What would you do?

LEJC

One of the major factors you will need to consider along with your budget is...

When do things need to be paid for.
At the moment you have £500 towards the wedding so technically you can afford this deposit...realistically on top of the £3750 for the venue and its package...you also have other expenses...

You have considered your dress and hopefully have a budget in mind for that ..but you also need to consider,shoes,hair makeup ,underwear,accessories,perhaps a veil...so those things will increase your spend...and also theres your groom and his clothes to consider too...and whats your son going to wear?...and whilst your bridesmaids are buying their outfits...who is doing hair makeup and flowers for them...and do you plan to buy them a gift as a thank you?

theres also flowers,which again whilst can be done on a budget...they do cost money...
You'll probably want to invite guests so you need to think about invites...again,possibly not a huge amount needs to be spent...but all the little amounts soon add up..theres also transport,cake,registrars fees...dont underestimate these..check the prices in your area...several hundred pounds is not an unrealistic figure!,rings...one for you and maybe your OH wants one too again something you will probably want but isnt included in your ball part hopeful figure... and a host of other items to consider....maybe even a photographer....
I think its also important to try and see if anyone can help you ie bu using the skill of someone to perhaps make your cake as a wedding present to you..that can really help reduce the budget...its good that you plan to make your invites...but the taw materials still need to be bought and so whilst you can save money on them...its also worth looking at vistaprint and places like that who offer free or discounted offers most of the time....lots of people find great satisfaction in making their own invites...but at the expense of them taking along time to make....vistaprint or suchlike may work out just as cost effective...
Your venue package allows you up to 130 evening guests too...thats a lot of invites that you are thinking of making when you add it to your daytime invites ...

I would really suggest that you sit down and plan a budget for the day...if you have 18 months between now and the wedding and your hoped budget is £5000 and you have £500 saved at the moment ,that means to stay on that budger you need to be saving at least £250 per month....each and every month to just hit your target of £5000....make a comprehensive list of the things you want and need at the wedding,and set everything a realistic price....you may find that your hoped for budget of £5000 covers it...but you may find that there are areas you will need to cut back on if you dont manage to save the amount you need...
The question you need to work out is can you do all the other things on a budget of £1250

I'm not saying dont go for it...but I am saying make sure you know how much everything else is going to cost before you jump in to such a large portion of your budget being taken by the venue....

JimmyTheWig

Jacqu79 wrote: »

we haven't really set an official budget, but I'm aiming for around £5000.

Lets say worst case scenario, you pay this £250 deposit and 6 months down the line you decide you can't afford it. Lets say you have to rebudget at £3000. You've lost £250 of this £3000 by booking this venue. It's a lot of money to lose, but it's not _that much_ money.

We have about £500 at the moment

I see you got engaged at Christmas. Giving the benefit of the doubt, you've had two months to save £500. Keep going at this rate and in 18 months time you'll have another £4500. Which, with the £500 you've got now, gives the £5000 you're budgetting for.
So even if you can keep going at this rate you'll be ok.
[Unless the £500 is from three months of saving, in which case you'd need to up your game - do you think you can?]


At the end of the day, if you've got a weekly / monthly budget that works without counting money you can't guarantee and allows you to save up the money so you can afford the place you both like, then I don't see what's stopping you.
Does your OH agree the budget (both in terms of savings and in terms of spending on the wedding)?

Jacqu79

LEJC wrote: »

One of the major factors you will need to consider along with your budget is...

When do things need to be paid for.
At the moment you have £500 towards the wedding so technically you can afford this deposit...realistically on top of the £3750 for the venue and its package...you also have other expenses...

You have considered your dress and hopefully have a budget in mind for that ..but you also need to consider,shoes,hair makeup ,underwear,accessories,perhaps a veil...so those things will increase your spend...and also theres your groom and his clothes to consider too...and whats your son going to wear?...and whilst your bridesmaids are buying their outfits...who is doing hair makeup and flowers for them...and do you plan to buy them a gift as a thank you?

theres also flowers,which again whilst can be done on a budget...they do cost money...
You'll probably want to invite guests so you need to think about invites...again,possibly not a huge amount needs to be spent...but all the little amounts soon add up..theres also transport,cake,registrars fees...dont underestimate these..check the prices in your area...several hundred pounds is not an unrealistic figure!,rings...one for you and maybe your OH wants one too again something you will probably want but isnt included in your ball part hopeful figure... and a host of other items to consider....maybe even a photographer....
I think its also important to try and see if anyone can help you ie bu using the skill of someone to perhaps make your cake as a wedding present to you..that can really help reduce the budget...its good that you plan to make your invites...but the taw materials still need to be bought and so whilst you can save money on them...its also worth looking at vistaprint and places like that who offer free or discounted offers most of the time....lots of people find great satisfaction in making their own invites...but at the expense of them taking along time to make....vistaprint or suchlike may work out just as cost effective...

I would really suggest that you sit down and plan a budget for the day...if you have 18 months between now and the wedding and your hoped budget is £5000 and you have £500 saved at the moment ,that means to stay on that budger you need to be saving at least £250 per month....each and every month to just hit your target of £5000....make a comprehensive list of the things you want and need at the wedding,and set everything a realistic price....you may find that your hoped for budget of £5000 covers it...but you may find that there are areas you will need to cut back on if you dont manage to save the amount you need...
The question you need to work out is can you do all the other things on a budget of £1250

Thanks for replying.

The venue deposit is £250, followed by £750 in 6 months with the remaining balance to be paid 14 days before the wedding day.

Dress £250 maximum! Even if I had a lot of money, I don't think I could bring myself to pay much more for a dress for one day.:o
Hair and make up - my cousin will do for free
Shoes and veil - hoping to borrow my sisters.
Underwear - hadn't thought about this, although not planning on splashing out on this, so probably £30max from m&s.
Groom and son - kilt hire £60 each
Bridesmaids hair and makeup - themselves/ my cousin if she has time
Flowers- my brothers fianc! is a florist and has said she'll do these and I'm not having anything elaborate, just a few stems each tied with ribbon, (centrepieces are included in venue package) - so I'll say £50 for these.:o
Cake - I forgot about too. :oMy friend is making my cake and we're planning on cupcakes, so hoping to spend no more than £100 on that.
Hotel the night before is £79, so no transport for me
2 Wedding taxis for groom and Rest of bridal part - £150
Registrar - £125 + £70 to give notice.
Thank you gifts - didn't think about these, but will probably just be a token gift so roughly - £60
Invitations I will do myself or get from vistaprint - £50

Going by that I should be under the £5000 all in, although no doubt there will be some unexpected expenses sneaking in, or I'll have forgotten something.:o

I still believe its doable and that we should be able to save £250 per month comfortably.

Thanks for your help.:)

Jacqu79

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Lets say worst case scenario, you pay this £250 deposit and 6 months down the line you decide you can't afford it. Lets say you have to rebudget at £3000. You've lost £250 of this £3000 by booking this venue. It's a lot of money to lose, but it's not _that much_ money.


I see you got engaged at Christmas. Giving the benefit of the doubt, you've had two months to save £500. Keep going at this rate and in 18 months time you'll have another £4500. Which, with the £500 you've got now, gives the £5000 you're budgetting for.
So even if you can keep going at this rate you'll be ok.
[Unless the £500 is from three months of saving, in which case you'd need to up your game - do you think you can?]


At the end of the day, if you've got a weekly / monthly budget that works without counting money you can't guarantee and allows you to save up the money so you can afford the place you both like, then I don't see what's stopping you.
Does your OH agree the budget (both in terms of savings and in terms of spending on the wedding)?

The £500 is just from February and March, I have no doubt we could save £250 per month comfortably. At the moment we're paying £100 per month for a trip my son is going on with school. We've 3 more months left of that to pay then we'll have an extra £100 per month.

My OH agrees with the budget, he's just worried something will come up and we'll struggle to pay for things.

Aaargggh! Elopement sound such a great idea at this moment in time!:D

trying_2_b_good

Hi Jacqu79

Something could always come up - if you're OH is always going to worry about this, then you won't book a date until you have the full amount saved! But by then you'll have to wait another x amount of months before you can get married. And then, what if the boiler breaks/roof needs repairing...!

If it were me, I do as you are and book. But before you do, perhaps have the conversation with your Dad so you know exactly how much he is contributing (if you don't already know). Also make sure your budget includes registrar fees etc.

There are a whole host of ways to make a bit extra cash - both of you can switch bank accounts to one with a bonus, as you said ebay etc.

My hubby & I saved a fortune onve we'd booked the date. Haven't saved a penny since - it's amazing how quickly you fall back into bad habbits - but as you said, we found it easier to pay things off than to just save.

Good luck!

JimmyTheWig

Jacqu79 wrote: »

My OH agrees with the budget, he's just worried something will come up and we'll struggle to pay for things.

If your budget is realistic then you've got £100 a month spare once you've paid for this trip to cover anything that "will come up".


I guess the other question is what is your alternative?
It actually sounds to me like you are doing things quite cheaply. It's costing you half what we spent on ours 7 years ago, and we did everything on the cheap (e.g. our wedding breakfast for everyone was take-away pizza). Though I guess we had over twice the number of guests.

It strikes me that you've planned a wonderful wedding for £5k.
Now try to plan one for, say, £3k. Can you do it? What, that would be important to the two of you, would you have to drop to cut back to that money?
Until you know what you're getting for your money, it's hard to decide whether the saving (and risking not having enough for the things that might come up) is worth it.

So your choices are (a) make the necessary sacrifices (potentially none, if nothing comes up) over the coming months to save up £5k, (b) make the necessary sacrifices to your wedding plans to reduce the budget to, say, £3k or (c) make the personal sacrifice of waiting longer and put the wedding back a year.

I'd go for (a), but it's not my decission?
You'd go for (a), too, by the sounds of it.
What would your OH go for?

JimmyTheWig

trying_2_b_good wrote: »

Haven't saved a penny since - it's amazing how quickly you fall back into bad habbits

That's one thing we did well. The money we were saving for the wedding each month became our moving / new house fund. When we moved, that money each month covered our increase in mortgage repayments.

agostino221

I am pizza lover from childhood so I made it my passion .

rrf494g

It's of course, your joint decision but

bear in mind that there is a whole industry out there determined to get you to spend enormous amounts of money and "fall in love" with things that "you must have" in order to make your day special.

Work out what really makes your day special for you two. Only spend on that. I've been to several weddings where i've gone away thinking that the couple had been swollowed by "the industry", and the marriage itself has been in a back seat compared to the consumption of services. The BIG memory from most weddings I've been to, has not been anything that could have been bought, but rather something that came from time, attention and care from the people involved.

good luck

trying_2_b_good

Oh yeah - meant to say that package sounds fantastic value!