Where to start!!

weeclick

Hi all!!


Well my beautiful girlfriend....sorry fiancee proposed over Christmas and with a date of June 2018 in mind we want to get the ball rolling!!


Some info on us and our hopeful wedding to see if anyone can offer advice...


Both female, both now living in Northern Ireland, both wanting married in Manchester (where shes from and where I lived, and met her). We have a rough budget in our heads of £10,000 (doable over 2.5 years with lots of monthly savings going on!) but obviously if I could come in under that then brilliant!! We have around 60 day guests and 110 evening (again just rough numbers to work out venue and meal costs) but if needs be I could try and cut this down to maybe 50 day....


Our biggest issue (well for me trying to be super organised financially) is trying to source a realistic budget living so far away. We already have an idea of the venue we want, and their brochure gives estimate costs but they also offer bespoke packages. Until we meet with them in March though and discuss everything it all seems up in the air!


As much as we are willing to travel back and forth to Manchester as often as possible, being practical its hard to both find time off work and even when we do the expense of travelling means we might only get a weekend there every few months so the majority of our planning will have to be internet, email and phone based!


The biggest thing on our list is venue. Its important its central (easy access for those travelling over without a car) with good access to cheaper hotels for the guests but also somewhere with great photography opportunities (used to be a wedding photographer so Im picky there!)


From what we have worked out from the venue brochure, we have opted for a BBQ meal rather than a sit down meal, this reduces our cost by about £20 a head. I would love to make our own sweetie cart for the evening and the more artistic side of things (invites, save the dates, thank you cards, name places, favours etc) can by done by us as my fianc!e is an amazing artist!!


Any hints, tips and advise along the way would be greatly appreciated!! Being on this side of the wedding fence I suddenly realise how much planning, money and effort is required!!

arbrighton

You have over two years- that's a very long time (and I understand the wish to save up). I've been to two brilliant weddings where people sorted everything within about 3 months from engagement to wedding day. We had just over a year but that was as much about us not getting married the same summer as his brother but bar choosing and booking a venue, I didn't sort anything until six months before. And with the exception of visiting the venue prior to booking, 90% of the sorting was done by email/ phone etc. That budget should do that number of guests, but you could consider a later marriage and only feeding guests once- this is what we did.

My sister as bridesmaid did all our stationery stuff too. Do not underestimate the time that will take

DigForVictory

First of all, congratulations!

Second - what a splendid amount of time to save up in, plan in, prepare in - well done!

Third - your photography background will surely be looking at the parks? Although if the weather turns uncooperative, I'd remind you the civil court building (the big yellow & grey thing) is not just on the metroshuttle circuit but also free access to all who don't mind being searched. Nice strong lines - might be fun to take photos there & the heights will make a photo from one storey up a complete doddle.

Finally, pace yourselves. 24 months can evaporate like mist, so once you've sorted your stationery design, implement it & stop that part of the process!

Wishing you both all the very best!

weeclick

Thank you both for your replies!


Yes Abrington I agree 2 years (or at least at the time) felt very long way away, but in reality its not as long as we think. The reason for 2018 is because we need to save and more importantly we have just started treatment in the hope my fianc!e will fall pregnant by this summer hopefully! (another massive expense in our monthly budget!)


My fianc!e and I are both in love with the idea of our future son / daughter walking her down the aisle or maybe toddling lol so the actual wedding date is up in the air until we know we have no more treatment costs to pay out for and he/she is well on their way to joining this crazy world!


Ive spent hours yesterday here reading up on old threads, getting some amazing ideas! We found a website that has a number of dresses the mrs loves and at almost 75% less than the budget we had set for her! We also agreed lastnight to make everything more personal we will design and make our own save the dates and invites. OH also realised her friend is a photographer so hoping for a half decent price on this! MY sis in law is going to be my bridesmaid / best woman lol and shes also a hairdresser, so in exchange for us paying 2 nights at a hotel for her and my nephew she will do everyones hair on the morning of the wedding should save us a few pennies!


We've joined a website that helps keep track of budget and plan your day (to do lists a mile long!) so we are stuck into that at the moment. Im so aware that spending can get out of hand so quickly and easily and we can be like money burning holes in pockets so this way we can be quite strict! So pleased already we are finding savings and we have only just started!


Hopefully over the next 2 years this will become a lovely online diary of events and of course loads of hints and tips and advice that I can read back on time and again!!

ladymarmalade

Congratulations. The time frame you have given yourself seems like the right amount of time. You would be surprised how long some things can take (if you choose). We had the same time frame as you and for use it was perfect. It meant we save up our entire budget, none of it was on credit and also meant we could make some things ourselves like the invitations and table settings.

My advice for the first few things to do would be to invest in a wedding magazine..a lot of it is over the top but towards the back they have excellent lists and ideas of what to do when.

I would also make a budget spreadsheet in excel. We listed everything we needed to spend money on (right down to ribbon for the invitations) in one column, the anticipated price in another and the actual spend in another. This meant we could easily see how far over or under budget we were.

Think about what you actually need and try not to get too caught up in what you don't!

weeclick

Hi Ladymarmalade thank you for your reply!!


Sounds like I am on the right track then phew!! We found a free website that offers a very similar feature to what you've mentioned to do on the spreadsheet.....a budget calculator! It lists everything you need to think about, a column for what they suggest to be an average spend on that item, a column for us to budget, a column for what it cost and a column for what weve saved! Its been the handiest tool so far!!


The website also have a guest list tool, enter in each guest name and add them to ceremony, evening or both and has given us a first glance of numbers!! Originally we had 76 in the day but we have already reduced this to 61 and ideally id love to get down to 55 if I could as the less we have at the meal the more money we have to provide an evening buffett (we have 130 in total at night)


We got talking lastnight whilst walking (also on a diet and health kick so dedicating an hour a night to walk - providing the rain behaves - and also gives us a chance away from laptops, phones, tv and house chores just to really chat about everything!!) We have so far (well on paper anyway) saved around £700 on her dress, £250 on photography and about £800 on cutting down the guest list.


We chose 2018 for the same reason as you, we wanted enough time to save and not start off in debt with anyone or any bank! We also have treatment already in the process for our first child so the extra cost of getting pregnant and raising a newborn within 2 years will be costly too! Im so excited though and Im already enjoying the planning so another 2 years of this will be fab

bargainhunterss

Myself and OH have just got engaged too and we're looking at summer/autumn 2017, so we're just in the initial planning stages too. I've been listening to some really good general wedding podcasts on https://www.savethedatepodcast.com which are useful, and also really funny Also, there's an android app I've found called 'wedding plandroid' which is a budget planner for your phone. Only just downloaded it so can't really comment either way, but might be useful!

Congratulations and hope the planning goes ok!

ladymarmalade

weeclick wrote: »

Hi Ladymarmalade thank you for your reply!!


Sounds like I am on the right track then phew!! We found a free website that offers a very similar feature to what you've mentioned to do on the spreadsheet.....a budget calculator! It lists everything you need to think about, a column for what they suggest to be an average spend on that item, a column for us to budget, a column for what it cost and a column for what weve saved! Its been the handiest tool so far!!


The website also have a guest list tool, enter in each guest name and add them to ceremony, evening or both and has given us a first glance of numbers!! Originally we had 76 in the day but we have already reduced this to 61 and ideally id love to get down to 55 if I could as the less we have at the meal the more money we have to provide an evening buffett (we have 130 in total at night)


We got talking lastnight whilst walking (also on a diet and health kick so dedicating an hour a night to walk - providing the rain behaves - and also gives us a chance away from laptops, phones, tv and house chores just to really chat about everything!!) We have so far (well on paper anyway) saved around £700 on her dress, £250 on photography and about £800 on cutting down the guest list.


We chose 2018 for the same reason as you, we wanted enough time to save and not start off in debt with anyone or any bank! We also have treatment already in the process for our first child so the extra cost of getting pregnant and raising a newborn within 2 years will be costly too! Im so excited though and Im already enjoying the planning so another 2 years of this will be fab

It'd great to see how positive you sound about it...all too often people speak to me about their wedding as though it was a chore. Me and my husband loved planning ours....its was as you have mentioned, a great way to spend time together away from the TV etc.

Sounds like you have your head screwed on, the savings you have made so far are great...so needed cash to put towards a baby or maybe even the honeymoon!

devonsaver83

Just wanted to wish you all the best for your future wedding you sound very organised.. my girlfriend I are getting married this year after 12 years together!! , also having a 2 year engagement enabling as to save enough. The planning time I think is well worth it, we have manged to save so much money by having the time to research and shop around and had fun doing it! We are both wearing dresses so that was going tobe one of our highest costing but managed to get both for £500 in a sample sale we are also planning for a baby so very important to keep costs down!
P.s if your friends and family offer to help.. take them up on it especially if its what they do, as I find people genuine love helping out and feeling invoved (but obviously only if its what you and partner want) my mother inlaw is making all our bunting, my mum is making the jam favours, a hairdresser friends doing hair at a reduced rate, another friend making desserts etc and it is saving us alot of money but still actually what we want

happilymarried2013

Congratulations Weeclick

This is a really exciting time for you and your fiance. 2 years will definitely fly by with the prospect of a newborn - I hope everything goes well where that's concerned.

As you have lots of time - have you thought about waiting to see what gets sold after this years wedding season? Vases, tiaras, table decorations etc? You may be able to get some great things discounted and then sell them on when you're finished!

I found being able to pay for things via direct debit useful - our rings and cake were over half of our outlay and were paid off monthly.

And don't forget to enjoy spending time together - its all about the marriage not the wedding day enjoy yourselves planning.

GoldenShadow

Being MSE, I thought I'd chip in with the couple of good bits I've found.

I managed to get my dress for £400 instead of £1400. I tried it on locally and loved it, but wasn't prepared to pay £1400. Found it in a sample sale in Ireland(!) in my size! I don't believe in 'the one' for dresses, I think there are lots that are lovely and lots of places have sample sales on in the New Year as they clear out for the new stock, so worth keeping an eye out. £400 is still a lot for a dress to wear once I suppose, but compared to £1400, its a steal.

Our first venue messed us around and double booked our date. We've since booked somewhere else which is more expensive than the first, albeit nicer too. The owners of the venue were willing to negotiate on price because they felt sorry for us though, which was really kind. I never would have thought a wedding venue would budge on price but they were very good and we saved a few hundred £'s there too.

We got engaged mid last year and in December I decided January would be my wedding planning month. Not doing too bad so far, church booked, dress bought, venue booked, DJ booked! Its not as bad as I imagined.

I am planning to make my own centrepieces for the most part, and invites. I'm not a fan of favours because so many people seem to leave them or not like them...We considered doing two courses + tea + cake to cut costs a bit but in the end, this new venue does SUCH good food that I might go without the cake (I don't want it to be left, my friend's didn't get eaten!).