November 2014 brides and grooms

lettice

Any takers?

minerva_windsong

Me me me! *waves hand* I'm 1st November 2014

We have a venue here: http://www.yorkvenues.org.uk/weddings/the-hospitium.html - were lucky enough to get it at this year's prices as we booked so far in advance and it's absolutely perfect. We wanted somewhere that had a lot of history (it's part of an old 14th century abbey) and ideally in York because it's where we met and in between where our families live so no-one has to travel too far, but that would be big enough to take everyone we wanted there.

Other than that and flicking through some magazines to get ideas I haven't done much though - it seems like ages yet (although I'm sure it'll go so quickly!) and we are still finalising the budget as we're waiting to find out what my parents are able to contribute. Although before anyone jumps on me I should add OH's parents have been incredibly generous and we also have some savings to be able to have the wedding that we want. I have also made a list of our priorities and our 'nice to have but not essentials' and had a look through the suppliers' guide our venue sent us as well as looking at a couple of others I found myself.

When's your date lettice?

lettice

The Hospitium is lovely! I've just finished a course in York, actually, but I live a bit further north (for now at least - we're moving soon). York is such a great place.

We've found a venue, which we're visiting at the beginning of July. It looks absolutely perfect for a winter wedding so, if all goes to plan, we're going to book it! I know that it's very popular (or there are some very organised brides around!) because two Saturdays have already been booked in November. We're hoping for 15 November - exactly 17 months after we announced our engagement - but I don't mind if it's 22 or 29, to be honest. I would prefer the date closer to the start of the month because we don't particularly want our wedding to be too close to Christmas and because the sooner we get married the better in my opinion! I'll let you know the date in a week or so, I hope!

We've had a chat about the budget too. We wanted to do everything for less than £10,000 but, realistically, we're looking at closer to £12,000. That's largely due to the cost of the venue hire and the fact that we want platinum wedding rings (easily adds £1,000 to our budget), and because we're paying for a bridesmaid and flower girl dress and suit hire for 2 ushers and a best man (since they are all, with the possible exception of as yet unknown best man, family members and, well, we want to).

We don't want to scrimp too much and think we can have an amazing wedding for £12k but that truly is the maximum we are comfortable spending. We can save £1k a month between now and November so we're hoping to have saved enough for the wedding and honeymoon by then! I'm hopeful that we will be able to come in a little bit under budget as I've tried to overestimate everything. I've heard of lots of brides thinking they can do their wedding on £6, £8, £10 grand and finding the costs just creep up so we've tried to be as realistic as possible. I've based the catering cost on the most expensive option so we could save £10 per head there if we need to. We could do our wedding for a lot cheaper but we've made a conscious decision to do it this way so it's £12k and not a penny more. It sounds like such a lot of money writing it out like that!

Our priorities are the venue (where we will also be having our ceremony), food, and drink since I think they are the bits people remember the most about the day. I suppose we're also prioritising photography and wedding rings too since they are going to be the next biggest outlays. We're spending on those because they are the things that last after wedding's over. I'm hoping to save on clothing. I can't quite get my head around spending lots on a dress I'm only going to wear once but it's just typical that the ones I like seem to cost £700-£800, isn't it?

My parents have kindly offered to buy us a wedding cake (got my eye on one from M&S already!) and the wedding flowers (couple of bouquets, buttonholes, corsages and something small and pretty for each table, I should think). If my fianc!'s parents are able to contribute a similar amount (which we, of course, would never ask them for - we're planning everything on the premise we are paying for it!) then our outlay as a couple, excluding the wedding rings, will be just under £10k. That would be ideal but, as I said, we can pay for everything so any contributions are just a very generous bonus.

We're inviting around 70-75 to join us in the day. Not sure on evening numbers yet, largely because we're both starting new jobs in September and by the time the wedding rolls around we might have a lot of colleagues/local friends we'd like to invite. Keeping an open mind about all that!

Bean83

:wave: count me in too please! We have booked the venue and the registrar, now just trying not to get overexcited as it still seems so far away! Have got lots of ideas for everything, but don't want to buy anything too early in case I change my mind!

I'm also worried about the budget creeping up - we have set a budget which I am determined to stick to. The problem is, that we could afford to spend more but we really don't want to, so I'm worried that nearer the time I'll just go crazy buying a load of unnecessary stuff just because I can (and then hiding the receipts from my fianc!e :rotfl:). I have a massive spreadsheet with budgets, estimated costs, spends so far etc., so I'm hoping that will keep me in line! Already got 20 free save the dates on order from thecardgallery (sorry, new user so can't post links but it's that name followed by .co.uk then look under 'sale & offers') thanks to a tip from a fellow MSEer. Also managed to get the venue to freeze this year's prices for us, so saved a few hundred there. Every little helps...!

lettice

Bean83 wrote: »

...

Welcome! What date have you picked?

minerva_windsong

*waves hello to Bean83*

Registrar is on my list actually, I need to contact them but still not sure what time I want the ceremony - they do them on the hour but don't know whether to have it at 1 PM or 2 PM. We originally thought 1 PM but as we're now planning a two course meal (rather than three) and OH wants a very basic ceremony I'm wondering if I should push it back to 2 PM so we'd still have some decent light for the pictures but equally wouldn't be keeping people waiting. Hmmm....

Bean83

minerva_windsong wrote: »

*waves hello to Bean83*

Registrar is on my list actually, I need to contact them but still not sure what time I want the ceremony - they do them on the hour but don't know whether to have it at 1 PM or 2 PM. We originally thought 1 PM but as we're now planning a two course meal (rather than three) and OH wants a very basic ceremony I'm wondering if I should push it back to 2 PM so we'd still have some decent light for the pictures but equally wouldn't be keeping people waiting. Hmmm....

It may depend on which council you fall under, but for us, a Saturday at 2pm meant that the registrar was about £120 more expensive!! I would have chosen 1pm if it was an option, but the registrar would only do 12pm, 2pm or 4pm, and I thought 12pm was much too early and would involve too much hanging around, and 4pm was too late as it would be already dark!

We've booked for Nov 15th and the venue have agreed to put the Christmas decorations up for us so it's going to be quite a festive wedding.

lettice

Bean83 wrote: »

It may depend on which council you fall under, but for us, a Saturday at 2pm meant that the registrar was about £120 more expensive!! I would have chosen 1pm if it was an option, but the registrar would only do 12pm, 2pm or 4pm, and I thought 12pm was much too early and would involve too much hanging around, and 4pm was too late as it would be already dark!

We've booked for Nov 15th and the venue have agreed to put the Christmas decorations up for us so it's going to be quite a festive wedding.

That sounds great! Are you doing a Christmas theme?

minerva_windsong

Bean83 wrote: »

It may depend on which council you fall under, but for us, a Saturday at 2pm meant that the registrar was about £120 more expensive!! I would have chosen 1pm if it was an option, but the registrar would only do 12pm, 2pm or 4pm, and I thought 12pm was much too early and would involve too much hanging around, and 4pm was too late as it would be already dark!

We've booked for Nov 15th and the venue have agreed to put the Christmas decorations up for us so it's going to be quite a festive wedding.

From what I can tell the registrar in York seems to just be a flat rate depending on what day it is you get married. But I'll email them to check just in case.

Glad to hear you got a date, and they're putting the Christmas decorations up for you - bet that'll be lovely

lettice

Decided to marry on a Saturday as it doesn't make too much difference to the venue hire charge (£400 or £500 depending on the venue we choose) and means our guests won't have to leave early.

One of the venues has no bookings in November yet but the other only has 3 Saturdays left. I've just e-mailed them to find out whether we can hold one of the available Saturdays pending our viewing this week so I can check that the caterers are available and see if we can get the registrar to pencil us in! Fingers crossed that they will be happy to do that for us either before or after our viewing so we've got a week's grace to check all the other details match up.

Hoping to have sorted out the basics (wedding insurance, venue, caterers, and photographer) by the end of next week! The two venues have preferred caterers so it's just a case of contacting them to see which can offer the best prices. We've decided not to do an evening buffet - as we don't think we are going to invite any evening guests - but pay out for a really nice three course meal. We're going to have a traditional wedding cake and hopefully a cheese wedding cake too for the night in case people get peckish!

Bean83

lettice wrote: »

Hoping to have sorted out the basics (wedding insurance, venue, caterers, and photographer) by the end of next week! The two venues have preferred caterers so it's just a case of contacting them to see which can offer the best prices. We've decided not to do an evening buffet - as we don't think we are going to invite any evening guests - but pay out for a really nice three course meal. We're going to have a traditional wedding cake and hopefully a cheese wedding cake too for the night in case people get peckish!

Jealous! I really want a cheese cake but not sure the fianc! would agree! Maybe I'll just get one anyway without telling him and just sneak it into the buffet...;)

Think I'm going to have winter as my theme rather than Christmas, so going for blues/silvers maybe as my colours? Not decided yet though. Might add something Christmassy to my table centrepieces or favours. I'm going to keep my eye out for ideas this Christmas, might get some cheap things in the January sales!

Next thing on my to do list: wedding insurance. If anyone has any tips on who is good/reasonably priced that would be great!