Your advice on an OS wedding please?

KittyKate

After 5 years, my OH finally proposed in March and little did I realise that when you've a wedding to plan you get people rubbing their hands with pound signs in their eyes!!

I went to a wedding fair and amongst the things I was asked/offered:
Have you thought about paying someone £40 to do your makeup on the day (no!!! - you didn't even get to keep any of it!)
Cakes - 3 tier, covered in edible roses, undoubtedly gorgeous, but £385!!!!:eek: for a sponge!!
Photography & printing - £1500 MINIMUM
Printed place markers...£150!
2 x small chocolate wedding favours - £3 per person +
Food...£25-£100 per person
Ridiculous prices on wine/party snacks


......I don't want to skimp on the venue (though not finalised, I'm looking at country mansion next week), but surely there are ways of keeping the prices down... most people at work seem to think it'll cost £10,000 minimum!! Ten grand on a day! That terrifies me. I've just bought a car and am saving for a house. I plan to get married August 09 - I can't afford 10k!!!

Your advice, seasoned and respected OS-ers, would be appreciated

littleredhen

We went to a good local restaurant and did a deal with them - only about 30 (mostly family) at the meal and then had a party in the evening
Wrote our own place cards and invitations
Dad paid for photos - minimum 25 photos taken and chose minimum 20 - that covered all the basics and we didn't want to be faffing about having photos for several hours
Got a local lady to make and ice a cake and she did evening buffet very cheaply - hired a rugby club for evening do and got a recommended disco
Hired dress and bridesmaids dresses
No wedding favours
Hope some of this helps

littleredhen

Sorry should have said congratulations first!

ifonlyitwaseasier

congratulations!! :T :T :T :T :T

i'd offer advice but i'm being a demon bride , thanks to my parents paying for pretty much everything, i think so far we've worked out the cost (dress, transport, food, flowers, photos) to be £6500 :eek: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

however we are having it at their house and doing some of the catering ourself so it could have been a lot worse



and yes i know we are mad spending so much, i blame my dress it is very pretty!!!!!!!!

KittyKate

I've sort of looked into the photo thing - apparently the priciest thing is the printing. I can hire the photographer for the day and get a DVD of digital photos (to find cheaper printing/do free online printing for albums) for around £380. (Is this worth it, to guarantee good photos?)

God I hadn't even thought of the DJ....I used to DJ myself but most of the people I know don't do it any more, I'd have to make some enquiries. (Not sure if venue will supply own, or has own kit etc).

I should be able to do my own place markers as I used to be a graphic artist before entering the 'exciting' world of telecoms - hoping again I can get a free printing deal online (or at least v cheap!)

Good idea on the restaurant...I had literally not thought of just booking out a place (doh)- if it was just my choice we'd go to a Toby Carvery - Yorkshire girl through and through I am! I also want people to feel relaxed, I never do at silver service events.

Flowers I'd like my dad to grow (carnations) - he had a stroke last year and I think it'd give him some focus, he loves his gardening. For my bouquet I'd like orchids but they sound pricey....I've heard of people buying silk bouquets which appeals to me as you know they'll look perfect all day and I could have them at home after

...I bet there are 1001 other 'little' extras

ifonlyitwaseasier

oh i forgot about the music, Oh & i are filling my mums generic mps player with our favourites, i'm even setting an entire hour of cheesy music up!

luckily my dad has a really good speaker system so that'll go on a windowsill so everyone can just dance on the patio

KittyKate

ifonlyitwaseasier wrote: »

congratulations!! :T :T :T :T :T

i'd offer advice but i'm being a demon bride , thanks to my parents paying for pretty much everything, i think so far we've worked out the cost (dress, transport, food, flowers, photos) to be £6500 :eek: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

however we are having it at their house and doing some of the catering ourself so it could have been a lot worse



and yes i know we are mad spending so much, i blame my dress it is very pretty!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to you too :T

I saw a gorgeous dress, it was £4000...OH said 'I'll treat you', I said NO! I must be mad! But seriously, as much as I want a lovely dress, I don't plan on spending anywhere near that (I'm already terrified at clumsy old me having to wear white all day!)

£6500 is still far lower than the average - GMTV said weddings cost £17,000! Not in my lifetime!! :rotfl:

CRANKY40

Mmmmm, I had my cake as a wedding present, single tier, made by a friend, so free. My dress was a bridesmaid dress in gold to go with the braid on dh's uniform, £140, I made the wedding favours myself - I ddn't cost them, but they were easy to do and cheap. I paid another friend £250 to do my photography (and that included an album), and we had the reception at the local British Legion at lunchtime - room hire £30. Helium balloons for the tables were another £50.

This was only 6 years ago. We did pay for caterers to do a lunchtime buffet - £200, and then dh and I went for a meal ourselves in the evening.

I booked our honeymoon at an independent travel agents - two weeks in Tenerife in a studio apartment for £500. Even the travel agent thought this was a bargain, and when we arrived we had been upgraded to an apartment.

The whole thing cost (including our meal that evening) about £1100. Not exactly all OS, but definitely money saving

tracyg

Congratulations!

We had a really nice venue and then cut back on other areas

Made and printed the invites, order of service, etc myself, choose a simple design and then sold the stampers and stuff I'd used on Ebay afterwards
Had no favours, just thorntons mis-shapes (the best ones picked out) on plates on the tables
Brought cheap glass candles holders from Ikea and decorated them myself with a tube of glass paint, cost about £10 for all the tables and looked fab and people took them home with them
Brought my headdress from local wholesalers
Did my hair and make up myself
Hunted for everything online to find cheaper prices - underwear, shoes, etc
My mum did the cake but I'm lucky that she does cakes anyway but prehaps someone might know someone?
family friend did the flowers (retired florist) again ask about to see if someone knows someone
We got married in the winter and the venue was much cheaper as was the photos and cars as they aren't normally that busy 'off season'
Try and get the venue to do as much as poss, provide flowers on the tables, place settings, discount drinks packages

Hope some of this helps xx

ifonlyitwaseasier

thank you!! this august had better be sunny is all i'm saying!

well my dress and fittings are £1800, i had been looking at ones for 6-7 hundred and then i tried this one on, didn't look at the price, and my mum and bridesmaid agreed it was gorgeous, so we decided upon it, and then when mum paid the deposit i worked out what the total was! :eek:

but it is absolutely bl00dy lovely and i am so happy

my advice if you want to keep the dress cost down (my dad wishes i'd done this) go to monsoon/m&s and see if there are any outlet stores nearby, i kow there is one near me, that i found out about after i'd got mine.

jessbrown100

Congratulations!:D our wedding cost a small fortune however we did try to save on a lot of things. the one thing i'm glad we didn't save on was the photographs (cost £1300:eek:) but the photos were beautiful and I get emotional again just looking at them, also all our photos are on a website so family can all enjoy them and you can also print them off on your own printer. it was difficult handing over that amount of money but we tried to save in different areas e.g mum made little bridesmaids dresses, got a friend's band to play at the reception, baked our own cake and got a friend to decorate it. you'll have a brilliant day however you decide to do it though- just don't let yourselves be pressurised into paying for things you don't want to!