Starting out in life

onlyroz

I would have thought you could have a great wedding for around £3k. Ways to cut costs are to have a buffet rather than a sit-down meal, and to only provide soft drinks (with a paid-bar for those who feel the need to hit the booze).

It's just my opinion but the traditional sit-down 3-course meal with speeches etc is just sooooooo boring. With a buffet you can get straight down to the chatting and dancing, and go grab the food/drink whenever they want - rather than being forced to make stilted small-talk for hours with whoever has been put on the same table as you.

As for the reception venue - pick a nice hotel and don't tell them it's a wedding - just say you want a large room to accommodate X number of guests, and to lay out a buffet for Y number of people on tables down the side. Then build yourself up a decent iTunes library and put it on shuffle for the night.

victory

I have read all the replies and think there are some fantastic ideas there to cut costs, someone said that the money spent on the wedding does not necessarily 'make the day', I think that no one would ask and no one would know how much was spent on the day.

A wedding day is full of romance and love, it should not be a monetary show off day, no one would ever know if the bride got the wedding dress off ebay unless specifically told or bought the beautiful m&s an not forgetting Asda 3 tier wedding cake and got someone to decorate it to look 'more weddinified', or the wedding rings handed down through the generations or bought at a pawn shop, or the photographer was not being paid because he was a friend of a friend, or the marquee was loaned for the day or Aunty Maisie made the stunning looking buffet in her own kitchen and was up to 2am doing it and only charged the cost of the food,

So many savings can be made and no one needs to know, every penny counts towards getting on the property ladder:D

paulineb_2

j.e.j. wrote: »

I suppose with a wedding dress you need to try it on, which you can't easily do with an EBay purchase, and it'd be a bit of a hassle sending a great long wedding dress back in the post! For a lot of women, the idea of going into the bridal shop, trying on the dresses is all part of the excitement.

Dread to think how much it all costs though. When my cousin got married the monsoon bridesmaids dresses cost more than £100 each :eek: I dared not ask how much the bride's (new) dress was!

More than one person on this site has bought their dress from ebay.

For some people, planning a money saving wedding will be just as exciting as planning one with no expense spared or anything in between.

paulineb_2

EmmaBridgewater wrote: »

Ok, not you they aren't.. But they are to some people.

No, but younger people do or 21st/40/50th!

I never had an 18th or 21st and I had a meal out for my 40th, through choice

Maybe its because Im what some people would regard as an old fogey, but if I did get married, it wouldnt be about the day, it would be about me wanting to spend my life with someone

The frills would be the last thing on my mind. Also, Im old enough to have known friends who spent £10000 plus on weddings and Im talking 20 years ago now and it didnt stop those marriages going belly up

That doesnt mean no one should have their fairytale day, but if you can pledge to spend your life with someone for £2000 or for £20 000 Im sure I know what Id be choosing

And as someone who has attended a fair few weddings in her time, not once did I ever sit down and think, I wonder what this meal cost or has enough money been spent.

AlexLK

My wife wanted a big day for our wedding, as it happens she got one but I would have been happy to marry her as cheaply as possible for it was being married which mattered to me and not the wedding day. However, I have also been rather anti-social for quite a bit of my adult life. What I'm trying to say is if it is the marriage that is important rather than the wedding, you'll make the most of it, no matter how little you spend.

paulineb_2

A friend of mine bought her wedding dress in Monsoon, was about £150

I think the issue is, theres a certain assumption about what things need to cost.

Another friend of mine got married and made her wedding dress and all of her bridesmaids and not everyone is that talented, but if you look around you might find someone who might make the dresses for you

Her husband to be also did the invitations. There are always ways to cut costs and as I said before, if you put the feelers out on facebook for example, I bet you would find a lot of people willing to help for a cut price fee

Its tough times, where I live a lot of businesses advertise locally on facebook, I bet if you looked around some groups and saw what people did in your local area you would manage to get a lot of what you were looking for cheaply.

paulineb_2

EmmaBridgewater wrote: »

Had a meal out for my 18th with friends and boyfriend took me out for dinner for 21st, no big party. I just think it is up to the couple how much they want to spend for me the property ladder is more important but that doesn't mean I want a skimpy wedding, hoping to have a marquee at my grandparents.

But thats up to you

My mum was married in a church first time around, she had to be as her husband was RC, but I dont think their marriage would have been flashy, far from it, as they were both skint students

Second time she married it was in a registry office. The thing is, your definition of skimpy might be all some other people can afford.

And 6 grand is a lot to spend for one day, just because people have it to spare, doesnt mean they necessarily need to spend it. Particularly as they are also saving for a mortgage.

Ive been at weddings that have cost very little, Ive been at weddings where no expense was spared, Ive had as good a time at one wedding as I did at the other

paulineb_2

MattLcfc wrote: »

I proposed to my Fiance back in June, the following month we moved into a house together which we are renting, and now we're saving like mad to pay for a 2015 wedding & deposit towards buying our own house.

We're starting from scratch and have worked out we can save about £500 a month between us, which would be £12,000 saved in two years time. My parents have pledged to give us £2,000 towards the wedding and another £2,000 as a wedding present, which would mean £16,000 in total. 6K towards the wedding and 10k towards the house.

So the big plan is to get married in June 2015 and then hopefully be in a position to buy around about two years from now, taking advantage of the government scheme where you only need a 5% deposit.

Feels like we're embarking on the impossible right now and it's going to be two years of scrimping and scrapping. So my big question is, do you think it is possible to achieve both with the figures I have mentioned, and any advice from any of you more experienced money-savers?

You know, your comments say that you feel like you are embarking on the impossible

It makes sense to find some sort of compromise along the way

Either, a cheaper wedding or continue to rent after you are married so you can save up more money for a deposit

Or look around for a home that isnt a new build for example, something cheaper that might need a bit of work done to it

Or try for social or council housing until you can afford to get your foot on the property ladder, some housing associations do a scheme where you can rent 25/50 or 75 per cent of the home and buy the rest with a view to taking on the full mortgage for the rest at a later date.

Or as I said before, put the wedding back a couple of years until you have a bigger deposit saved up, at 24 and 22 you have plenty of time ahead of you, its daft putting yourself under stress to scrimp and scrape when you could put the wedding off a year and have more saved for a deposit

Also, it can take time to find a flat/house that you want anyway

Gloomendoom

paulineb wrote: »

And 6 grand is a lot to spend for one day, just because people have it to spare, doesnt mean they necessarily need to spend it. Particularly as they are also saving for a mortgage.

You could say the same about virtually anything though. The world would be a very, very dull place if we all went for the "Everyday Value" option.

Incidentally, we spent about 6k on our wedding. That did include the honeymoon, so it was for more like three weeks, not just a day.

paulineb_2

Gloomendoom wrote: »

You could say the same about virtually anything though. The world would be a very, very dull place if we all went for the "Everyday Value" option.

Incidentally, we spent about 6k on our wedding. That did include the honeymoon though, so it was for more like three weeks, not just a day.

It doesnt need to be everyday value if they spend 4 grand or 5 grand rather than 6

And it comes from the OPs comments about possibly struggling to find money for the wedding and the deposit

If money is no object, people can do what they like, if the money is an object, well I think its sensible to start thinking about cutting a few costs

Because its one day. A big day. But one day. And that one day at 6 grand could pay for quite a lot of mortgage deposit

Alternatively the OP and his partner could perhaps look for extra shifts, overtime, a second job, Christmas work, anything to get extra money in and that could go to either the wedding or the mortgage fund.