My other friend got married in August. Registry office affair at 11am (I believe) with just siblings, parents and children present. No reception, just a nice lunch in a little hotel. No cake, no speeches, just what was right for them.

My brother - who knows??? I believe he's having a later civil ceremony (incidentally at our reception venue) with a buffet in the evening. A lot of the 'frills' will be crafted by my mum.

The gist of that is that nothing is really 'expected' at weddings these days!