HELP - Wedding 2018 - Advice

Charlene84

Hi Money Savers

My boyfriend of five years recently popped the question in sunny Australia and I gleefully said yes!

We are hoping to get wed next winter in or around October - December dependent on the availability for the service and reception.

I have complied a spreadsheet of a range of venues in the locality and note there is a variance on the cost of packages and what is contained within the packages (e.g. reception drinks, reception food, fairy lights, mood lighting, microphones, tableware, evening snack).

We are likely to hold a Saturday reception for about 80-110 guests however quite a few of the venues request a minimum of 150 guests. Two bestmen and two bridesmaids.

It is likely that we will be funding the up-front costs ourselves. We are saving for a mortgage and hope to keep wedding costs down as best as possible whilst ensuring everyone is well fed and watered(!).

We will be doing most of the planning ourselves from afar (we live in England but the wedding will be held at home in Ireland). As the eldest children and first married in both our families without the benefit of help from parents we are struggling to know where to start!

Any tips or words of advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Wedding venue haggling, cars, photographer, band, DJ, 'wedding outfits'... any feedback would help!

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

robpw2

i spent about £300 on my wedding lol

however best thing we did was go to sales of wedding clothes etc my husbands wedding suit was £15 from matalan. (it was an end of line wedding suit)

Second hand stuff is always a plus too

ceb1995

Charlene84 wrote: »

Hi Money Savers

My boyfriend of five years recently popped the question in sunny Australia and I gleefully said yes!

We are hoping to get wed next winter in or around October - December dependent on the availability for the service and reception.

I have complied a spreadsheet of a range of venues in the locality and note there is a variance on the cost of packages and what is contained within the packages (e.g. reception drinks, reception food, fairy lights, mood lighting, microphones, tableware, evening snack).

We are likely to hold a Saturday reception for about 80-110 guests however quite a few of the venues request a minimum of 150 guests. Two bestmen and two bridesmaids.

It is likely that we will be funding the up-front costs ourselves. We are saving for a mortgage and hope to keep wedding costs down as best as possible whilst ensuring everyone is well fed and watered(!).

We will be doing most of the planning ourselves from afar (we live in England but the wedding will be held at home in Ireland). As the eldest children and first married in both our families without the benefit of help from parents we are struggling to know where to start!

Any tips or words of advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Wedding venue haggling, cars, photographer, band, DJ, 'wedding outfits'... any feedback would help!

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

Getting married off season will help, we had our wedding in october for around 5k. we got £200 knocked off the venues price just by going for october, we also didnt want some of the complementary parts of packages so swapped them for a couple of free rooms instead. DH got his suit in the moss bros sale and my dress was from an outlet store, it really didn't look like it cost £200. By picking a hotel where you can have the ceremony and reception, it ll save you hundreds by not having to pay for transport. A friend did photos for us. You can get cheap silk flowers online which can look just as good as the real things.

michelle09

I brought my dress secondhand on preloved. Paid £140 to someone who was only a couple of miles from me. Going to resell it next year as I no longer need it!

Secondhand was great, and about 10% of the price of a new one.

enjoyyourshoes

We just went to Mauritius and saved all the hassle of Aunt Maud sitting on her own!

Kynthia

There's a lot of things you haven't even thought of yet which will cost money, so don't commit yourself to a costly venue too soon.

There's a wedding section of the forum which will have lots of threads where you can pick up tips and learn from others experiences.

lika_86

Congratulations!

Are the majority of your guests in Ireland? You might want to think about the likelihood of friends from England travelling when considering numbers. Also think about the logistics of things like hair and makeup trials, liaising with local vendors etc.

General good advice is to both make lists of what's important to you so you can decide where to focus your budget.

Pollycat

There's a specific wedding board here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=142

I'd message one of the board guides to get your thread moved.

Charlene84

Thanks so much ceb1995 - great advice. I was taking to my 'fiance' (still seems quite funny calling him that!) last night and he was thinking Oct and strangely enough I got an email through from Moss Bros about their sale this morning which I'll definitely pass on for the suits!

I have heard of a few outlets within a 15 mile radius from where I live in England so hopefully I'll find a bit of your luck and get something there too! I wouldn't have thought about silk flowers but I'll look into that as I'm not OCD about having fresh flowers on the day.

Thanks so much again! xx:j:j:j

Charlene84

Thanks a million Pollycat - one of the other posters mentioned about the Weddings Forum but I couldn't find it! Cheers x

Charlene84

Thank you lika_86

There is likely to be about 15-20 people from England, who, we're hoping will still be able to make it despite the difficulties with logistics. The wedding wouldn't be in the main cities; there would be an extra hour - hour 1/2 drive after arrival at the airport.

We discussed last night that there may be a few guests from England that we would need to sort out the flights and accommodation for too...eek. It's all very exciting but at the same time you don't want to be going 'overboard'.

I hadn't thought about the added costs of to'ing and fro'ing for trials as well but I should be able to incorporate that within the usual visiting home (I hope!). Thank you for helping my thoughts! :j