Anyone having a 2014 wedding?

Sundaysgirl

RobynLouise wrote: »

I'm getting married August 30th 2014, and I can't wait! aside from dress, venue, photographer and registrar do you think there's anything I need to be sorting now or can I slow down for 6 months and start actively planning again at the beginning of next year?

We're getting married in April and are doing as much as possible now, even so we found that cars, music, florists etc are getting booked up now for April 2014 and beyond. So my advice would be that, if you have specific ideas/suppliers in mind, book sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment. Just make sure you have insurance in place first!

I'm sure you'll be fine if you wait, I guess it just depends how much of a control-freak/worrier you are... I'm a complete stress-head so have sorted pretty much all the major things

Sundaysgirl

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

Hey, seems like we're all getting on well! Some of you sound so organised :rotfl: Given that my wedding is 1st March 2013 it's now only 9 months away, eek!

This weekend, OH has been sorting out the band and provisionally booke done, just need to check over ts & cs and send deposit. In my mind, the big stressful things were venue, catering, band and dress and we have sorted all of those now :j:j

Next I'm planning on finding bridesmaid dresses for my four lovely ladies. They all came round for a 'bridemaids night' last night that was really fun, we had cocktails, a couple of rom coms and pizzas didn't get to bed til nearly 4 so needless to say I'm feeling a bit lazy today!

I also want to start trying on wedding rings, I know there's no rush here but I am weirdly excited to find something to look perfect with my engagement ring. My ring is quite unusual and very high-set, so it's going to be a bit of a challenge but I'm looking forward to it!

Wow Bluegreen, you've sorted loads recently!

We seem to go in stages - we have recently:

Paid church deposit
Bought some wedding shoes - took me ages to find right height heels (5" :eek:). I have my heart set on a very expensive pair but they're OOS so these are my cheap back-ups for now. Not too weddingy so will wear again.
Booked car and paid deposit
Booked florist and paid deposit (boy, did it take a lot more time - and money - to sort the flowers that we had expected!)
Booked honeymoon and paid deposit :j

We still need to sort music for the evening - going to try to do this weekend.

Have met another stationer, just waiting for quote.

Started to think about the finer details such as favours and decorations.

Oh, and I've decided to try making the cake myself... trial run this weekend!

So I think we're pretty much there now.

Sundaysgirl

minerva_windsong wrote: »

I've emailed the registrar to sort out a time for the ceremony and they've told me they only do ceremonies starting on the hour, so I pulled together a rough order for the day to help me work out timings (yes I am that bored):

1 PM - ceremony
2 PM - ceremony finishes, photos, reception drinks, canapes, possibly receiving line (after ceremony or just before dinner)
4 PM - meal starts
6.30 PM - speeches (dad, OH, best man)
7 PM - evening guests arrive
7.30 PM - cut cake and first dance
9.30 PM - evening buffet
Midnight - disco and bar finish

Does this sound all right for those of you that are a bit further on with your planning? I just don't want to start the ceremony too late in the day because I want the light for the pictures (our wedding's in November), but equally don't want people to be spending hours milling around and getting bored. And am I doing the cake-cutting too late?

I am also considering doing a receiving line of sorts but not sure when to have it and how many people - ie if it's better to have all the wedding party or just me and OH, and whether to do it as people come out of the ceremony room or before going in to dinner. Is anyone else doing a receiving line? If so how are you having yours?

We're getting married at 12.30, though this is in a church about 30 mins drive from our venue. Your timings are pretty much the same as ours, taking this into consideration. Ours are:

12.30 ceremony
1.15 pics and milling around church for 30 mins
2.15 arrive at venue, drinks reception
4.00 call for dinner, to start eating at 4.30
6.30 speeches
7.15/30 cutting of cake and first dance

We're not having evening guests, and are having a smallish (60 guests) wedding, so this might impact a bit. Our wedding planner is happy with the timings so whilst I'm sure things will run late on the day, I think we're on the right track.

We've not decided re. receiving line, though if we do do one it will be before the meal and just the two of us I expect.

HTH

lettice

Just a quick update on our search for a reception venue... Think we may have found one! It seems reasonably priced and a great size for our numbers! Hoping to visit soon with a view to booking it. Very excited!

Just have to see whether it is as lovely in real life as I hope, pick a date, and find a ceremony venue! Tempted just to book the local registry office - we just want to get married at the end of the day but there are a couple of quirky places we are considering.

lettice

Does this look about right? We've not booked the venue yet but we want to soon. I don't want to book it if it turns out I've under-budgeted for everything else!

Civil ceremony at registry office £119.00
Reception venue hire, service cost and corkage fee £2,500.00
Food for 75 guests (max. £30 pp) £2,250.00
Drink £500.00
Cake from M&S £200.00
Bride's dress & accessories (high street) £380.00
Bridesmaid's dress & accessories (high street) £120.00
Hair, make up & manicure £200.00
Groom's suit & accessories £300.00
Bride's bouquet and bridesmaid's bouquet £80.00
Boutonnieres/corsages (3 groomsmen and 2 sets of parents) £40.00
Reception decorations & centrepieces £300.00
Music £500.00
Photographer £770.00
Stationery £100.00
Wedding rings £500.00
Attendant gifts, parent gifts, and favours £100.00
TOTAL: £8,959.00

The venue hire for the reception includes accommodation for up to 22 guests. Around 2/3 of our guests will be family members and all of our guests will need to travel to the wedding. Would it be terribly rude if we asked them for a contribution if they wish to stay at the venue? We are working on the premise that we will be able to pay for everything ourselves but a contribution would, of course, help and the guests will need to pay to somewhere, anyway. I expect we will offer the on-site accommodation to our immediate family first. We are happy to absorb the cost though as what is most important to us is that everyone of our guests is able to join us to celebrate. We don't want them to think they are subsidising our wedding though!

The capacity of our venue is 75 and, at the moment, we've got around 65 guests we wish to invite. The venue has advised they can do a menu for around £25 pp too but I'm trying to overestimate so we don't get caught out.

I am only having one bridesmaid - my sister - and I want to offer to pay for her dress. My fianc! will likely have his brothers as ushers and a close friend as a best man but I'm not sure whether we feel the need for them to all be wearing matching suits.

We haven't got a budget as such - I am happy to fork out for things we will use again (like make up or shoes or a suit) but I want to keep other costs as low as possible without scrimping too much. What's important is that we get married and have a nice time celebrating with our close friends and family. We want to buy a house before long so can't go mad.

Sundaysgirl

Lettice, are you buying the groom's suit etc? Either way, it seems a bit high. IIRC we paid around £150 for suit hire pp, and that wasn't the cheapest we could find either.

We're getting married in church so can't help with registry fees I'm afraid.

Hair & make-up has been one of the areas where I completely screwed up my budget - there are some cheap deals out there, but on the whole it seems that as soon as you mention it's for wedding - and for the bride, esp - the price doubles. Hair & MUA just for me is costing around £420.

Ditto flowers - average bridal bouquet seems to be ~£75. Centrepieces... how many tables are you planning? I'd budget ~£50 per table. What about flowers for the RO??

Photographer costs vary wildly, depends what you want/expect. Personally, I would budget a little more in this area and cut back elsewhere.

Are you making your own stationery?

Rings... seems very low for white gold/platinum, so again depends what you're planning.

As you may have noticed, weddings can be as cheap or as expensive as you want to make them - it depends what your expectations are!

In terms of charging for the rooms, I think this is fine - I don't think people will expect you to cover this cost. Can you perhaps arrange it so that the venue bills your guests, then knocks the amount recouped off your final bill? When we were looking at venues, this is what the hotels seemed to all do if you have a wedding there and hire the rooms.

Sundaysgirl

Oh, and I REALLY recommend setting a budget - this will help you keep track of your spends and where you're on track (from personal experience there will be some areas where you get it wrong, but others where you surprise yourself and things come in at much less than expected), otherwise I think it could be so easily for the costs to spiral!

lettice

Sundaysgirl - set aside £300 if we opt to buy. My fianc! is very tall and slim - I think he needs about a 37" inside leg, which is about 6" more than his waist - and he'd certainly have occasion to wear the suit again. We may opt to hire, which will be cheaper. I'll leave it to my fianc! to decide - not sure whether he wants a very wedding-y outfit or something he can wear again!

I'm thinking of £200 for hair and make up if I go to John Lewis/MAC and get made up by one of the ladies there. I'll buy the bits myself then to apply it myself. I want to look like myself on our wedding day... In any case, MUAs in my area seem to charge around £35 for a trial and £70 on the day and, although I've not looked into hair, I think £100 ought to cover it.

I don't think we will bother with flowers for the registry office since we won't really be there very long and the ones I've been to as a guest have always had some small arrangement, anyway. Good point on the bouquets - I really like daffodils and wild flowers so I was hoping that would keep costs down a bit. I'll build in some flexibility there though.

As for the tables, I think we're going to have them set up village hall style rather than using round ones. I think the £320 I've earmarked will cover that without much difficulty. Quite like the flowers in jam jars rustic look so hope that will help too.

I was going to order save the date cards and invitations from Vistaprint (or similar) - they indicate that they cost around £8 for ten invites. I don't think we will need more than about 50 (lots of families/couples coming) so that's around £40. Even if we need to spend on inserts to put in the envelopes regarding the plans for the day, I think we should be able to do that and stay within that estimate. We will make our own place cards though.

Planning to buy platinum wedding rings from Blue Nile - cheapest one is just under £200 inc VAT for me and £744 inc VAT for him. We're hoping to find a cheaper one for him in the Jewellery Quarter - can't see why there is such a big difference for an extra couple of mms on Blue Nile. To be on the safe side, I'll bump that budget up a little so we don't have any surprises.

I did say we haven't got a budget above but I just can't bring myself to go above £10k so maybe that's it then!

angel11

Just woke up & realised it's 1 year today until I get married!!!!! :j

my_definition

lettice wrote: »

Sundaysgirl - set aside £300 if we opt to buy. My fianc! is very tall and slim - I think he needs about a 37" inside leg, which is about 6" more than his waist - and he'd certainly have occasion to wear the suit again. We may opt to hire, which will be cheaper. I'll leave it to my fianc! to decide - not sure whether he wants a very wedding-y outfit or something he can wear again!

I'm thinking of £200 for hair and make up if I go to John Lewis/MAC and get made up by one of the ladies there. I'll buy the bits myself then to apply it myself. I want to look like myself on our wedding day... In any case, MUAs in my area seem to charge around £35 for a trial and £70 on the day and, although I've not looked into hair, I think £100 ought to cover it.

I don't think we will bother with flowers for the registry office since we won't really be there very long and the ones I've been to as a guest have always had some small arrangement, anyway. Good point on the bouquets - I really like daffodils and wild flowers so I was hoping that would keep costs down a bit. I'll build in some flexibility there though.

As for the tables, I think we're going to have them set up village hall style rather than using round ones. I think the £320 I've earmarked will cover that without much difficulty. Quite like the flowers in jam jars rustic look so hope that will help too.

I was going to order save the date cards and invitations from Vistaprint (or similar) - they indicate that they cost around £8 for ten invites. I don't think we will need more than about 50 (lots of families/couples coming) so that's around £40. Even if we need to spend on inserts to put in the envelopes regarding the plans for the day, I think we should be able to do that and stay within that estimate. We will make our own place cards though.

Planning to buy platinum wedding rings from Blue Nile - cheapest one is just under £200 inc VAT for me and £744 inc VAT for him. We're hoping to find a cheaper one for him in the Jewellery Quarter - can't see why there is such a big difference for an extra couple of mms on Blue Nile. To be on the safe side, I'll bump that budget up a little so we don't have any surprises.

I did say we haven't got a budget above but I just can't bring myself to go above £10k so maybe that's it then!

The prices on vistprint vary alot i think we got 20 for 12ish so id watch prices if i was you -also you can get £5 cashback for a first order if youve not used them before