Budget Dillema

I would do a spreadsheet or write down in columns:

What you need (e.g. legal requirements)

What you would like

What extras you would like if there is the budget left

Then go from there

A live band is not "being silly with your money" although invariably it is more than a disco, although I would certainly say a free bar was an unnecessary extravagance. I recall hearing a story of someone whose parents contributed £2000 to cover a free bar all night and it was gone within an hour, and caused no end of awkwardness when the money ran out.

What is your overall budget so far, and what numbers are you looking at?

Naturally both of you will want things that the other see as unnecessary - working together and deciding on compromises is great practice for married life.

Budgeting on a spread sheet is a good shout. Perhaps your OH needs to see all of it clearly set out to give him a proper idea of what it is all going to cost. He may change his mind once he sees how much you'll have to save to afford all of those things!

I think when your OH see's the quotes for the basics such as venues, flowers attire etc.. he will soon realise that a Free bar may not be an option. We got a shock at how rapidly the simplest of things start to mount up.

If you need any help, please let me know.

Im doing my wedding for £3500, church, formal do..canapes, welcome drinks, wine, sit down meal, evening buffet 2 x wedding dresses, gifts for people chair covers, the whole thing (no free bar though) oh and bouncy castle of course and videographer and maybe a fancydress photo booth

lets just say I love spreadsheets lol x

whoo 6 weeks 2 days to go!!!

The single biggest expense of the day is most likely to be the food budget particularly for the wedding breakfast.

We decided to only invite closest family and friends to the wedding breakfast meal and put the speeches over into the evening celebrations, as to have fed everyone for the wedding breakfast we'd have added about £3,500 to the overall cost.

The amount of people you invite will make the biggest impact to your budget, because there are fixed fees like registrar costs, dresses, suit hire/purchase and flowers which will remain the same whether you have 5 or 500 guests. In turn your venue may restrict numbers due to its size, so you'll need to figure out a guest list at some point and make sure that it fits your venue's size limits (maximum or minimum capacity).

How on earth?!!!

*Bows down in show of worship*

Six guests...? ?

Me too!

Ha ha, busted. I think a live band is a completely unecessary expense, a frippery if you will. AJ, you're sooooo pwned.

Hardly. Most people consider some sort of evening entertainment important, and whilst of course you can pay thousands for live music compared to £350 for a disco, there are also cheaper options.

I didn't say live music was 'essential' but it's certainly not in the same league as, say, arriving at your venue in a helicopter.

We wanted a live band (especially my OH as he loves his music) but couldn't believe the price of some of them. See if a band that you like will perform with smaller numbers. The band that we have booked are a 5 piece, but they also offer a duo option that halved the cost and they are doing djing (well, from an ipod) between sets and afterwards. It does mean that it won't be quite as 'cool' as my OH wanted as we won't have a drummer etc but the backing tracks that the duo use are those which their full band have recorded rather than from the original music (does that make sense?) so we still get the full band sound. The girl sings and the bloke also sings and plays guitar. Best option for us within our budget.

And if a helicopter is your normal mode of transport?

AJ...how did you know?

only joking, 67ish adults and 16 kids to the day and then 120ish to the night time altogether.

So my secret budget:

dress 1 x sample dress of ebay perfect fit brand new (she was closing down) £90

dress 2 x brought yesterday Justin Alexander 2010 ebay £144, been looking for a week constantly.

Church: 312..no extra flowers and no organist

Venue hire: 250..lovely place, brand new

food canapes, sit down meal and ice sculpture..from bar quality catering £1280 and evening is door step chip butties, cheese on toast and bacon butties with a curry fountain (instead of choc)

Wine: tesco £50 for 24 bottles when they had 25% off and the corkage is £125 for this. Welcome drinks are £2 each, so having 100 (£200)

suits: we kindle asked the men to pay, so H2b was free but not my little boy :£86

bridesmaids: asked them to pay for their own dresses, they wanted to be my bridesmaids, so I had no choice to have them but on the condition they pay.

Ring: £94 brought from on here and resized

partners ring: £50 he wanted a plain tungsten ring (works with bikes ALOT)

Garter: £2 ebay veil £8 ebay necklace earings £8 (claires Accesories)

Favours: seeds homemade ebay: florist envelope £3, printed labels and some seeds ebay £6

Favours for me: Kinder eggs: £1 for a box of 3 so brought £20 worth

Kid boxes: paper bags ebay £6 then toys and games like connect 4, the paper planes etc probably £20 in total.

Invites about £50. hobbycraft card, punch, jewels etc

Name cards: butterflies £3 ebay

Seating plan: Birdcage, tags and flower garland £39

Centrepieces: jam Jars with lace on (been collecting for ages) with mirrors, brought from on here £15

Menus and OOS will be printed on paper, nothing fancy

Bouncy castle: £150, thats adult, a small one and connect 4 game

Videographer: £250

Daughters dress: From Next outlet store £15 shoes: £5 brand new ebay

Petals for flowergirl are dried ones brought for me over the past few months (valentines etc)

Groom gift: £18 the oh so cherished groom book

Extras like make-up for me: £30 mac etc

Guest book (big frame £9 and card £1)

Shoes £20

Will be making my own framed wall for photobooth...about £50 ish and then carboots for the boas and glasses etc £50

FREE STUFF:

Cake-family making it

Music-h2b owns a dj set up

Chair Covers-h2b mate

Hair-SIL2b is a hairdresser

Makeup-doing my own

Photos-family friend

Cars-free, my opinion but dont want fancy cars for a 1 mile drive.

Then theres extras like glue, candles, false eyelashes

SORRY ITS SO LONG, THERE IS SO MUCH

IS THERE ANYTHING I HAVE MISSED OUT???

Oh honeymoon is out gift list, but we have told people they can if they wish (donate) but they dont have to at all, as we arent like that, as a few people have asked what we would like.

Oops flowers:

my sil2b spoke to a buyer at tescos and they will order all the flowers we want ready for the day before, so we can collect them and we'll do the bouquets ourselves...but of floristy tape, flower food etc no more than £100 and there will be flowers in the jam jars too...

Thanks for all your advice! x