£5000 budget - is it possible?

[TwittleBee]

Hello,

We have just come into unexpected financial difficulty (won't go into details) and shall have to cut our £10k budget in half if we want to meet our date in 2020.

How have people managed to be so savvy? I have already purchased my dress so that doesn't need to be accounted for but things we still need to purchase include:

Venue
Registrar fees
food
drink
flowers
bridesmaid dresses x 3
groomsmen suits x 5
rings
invites
photographer
MUA & hair stylist
Decorations / favours

The venue we have already fallen in love with and were planning on booking this weekend comes to £3500 including food & drinks! Leaving us only with £1500 left which was originally our budget for the photographer!

Shall we just give up? I mean, my family have already expressed how shit our wedding was going to be on a £10k budget, so maybe we should just wait 5 years before we marry (wanted to tie the knot before DS started school though)

No one cares about fabours at all, so I’d get rid of those.

I also wouldn’t have such a massive bridal party but if you’ve already asked it could be awkward.

Personally I’d tell my family to get stuffed and nip off to the registry office. How rude.

What's "MUA"? Do you need a hair stylist or do you have a friend who could help?
I saw a gift-registry thing called prezola a while ago that allowed you to ask for cash - if you're SURE your relatives would give cash could you borrow on a credit card?

Well of course its possible, but the cost of weddings rises steeply with the number of guests.
We had hardly any guests (14 total) and our wedding was less than £2k. We got married (on a Tuesday - cheaper) at a castle in Scotland.

The photographer was £500 out of that, and the venue provided meals for everyone.
I bought my cake from M&S and decorated it myself. I made my own bouquet and buttonholes (not fresh flowers)
There were no bridesmaids/groomsmen. I made my own invites and favours and did my own hair and makeup. There was no free bar, just free wine with the food. The rings were cheap (mine was £30 and DH;s £50 - he hasn't worn it since) My dress was second hand for £50 and my shoes were a tenner. DH's suit was about £50.

You either want to marry your DP and make it work with a smaller, more humble service or you wait 5 years for a big fancy day.

All boils down to what you want more, marriage or a party.

it costs £46 to get married, anything over that is optional.

Entirely possible, but you need to look for a cheaper venue and photographer. It’s also about you, not your family, so they can stuff it.

If your budget is £5k I wouldn’t bother trying to create a £10k-on-the-cheap style wedding.

Have a look at registry offices - some are really beautiful and in beautiful grounds. You don’t need a huge wedding party - it won’t make any difference on the day itself.

I’d spend the money on the things that will last - rings, photos/video (I’d get a videographer and make sure your guests take loads of photos, rope in someone you know who’s handy with a camera to do the “formal” ones).

I'd cut bridesmaids and buying five suits for groomsmen for a start! Why on earth are you having five groomsmen?! DP is having two best men but we wouldn't buy them a suit. They can wear whatever suit they like.

Yes it’s doable - cut the guest list, first ones struck off anyone who was rude enough to say your wedding would be rubbish - how rude!

Cut the bridesmaids & ushers

Cut the favours, no one cares

Get your makeup done at MAC or similar, don’t tell them it’s your wedding, you get to spend the cost on products so it costs you nothing

Ditch that venue & find somewhere cheaper, there’s tonnes of places out there :)

I've never planned a wedding and have no idea if it's possible (of course it would be if you nipped down the registry office) but a few things I can notice:

flowers - My sister did a weekend course with her nan and they did all the flowers themselves and they were beautiful
bridesmaid dresses - Can you have no bridesmaids? If not highstreet dresses will be cheaper, ASOS and Boohoo now do them.
groomsmen suits - Same as above, that is a lot of groomsmen, I would really cut them down at a minimum
rings - Buy cheap rings and replace when you can afford it
invites - Make your own
photographer - any friends who are keen?
MUA & hair stylist - Try a local college? I appreciate hair is a little harder but you have 2 years, you could learn to do your own make up really well in that time.
Decorations / favours - Favours not needed, decorations make yourself and keep minimal

Favours - make your own if you really want them. My cousin make tablet and we all got a bag with a little thank you for coming message tied around it. Cost her very little to make.
If your bridesmaid can spare the day before the wedding, then you can do your own flowers as well. Loads of YouTube tutorials and website showing combinations etc. Get them from the flower market super early, make the bouquets and flowers for the venue yourself.

Rings - get plain, simple, thin bands for now and when you've got more money have them melted down and more metal added to make them the way you want. It's still the rings you were married with - just reformed. I know that's not something everyone would like to do, but it's an option.

Invites - shop around, try etsy and notonthehighstreet.

You will need to really scrimp on all that if you want the venue at £3500. Are there any other venues you would consider?

We didn't bother with groomsmen's suits - I don't like matchy matchy anyway. We just asked them to wear a dark suit of their choice and then provided them with matching ties and a buttonhole on the day. Perfectly good - don't regret that saving at all.

Oh and our invitations were £50 - we just went for black and white printed - well we had cream card. We used a nice font and border and designed them in word then got a high street printer to run them off. £50 was for about 300 in total as we had a lot of guests.

Book an amazing holiday, just the 3 of you, and get married on the beach

The guest list for that £3500 is only 24 people (unfortunately I have a split family both remarried with further kids so this is as small as I can make that list) for the sit down meal (which is an afternoon tea so cheapest option they do) as it is and is cheapest venue I am able to find (venue hire is only £900). Then its a buffet for the evening guests.

I don't need a MUA (make up artist) or hair stylist I guess. Just I haven't anyone I can ask to do it and I haven't a clue how to do it properly myself (I don't even own proper make up!)

I found ordering invites from Papier to be cheaper than making them.

I can remove the favours easy enough, I was only going to make biscuits with people's names on to double up as Name Places but I guess they can just sit wherever.

I'm baking the cake myself already.

No clue how I can un-ask my 3 bridesmaids, my sisters would be upset, especially my 11 year old one.

Groomsmen includes our dads (I have included my step-dad), I suppose they could buy their suits. We were only going to be buying them these nice ones from Next anyway so pretty cheap. Then we have the best man and our DS

The decorations I was going to make already and had a budget of £100 for materials

No clue where I can find a photographer for £500, that is a bargain. Cheapest I have found was £900 but that didn't include any prints (which was why we upped it to £1500) but I suppose we can wait till we have money and make our own prints from the digitals.

Ifailed where did you get that price from? We have been quoted £750 even in our local registry office?

My cake was M & S with tiers, Marks do bridal flowers and bm's for £125. Invitations were Vistaprint (full colour and £40). Have a look on eBay. 5K is do-able. We opted for chocolate as theme was Cadbury/ Cadbury purple. Find a cheaper venue - some companies have a 999/1250 package including fizz/ dj/ buffet/ room hire and accomodation such as holiday inn. It's about a marriage at the end of the day not just the wedding day x My photographer was a professional with an hourly charge. Came to £210. :) He was lovely x As our the photos x

Mine cost about £300...

Venue Some will include things like flowers so look for this to save money. Choose a Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday to get it the cheapest. I got 50% discount because I picked a Wednesday.

Registrar fees not a huge amount and essential

food You don't need to have a huge sit down meal or hot buffet. Once you have the times you can decide on a cold buffet with sandwiches. Or maybe an afternoon tea with strawberries, scones, and sandwiches?

drink Only provide 1 drink for a toast and consider a paid bar for alcohol and free soft drinks if you really want to provide drinks.

flowers Consider just getting bouquets or use single roses or hydrangea heads, ask about the possibility of sharing your venue flowers with another couple and make them generic white.

bridesmaid dresses x 3 Ebay/Amazon/Monsoon

groomsmen suits x 5 Hire these

rings Unless you want modern trendy consider antique jewellery or ask if Grandparents would consider giving their rings. (My Grans ring was a brass olive from Woolworths during WW2 and my cousin had it given to her for her wedding)

invites Make your own or use online card shop or similar to send 'postcards' as invitations (although I'd just send an email myself)

photographer Ask your guests to email you all their photos and ask family to take some specific ones don't pay for a photographer.

MUA & hair stylist Ask friends/family to do this for you or teach yourself. Go to Boots/Debenhams tell them you are getting married and you want to do your own makeup. They will do a trial for you and you can see what techniques they use and buy any products you might like. Hair is often not as nice as when you do it yourself. I knew how I wanted my hair and it didn't matter how much I tried to explain it my hairdresser just couldn't get it how I wanted it to be. Learn to do it yourself and spend the money on nice accessories.

Decorations / favours Don't bother with these. What decorations anyway? Surely its just flowers if anything?

Elvisola how do people get married abroad? We did look at this option but everywhere seems to require at least one of you to be a resident in the country first?

We did
Own flowers (bought online from The Flowermonger)
Own cake
Bridesmaid dresses £40 in house of Fraser sale (they were just pretty dresses) / ushers own suits
No decorations or favours.
Own make up and hair
(But we went all out for a live band!)

Oh and I should add we already have a Wednesday off season date! (much to my mum's horror)

I did beauty Level 2 at College... go ask the Level 3 tutor for a suggestion, can get a newly qualified lass for a lot less than a professional. Same with hair x their's always a cheaper option.

EgremontRusset luckily our friend is in a band and is doing it for free already!

Oh and you will save the most money but not having an evening reception. Just tell everyone you are going to XX pub for a meal and theyre welcome to join you but they need to pay for their own meal.