How did you save?

lucy_w86

I have just got quotes from reception venues and I am being quoted about £4,000 altogether for about 85 people:

Welcome Drinks
Dinner
Drinks
Toast
Eeing Buffet

We are looking to wed in two years and have no savings. How did you do it?

Rachie_B

we were lucky that our parents chipped in 3k each so we only had to save the other 3k

TBH you can only afford what you can afford !

have you worked out how much you can realistically save by 2 yrs time ?!!

if its not "enough" then you will need to either re think the budget ie invite less people,cheaper venue etc

OR wait longer than 2 years to save up

i know some people who have taken on extra jobs,sold everything they can on ebay etc to make more for the "wedding fund"

lucy_w86

Rachie_B wrote: »

we were lucky that our parents chipped in 3k each so we only had to save the other 3k

TBH you can only afford what you can afford !

have you worked out how much you can realistically save by 2 yrs time ?!!

if its not "enough" then you will need to either re think the budget ie invite less people,cheaper venue etc

OR wait longer than 2 years to save up

i know some people who have taken on extra jobs,sold everything they can on ebay etc to make more for the "wedding fund"

How do you go about selling on ebay because when I have tried to sell before, it either has not sold or has gone for nothing.

Any hints / tips and what can you sell?

helping_hubby

We simply had to cut the numbers down to fit in with what we could afford. We had 50 people for our sit down, and a total of 120 for the evening. Cost us about £6k for ceremony, reception and evening buffet.

To raise money we sold a lot on ebay (made about £2k), parents paid the £6k reception, hence the £6k limit. And I had some savings already. If you're looking for ways to save money, keep your eye on the debt free wannabe board. Although they have a different reason for saving money its all saved the same way.

Rachie_B

anything thats not nailed down

i mainly sell my childrens toys / clothes etc

but anything is worth a try

could do car boot sales,extra work evenings / wkends ??( are you & H2B both working ?,sorry if its been mentioned on one of the other threads)

B2B-2008

Hi,

We have just cancelled our wedding in England as the cost was just getting out of control. We have been saving £800 a month for the past 8 months and still had a year to go. It was costing £7500 for 120 to go to the day and I just decided it just wasn't worth it. We are now getting married in florida and taking a few people with us and it has more that halved the cost.

TBH we also have debts and we want a family and getting the debt down as much as we can before we have a baby is more important to me that the big white wedding was going to be.

I also sold loads on ebay to raise money you need to research what you put on there before had to see what it sells like.

HTH

lucy_w86

Rachie_B wrote: »

anything thats not nailed down

i mainly sell my childrens toys / clothes etc

but anything is worth a try

could do car boot sales,extra work evenings / wkends ??( are you & H2B both working ?,sorry if its been mentioned on one of the other threads)

Yeh - we both work.

He works 5 days a week but ridiculous hours and doesnt get paid overtime. Retail...!

I work mon - fri. Maybe have to get a pt job?

kingshir

Sorry to put a damper on things but I can't understand why people want to spend some much on getting married when they obviously can't afford it and could put that sort of money to better use ie getting out of debt, deposit on house etc.

I AM NOT suggesting the OP is in debt etc!

clarew

We saved for 2 years to pay for deposit for flat and the wedding. We saved on drinks bills, by not having free bar, and not having wine at tables (all our friends knew we were saving and couldn't afford these luxuries).

We got married in our early twenties, and our friends like beer rather than sherrys etc, so instead of usual drinks on arrival, everyone got a ticket from the hotel which entitled them to a drink of their choice on us (no champayne,no doubles,no cocktails), so most people had pints/barcardi+coke/archers etc.
similarly at toast time, the waitresses ordered everyone again a drink of their choice.
We received lots of compliments about this, as people had the drinks they liked (wine,beer,etc) rather than typical orange juice/sherry etc. And it actually didn't break the bank, when compared with the set prices for reception,wine and toast drink packages.

-we got friends to make flowers for us, someone else did the wedding cake as a gift for us (ridiculous money for 3 tier cake which is only going to end up eaten!), My mum paid for photographer as her present to us, my mother in law paid for video similarly.

Evening reception buffet-did less numbers than they suggested-based on the fact, most people going to evening do tend to eat before they go, and the day people had just not long had 4 course meal! and once its gone its gone.

All in all was a fab day, with great memories despite being young and cost cutting!

lucy_w86

My main fear is the cost of the reception as quotes I have been getting are pushing on £4k plus

sunshinegirl_3

Unfortunatly wedding venues/hotels are really expensive and the price seems to go up the moment you mention a wedding!

We only had 1 reception. our wedding ceremony was at 3.30pm and we invited everyone and only had an hot buffet instead of a "sit down" do. The food was great, we didn't have to do a table plan, everyone could have as much as they wanted and go back for seconds and it didn't cost the earth.

We decided to set our budget at £5k and stick to it, which we did (apart from my dress which my step mum bought for me). I think you have to cut your cloth to what you can afford. It's only 1 day and it's alot of money to spend on a party.

How about a weekday wedding or an "out of season" wedding? Both will save alot of money on venue, cars etc.

Good luck