Budget

I'm an August 13 bride and we knew how much money we would have and worked out where to spend it from there!

As for guest wise it all depends on how many you want, do you want a big reception or smaller and intimate!

We worked out how much we could afford and then went from there! We set ourselves a budget and then guesstimated the cost of things. If something came in less, it meant we could spend more on other things.

So far, that's worked fine.

I've only recently got engaged too and we figured out our budget first (or should i say our parents budget first) before going to see venues because we knew certain ones were going to probably be way out of our budget so we just avoided them and then the ones we thought were going to be reasonable we saw!!

My parents have wrote a list of how much they think things will costs i.e. dress, DJ, cars etc so they know how much they are likley to spend x

September 2013 here!

We worked out a budget - what we would save and what we would be given.

This will give you a good idea about what you can afford to spend on venues etc.

For most people they have no experience in planning a wedding so finding out costs of things can be a bit of a surprise.

Congrats by the way!

x

We worked out how much we could afford first, then a guest list and then found the venue after that to tie in with both the budget and how many people we wanted to invite.

Its good to work out what the most important things is to you e.g. we wanted to make sure we could have all the people we wanted so then went for a cheaper venue and caterer to allow us this as we have quite a small budget.

Rachel xx

Hi,

Firstly we did an estimate of costs of suplliers etc to have a rough guide of how much we needed ( we was a bit out on costs of some things though). We then figured out how much we could afford to save each month and then went from there. We have also had some contributions from family so they are added in too. Then we knew how much we would have by the date of the wedding and how much we needed to budget for everything.

The biggest expenses for us are the venue, food, dress and Tog. I had no idea that a Tog was as much as they are. Worth it though.

Congratulations!

I'm November 2013. We put a rough budget together, went hunting online for some prices of venues and capacities, settled on a venue. The deal we have is an off peak one and I am 'limited' on the number of guests (50 guests, but we're paying more for an additional 50 for the evening). We've then tweaked the budget and have a better idea of what we're spending. I am also buying some things myself and it isn't coming out of the wedding fund.

Firstly congratulations on your engagement x

What we did first is sat down and looked how much we both would be able to put aside a month, then decided when we wished to get married and then worked out how many months we would save for which gave us our budget. then my parents told us what they would give us.

this helped as once the venue was booked we could look at how much we could afford for everything especially guest list. i would highly recommend going to a local wedding fair as you will get an idea of prices for everything there and it will help you. also dont buy the first hing you see shop around on the internet you will find you can save money everywhere if you have the patience to do so.

we have also set a timeline up which means on a monthly basis we buy or do something for the wedding so that the budget comes down slowly and we wont end up having lots of things to do last minute

Congrations!

My Fiance and I found out how much our parents would be able to contribute and then viewed a few venues. Luckily the price for our dreak venue was approx what our parents are kindly giving us so now we know we only need to budget for the extras. We worked out how we can cut back in normal day to day life and then worked out how much realistically we can save each month.

My next step is to sit down and make a rough budget for cost of individual aspects and then expect a bit more on top. Then month by month will work through my list of things to buy or organise. Most important thing is to make sure you don't break the bank, I've been to weddings with completely different budgets and they're all as beautiful as eachother so it's not worth risking the financial strain!

Good luck with everything! ?

Congrats and welcome!

We went about things slightly different to you.

We worked out how much we would be able to save per month, then we contacted suppliers and venues to get a real idea of costs we then set a date based on how long it would take us to save for everything we wanted rather then set a date and just make do with whatever we could afford at the time.

Sounds as if you have done things a bit backwards making it a bit more complicated (well it seems that way to me) You have booked a venue but you have not decided who you are going to invite so how do you know the venue is the right size for you? In that case I would work a draft guest list then you know how much that is all going to cost and everything should full into place.

I know from other peoples experiences on here soem parents agree to pay for certain things e.g. brides mum pays for the dress, grooms dad pays for the cars where others agree to contribute x amount for you to do with as you please maybe it will be easier to just ask them what they would like to do then you will have a clear picture rather then worrying about the maybes.

Hope it all works out happy planning!

We had a budget but then we found out how much things actually cost and it got blown apart with just the venue and photographer.

I would say to work out how much things are first. We thought (however naively it seems now) that the photographer would be about £350!!! Work out what you want, how much you're prepared to spend and slot it all in around that.

I didn't have a budget in mind just "not too much" with no idea how much things cost 6 months ago!

Once we'd seen venue, decided to keep it small and not have many of the usual expensive things like photographer, cake, cars and then did a DIY job on the invites and table decorations it was much easier to plan out a vague budget (did use the one on this site).

Venue costs were the biggest expense and after that my dress. Its the little things that added up, like thank you presents, so make sure you set some money aside for all that.

Being in Finance you would think I would have had a budget...but no. We went about things very differently. We knew we wanted to go abroad, so basically the main cost to us was the honeymoon/holiday. We found somewhere we wanted to go and the wedding is also at that hotel. Once this was paid for everything else has been research find the best quality/cheapest and buy it. We don't have alot of money but had a rough plan of what we needed and bought bits and pieces each month. It's almost a year since we booked and the last thing to get is the grooms suit this weekend.

My Mum says we're too laid back...I'd tend to agree!

Aw thanks everyone for your answers. I have some very useful tips here… online forums are brilliant!

@funkyjameseo – we definitely went about the venue booking differently! My (very confident) fiancée actually booked two provisional dates at the venue before he’s even proposed!! We’ve known we want to get married there for years, his dad lives and works on the site of the venue so we’ve never even looked at another. The size options are very flexible, we know the staff and have spoken to a few people who have had weddings there who all say the cost and service is brilliant ?

Ah thats awesome, I found the venue hunt the most stressful bit, well stressful but not in a bad way as it was just hard to decide which of our top 3 to go with (we loved all 3 equally)! in the end we booked the first one we viewed (and we considered about 10 in total)

I found the best thing I could do when working out a budget was collect how much everyone was doanting or paying for then did a little research and worked out how much everything would come to.

The best advise I can give you though is OVERESTIMATE the cost even if it is only by £50 or rounding up the the nearest £100, this has got us out of many a scrape lol.

A lot of the companies will say " I can do this for you for £30 extra" so it's handy to have the extra put aside for any last minute decisions.

Venue hunting was the most stressful thing for me too, apart from my wayward bridesmaid. I went through 3 venues before settling on my current one lol!