Our 3k budget wedding planning

MrsDrink

I think that is how we're managing to keep our costs down - by not having a venue as such (our back garden); doing the buffet ourselves (for maximum of £3- £3.50 per person rather than the extortionate costs I saw online); and buying all the alcohol in the various sales (no corkage fee). With the alcohol, for example, I certainly haven't scrimped and saved lol - I have enough booze for our guests to pickle themselves if they wished. I envision the majority of them will even be taking a bottle of wine/couple of bottles of beer away with them as their 'favour' as I have so much ha!.

jtr2803

I love the sound of your reception MrsD, I have many fond memories of bank holiday BBQs we had at my friends parents house, they would put up a big gazebo, take the stereo outside and we would just eat and drink all day and night, was such good fun in a relaxing environment! If we, or any of our close family, had a big enough garden then I would have loved to do something similar.

I had a bit of a result yesterday, managed to bag myself 4 mirror cube vases from someone fairly local on Ebay, I'd already bookmarked a few florist websites with then on as I really like them. When I saw the listing, initially it was £9.99 for 4 x 14cm square vases and then the lady dropped it to £7.50 :T Two of them are brand new, two have been used and one has some tiny chips at the top but you won't be able to see them when it's filled. They retail online for around £16 each plus delivery so I got myself a bargain

MrsDrink

Oh how annoying - I updated our spends and then it disappeared!! For ease here's a copy of our (my) spreadsheet page. 18 sleeps to go so everything is pretty much sorted now :eek:


Item................................%...............................Spent
Marriage Certificates x2.......0.................................£8
Catering...........................8.................................£234.46
Cake................................2.................................£64.37
Hair.................................4..................................£119.79
Gifts................................3..................................£90.87
Registry Office...................8..................................£250
Notice..............................2..................................£67
Wedding Dress...................5..................................£156 (plus £705 paid for by my mum)
Seating............................4..................................£109
Photos.............................7..................................£205.49
Wedding Insurance.............1..................................£18.2
Decorations.......................9..................................£252.61
Underwear.........................2..................................£50.7
My shoes..........................3...................................£79
Jewellery...........................2..................................£61.99
Rings................................10.................................£300.08
Alcohol/Drinks....................12.................................£360.51
MrD's outfit........................1..................................£38.75 (plus £92 paid for by MrD's parents)
Entertainment.....................1..................................£42.78
Flowers.............................1...................................£37.96
Invites & Thank you Cards.....3..................................£75.42
MrD's shoes........................2..................................£48.94
Marquee............................1...................................£34
Hen day ...........................8....................................£250
Stag night.........................0.....................................£0 (he doesn't want one)


Total spend by us: £2955.92

Total gifted by parents: £797
Grand Total: £3752.92

74jax

I love the % idea ;-) I wonder what most people spend the most on. i think ours will be alcohol/food for the guest too!

MrsDrink

If you put my dress, shoes, jewellery and underwear together that comes to over 10% as well
It was one of my fellow July brides that gave me the idea Ha and I do love my spreadsheet so I thought why not!!

MrsDrink

So now the spending is over I thought you might like to see this:

The Final Bill

Item................................%............. ..................Spent
Marriage Certificates x2.......0.................................£8
Catering...........................9.............. ...................£272.18
Cake................................2............. ....................£63.37
Hair.................................4............ ......................£109.79
Gifts................................1............ ......................£40.87
Registry Office...................8........................ ..........£250
Notice..............................2............. .....................£67
Wedding Dress...................5......................... .........£156 (plus £705 paid for by my mum)
Seating............................4.............. ....................£109
Photos.............................7.............. ....................£205.49
Wedding Insurance.............1........................... .......£18.2
Decorations.......................9............... ...................£252.61
Underwear.........................2............... ...................£50.7
My shoes..........................3.................. .................£79
Jewellery...........................2............. .....................£61.99
Rings................................10........... ......................£300.08
Alcohol/Drinks....................12...................... ...........£360.51
MrD's outfit........................1................... ...............£38.75 (plus £92 paid for by MrD's parents)
Entertainment.....................1............... ...................£42.78
Flowers.............................1............. ......................£37.96
Invites & Thank you Cards.....3..................................£75.4 2
MrD's shoes........................2.................... ..............£48.94
Marquee............................1.............. .....................£34
Hen day ...........................6...................... ..............£187
Stag night.........................0................... ..................£0 (he didn't have one)


Total spend by us: £2869.64

Total gifted by parents: £797
Grand Total: £3666.64*

(*Note though - if my dress wasn't gifted by my mum I would have gone with another dress I saw in the sale which was £250 - we'd still have gotten MrD's suit. So our Total Spend By us if not gifted to by parents would have been: £3061.64. Not bad really!! Especially when the original budget had nothing in for a photographer but because we'd spent so carefully we were able to afford a professional!)

Oh and interestingly - with everything I've bought I've also recorded what I *could* have spend had we not cut corners/done things ourselves. I have calculated that our £2869.64 wedding could have cost us £5056.04 :T

74jax

Thanks MrsD - when do we see your wedding day pics :-)

MrsDrink

We're picking them up tomorrow, but not sure if I'll get round to putting them on until Sunday. (Tomorrow is our 'reception' so got lots of jobs to do).

74jax

Well we've just been up in Scotland for the bank hol weekend, and I've collected some more shells for our tables, so i've enough for 4 tables now.... just 8 more tables to go :T

And they were free (hhmmm should I include the cost of the weekend :rotfl:) so our current money situ is still as it was :money:

leajonesy

3K is very do able ours is just over 2k with everything added up