trying to BUDGET a wedding

[xxJaslynxx]

Hello everyone!
I am attempting to have a budget wedding reception as I have a daughter, planning on having another baby soon and dont want to bankrupt myself in the process....lol.

I was wondering if anyone could give me ideas in how I can save money. Maybe recommend somewhere to hold the reception that isn't to expensive.

Any ideas or recommendations are welcome.

Thanks. x

How big a wedding are you having?
Do you mean the whole reception ie meal and things or just the evening part?

Have you booked the date? Consider the cost of the honeymoon first - don't get married if it's going to cost you a fortune to get anywhere you want to go.

what sort of area are you in? what are the options? What numbers for guests?

I have form as I booked a community centre for our reception (cost £200) and promptly spent £3000 (I kid you not) decorating it. So my tip would be, look around and find a community centre/building that already looks nice!

Forget the day and evening do thing, unless your day do has 20 guests or less.

One of the nicest receptions I've ever been to was a large upstairs room in a pub. Single gerberas in bottles on the tables, generous buffet for something like £10 a head, couple of free drinks then a cash bar. The couple's friends entertained, they knew some great singers.

The poshest wedding I have ever been to did canapes only, i.e. wedding after lunch, and basically afternoon tea/drinks. Quite common for the v posh I think though not everyone likes the idea.

For dresses - start here, especially if you are somewhere near one of the shops.

We are having around 120 guests and was thinking feb 2011, so not much time to plan....

I am open for ideas in all areas of wedding reception.

We don't think we are going on a honeymoon straight away so that won't be an issue.

Thanks x

My first and best advice is don't tell your suppliers it's a wedding! I had a hog roast in a marquee, sort of thing (not suitable for February) and paid 30% less for everything than what they quoted when I said it was a wedding. I told them it was a party for my parents.

I made my dress, but would have bought a second-hand one quite happily. I roped in friends and family to do the flowers & decorations - I used dried flowers and corn ears, as it was August but you've still got time to grow your own lilies & stuff, indoors, for a bouquet. We made our own invitations (a very boring day, but worth the saving). Friends did the music. Basically, it was all DIY except the food. We were going to have fish & chips, but the local chippy couldn't handle it! I've been to quite a few chip-shop weddings, pub weddings and also bangers'n'mash ones. We spent £2,500 for 150 people.

People don't care that much about the trimmings, anyway. As long as you get your guests warm & fed, give them a drink and there are toilets, the rest is all about prettiness and you can do that on a shoestring. What really counts is the atmosphere - imo, you're more likely to have a good one if you're not having a heart attack over the bill!

For the dress, check out the sample sales in bridal shops. I got my designer one half price.

We had the rugby club for the reception venue, which was really cheap. We bought decorations and did it all ourself. Also did table decorations ourselves and used Gerbera plants in painted pots then put a name flag in each one for the relevant person to take home. Fab food too. Did a hog roast late afternoon and then buffet in the evening.

Ebay!! For everything really lol. Also Hitched was a mine of info and there's a for sale board too.

Vista print for invites. Although ours was a very small wedding so I bought mine in the sale from Clintons.

I loved wedding planning!!!

Oh, and ... We drove to France for the booze and bottled water (much cheaper over there). You can't do this if you're using a venue with a bar, obv. We made huge buckets of sangria & punch. My mum made the cake.

Just in case you're not wildly creative or green-fingered: the completely failsafe to decorate a room cheaply is miles of draped muslin and fairy lights. Buy both in bulk, on ebay.

OK, I'll shut up now.

I bought my 4 childrens outfits (suits for the boys, bridesmaid dresses for the girls, all shoes, shirts and shawls) and candleabras for the tables (no flowers, too pricey) in the Next sale (I was perched on the phone as soon as my slot opened!). The candles on the tables looked stunning.

Many places have pre-Christmas sales, so keep your eyes peeled. Confetti.com often do offers. Its worth buying a wedding magazine or two now to see what special offers are on.

I used Wickedly Innocent for my wedding stationery. I wasn't going to bother but a trip to Hobbycraft soon knocked the idea of DIY out of me.

Its cheaper to do buffet than sit down, to have the wedding in the week rather than the weekend makes venue hire far cheaper. Or hiring somewhere and not telling them its for a wedding but for something else will knock hundreds off.

As soon as you mention "Wedding" everything doubles!

Also try the second hand sites for wedding stuff (I can do you a nice line in silver glass candelabras, a sheath wedding dress (designer) and about a hundred white favour boxes with black ribbon BNIB)

Give us an idea of your budget. I love a bit of wedding planning. And whereabouts you want to get married. Between us all we can get it sorted

Also, some places do late bookings - and Feb is a good time. Have a look at places you might think out of budget and ask. As you say, not long to plan and if they haven't had a booking they may well cut you a deal.

You could book a wedding package abroad on a very small scale and then have a party on return at a pub.

I think our wedding cost about £2000 tops.

Ask friends of friends/family for favours and managed to get someone to do the food for cost and free drinks (just a a buffet dinner)

Our wedding was in August, so we had the reception in my mums back garden, and managed to find someone to do a marquee, tables, chairs. Decorated the tables with confetti and balloons. There are plenty of cheap halls for hire if you look around: football clubs, church halls.

No bridemaids (except dd1 who was 11 months at the time)

Booze run to France, which cost about £500.

My outfit was £100, DH the same. I didn't have a wedding dress.

Chocolate wedding cake was about £100.

Bought some cheap but pretty invites and wrote them myself.

Honeymoon was free, but had to go with my mum, dad and nan - not too bothered as we had dd1.

DH did the music. No Itunes then, but he put everything onto CDs. Of course would use laptop and Itunes now.

omg ladies, you are all so helpfull...
ill give u an idea of what im working with, all your ideas have been great so far, but like you said ohforfoxsake between us all I'm thinking it's gonna work much better....

IfGraceAsks feel free not to shut up, you have been a great help.

GUESTS: 120
LOCATION: london or somewhere nearby
Budget: hoping not to spend more than 5,000(preferably 3,000 - 4,000)

Lets work some magic ladies!

x

School run time. Start by checking out venues. Central or just outside? Registry office? Chelsea registry office and reception at Westminster boating base. Reception on a boat on the Thames? outside of London?

Also remember VAT goes up in January. try to agree a deal before then with this in mind. Or offer cash of you can.

MOney savers for our wedding:
no bridesmaids/best man/ushers - no hire/buying of clothes, no gifts required
hired waistcoats and ties for DH and Dad only, they wore their own black suits.
Made my own bouquet - bought all the flowers for £30, some flower wires for about £4 and the florist threw in some green tape.
Did my own makeup, friend did my hair (but she is a pro hairdresser so it cost me £20)
Friends supplied:
cars - one for me, one for DH
photography - four friends with cameras, one with video
entertainment (most of it) - two friends provided music while signing the register; our band played the first half of the evening (and then we had to pay a DJ for the second half)
No extra flowers at the registry office (they have some there all the time anyway)
No wedding cake - made mini cakes for the favours, did them all myself (did have to buy little favour caskets for them but that didn't cost very much)
Invitations all designed by me on the computer and printed out on my printer - A4 sheet with invitation on front, directions and places to stay on back
Used Holiday Inn for our reception - they also throw in basic table decorations with the "package", so no need to add to that - however, they were £55 pp so not that cheap for 120 guests.

HTH and congratulations! Our wedding cost us less than £5k.

As you're in London and have about £25 a head, my first thought would be your friendly local back-street restaurant - like my old one in Clapham, the Fish in A Tie. Not brilliant at anything except atmosphere, but reliable and cheap. You could try getting a deal for booking the whole place out, with a generous amount of beer & wine. Bully your friends into decorating the restaurant on the day, have a late afternoon marriage at the registry office, and the day's sorted :)

If you can stand getting up at stupid o'clock a couple of days before your wedding, you can go to New Covent Garden flower market and haggle for boxes full of blooms at trade price.

wrong link sorry (just in case you're near Clapham Jct!)

Find a community irgNisation with a venue. Buy your own wine over a period of a year. Make your own music mixes instead of a dj

I love wedding but not great when it comes to budgets but a few tips

Cars- Instead of a car we booked a cab (ie a black cab) but in silver and it cost £50 for an hour and did a few runs. Perfect for a london wedding

Best Men- All told to wear black suits and ties and all already had their own suits so no extra costs on suit hire.

Dont get married on a saturday

Have your reception in a restaurant.

Candles as centrepieces (works beautifully to have different shapes and sizes of candles scattered along long tables in jars or long candles in vintage bottles). Save son flowers!

• check out www.stylemepretty.com or oncewed.com for inspiration of really simple but effective decor ideas.

Oh yes, bridesmaids can definately wear high st or ask them to buy their own and just stipulate a colour. Works really well and looks effortlessly stylish.

• If you are dead set on flowers, get them from the wholesaler. Huge amounts of posh stuff for cheap.

Let your bridesmaids wear something they already have/buy something for themselves if you can - mine didn't match but were very* pleased to be told they could wear what they liked and they looked beautiful and co-ordinated perfectly.

Ditto with ushers - having them all match looks a bit naff unless it is a very* posh do and your DP's mates/your brothers won't thank you for making them look like hired waiters.

*Book somewhere near the church/registry office for the reception. If it's fine you can walk and if not, taxis will be cheap. Also, walking through a city in a wedding dress is an experience not to be missed - I had people coming up to me in the street for weeks afterwards to say they'd seen us and congratulations!

*Get a friend to do photos. Or ask around for someone who's good - you probably need to pay them to make sure they take it seriously but it will be well worth it, professionals are ridiculously expensive.

*Ditto cake, or just don't bother.

Congratulations!

Oops, don't know what my formatting did there, sorry!

Btw, I got busy and didn't do favours, just did hand-written place cards for everyone, decorated with little leaves and flowers. Unexpectedly, people loved them (obviously it doesn't take very long to write even 120 single words and you can get packs of pre-folded card), and loads of them were kept as favours.

IIRC, The Knights Templar Wetherspoon in Chancery Lane does an amazing value wedding package, and is licensed for civil ceremonies. It was in the Wetherspoon newsletter, and was something like 3k all in for 100 people inc food, wine and decorations