My MSE Wedding and Pics

Summer29

Glad you posted I am just trying to sort our on a budget wedding for Feb2008
So far we have:

Invites~ hand madeby a friend including posting them as a wedding present

Reg office: £103.50 all in

Photography £30 ~ a semi proffesional whos only done a hand ful of weddings and happy to add for his portfolio and just getting a cd of the images

Rings - cheapskate! 11.99 for mine and about £40 for OH

Cake ~ £33 then toppers from ebay for about £10

Reception at home so 0 except glass ware and buffet food will probably buy from tesco online to budget correctly

Dress~ parents are buying thankfully

OH's suit~ waiting till sales or hire

Car~ going to put upon a relative with a bit of ribbon

Flowers~ making own after being quoted £75 for one bouquet will be about £25

then got lots of accessories etc on top so far so good i think

skintchick

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Of course some people spend far too much on weddings and then there are those who refuse to spend any spare cash on it. I think you have got the balance just right.

In your opinion. I'm spending 15k on mine and it's worth every penny. I know I'm very lucky that my parents can afford it, but just because you can;t afford or don;t want to spend that much doesn;t mean I'm stupid/selfish/a spendthrift for doing so.

And if we were paying for it ourselves, we'd be spending about 12k so we'd still be spending quite a lot, but I'm lucky my parents offered.

black-saturn

I'm prioratising things. I'm spending more money on the things which are going to remind us of the day in years to come such as the photography and the rings and not so much on the things that only last for the day. I'm also hoping to sell on a lot of the things.

skintchick

I've nothing against MSe weddings, but not all of us want to do it as cheap as possible and that doesn;t make us bad people!

HariboJunkie

skintchick wrote: »

In your opinion. I'm spending 15k on mine and it's worth every penny. I know I'm very lucky that my parents can afford it, but just because you can;t afford or don;t want to spend that much doesn;t mean I'm stupid/selfish/a spendthrift for doing so.

And if we were paying for it ourselves, we'd be spending about 12k so we'd still be spending quite a lot, but I'm lucky my parents offered.

Oh Skintchik I didn't mean that . I meant that some people get themselves in to debt over it. My Dad paid for my wedding so I'm in no position to judge either way.
If you have the money and you want it spent on a wedding then great and I'm sure it will be amazing but equally if money is tight it can be done.

HariboJunkie

skintchick wrote: »

I've nothing against MSe weddings, but not all of us want to do it as cheap as possible and that doesn;t make us bad people!

I wouldn't think that for a second!!! Like I said....I'm in no position to judge and really didn't mean my post to sound that way. I was just congratualting the OP on getting the wedding she wanted for the money she wanted to spend.

angelavdavis

Thanks everyone for feedback.

black-saturn wrote: »

So how much did it cost altogether? I'm getting married on a budget in september.

We spent £4,800 total (£1500 contributed by parents) with the majority spent on catering and decent wine/champagne because its something personally that I would not stint on. I was adamant that £5000 was our absolute maximum!

We did spend £6000 on our 3 week honeymoon though - we wanted this to be the balance - we couldn't afford to spend loads on wedding and honeymoon so spent the majority on a holiday of a lifetime - and it was exactly that. Still booked through quidco and used Hilton points, etc to upgrade (I was a member due to travelling so much through work). This meant getting cashback of £249.

Extravagant honeymoon aside, I think we hit the right balance with the day itself - we had nearly 100 guests, a lavish fork buffet with plenty of choices as we had coeliacs, peanut allergy, vegans, vegetarians, etc etc and we provided a free bar (I got £47 cashback through ordering from Tesco at Quidco and used vouchers for discounts where possible).

Most of our guests had come a long distance and so were funding their own accommodation for the weekend (we live in a seaside resort so not a very cheap option for them) so we felt we had to help them out by providing them with a free bar too.

I simply felt some things were a blatant rip-off - £3000 for the hire of a Sussex barn - with everything including tables, chairs and plates extra charge on top! Forget it! We priced up the wedding would have cost £12k going down this route. We ended up using our house (luckily a large victorian house with a landscaped garden) and decorating the whole place with lashings of greenery from my garden, coupled with silk roses and ribbons to add colour. The house looked fabulous and everyone commented on it. The house would have been large enough if it had rained but I refused to accept it would - and it didn't!

I also refused to spend £565 on a car to take me five minutes down the road which was what one company quoted me (that's £4.71 per minute)! Because the journey was so short, we used the car to ferry people to the ceremony before I left the house but I still ended up paying £140 which was enough thank you!

I was quoted £175 for two bouquets and the table decorations. I paid instead £120 for far more flowers than I would have got from the florist. Admittedly, I was making my bouquet in the morning of the wedding, but as the ceremony wasn't until 4pm, I had plenty of time!

The ceremony location was fabulous and a real bargain find for us - it was unique, intimate yet still held 70+ guests and had a raised area for me and OH to stand on so everyone got a clear view.

We paid £500 for rings in total and shopped around for these like mad - both are heavyweight 18ct yellow gold and good quality.

I also hired gilt chairs and tables (£120) and covered the tables ourselves with paper roll tablecloths and decorated with greenery/roses/ribbons. We borrowed glasses from Tesco free of charge because we bought soft drinks there.

Other big cost items - night in boutique hotel £195, men's outfits from hire shop £300 for OH, Best Man, Usher, two fathers; registrar and ceremony hire £315; £160 M&S cake, £120 for flowers, Mum and my hair was £100. My dress was £60 - I didn't want to look like mutton and haven't the figure for a merengue! I wanted something which flowed and was decorated with beads/sequins which is exactly what I got from a US supplier on ebay. Gift for attendants and friend who read poem came to £40. Miscellaneous such as Mother of bride/groom bouquets, trimmings for cake, lights for decorations, paper table cloths, underwear, my shoes, ice, printed napkins, invites, thankyous, order of service, bridesmaid dress came to about £250.

My parents and OH's parents contribution went on the hotel room for our wedding night and toward the rings.

I appreciate that for some people's budget £4800 could be perceived as extravagant to spend on a wedding. My thinking was that I knew I could do a classy wedding but not be ripped off!

We were all happy with the result which was a family orientated, relaxed wedding where everyone could let their hair down and help us celebrate! The way we saw it was that we preferred to not get in debt and spend on our honeymoon, but because we didn't get in debt - we are still able to overpay the mortgage!