Planning a Wedding reception at home (Garden)

BugglyB

10k sounds totally doable for what you have planned! (assuming you mean 10k just for the reception and not including dress, suit, rings, etc?) If you are doing it because that’s what you want and not to save money you are onto a winner. It sounds wonderful what you have planned.

I would seriously consider doing the booze as DIY as possible and getting professionals to do the food. The amount of faff involved in feeding that amount of people is tremendous, we spent around 1k on hog roast and it was totally worth every penny.

Other things to consider

- Ask marquee companies and caterers when they will arrive and when they will leave – can be worth paying a bit extra to have them there the day before so you can go to bed on wedding eve knowing everything is decorated.

- Don’t always go with the cheapest quote, we went with the most expensive hog roast by around 200 pounds, because I rang each person I quoted from back three times to ‘test’ their customer service, and the other two sounded really annoyed with my pestering, and the guy we went for was very encouraging and said ‘ring me anytime, its your special day’ etc

- Public liability insurance – I think my in laws got this for about 50 quid? There was no real reason but it does make sense if you have a lot of people together, you might think well none of my friends would ever sue me because they <stood on some glass/fell off a bouncy castle when drunk/caught gonorrhoea from the bass player> but assuming you may have some plus ones there that you have never met, its just for peace of mind

- when people ask if there is anything they can do to help, give them a specific job, for example I had one friend picking up a giant jenga set, one friend in charge of bunting, one friend in charge of making sure the loos had toilet paper (its the little things!). People want to help, and being specific means you can relax and know everything is covered.

I hope this helps! Can I come to your wedding please it sounds ace! :rotfl::T:rotfl:

Berger_3

BugglyB wrote: »

10k sounds totally doable for what you have planned! (assuming you mean 10k just for the reception and not including dress, suit, rings, etc?) If you are doing it because that’s what you want and not to save money you are onto a winner. It sounds wonderful what you have planned.

I would seriously consider doing the booze as DIY as possible and getting professionals to do the food. The amount of faff involved in feeding that amount of people is tremendous, we spent around 1k on hog roast and it was totally worth every penny.

Other things to consider

- Ask marquee companies and caterers when they will arrive and when they will leave – can be worth paying a bit extra to have them there the day before so you can go to bed on wedding eve knowing everything is decorated.

- Don’t always go with the cheapest quote, we went with the most expensive hog roast by around 200 pounds, because I rang each person I quoted from back three times to ‘test’ their customer service, and the other two sounded really annoyed with my pestering, and the guy we went for was very encouraging and said ‘ring me anytime, its your special day’ etc

- Public liability insurance – I think my in laws got this for about 50 quid? There was no real reason but it does make sense if you have a lot of people together, you might think well none of my friends would ever sue me because they <stood on some glass/fell off a bouncy castle when drunk/caught gonorrhoea from the bass player> but assuming you may have some plus ones there that you have never met, its just for peace of mind

- when people ask if there is anything they can do to help, give them a specific job, for example I had one friend picking up a giant jenga set, one friend in charge of bunting, one friend in charge of making sure the loos had toilet paper (its the little things!). People want to help, and being specific means you can relax and know everything is covered.

I hope this helps! Can I come to your wedding please it sounds ace! :rotfl::T:rotfl:

Thank you, that really does help - especially the bit about the public liability insurance, its not something i would have thought about.

The main cost is definitely going to be the tipis, im getting quotes back around the 5k mark, that includes all the tables, dancefloor, lighting, flooring etc, but its still half our 10k

I think something like a hog roast would bve a good idea as it wotn take up the lions share of the 5k we will have left.

As for Booze, the plan would be to supply this oursleves as you suggest, keep it simple with beer and wine. I have a mate who I havent spoken to yet, but he works for a major drinks supplier and I know he can get it cheap as he has done it for BBqs in the past.

As for being invited, wI will have to see how our budget is looking in 11 months time!


p.s. the 10k is to cover the reception costs, everything else is budgeted for elswhere, like the dress, flowers etc etc.