HELP! - August 2014 - NO money Eeek!

heartbreak_star

Doesn't have to be indoors but I do think the venue needs a license?

HBS x

krustylouise

I've just looked it up. "Ceremonies may not take place outdoors or in moveable structures such as marquees or hot air balloons"

x

savvy

Yeah but I think the Saxon handfasting ceremony is the bit that Evil Olive would like outside?? And if so, I think that can be done anywhere?

krustylouise

Ah I thought you were on about actual civil ceremony exchanging vows bit! x

Evil_Olive

There have been some developments in 'My Big Fat Cheapskate Wedding'.....

CEREMONY VENUE
After checking out all kinds of different options, we started looking at village halls as some of them have grounds, greens or fields. Unfortunately most of them are pretty ugly but this type of thing seemed to be the best option as they can usually fit around 100 people, have dedicated and adequate parking and the freedom to do as you like and supply your own food, and sometimes alcohol. They are also much cheaper than other options - around £100 - 250 to hire for the whole day. A lot of them also hire by the hour so you don't have to pay for more than you need.
We have booked one for 8am til 6pm so that we can set up early if we want and have plenty of time for clearing up. It will cost £150 plus a refundable £100 damage/cleaning deposit.

The entrance side of the building faces on to the car park and looks like the back end of a bus but it's ok inside and will be nice with a few decorations etc. The field out the back is nice - not too big or bare or flat and it has a nice willow tree in it and surrounding copses/hedgerows. They know exactly what we're planning to do and are fine with it. They are ok with us putting up gazebos outside if we want and the inside is big enough to do the handfasting in if the weather is really bad.
They are ok with us supplying our own welcome drink/champagne toast as they agreed it wouldn't be worth the hassle to them of staffing their bar just for two drinks per person and we didn't want it actually open during the wedding! (My menfolk are not to be trusted - "Who gives this woman to be Handfasted?" "That bloke with the beer belly propping up the bar inside" etc etc etc) So a lot of savings on the drinks front.
We have use of all their tables & chairs - there's a big selection of sizes & shapes to choose from but will have to supply tablecloths - I'm thinking maybe Smartprice/Value Brand bedsheets?.
It has a kitchen with a big tea urn, cooker, kettles etc. We would have to supply our own cups/saucers/plates/glasses/cutlery. I've found that we can hire crockery & glasses from a local company for around 10p to 20p per piece for 3 day hire including washing though there's a delivery and collection charge and replacement charges for any breakages - don't know what these will be yet - awaiting reply to my email.
Also found packs of 8 plastic champagne flutes in my local Poundland but at only two and a half pence more apiece to hire proper glass ones, I think we'll go this route as we are hiring the crockery anyway....

CELEBRANT
We also have the priest on board! Yay!
We had our first face-to-face meeting with him the other day, he is a really nice bloke and we both feel very comfortable with him. He asked us loads of questions and is going to tailor make a unique ceremony just for us He considers doing Handfastings to be part of his religious obligations and won't accept any fees for doing them - we just have to pay his petrol costs and the cost of any items he has to buy/use for the ceremony (candles, cords etc) - don't know how much that will be yet but he lives near us so the petrol won't be too bad.

SAVE THE DATE CARDS
I have used the Vistaprint Free Business Cards offer to order the 'Save the date' cards (250 for £4.89 postage) and bought 5 metres of self adhesive magnetic strip from Maplins (£3.49 plus £1.99 postage) to make them stick to people's fridges - my stepsister did this and I found it really useful as a reminder.
Now just have to get H2B to sort out his half of the guestlist pronto, which will be like herding cats

Will report back with any other super-cheapskate ways I find of doing things

I'm feeling that we might even come in slightly UNDER our £2000 budget

mum2one

Didn't want to run and leave - popped a message so can get back after some sleep x

tatabubbly

Ebay everything!!

Evil_Olive

Got a voucher with a long date that gives you £50 off your first order at the Virgin Wines website provided you spend £100 with no obligation to buy any more, so I will get the bubbly for the toast after the ceremony from there - found a very high quality Cava on there for £9.99 a bottle, it's won a ton of awards and reviews elsewhere on the web say it's the closest thing to champagne apart from champagne. When we have a better idea of numbers I'll order it - probably need 10 bottles/60 people, so I'll order 11 to make up the price & get the lot for £60. Squee!

It's called 'Tempus III Cava Brut NV ' if anybody has had it - let me know whether it lived up to the reviews...... Thanks

Evil_Olive

groan - writing out save the dates and mother is insisting I invite everyone's children even though our guest list is very small >:-(

savvy

Evil_Olive wrote: »

groan - writing out save the dates and mother is insisting I invite everyone's children even though our guest list is very small >:-(

Arrrggg just don't if you don't want to! You'll then have to think of activities to keep them amused as well