Last minute wedding for under £2.5k - am I mad?

bananacakes

Hello all! :j

Well after saving and saving for two years and not getting anywhere me and my OH decided sod it, it's just ONE day and we'd rather not wait another 2 years to save up for a big wedding, we're just going to have a nice cheap affair with a budget of £2500 and we've booked it all for 6th January 2012!! So I have 82 days to plan everything! *gulp* I know that I am going to be pretty much living on this board over the next 3 months as I am desperate to do everything as cheap as possible!

Below is the budget - if anyone has any advice on how to get the best deal for the items in red I would really appreciate it!

Also if there's anything I've forgotten and I'm sure I have then please let me know!

Notice to Registrar - £67.50
Stag/Hen Nights - probably not having any

Church Ceremony - £200 donation
Flowers - £50 this may be ambitious but I plan on doing my own bouquets and then using silk flowers (or cheap holly!) for button holes. We won't have to decorate the church as it will already be done up for the Christmas season
Gifts for wedding party - £70
Organist - £50(I am actually a church organist, bit gutted I can't do this myself! )
Photographer - Free, my friend is a photographer and will be doing this for us as her gift to us
Stationery - £50 I was thinking of just doing the invites/order of service/place cards myself on the computer, hopefully this won't be much more than I've budgeted for
Transport - Free. The venue is round the corner from the church so won't have to bus people anywhere and my friend's dad has a nice car and has offered to play chauffeur for the day
Reception Venue Hire - £100. We're hiring out the hall in a masonic lodge, it's not too shabby looking but I plan on attacking it with fairy lights to make it extra nice
Catering - £747.50 - we're having a buffet for £11.50ph, 70guests but 13 of them are children so we're catering for 65? I hope this is enough.
Decorations - £150 - I've actually picked that number out of thin air, just hoping that will stretch! Table covers are included in the cost of the hall, I don't think we can afford chair covers but I'm going to either get a cheap roll of organza and make some bows for the chairs anyway or get this off ebay. There will already be christmas decos up in the hall so I'll just be adding to this really with some pound shop specials hopefully!
Entertainment - At the moment we are not planning an evening reception because we can't afford to feed everyone twice but if there is money left over this may change, we have family members with a band/DJ equipment which can be used free of charge if we need it.
Drinks - £150 We want to put 2 bottles of wine on each table and there's 9 tables, we're thinking about getting them cheap from Aldi and corkage is £3 per bottle so that's £108 for the wine and hopefully what's left will cover orange juice. Don't think we can afford to give anyone anything sparkly on arrival or a drink to toast with, I know, how stingy but if we have money left over we will put it towards this.
Favours - £70 Either cheap christmas themed favours or donation to charity
Wedding Cake - £100. Hoping to get one from M&S or maybe try buying plain from somewhere and decorating myself?
Honeymoon - not having one
Wedding Rings - £120. We're just going to buy cheap and cheerful ones from H samuel for now and perhaps in 10 years time if OH has a fantastic job we will get new ones, but to be honest we're not that fussed. Please let me know if you know of any good cheap online jewellery shops!
Wedding Dress - £50. Already bought it on ebay, Littlewoods catalogue return rrp £290!! Love it!
Veil/Shoes/tiara - £20. Already got shoes I can wear, getting veil and tiara from ebay.
Groom's suit - £60 - Really don't have a clue where to hire or would it be cheaper to buy a cheap one? Is £60 enough? Advice needed please!!
Bridesmaids dresses - Free as they're buying their own from high street instead of giving a gift and are choosing themselves so it's something they can wear again.
Flower Girl Dress - £25. Our baby will be 1 year old and will be our flower girl! Picked out her dress on ebay.
Best man/usher suits - £200? Really stuck on this one. Is it too much to ask that the pay for this themselves or do we really have to pay for it? Do the fathers have to be matching? Not sure of the etiquette here! Help!
Hairdressing & Makeup - £50 Friend is doing makeup, hair from cheap mobile hairdresser


OK I think I've covered the big things but I've probably forgotten all the little bits! So far that's all coming to a grand total of £2389.50 so not much room for extra bits and pieces. What do you think?

Banana x

picklepick

Hi banana!

Firstly, if I were you, I'd forget about favours full stop. Then thats another £70 you can spend on drinks which your guests would probably appreciate more anyway!

How many men will there be in the wedding party altogether? including your future hubby?

What time of day are you getting married? Had you considered having a late ceremony, then you can probably still have just the one buffet, allowing you to have a later evening reception if that's what you wanted without having to feed people twice

nikki1520

For the buffet, at our wedding, we catered for 2/3 of the guests. You've got the ones who spend all their time drinking, the ones who never eat very much, the picky ones who won't eat unless they know exactly what's in it, the overexcited kids who can't eat, and a couple who will fill their plate three or four times- they do balance each other out!

purple45

In the evening you could always move on to a pub that provides food and let people buy their own if you want to continue the party. I arranged my sister's wedding a few years ago. She got the dress etc from ebay. After the wedding we had a meal at pizza express and then back to my house for a party that lasted the rest of the weekend. It was entirely non traditional apart from the dress but it was so much fun for all!

bananacakes

picklepick wrote: »

Hi banana!

Firstly, if I were you, I'd forget about favours full stop. Then thats another £70 you can spend on drinks which your guests would probably appreciate more anyway!

Good point. Drink is definitely more important! Thanks!

picklepick wrote: »

How many men will there be in the wedding party altogether? including your future hubby?

4 altogether. H2b, best man plus 2 ushers. But there will also be the 2 dads. So I guess that makes 6? Do they really have to wear the same thing?

picklepick wrote: »

What time of day are you getting married? Had you considered having a late ceremony, then you can probably still have just the one buffet, allowing you to have a later evening reception if that's what you wanted without having to feed people twice

Well we've booked the ceremony for 1pm because the priest was worried if we left it too late we'd be coming out in the dark at that time of year and it might feel a bit grim. I guess if we pushed it back to 2pm, out at 3pm, photos til 4pm, do the speeches first...the buffet wouldn't be until 5ish? Do you think that's late enough? I think the main reason we think we need to feed people is that almost all of our guests are coming from far and wide so will be travelling and have to stay in a hotel for the night. My H2b is still a student and works at pizza hut part time so if we wanted them to supply the buffet he gets a hefty discount! We could probably do the night time nibbles for under £100...arrgghh alcohol or food?! What's most important? :beer:

Owain_Moneysaver

bananacakes wrote: »

Organist - £50(I am actually a church organist, bit gutted I can't do this myself! )

Could you organise a swap with the other organist, so you cover one of his/her shifts in exchange for him/her doing the wedding?

bananacakes wrote: »

Entertainment - At the moment we are not planning an evening reception because we can't afford to feed everyone twice

If people have had lunch they shouldn't need too much - maybe a couple of people would do a few trays of sausage rolls (cheap from Iceland etc) etc in the hall kitchen?

bananacakes wrote: »

Drinks - £150 We want to put 2 bottles of wine on each table and there's 9 tables, we're thinking about getting them cheap from Aldi and corkage is £3 per bottle so that's £108 for the wine and hopefully what's left will cover orange juice. Don't think we can afford to give anyone anything sparkly on arrival or a drink to toast with, I know, how stingy but if we have money left over we will put it towards this.

If you know anyone with a Sodastream you can make your own 'champagne' from cheap wine. Or have a hardly-alcoholic fruit punch.

bananacakes wrote: »

Groom's suit - £60 - Really don't have a clue where to hire or would it be cheaper to buy a cheap one? Is £60 enough? Advice needed please!!
Best man/usher suits - £200? Really stuck on this one. Is it too much to ask that the pay for this themselves or do we really have to pay for it? Do the fathers have to be matching? Not sure of the etiquette here! Help!

Can they wear their own lounge suits, and you buy waistcoats/ties so everyone has something matching? Apart from the groom, I don't think anyone will mind very much.

bananacakes

nikki1520 wrote: »

For the buffet, at our wedding, we catered for 2/3 of the guests. You've got the ones who spend all their time drinking, the ones who never eat very much, the picky ones who won't eat unless they know exactly what's in it, the overexcited kids who can't eat, and a couple who will fill their plate three or four times- they do balance each other out!

That's so true, we could probably get away with catering for less, I'd just be worried we'd get caught out and run out of food! Maybe we could just cater for say 55? That would save more money for drink!

bubbles0169

its not stingy to not give your guests lots to drink! its not about accommodating your guests its about you two getting married!
matalan have a big sale on some suits at the mo and i found this ebay seller for waistcoats
the fathers do usually match but its yuor wedding, your budget, you can ask them to provide their own if you cant afford it
im getting my own bits and bobs for my artificial flower bouquet and will get a bouquet of fresh flowers, probably roses from tesco, for the BM bouquets
and im happy to say the m&s cakes are a little cheaper than that, looking at how many guests you have youl only need the extra large cake @£56 and a cutting cake @ £22

littlemissleek

Firstly, congratulations. Our engagement was 17 weeks long and we had a wonderful wedding day. (and 6th Jan is my birthday!)

Just 2 thoughts from me:
Stationary - check ebay, we had personalised, printed invitations from a lady on ebay and they were around £25.
Wedding cake - it really depends on what sort of cake you were looking for but given the date, you could probably use a store bought Christmas cake and end up way under your budget but dress it up with ribbons in your colour or a bride and groom topper.

Good luck and enjoy the next 3 months.

Murtle

Food is more important if there isn't anywhere that people can get food, they can buy their own alcohol.

Costco do good big chocolate cakes, or buy a large Christmas cake that is covered in white icing or start making your own now :-)

If you have access to Costco might be worth looking at some of the food there in general (and wine etc)

PinkPrincess83

No, your not mad at all, and its definately do able for your budget.

Invites- have you looked on vistaprint? I am using their free business cards for rsvp (with a song request on the back) and using their free post cards for my evening invites, in total including envelopes and postage and some extra writing its costing me just over £10. Placecards can be picked up very cheaply on ebay.

Suits- I would have a look at how much it costs, I think if you want matching suits then really you should at least put in a contribution. If they already have suits then couldnt they use what they already have. Have a look on Asda, you could pick up a basic suit very cheap, but looking online they dont look cheap (probably cheap on tesco aswell but I couldnt get their plage to load!).

Cake- I think taking into account your numbers you could this for less than £100.

I think the rest of your budget it very realistic. I would say I would spend on food rather than drink- people can go to the bar and buy their own drinks once they have drunk the complimentary drink or 2 youve provided for them.