Feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all !

MrsTinks

Another quirky thing to have as entertainment is to hire a black jack and a roulette table and give everyone monopoly money to play on there. Friends of ours did that and the top 2 players (ie most fake money) won a bottle of champers Worked very well and our bottle was delishious *hick* hehe

PinkLipgloss

Tine,

Thank you - I'm going to steal that idea - esp since my aunt and uncle have a table in their conservatory!

Pisces

Thanks guys for your helpful and supportive comments. It's always nice to hear what other people do, to try and make sense of what you want :-)

I'm trying not to worry about it all (surely defeats the purpose!), and my boyfriend and I have set some time aside at the weekend to try and work out budget and what we would like to do, even if it is in an ideal world!

BTW, I had a look on ebay (thanks for the suggestion) and found a couple of dresses that were simple and tasteful that I could see myself in - so that's one less thing to worry about, at least wedding dresses exist that I like!!

Thanks all :-)

Sagaris

If you don't want a fussy, meringue type dress, then have a look on the M&S website? I got mine from there last week, should have been £125 (still a bargain!) but I think they may be discontinuing them (they've stopped doing bridesmaid dresses now) so I got it for £75!
Bargain - and it looks lovely!

Jem8472

I am getting married next year. May.
We set this date ages ago. It was almost 2 years before the date that we chose it.

I know a lot of places can charge a stupid amount of money just for the venue but I think its a waste of time.

We are going for something that is personall to us.
We are getting married in the registry office all together 20 people. Then as long as the weather is nice, we are all going to walk down through the "older" parts of the city (with the photographer, on a saturday while ppl are shopping. Should get intresting photos and to see peoples reactions) to have a sit down meal at a restaurant that holds some really good memories for us.

After that we are having a big reception for all our family and friends at a lovelly pub just outside the city.
Simple, its means something to us and it will be different for the people attenting it!

siren13577

my tip to cut costs is to consider alternatives to traditional wedding things, I'm considering silk flowers so I can make my flowers and table arrangements in advance. Ikea sells nice plain glass vases for 99p each:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00017133
and tea light holders:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60026484
for 19p.
which you could scatter around the table, tealights to go in them:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50097995
or perhaps even some lanterns insteads. Don't worry so much about favours, in my experience they just get left behind anyway. If you're having a buffet you might not need a table plan or place names so there's one less expense. Consider making your own invitations, keep it simply, I'm having these and making them myself:
http://www.confetti.co.uk/shopping/stationery/selectOptions.asp?rangeid=1300&occasion=0
It will cost me about £7.00 for the card, has cost around £4.00 for the pearlescent inserts and ribbon, will cost about £6.00 for initial stamps and embossing powder to make them stand out, so all told £25 for invites, including printer ink. Which is a huge saving considering I'm having 63 people and would have to order 70 which comes in at £176.00 so I'm saving £151.00 by making them myself.
Consider a late wedding, I think the latest you can have a civil ceremony is 4pm, have your photos taken and then onto a buffet or sit down meal. We're having a black tie and cocktail dress theme. I don't know if anyone has mentioned getting married on a weekday as it's cheaper. Good luck!!!

Try https://www.videojug.com for some great advice on flowers:
http://www.videojug.com/tag/weddings/search?keywords=wedding&Content=all

MsChazzer

Pisces, I'm feeling a lot like you, we got engaged a few weeks ago and have started enquiring about venues, we can't have our dream one (an art gallery) but have a list of loads of others.

However we don't want the matching chair covers, sugared almonds, floral arrangement at every other seat, we just want our friends and families with good food and music. Don't get me wrong, I'd like it to look nice and will probably make some decorations etc, but we don't need all the fancy extras!

I bought a book at the weekend called DIY Wedding, it's American but has loads of useful stuff like how to do your own flowers and making things. I believe it has a blog as well. I'd got some books out of the library about getting married on a budget but to be honest I could have written them myself - there's more helpful stuff on this forum.

Good luck to everyone in planning, and thanks to those who have got married in passing on all their tips :-)

Pint_of_Gem

Hello

My wife and I got married in September 2006. The most important thing is to set an ideal budget and an absolute maximum. For us, the most expensive thing was the catering/booze and therefore it was a numbers game. We worked out the price per person, and then the maximum we could invite.

We saved money in the following areas:
- Not saying it was for a wedding - in our experience people just upped the prices knowing it was for a wedding!
- We made our own invitations and place cards - much fun - and sent the invitations out by 2nd class post.
- We didn't have (or want) a wedding list, but asked if people wanted to give us anything it should come in an envelope - this way we got quite a bit in money as presents, which went to pay for the honeymoon.
- We took advantage of tesco online wine ordering, which even with corkage from the venue, saved us money. We found that we were able to afford much nicer wine than we would have got from the venue
- We got married on a Friday, thinking it would be cheaper, but it wasn't. It did, however, ensure that our first choices were available. People book up venues, vintage cars, photograpers, DJs/bands, etc, years in advance. If you want to get married this year then it almost certainly won't be on a Saturday as everywhere will be booked.
- Check out your venue - did you want to get married in a church or at a venue with a registrar. If it is church, remember you will have to attend church for your bans (at an absolute minimum).
- We got married at 1pm and gave people tea and cakes after the church ceremony in the church hall, before going on to the reception where we ate at 5pm. The meal and speeches took 3 hours and we didn't have an evening buffet. I have been to plenty of weddings where the evening buffet is ready about half an hour after the speeches and nobody is ready for it! Better to wait and get married a little later (after lunch) and nobody will want an evening buffet anyway.
- Buffet meals are cheaper per head than sit-down meals.
- Back to wine, we did a quick calculation on amount per head and that was it. No more free wine after that.
- Photographers vary in price and you probably get what you pay for, but make sure you at least get a CD with the pictures on them that you can keep - you can then do your own prints whenever you want.

siren13577

If you're having a buffet, don't price per head, provide for half of your guests as the food doesn't get eaten, my sister did this and there was mountains of food.

Pint_of_Gem

siren13577 wrote: »

If you're having a buffet, don't price per head, provide for half of your guests as the food doesn't get eaten, my sister did this and there was mountains of food.

Although make sure the venue are ok with this, or tell them that is what you are doing, because some get a bit fussy!

I think the best advice I can give anyone is to get and do whatever you want - if you don't want it, don't do it. **** the tradition. Also, don't let people try and tell you that you should have something, should invite someone or need this and that. If you don't like sugared almonds then don't blimmin have them!

Finally, my (now) mother-in-law said this, and it was good advice: If you are thinking of inviting someone consider if you would take them out to dinner and pay for them? If so, then chuck them on the list, if not then consider again. (Unfortunately you can't use this for your future mother-in-law!!);)